Bridging Phonics Privacy Policy

Who we are

Bridging Phonics is operated by Simon Feltham, trading as Bridging Phonics. Simon Feltham is the data controller. Contact: bridgingphonics@gmail.com.

Information we collect

We collect the information needed to provide the app:

• an adult account email address and account role;
• for each child profile, a preferred name, nickname or initials and school year;
• phonics progress statuses and sounds recorded as reviewed or tricky;
• when judgement-history capture is enabled, dated records of an adult's explicit progress judgements, including the previous and selected status, who made the judgement, whether it was made for an initial baseline, ongoing assessment, post-session review or practice, the adult's assessment or practice context, an optional link to the relevant tutor session, and a random grouping identifier used to keep one baseline together across sittings;
• tutor session dates and notes;
• links between a child profile and the relevant adult accounts;
• subscription status, product identifiers, renewal and expiry state, and transaction references needed to provide Tutor Access; and
• limited technical information processed by our service providers to authenticate accounts, secure the service and diagnose faults.

The current app does not ask for a child's age. Profiles created or edited with an earlier app version may retain an age entered previously. Age and school year do not determine practice recommendations.

Tutor notes are free text. Adults should avoid entering unnecessary personal information. Children do not create accounts, log in, or enter information themselves. A legal name is never required.

How we use information

We use information to authenticate and manage accounts, show phonics progress, support parent and tutor workflows, generate requested reports, provide Tutor Access, restore purchases, respond to support requests, prevent misuse, and maintain the reliability and security of the service.

When judgement-history capture is enabled, we use it to preserve the authorship, date, context and purpose of an adult's explicit phonics progress judgement. This allows the current progress tracker to be supported by a dated record and keeps an initial baseline separate from later progress. The history records an adult's professional or home-practice judgement; it is not a standardised, accredited or school assessment, and Bridging Phonics does not automatically infer mastery from it.

We do not sell personal information. We do not use children's information for advertising or tracking.

Analytics

No external analytics destination is currently configured. If an analytics destination is configured in future, events will be sent only after an adult opts in. The event schema excludes account identifiers, child names, free text, and child progress. We will update this policy with the provider and retention period before enabling collection. An adult can disable future analytics collection from their profile.

Children's information and access

Child information is supplied and managed by an adult account holder: a parent, guardian, or tutor acting with parental authorisation. It is encrypted in transit and protected by database row-level security. Access differs by data type: linked adults can see the child profile and relevant progress, while tutor session records and notes remain tutor-only. Judgement history is not currently a parent-facing history view. When capture is enabled, the adult who authored a judgement may access the history only while they remain authorised to access the child. A linked parent does not receive access to tutor-authored judgement history merely because they can see the child's current progress.

We do not collect direct contact details from children.

Subscriptions and payments

Apple and Google process purchases made through their respective app stores. RevenueCat receives the app account identifier and relevant App Store or Google Play purchase metadata needed to activate and restore Tutor Access. If web checkout is offered, Stripe processes that payment and may receive the adult email address, internal customer identifier, plan selection, billing and tax information, and payment metadata. Bridging Phonics does not receive or store full payment-card numbers or CVV codes.

Service providers and international processing

We use:

• Supabase for authentication, database hosting, and private file storage;
• Apple and Google for purchases through their app stores;
• RevenueCat for Apple App Store and Google Play subscription-entitlement management; and
• Stripe for web billing if web checkout is offered.

Supabase currently stores Bridging Phonics app data in its EU West (Ireland) region. Providers may process limited information in other countries under their applicable privacy terms and data-processing agreements. Where a transfer requires safeguards, we rely on the mechanism applicable to that provider and transfer, such as adequacy regulations or approved contractual clauses.

Retention and deletion

We retain account and child-learning data while the account is active, unless it is deleted earlier or limited retention is required for legal, billing, security, or support purposes.

Deleting a child profile removes it and its database-linked progress, sessions, cohort membership and, when enabled, judgement history from the active database. Deleting a tutor session does not by itself erase a linked professional judgement: the session link is removed and the judgement remains associated with the child and its author until the child, author account or judgement is deleted under the applicable deletion or correction process.

The in-app account-deletion flow removes the authentication account, profile, children created by that account, associated database-linked records, and progress rows owned by that account. It also removes that account's links from children created by another adult. When judgement-history capture is enabled, account deletion also removes judgement-history entries authored by that account, including entries for a child profile created by another adult.

Generated export files are not currently removed automatically by account deletion. Contact us to request deletion of an export that remains in Bridging Phonics private storage. Files already downloaded or shared cannot be recalled.

You can also request account and associated-data deletion without the app through our account deletion page.

Apple, Google, RevenueCat, and Stripe retain purchase or billing information according to their legal and operational requirements. Bridging Phonics retains the subscription state needed to provide Tutor Access and may retain limited records where required by law. Deleting your Bridging Phonics account does not cancel an App Store or Google Play subscription; cancel it separately through the store that processed the purchase.

Lawful bases

Depending on the processing, we rely on contract to provide accounts and paid features; legitimate interests to operate, secure and improve the service; consent for optional analytics or future marketing; and legal obligation for records that must be kept for tax, accounting, or regulatory purposes.

Your rights

Depending on applicable law, you may request access to, correction of, deletion of, restriction of, or objection to processing of personal data, and withdraw consent where processing relies on consent. Contact bridgingphonics@gmail.com.

Progress judgement history is designed as a dated authorship record. A later change of professional judgement creates a new dated entry rather than silently rewriting the earlier one. If an entry is inaccurate because of a data-entry mistake, contact us to request correction while the in-app correction workflow is not available.

You may complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office at https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/. EU residents may contact their national data-protection authority.

Security

We use authentication, encrypted network connections, private storage, and database row-level security to protect information. No online service can guarantee complete security, so we also minimise what the app asks adults to provide.

Changes and contact

We will update this policy and its revision date when processing materially changes. For privacy questions, support, or data requests, contact bridgingphonics@gmail.com.