Afaan collects only the information reasonably needed to provide and secure the Services. We do not sell or rent personal information, use third-party behavioral advertising, or allow children to make information public.
1. Scope and who we are
This Privacy Policy describes how Afaan (“Afaan,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) collects, uses, discloses, and protects information when you use afanoromo.net, the Afaan Ecosystem iOS application, accounts, subscriptions, family and educator tools, learning content, destination guides, and support services (collectively, the “Services”). Afaan is the controller of personal information handled for these Services.
This policy applies to learners, parents and guardians, educators, school administrators, website visitors, subscribers, and people who contact us. It does not apply to third-party websites or services governed by their own privacy policies.
2. Information we handle
First name, email, country, marketing-consent record, Founding Member number, referral and campaign attribution, and—only if you choose to provide them—phone, city/state, number and age ranges of children, and reason for joining. We do not ask for children’s names on the waitlist.
Name, email address, authentication identifiers, account role, and sign-in status.
Parent-managed learner name or nickname, age range, learning level, family membership, assignments, and progress.
Completed lessons, quiz results, streaks, saved phrases, preferences, and interactions needed to personalize learning.
Only after an adult opts in, a random installation identifier, app and screen activity, feature and content identifiers, audio completion, app version, language, timestamps, and aggregate reliability events. These analytics exclude names, email addresses, child or account identifiers, recordings, typed text, search terms, authentication tokens, and advertising identifiers.
Plan, product, customer, transaction, referral, subscription-status, renewal, cancellation, and refund identifiers.
App version, device or browser type, push token, installation identifier, timestamps, IP address, and security or diagnostic events. Founding Community analytics uses a keyed pseudonymous visitor value rather than publishing or returning a raw identifier.
Contact details and the contents of support, privacy, safety, accessibility, or correction requests.
Information from other services
The first iOS App Store release uses email and password for sign-in. If another Service or a later release offers Apple or Google sign-in and you choose it, we receive the account identifier and profile information that you authorize the provider to share, such as name and email address. Apple processes iOS subscription payments; Stripe processes website subscription payments. We receive transaction and subscription records but not full payment-card numbers.
Information stored only on your device
Some preferences, downloaded learning content, local progress, and pronunciation-practice audio are processed on your device. Pronunciation recordings are temporary, are not uploaded to Afaan, and are removed after the practice session. When you choose to save an image, the app writes only the selected Afaan content to your photo library and does not read your photo library.
3. Children’s privacy
The Founding Families waitlist is for adults and family decision-makers. It never asks for a child’s name, contact information, or date of birth. An adult may optionally provide only the number of children and broad age ranges so we can plan age-appropriate family experiences.
Only an adult age 18 or older may create an Afaan account. A parent or legal guardian must create and manage a private dependent learner profile. Children must not create their own account, provide an email address, make purchases, or submit support messages through the Services. Adult eligibility is confirmed through an explicit account-holder attestation; we do not collect an adult birth date during account creation.
A dependent profile may contain a first name or nickname, date of birth, school grade, timezone, learning level, ability notes, goals, interests, assignments, assessments, attendance, and learning progress. Date of birth is used to enforce age-appropriate course access. Afaan does not ask a child for a street address, telephone number, precise location, payment information, public profile, photo, video, contacts, or persistent cross-service advertising identifier. Child information is not made public and is not used for targeted advertising.
The parent account email must be verified before a dependent profile can be created. The parent or legal guardian must attest to legal authority and give affirmative consent. Where applicable law requires an additional verifiable-parental-consent method, that method and the related notice must be approved and operational before the affected child feature is offered.
A verified parent or legal guardian may ask to review, correct, download, or delete a child’s information and may refuse further collection or use. Submit a request through the Contact page or email info@afanoromo.net. We may ask for reasonable information to verify authority before acting. If we learn that personal information was collected directly from a child without required authorization, we will delete it.
Organization-sponsored or school programs do not create an independent child account. A separate written agreement, role-scoped access, required notices, and a legally appropriate guardian or school-authorization workflow must be in place before an organization receives child information.
4. How and why we use information
- Manage the Founding Community, send the pre-launch messages you requested, prevent duplicate registrations, provide a personal referral link, measure campaign and community-partner effectiveness, and connect your original attribution to an Afaan account if you later create one.
- Provide accounts, authentication, lessons, audio, saved content, learner profiles, family dashboards, educator tools, and destination guides.
