Spelling Stream Privacy Policy

Effective Date: April 24, 2026 | Last Updated: May 15, 2026

  The short version: Spelling Stream is designed for children. We collect as little data as possible. All spelling data, voice recordings, and progress stay on your device unless you explicitly enable Cloud Sync. We do not serve ads and we do not sell data.

1. Who We Are

Spelling Stream is published by Monthly Balance Capital LLC, an Arizona limited liability company. This Privacy Policy applies to both the Spelling Stream mobile application and the spellingstream.com website (collectively, the "Service").

Email: support@monthlybalance.com
Phone: (602) 456-7189
Mailing Address: 4539 N 22nd St, Ste N, Phoenix, AZ 85016, USA

2. Children's Privacy (COPPA Compliance)

Spelling Stream is designed for use by children under the age of 13, always under the supervision of a parent or legal guardian. We comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), including the amended rules effective April 22, 2026.

2a. What We Do Not Collect From Children

We do not collect personal information from children.
We do not use behavioral advertising or serve ads of any kind.
We do not sell, rent, or share any user data with third parties for marketing purposes.
We do not collect biometric data from children. Custom voice recordings (made by parents) are stored exclusively on-device and are never transmitted.

2b. Parental Consent

All optional data features require verifiable parental consent before activation. During the app's initial setup wizard, a parent or legal guardian must:

Pass a math-based parental verification gate
Review this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use
Explicitly tap to consent before proceeding

All parent-only settings are further protected by a PIN or math-based parental gate that children cannot bypass.

2c. Parental Rights

As a parent or legal guardian, you have the right to:

Review all data stored by the app. All data is visible within the app itself (spelling lists, scores, profiles, recordings).
Refuse further collection. You may revoke consent for optional features (analytics, Cloud Sync, microphone, camera) at any time through your device's Settings or the app's Parent Center.
Request deletion. You may delete all app data at any time using Settings > Delete All Data. For Cloud Sync users, this also deletes all data from our servers. You may also contact us at support@monthlybalance.com to request deletion.

3. Data That Stays on Your Device

The following data is stored only on your device and is never transmitted to us or any third party:

Spelling lists and words
Custom voice recordings of words (recorded by parents; these are never synced or uploaded, even with Cloud Sync enabled)
Test scores, stars, and progress
Child profile nicknames
Sticker and theme selections
Photos taken for OCR word scanning (processed on-device by the platform's built-in text recognition — Apple Vision on iOS, Google ML Kit on Android, running locally on the device; photos are never uploaded or stored beyond the scanning session)
Parent PIN and biometric preferences

4. Cloud Sync (Pro Feature, Optional)

If a parent explicitly enables Cloud Sync, the following data is synced via Google Firebase/Firestore (operated by Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043):

Spelling lists and words
Child profile nicknames and progress
Stars, stickers, themes, and reward data
The parent's email address from their Apple ID or Google account (used solely for authentication)

Not synced: Voice recordings, photos, PIN settings, and biometric preferences are never synced and always remain on-device only.

Cloud Sync requires:

An active Pro subscription
The parent to sign in with their Apple ID (on iOS) or Google account (on Android) — not a child's account
Explicit consent during setup

Synced data is stored in Google Cloud data centers located in the United States and is encrypted in transit (TLS) and at rest. Parents can delete all cloud data at any time from Settings > Delete All Data.

Distribution and data location: Spelling Stream is currently distributed only in the United States through the Apple App Store and Google Play. All cloud data is stored in the United States. We do not currently target users outside the United States, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from users outside the United States.

5. Analytics

5.0 Website Analytics

The spellingstream.com website uses Google Analytics (GA4) (operated by Google LLC) to understand visitor traffic and behavior on the marketing site. Google Analytics is used on the website only — it is not present in the mobile app. The website is directed at parents, not children. Standard Google Analytics cookies and identifiers may be set when you visit the site. This data is used solely for understanding how visitors find and use our website.

5.1 App Analytics

Within the mobile app, we use Google Firebase Analytics (operated by Google LLC) solely to understand aggregate app usage (e.g., which features are popular, crash-free session rates).

5a. Consent Required

Analytics is disabled by default and only enabled after a parent provides consent during the initial setup wizard. If consent is not given, no analytics data is collected.

5b. What Analytics Collects

When enabled, Firebase Analytics may collect:

Anonymous usage events (e.g., "game started", "test completed")
Device type and OS version
A Firebase instance ID (a random, anonymous persistent identifier assigned to the app installation)

Firebase Analytics does not collect:

Names, email addresses, or any personally identifiable information
Spelling words, test answers, or any user-generated content
Location data

5c. Persistent Identifiers

The Firebase instance ID is a persistent identifier used solely for internal operations: aggregating anonymous usage statistics and measuring app stability. It is not used for advertising, user profiling, or any purpose beyond internal analytics. This use is covered by the parental consent obtained during setup, in accordance with the COPPA rule's internal operations exception.

