Privacy Policy

Who is responsible for your data

够用英语 (talkenough.com, “the site”) is operated by Object IT Limited, a company registered in New Zealand (NZBN 9429031476065) (“we”, “us”). We comply with the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020 and, where the EU or UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) applies, we are the data controller.

In short: we do not collect information that identifies you. You do not need to register, and we do not ask for your name, phone number or email address.

Data kept only on your device

The following is stored only in your browser (on your device). It is not sent to our servers and we cannot see it:

• Learning records that are not backed up: how many times you have listened to each phrase, your self-test and review history, and where you left off;
• Your choice about visitor statistics, and your recovery code (see the next section);
• The address you type into the “说清楚自己的地址” (Say your address clearly) tool, if you save it there. It leaves your device only when you choose the clearer voice (see “Data we receive”);
• Offline copies: pages you have opened and audio you have played, kept in your browser so that they can be opened without a network connection. Clearing your browser’s site data deletes them.

Backup of your progress (anonymous account)

The phrases and words you mark as learned and your display settings are stored in your browser. The first time you mark something as learned, the site also creates an anonymous account on our server to back them up, and shows you a recovery code on the “我的” (Me) page. Entering that code on another device brings your progress there. The account has no name, phone number or email address, and we cannot tell who it belongs to.

You can delete the account and everything in it at any time with “删除我的数据” (Delete my data) on that page; after that, the device no longer backs up unless you turn it on again. An account that has not been used for two years is deleted automatically. Anyone who has the recovery code can see and change this progress, so keep it to yourself. We do not store your IP address or browser information with the account, and we never send the recovery code to Google.

The account holds only:

• the phrases and words you have marked as learned or unmarked, and when;
• your display settings: whether the Chinese phonetic hints are shown, and the text size;
• when the account was created and the day it was last used;
• a keyed cryptographic hash (HMAC) of the recovery code. The code itself is kept only in your browser; we do not store it and cannot recover it if you lose it.

Data we receive

• Problem reports (“这句有问题”): the problem type you choose, any comment you write, and the page and content concerned. To prevent spam we also store a keyed cryptographic hash (HMAC) of your IP address; we do not store your IP address itself or your browser information. Reports are deleted automatically after one year. Please do not include your name, phone number or other personal information in your comment.
• Searches with no results: recorded only as a count per date, country and search term, and used to add missing content. They are not linked to anyone.
• Country detection: when you open the home page, our server looks up your approximate country in a local IP geolocation database and takes you to that country’s pages. The same lookup tells your browser whether it must ask before visitor statistics are turned on (see below). Your IP address is not sent to anyone else, and the result is not stored.
• Country choice: if you choose a country on the home page yourself, a cookie (gy_country) remembers the country code you chose, such as nz, for one year, so that your next visit goes straight there. It contains nothing else.
• Reading your address aloud: the “说清楚自己的地址” tool reads your address with your phone’s own voice, and nothing is sent. Only if you tap “用更清楚的声音读” (Read with a clearer voice) and agree to the notice shown there is the address sent to our server, which passes it to Microsoft Azure speech synthesis and returns the audio to you. We do not store the address or write it to our logs. Microsoft states that it does not keep the text or the audio of real-time speech synthesis. The address is never sent to Google.
• Abuse prevention: problem reports, the recording of searches with no results, requests to create, restore or delete an anonymous account, and requests to read an address in the clearer voice are limited per IP address. The IP address is held only in server memory, for at most one hour, and is never written to the database. The problem report form also sets a security cookie that is used only to confirm that the form was submitted from this site.

Visitor statistics (Google Analytics)

We use Google Analytics 4 to understand which content is useful, for example how often a page is viewed, how often audio is played and how often “show to the other person” mode is used. These statistics are aggregated; we cannot see who you are.

We never send Google the words you search for, the comments you write in problem reports, or any other text you type. The page addresses we send Google have everything after the question mark removed. Google signals and ad personalisation are turned off. Google states that Google Analytics 4 does not log or store IP addresses. Statistics are kept for 14 months.

In the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Canada, and wherever we cannot tell your country, Google Analytics is not loaded and nothing is sent to Google until you choose “同意” (agree) in the notice at the bottom of the page. Elsewhere it is on by default, unless your browser sends a Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal, which we treat as a request not to be counted.

Google Analytics sets cookies (such as _ga) to tell new visitors from returning ones. You can turn statistics on or off at any time on the “我的” (Me) page; turning them off stops sending and deletes these cookies. Your choice is kept on your device only. Declining does not affect your use of the site.

Service providers who process data

We do not sell your information. The following providers process data on our behalf:

• SmarterASP.NET: web server and database, with data centres in the United States. Like most websites, the server’s access logs may record IP addresses and browser information, which are kept under the provider’s own rules.
• Cloudflare: content delivery and security. It processes your IP address to deliver pages and to block attacks.
• Google: visitor statistics, as described in the previous section.
• Microsoft Azure: the audio for each phrase was generated in advance with Azure speech synthesis and is stored as files on our server. Playing it does not connect to Microsoft or send any of your data. The one exception is the clearer voice of the address tool, described under “Data we receive”: the address you chose to send is passed to Azure to be read aloud.

International transfers

We are based in New Zealand; our server and some of our providers are in the United States. The European Commission has recognised New Zealand as providing an adequate level of data protection. Where data is transferred to a country without such a decision, our providers use approved transfer mechanisms, such as the EU Standard Contractual Clauses or certification under the EU–US Data Privacy Framework.

Your rights

You control the data stored on your device: clearing your browser’s site data deletes all of it. You can delete your anonymous account yourself on the “我的” (Me) page. The other data we receive does not contain information that identifies you, so we usually cannot tell which record is yours; if you can give us enough detail (for example, when you sent a problem report and what it said), we will do our best to help.

• Everyone: you may ask to access or correct your personal information.
• EU/EEA and UK (GDPR): you may also ask for erasure, for restriction of or to object to processing, and for data portability, and you may complain to your local data protection authority.
• California (CCPA/CPRA): you may ask to know, delete and correct your personal information. We do not sell or “share” your personal information.
• New Zealand: you may complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.
• Australia: you may complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC).

Children

The site is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy, for example when we add advertising. We will highlight significant changes on the site. The date at the top of this page shows when it was last updated.

Language

This policy is written in English. The Chinese version is a translation provided for convenience; if the two differ, the English version prevails.

Contact us

For privacy questions or requests, please use Object IT’s contact page.