- Synchronize progress and make subscription access available across supported devices.
- Process website and App Store subscriptions, validate referral eligibility on the website, prevent duplicate redemption, and maintain billing records.
- Remember language, accessibility, notification, and learning preferences.
- Protect accounts, prevent fraud and abuse, investigate errors, and maintain service reliability.
- Respond to support, privacy, child-safety, accessibility, and account requests.
- Comply with law, enforce our terms, and establish or defend legal claims.
- Improve the Services using aggregated or de-identified information where practical.
We rely on the performance of our agreement with you, our legitimate interests in operating and securing the Services, consent where required, and compliance with legal obligations. Founding Community marketing email is based on the explicit checkbox consent shown at registration. A phone number is optional and is not consent to SMS marketing. In the iOS app, product analytics remains off unless an adult explicitly opts in, can be turned off at any time, and is automatically suppressed whenever a child profile is active. Turning it off removes queued telemetry and resets the random analytics installation identifier.
6. Device permissions
- Microphone: requested when you start pronunciation practice. Audio is processed locally and is not uploaded.
- Photos — Add Only: requested when you choose to save generated or selected Afaan content. The Afaan Ecosystem does not read your library.
- Notifications: requested to deliver reminders and family-learning updates. You can disable notifications in iOS Settings.
The Afaan Ecosystem does not request contacts, camera, Bluetooth, health, tracking, or precise-location permission in the current iOS app.
7. Retention and security
We retain an active Founding Community record while delivering the requested pre-launch experience and, if you create an account, as needed to preserve your acquisition and referral history. Unsubscribing stops future Founding Community marketing messages and cancels pending deliveries. We retain a limited consent, suppression, attribution, and security record where needed to honor that choice, prevent re-enrollment, measure the campaign, resolve disputes, or meet legal obligations. Waitlist analytics, campaign-click, and email-delivery records are retained only under the documented retention schedule and are then deleted or aggregated.
We retain account, learner, progress, and subscription records while an account is active. When an account is deleted, active application records are removed or de-identified, except transaction, fraud-prevention, security, tax, or legal records that must be retained. Operational logs and queued synchronization records are retained for limited periods appropriate to security and reliability. Backup copies are isolated from ordinary use and expire through normal backup rotation.
We use HTTPS in transit, access controls, authenticated requests, application encryption for optional waitlist phone numbers, encryption for sensitive family records stored on the device, device-bound Keychain storage for authentication tokens, monitoring, and least-privilege access. Public waitlist APIs return only real aggregate counts and suppress small country totals; they never return contact details or children’s information. No security method is perfect; contact us promptly if you believe an account or the Services have been compromised.
8. Your rights and choices
Depending on your location, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, restrict, object to processing, withdraw consent, or receive a portable copy of personal information. You may also appeal a refusal or complain to your local data-protection authority. We will not discriminate against you for exercising a privacy right.
- Stop Founding Community marketing at any time through the signed unsubscribe link in every message. Providing an optional phone number does not subscribe you to SMS.
- Turn optional iOS product analytics on or off under Me → Settings → App & privacy.
- Update account and learner details through the available account and family controls.
- Delete the entire account and associated application data in the iOS app under Me → Settings → Account → Delete account.
- Manage or cancel an Apple subscription in App Store account settings; manage a web subscription through the web billing portal.
- Control microphone, photo, and notification permissions in iOS Settings.
- Request access, correction, export, or deletion—including a Founding Community record—through our Contact page.
We may verify your identity or authority before completing a request. Deleting an Afaan Ecosystem account does not automatically cancel a subscription managed by Apple or Stripe.
9. International data transfers
Afaan serves people internationally and primarily operates infrastructure in the United States. Information may therefore be processed outside your country. Where required, we use recognized legal safeguards for international transfers, such as adequacy decisions, contractual protections, or another lawful transfer mechanism.
10. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy when the Services, providers, or legal requirements change. We will post the updated policy here, revise the effective date, and provide additional notice or request consent when required. Material changes will not be applied retroactively where prohibited by law.
11. Contact us
For privacy rights, account deletion, child information, or safety questions, contact:
Afaan Privacyinfo@afanoromo.net
afanoromo.net/contact
Please use the subject “Privacy Request” and describe whether the request concerns your account, a child profile, or a school-managed profile. Do not email passwords, payment-card details, or sensitive information about a child.