We have configured Firebase Analytics with the following restrictions:

ad_storage: denied
ad_user_data: denied
ad_personalization: denied

6. Crash Reporting

We use Google Firebase Crashlytics (operated by Google LLC) to detect and fix app crashes. Crash reports contain only technical information (device model, OS version, stack trace) and do not contain any personal information, user content, or spelling data.

7. Subscriptions & Payments

Subscriptions are processed entirely by Apple Inc. through the App Store (on iOS) or Google LLC through Google Play (on Android). We do not collect or have access to payment information, credit card numbers, or billing addresses. Subscription management (cancellation, plan changes) is handled through your Apple ID or Google Play account settings.

Free trial (yearly Pro): The yearly Pro plan includes a 7-day free trial for first-time subscribers (one trial per Apple ID or Google account). If you do not cancel before the trial ends, your Apple ID or Google Play account is automatically charged for the yearly subscription and renews annually thereafter. You can cancel at any time during the trial through your Apple ID or Google Play account settings to avoid being charged. The monthly Pro plan does not include a trial.

8. Microphone & Camera

Microphone: Used only if a parent chooses to record custom pronunciations of spelling words. Recordings are stored on-device only and are never uploaded, synced, or transmitted. Voice recordings constitute biometric data under the updated COPPA rule; they are collected only with explicit parental consent and never leave the device.
Speech Recognition (speech-to-text): Used only if a parent chooses to add spelling words by speaking them aloud instead of typing. The spoken audio is transcribed into text using the platform's speech recognition service — Apple Speech on iOS, Google speech recognition on Android. Depending on the device and network connectivity, this transcription may run entirely on-device, or the audio may be sent to and processed by Apple or Google. When transcription happens on-device, no audio leaves the device. When it happens online, the audio is sent to Apple or Google solely to perform the transcription. In either case, we use the audio solely to convert the spoken word into the text of a spelling word; it is never sent to our servers, never stored by us, and is not used for any other purpose. This feature is operated by a parent, requires explicit parental consent, and is separate from the on-device custom voice recordings described above.
Camera: Used only if a parent chooses to photograph a printed spelling list for OCR scanning. Photos are processed on-device by the platform's text recognition framework (Apple Vision on iOS, Google ML Kit on Android) and are never uploaded or stored beyond the scanning session.

All of these features require explicit parental consent and the operating system's permission prompts (iOS or Android).

9. Third-Party Services

We use the following specifically named third-party services:

Service	Operator	Purpose	Data Received
Apple Sign-In	Apple Inc.	Parent authentication for Cloud Sync (iOS)	Apple ID email (parent only)
Google Sign-In	Google LLC	Parent authentication for Cloud Sync (Android)	Google account email (parent only)
Apple Speech Recognition	Apple Inc.	Transcribes a parent's spoken word into text when adding spelling words by voice (iOS)	Short audio clip of the spoken word, only when transcription runs online (parent-initiated)
Google Speech Recognition	Google LLC	Transcribes a parent's spoken word into text when adding spelling words by voice (Android)	Short audio clip of the spoken word, only when transcription runs online (parent-initiated)
Firebase Analytics	Google LLC	Anonymous aggregate usage statistics	Anonymous events, device type, Firebase instance ID
Firebase Crashlytics	Google LLC	Crash detection and stability monitoring	Device model, OS version, crash stack traces
Firebase Auth	Google LLC	Authentication for Cloud Sync	Apple ID token (parent only)
Cloud Firestore	Google LLC	Cloud Sync data storage	See Section 4 (synced data)
Cloud Firestore (consent audit log)	Google LLC	Stores a pseudonymous record each time a parent or legal guardian acknowledges an updated Privacy Policy or Terms of Use, solely for COPPA compliance audit purposes. For Pro subscribers who have signed in to Cloud Sync, an additional consent record is stored under their Firebase user account so per-user consent history can be retrieved during account-level support requests.	Anonymous Firebase App Instance ID (an opaque random identifier assigned to the app installation; not linked to any account, email, name, or personal information), policy version, timestamp, app version, platform. For Pro subscribers, additionally their Firebase user ID (already disclosed above for Cloud Sync purposes).
Firebase Remote Config	Google LLC	Delivers configuration values to the app (currently, the latest Privacy Policy and Terms of Use version strings) without requiring an app update	Anonymous Firebase Installation ID for fetch purposes. No user content, no personal information, no subscription or purchase data.
RevenueCat	RevenueCat Inc.	Subscription entitlement management across iOS and Android; customer identification for support (e.g., granting promotional access). For users who have not signed in to Cloud Sync, RevenueCat assigns an anonymous, device-scoped identifier used solely for subscription management. This identifier may be displayed in the Parent Center for a parent or legal guardian to share with us if they request manual subscription support (such as promotional grants or subscription troubleshooting). It contains no name, email, or other personal information.	For Cloud Sync (Pro) users: parent's Firebase user ID, parent email address (from Apple ID or Google account), parent display name, subscription status (parents only — never children). For non-signed-in users: an anonymous device-scoped identifier with no personal information.
Apple App Store	Apple Inc.	Subscription billing and payments (iOS)	Managed entirely by Apple
Google Play	Google LLC	Subscription billing and payments (Android)	Managed entirely by Google

