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Privacy policy

What Tarsier collects, what leaves your device, and how to delete it.

Effective date: July 28, 2026 · Covers Tarsier 1.4 and later

Tarsier ("we", "our", or "the app") is a Tagalog language learning app for iOS, built by Gathrean Dela Cruz. This policy explains what data the app handles, what leaves your device, and what you can do about it.

The short version. Tarsier works fully without an account, and signed out your learning stays on your device. Creating an account is optional. It adds a public @handle and a leaderboard, and it means your email address, handle and XP are stored on our server. You can delete the account, and everything on the server with it, from inside the app.

1. Using Tarsier without an account

You can finish every lesson, keep a streak and build a word bank without signing in, and you always will be able to. Signed out, the following is stored only on your device using Apple's SwiftData framework:

  • Lesson progress, quiz scores, streaks, and XP
  • Vocabulary word bank and practice history
  • Your @handle, display name, chosen avatar and profile colour
  • Onboarding answers such as skill level, motivations, daily goal, and optionally your age and country
  • App preferences (notifications, sound, haptics, dark mode)

Every install is given an @handle automatically, such as BlueTarsier2967. Until you sign in, that handle exists only on your device and is not visible to anyone else.

2. Creating an account

Signing in is optional. It exists so you can claim a handle, appear on the leaderboard, and keep a Super subscription across your devices. You can sign in two ways:

  • Sign in with Apple. Apple tells us an account identifier and an email address. If you choose Apple's Hide My Email option, we only ever receive the private relay address.
  • Email link. You enter an email address and we send a one-time sign-in link to it. There is no password.

Once you are signed in, the following is stored on our server:

  • Your account identifier and email address
  • Your @handle, display name and title
  • Your chosen avatar and profile colour
  • Your XP total, your XP for the current week, and which language course you are on

Your lessons, word bank and preferences are not uploaded to our server. They stay on your device, and back up to your own iCloud as described in section 4.

3. The leaderboard

The leaderboard is the only place where anything you write is shown to other people. If you are signed in, other signed-in learners can see your @handle, display name, title, avatar, profile colour and XP. Nothing else about you is shown, and there is no way for users to message, comment, post or send anything to one another.

Handles and display names are checked against a profanity filter when first claimed and on every rename. Every leaderboard row has a long-press "Report User" action which sends the report to us for manual review. If you would rather not appear at all, do not sign in, or delete your account (section 8), which removes your leaderboard entry.

4. iCloud backup

Tarsier automatically backs your progress up to your own iCloud account, free on every plan. This uses Apple's iCloud key-value storage and is tied to the Apple Account signed into your iPhone, not to a Tarsier account. The backup holds your streak, XP, finished lessons, word bank and preferences.

This data sits in your personal iCloud storage under Apple's privacy policy. We cannot read it. You can back up on demand, see when it last ran, or restore it from Settings, Account and Subscriptions. Turning off iCloud Drive for Tarsier in iOS Settings stops it.

5. Third-party services

  • Supabase (accounts and leaderboard): hosts the authentication and the profile and leaderboard data listed in section 2. supabase.com/privacy
  • Resend (email delivery): delivers the one-time sign-in link. Your email address passes through Resend to reach you. resend.com/legal/privacy-policy
  • Apple iCloud (backup): stores the progress backup described in section 4 in your own iCloud. apple.com/legal/privacy
  • PostHog (analytics): in the app, usage events such as lessons started, lessons completed and feature engagement, tied to a random app-generated identifier rather than your name or email. On this website, page views only, and only if you accept the cookie banner. posthog.com/privacy
  • RevenueCat (subscriptions): processes your Super subscription status through Apple's App Store. We never see your payment details. revenuecat.com/privacy
  • Superwall (paywalls): decides which subscription screen to show and records that it was shown. superwall.com/privacy
  • Google AdMob (advertising): if you are on the free plan, AdMob may show ads and collect device identifiers such as the IDFA for ad personalisation, subject to your App Tracking Transparency choice. policies.google.com/privacy

5b. Cookies on this website

This website loads no analytics and sets no analytics cookie until you press Accept on the banner. If you decline, nothing is loaded and we remember only your choice, stored in your own browser so we do not ask again. If you accept, PostHog records page views to show which parts of the site people find useful. It does not identify you by name or email.

To change your mind, clear this site's data in your browser and the banner will ask again.

Lesson audio and artwork are generated ahead of time and bundled into the app. Tarsier makes no AI or text-to-speech calls while you use it, so nothing you do in a lesson is sent anywhere for processing.

6. Data we do not collect

  • We do not collect your phone number
  • We do not collect your location. If you choose to set a country on your profile, you type it in yourself and it is never read from your device
  • We do not accept photo, file or free-text uploads, and there is no chat or messaging
  • We do not sell your personal data, or share it with third parties for their own marketing
  • If you never sign in, we never learn your email address

7. Children's privacy

Tarsier is not directed at children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. The app is fully usable without an account, and signed out no personal information is collected beyond the analytics and advertising identifiers described in section 5. If you believe a child has created an account, email us at support@tarsierlearn.com and we will delete it.

8. Deleting your data

  • Delete your account. Settings, Account, Delete Account. This removes your account, email address, @handle and leaderboard entry from our server, and erases your progress on the device.
  • Erase local data only. "Reset All Data" in Settings clears everything the app stores on your device.
  • Delete the iCloud backup. Turn Tarsier off under iCloud in your iPhone's Settings, or delete the app's iCloud data from your Apple Account.
  • Opt out of analytics. Email us and we will exclude your identifier from PostHog.
  • Opt out of ad tracking. Decline the App Tracking Transparency prompt, or use Settings, Privacy and Security, Tracking on your device.

You can also email support@tarsierlearn.com to ask what we hold about you, or to have it corrected or deleted.

9. App Tracking Transparency

Tarsier respects your App Tracking Transparency choice. If you decline, AdMob serves non-personalised ads and no IDFA is collected.

10. Data retention

Data on your device stays until you delete the app or use "Reset All Data". Account and leaderboard data on our server is kept while your account exists and is removed when you delete it. Anonymous analytics are retained by PostHog under their own retention policy.

11. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. Changes are posted on this page with a new effective date. Continued use of the app after a change means you accept it.

12. Contact

Questions about this policy: support@tarsierlearn.com