Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 19, 2026

Pingzi (“we”, “the app”) is a Chinese learning app. It works fully without an account, and then keeps your learning data on your device. You can optionally sign in to back up and sync your data. This policy explains what data is processed and why.

Data on your device

• Your study progress, settings, the personal words you add, and your cat care game (Mew coins, items, streak days, your cats’ outfits and room) are stored on your device.
• The word list shown by the widget is stored in a container shared between the app and its widget.
• Pronunciation audio is made by your phone’s built-in voices; nothing you hear or study is sent anywhere.
• If you do not sign in, we do not have access to this data. Deleting the app deletes it.

Optional account

You can sign in with Apple, Google or your email address to back up your data, sync it between your devices, and use Pingzi Pro on all of them.

• With Apple or Google, we receive an account identifier, your email address (with Apple you may choose a private relay address) and, if you share it, your name.
• With email, we send a 6-digit sign-in code to the address you enter, through our email delivery provider. The code works for 10 minutes; we store only a one-way hash of it.

Our server (api.pingzi.app) then stores, linked to your account: your email and name; your study progress (which words you studied, their review stage and next review date); the personal words you add; your cat care game (Mew coin history, items, streak days, your cats’ outfits and room); and the purchases you verify while signed in. We use this data only to provide sync, Pro and reminders across your devices; we do not sell it or use it for advertising.

You can delete your account at any time in the app under Settings → Account → Delete account. This deletes your account and all data stored with it from our server, including push tokens and reminder settings, and revokes Sign in with Apple. Data on your device stays until you delete the app.

Notifications

Daily study reminders are optional; you choose the time, or turn them off, in Settings. Without an account the reminder is scheduled on your phone and no data leaves it.

Push notifications, such as news about seasonal events, are delivered by Google’s Firebase Cloud Messaging. For this your device gets a push token, which Firebase uses to deliver messages to it, and the app subscribes it to the news for your app language. When you are signed in, our server also stores your push tokens, your app language, your reminder time and time zone, and when the app was last opened, so it can send one reminder a day across all your devices, skip it once you reached your daily goal, and stop after a week without use. Signing out removes that device’s push token from our server. You can turn notifications off at any time in your phone’s settings.

Advertising (free version)

The free version shows ads provided by Google AdMob. To serve and measure ads, Google may collect data such as your IP address, device information, approximate location derived from your IP address, and ad interactions. Pingzi does not ask for permission to track you across other companies’ apps and websites, so the advertising identifier (IDFA) is not shared. If you are in the EEA, UK or Switzerland, you are asked for consent before personalized ads are shown, and you can change your choice any time in Settings → Ad privacy choices. See how Google uses information from apps.

Pingzi Pro users do not see ads, and the ads SDK is not started for them.

Purchases

Pingzi Pro is a one-time purchase processed by Apple or Google. We never receive your payment details. To confirm a purchase, the app sends the store’s signed transaction to our server (api.pingzi.app), which checks it with Apple or Google. The transaction contains a transaction ID, the product purchased and dates; it does not contain your name or email address. If you are signed in, the purchase is linked to your account so Pro works on your other devices. Mew coins are earned by learning and are never sold.

Service providers

• Amazon Web Services hosts our server and its database.
• Google provides sign-in with Google, Firebase Cloud Messaging and AdMob.
• Apple provides Sign in with Apple and push delivery on iPhone and iPad.
• An email delivery provider sends sign-in codes.

They process data only to provide these services to us.

Server logs

Like most web services, our server and website keep short-lived technical logs (such as IP address and request time) to keep the service secure and working. These logs are deleted after 30 days.

Children

Pingzi is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their personal data.

Your rights

If you have an account, you can delete it and its data yourself in the app (Settings → Account → Delete account). For a copy of your data, or any other question or request, contact privacy@pingzi.app. Without an account we keep no learning data about you on our servers.

Changes

We will post any changes to this policy on this page and update the date above.