Privacy Policy for Ella

Effective date: 12 August 2026

Ella is an English-speaking practice app provided by NavGurukul Foundation for Social Welfare ("NavGurukul," "we," "us," or "our"). This Privacy Policy explains what information Ella collects, how it is used and shared, and the choices available to you.

1. Information we collect

Information you provide

• Account and profile information: for an adult learner, this may include the learner's email address, name or nickname, age, and optional city. For a learner under 18, the account must be created and managed by a parent or lawful guardian and may include the parent's email address and the child's name or nickname, age or age range, and optional city.
• Learning content: the topics you choose, speech transcripts, typed messages, placement-test conversations, English proficiency level, corrections, assessment results, skill progress, and feedback generated during your sessions.
• Support communications: information you include if you contact us for help or to exercise your privacy rights.

Information collected automatically

• App identifier: Ella creates a random identifier on your device so that it can recognize your profile and associate your learning progress with it. This is not an advertising identifier.
• Usage and performance information: session dates, selected topics, session duration, whether a session was completed, and processing-time measurements used to operate and improve the learning experience.
• Technical information: limited network and request information may be processed by our hosting and service providers when the app communicates with their systems, such as IP address, timestamps, and standard server logs.

Microphone and speech information

With your permission, Ella accesses your microphone when you choose to speak. Speech is converted to text to run speaking practice, provide AI responses, and assess English proficiency.

Depending on the speech-recognition service available on your Android device, speech recognition may occur on the device or may be processed by the device's speech-recognition provider under that provider's terms. Ella's bundled Whisper speech-recognition option processes audio on the device. Ella does not use the microphone in the background or for advertising.

The current app sends the resulting text transcript, rather than the microphone recording itself, to the AI service described below. Audio may exist temporarily on the device while on-device speech recognition is taking place and is not intentionally retained by NavGurukul after transcription.

2. How we use information

We use information to:

• provide spoken-English practice and generate tutor responses;
• conduct placement checks and estimate an English proficiency level;
• personalize lessons, corrections, topics, and learning focus;
• save and display profile information, preferences, and learning progress;
• authenticate and manage the Ella account and maintain service security;
• communicate with a parent or guardian about a child account, consent, material privacy changes, support, and deletion;
• diagnose errors, maintain performance, prevent misuse, and improve Ella; and
• respond to support, privacy, and account-deletion requests.

We do not sell personal information. We do not use personal information for third-party advertising, and Ella does not contain an advertising SDK.

3. How information is shared

We disclose information only as needed for the purposes described above:

• AI processing: conversation text, placement transcripts, learning context, and relevant profile or proficiency context are sent to DeepSeek, which generates tutor responses and assessments for Ella.
• Cloud hosting and infrastructure: our hosting, database, and network providers process app data to operate and secure Ella's backend.
• Device speech services: if Ella uses the Android speech recognizer supplied on your device, the provider of that service may process speech according to its own privacy terms and your device settings.
• Legal and safety reasons: we may disclose information when reasonably necessary to comply with law, enforce our terms, protect users, investigate abuse, or protect the rights and safety of NavGurukul and others.
• Organizational changes: information may be transferred as part of a merger, reorganization, financing, or transfer of the service, subject to appropriate safeguards.

Service providers may process information only to provide services to us and subject to their applicable contractual and legal obligations. Information may be processed in countries other than the country where you live.

4. Parent-managed accounts for learners under 18

Ella may be used by learners aged 13 to 17 only through an account created and managed by their parent or lawful guardian. During setup, the parent or guardian must:

• provide their own email address;
• confirm that they are the learner's parent or lawful guardian and are at least 18 years old;
• provide the child's name or nickname and age or age range;
• review this Privacy Policy and the parent notice; and
• affirmatively consent to the processing needed for the child to use Ella, including microphone use, speech transcription, AI processing, proficiency assessment, and storage of learning progress.

The child may then use Ella on the parent or guardian's device under their supervision. The parent controls the account and may review or update account information, withdraw consent, or request deletion. If parental consent is withdrawn, the child account will be disabled and its associated data will be deleted subject to the limited retention described below.

Providing access to a phone by itself does not create consent. Consent is recorded when the parent or guardian completes the account setup and selects the approval action presented by Ella.

Adults aged 18 or older may create and manage their own Ella account.

5. Data stored on your device

Ella stores profile details, preferences, placement status, a random device identifier, and an authentication token locally on your device. Removing the app generally removes this local app data, but it does not by itself delete information already stored on our servers. Use the deletion options described below to request deletion of server data.

6. Retention

We retain profile and learning information while your Ella profile is active and for as long as reasonably necessary to provide the service. When you request deletion, we delete or de-identify the profile and associated data from our active systems within 30 days, unless retention is required for security, fraud prevention, legal compliance, or the establishment or defence of legal claims. Limited copies may remain in encrypted backups until those backups are overwritten in the ordinary course, for no longer than 90 days.

AI and infrastructure providers may retain data according to their service terms and our arrangements with them. We will request deletion from relevant service providers where required and reasonably available.

7. Your choices and rights

You can:

• deny or withdraw microphone permission in Android settings; you may still use typed input where that option is available;
• review or change profile information and learning preferences in Ella;
• request access to, correction of, or deletion of your information; and
• object to or restrict certain processing where applicable law gives you that right.

Delete your Ella profile and data

An adult account holder or the parent or guardian managing a child account can start deletion from Profile → Delete Account in Ella. You can also request deletion without the app at https://ella.navgurukul.org/delete-account/ or by emailing hi@navgurukul.org from the account email with the subject "Delete my Ella data." We may ask for information needed to match and authenticate the request. Deleting an account permanently removes the associated profile, placement, transcript, conversation, and progress data, subject to the limited retention described above.

8. Children and younger users

Ella is intended for learners aged 13 and older in India. Under Indian data-protection law, a person under 18 is a child. Learners aged 13 to 17 may use Ella only through a parent-managed account created with the affirmative consent of a parent or lawful guardian as described above.

Ella is not currently intended for children under 13. A parent or guardian should not create an account for a child under 13. If we learn that an account was created for a child under 13, or that a child account lacks valid parental authorization, we will disable the account and delete the associated personal data unless applicable law requires otherwise.

9. Security

We use reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational measures designed to protect information, including authenticated access to backend data and encrypted network connections in production. No storage or transmission method is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security.

10. Third-party services and links

Third-party services used by Ella have their own privacy practices. Their policies govern information they process independently. We encourage you to review the privacy settings and policies of your Android speech-recognition provider and the relevant AI and infrastructure services.

11. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy as Ella or applicable requirements change. We will post the updated policy with a new effective date and provide additional notice in the app when a change is material.

12. Contact us

For privacy questions or requests, contact:

NavGurukul Foundation for Social Welfare
CIN: U85300HR2016NPL066468
Email: hi@navgurukul.org
Website: https://www.navgurukul.org