Version 1, 18 October 2026. Practice Shadowing is run by Andrew Williams. For anything on this page, write to privacy@practiceshadowing.com.
In short
- Your recordings stay on your device. One leaves it only when you ask for a score, and your voice streams while you speak, to light up your words. It goes to Cloudflare, which turns it into words for us. We do not keep the recording or the stream, and they are used for nothing else.
- Your audio and its text stay on your device. When you ask for a transcript, only the minutes you chose are sent, in the same way, and only the words come back. When you tap a word in your own clip to see its meaning, only that sentence, the few around it and the clip's title are sent, to OpenAI, and only the meaning comes back. For a YouTube video, our server fetches the video's captions and keeps nothing.
- We count visits without knowing who you are. Your browser keeps an anonymous code. We store the country, never your IP address, and nothing that names you until you sign in.
- With an account, we keep your email address, the minutes you have used and counts of your practice.
What we keep
| What | Why | How long |
|---|---|---|
| Page views: the page, an anonymous code for the browser tab, the country, the time | To count visits | 24 months |
| Your first visit: the anonymous code your browser keeps, the page you arrived on, the country, the time, and whether you came from one of our ads (the ad's keyword group, never the ad click's own code) | To see which visitors go on to practise | 24 months |
| How you use the site: the steps and buttons you use, problems that come up, your answer to the question after a practice, and your browser type | To find and fix problems | 24 months |
| Your account: your email address and, if you sign in with Google, the account number Google gives us | To sign you in | Until you delete the account |
| Your consent: when you gave it, and the version of this page you agreed to | To show that you agreed | Until you delete the account |
| Minutes used: the seconds of sound sent for transcripts and scores, and the turns streamed for the lit words, by day | The daily and monthly limits | 24 months, or until you delete the account |
| Counts for each practice session: the pause mode, how many attempts and taps, how loud the room was next to your voice, and how far into each sentence you were when the player went on (numbers, never sound) | To see whether practice works, and to fix it | 24 months, or until you delete the account |
| Requests for more minutes: your answer to the one question, and our decision | The request form | 24 months, or until you delete the account |
| Wording reports: how many times a line of Vietnamese text was reported | To fix the wording | 24 months |
When we look at an account, for example to answer a request for more minutes, we read counts only. We never keep your recordings or the text of your material.
What stays on your device
Your audio files, the minutes you picked from them, their text, your recordings, your library and your progress. They are kept in your browser and show only while you are signed in. Deleting a clip in the app, or clearing this site's data in your browser, removes them. Deleting your account removes them from the device you delete it on. They do not follow you to another device.
Who else handles your data
- Google, only if you sign in with Google. Google tells us your email address and an account number.
- Google or Apple, while you practise, in the try box on the home page or in the app: your browser's own speech recognition (Google's in Chrome, Apple's in Safari) hears you, to light up the words you say. Their privacy policies apply, and nothing of it reaches us. In the app you can turn it off where you choose the pause.
- A captions service, only when you open a YouTube video. Our server asks it for the video's captions, giving it the video's address and nothing about you, and keeps nothing it sends back.
- OpenAI, only when you ask for a word's meaning in your own clip, or in a language other than Vietnamese or English. Our server sends it that sentence, the few around it and the clip's title, and nothing about you. OpenAI does not use them to train its models, and keeps them only for a short time to check for misuse. The meaning is saved only on your device.
- YouTube, on the video screen, which uses YouTube's own player. YouTube's privacy policy applies to what you watch there. The video's address and your sentences are kept only on your device.
- Podcast hosts, only for a feed you paste. Our server asks the host for the feed and the minutes you chose, so the host sees our server, not you. We store nothing from it.
We do not sell data, show ads or run anyone else's tracking code on our pages.
Your consent
When you create an account, one box asks for your consent. It is not ticked for you, and without it there is no account. It covers three things:
- this page;
- linking the anonymous code in your browser to your account;
- sending a recording to Cloudflare for a score, each time you ask.
Practising, recording and comparing in the app work without an account, and then we keep no sound or text.
We never store recordings. A voice can count as sensitive data, so we hold none.
Your rights
Delete your account from your profile at any time. That deletes your account, your sign-in records, your minutes and your practice counts, and unlinks the anonymous code from you. For anything else, write to privacy@practiceshadowing.com. We acknowledge requests within 72 hours and answer in full within the period the law sets.
Children
Practice Shadowing is for adults. You must be 18 or older to create an account.
Security
Every page is served over a secure connection. Sign-in codes and sessions are stored in a scrambled form that cannot be read back. Only the operator can read the database.
Changes
Each change to this page gets a new version and date here. If a change touches what we keep or who handles it, you are asked again the next time you sign in.