Other than the speech-to-text transcription described in Section 8 — where, when performed online, a parent's spoken audio is sent to Apple or Google solely to be converted into spelling-word text — no third-party service receives children's personal information, spelling data, custom voice recordings, or photos.

10. Data Retention & Deletion

10a. On-Device Data

All on-device data (spelling lists, recordings, scores, profiles) persists until:

The parent taps "Delete All Data" in Settings (immediate deletion), or
The app is uninstalled from the device

On-device data (spelling lists, scores, profiles, and recordings) persists indefinitely. There is no automatic time-based expiration or deletion. Parents or guardians have complete control and may delete all data at any time using the in-app "Delete All Data" feature, or by uninstalling the app from the device.

10b. Cloud Sync Data

For users who enable Cloud Sync, synced data is retained on Google Cloud servers for as long as the user's account exists. Data is deleted:

Immediately when a parent taps "Delete All Data" or "Delete Account" in Settings
Within 30 days of subscription expiration if the account is not renewed (grace period for resubscription)

After deletion, data is purged from Google Cloud Firestore and cannot be recovered.

10c. Analytics & Crash Data

Firebase Analytics data is retained for 14 months from the date of collection, after which it is automatically deleted by Google. Crashlytics data is retained for 90 days.

10d. Requesting Deletion

Parents may delete all data at any time using the in-app "Delete All Data" feature, or by contacting us at support@monthlybalance.com. We will process deletion requests within 7 business days.

11. Data Security

We take reasonable measures to protect user data:

On-device data is protected by the device's built-in encryption and passcode
Cloud Sync data is encrypted in transit (TLS 1.2+) and at rest (AES-256) on Google Cloud
Authentication uses Apple Sign-In (on iOS) or Google Sign-In (on Android) with industry-standard token-based security

No security system is perfect, and we cannot guarantee that unauthorized access or disclosure will never occur. If we determine that a security breach has affected your personal information, we will notify affected users and applicable authorities as required by law, typically by email to the address associated with your account and, where appropriate, by an in-app notice.

12. Your Rights (U.S. Residents)

As a U.S. resident, you have the right to:

Know what information we collect and how it is used (this policy, and the app's Parent Center).
Access and review all data stored by the app — it is visible within the app itself.
Delete your data at any time using Settings > Delete All Data, or by contacting support@monthlybalance.com.
Withdraw consent for optional features (analytics, Cloud Sync, microphone, camera) at any time through the app's Parent Center or your device settings.
Non-discrimination: We will not deny, charge different prices for, or provide a different level of service because you exercise any of these rights.

We do not sell or share personal information. We do not sell personal information in exchange for money or any other valuable consideration, and we do not share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising (as those terms are defined under the California Consumer Privacy Act / California Privacy Rights Act). We do not serve ads of any kind in the app.

California residents: Although our current operations do not meet the business thresholds that trigger the California Consumer Privacy Act / California Privacy Rights Act, we voluntarily honor the rights listed above for California residents. We do not use "Shine the Light" data-sharing practices. To exercise any right, contact support@monthlybalance.com.

Other U.S. states: Residents of states with comprehensive privacy laws (including Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, Texas, and Oregon) may have similar rights. We voluntarily honor the rights listed above for residents of those states. Contact us at the email above to exercise them.

13. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. Material changes will be noted with an updated "Last Updated" date at the top. If we make material changes to how we collect or use children's data, we will obtain new parental consent before implementing those changes. Continued use of the app after non-material changes constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.

14. Contact Us

If you have questions about this privacy policy, your data, or your parental rights under COPPA, contact us at:

Monthly Balance Capital LLC
Monthly Balance Capital LLC
Email: support@monthlybalance.com
Phone: (602) 456-7189
Mailing Address: 4539 N 22nd St, Ste N, Phoenix, AZ 85016, USA