Privacy Policy
Last updated: July 26, 2026 · Effective: July 26, 2026
This policy explains what SoWo collects, why, who we share it with, and how long we keep it. It's written to be read, including by the teenagers who use it.
SoWo is operated by Social World, LLC, a Colorado limited liability company. Our mailing address is available on request. Questions: support@joinsowo.com.
The short version.
We do not sell your personal information. Not now, not ever, to anyone.
We do not display advertising anywhere in SoWo.
We do not use your information for targeted or behavioral advertising, and we do not build advertising profiles.
We do not use your content to train, fine-tune, or improve any AI model of our own, and we route it only to AI providers whose published policies say they don't train on it either.
We do not track you across other apps and websites.
We do not serve anyone under 13.
These are commitments. We won't quietly walk any of them back: if one changes, we'll tell you before it takes effect.
1. Who this covers
- Facilitators — educators and tutors who subscribe
- Learners — people practising a language, all of whom must be 13 or older
- Visitors — anyone browsing joinsowo.com
SoWo is offered in the United States only.
2. What we collect
2.1 Information you give us
| Category | What, specifically |
|---|---|
| Account | Email address, password, a unique handle, display name |
| Profile | Profile photo (optional), preferred language and locale |
| Role | Facilitator or Learner; for Facilitators, teaching approach and languages taught |
| Your content | Lesson plans, prompts, library entries, practice materials, written responses, and files you upload |
| Voice recordings | When you use speaking or pronunciation practice, we record your voice and store the recording, along with any transcript or correction generated from it. Recording only happens when you start a speaking activity. You can delete a recording at any time, and you can use SoWo without speaking activities |
| Conversations | Messages exchanged with our AI practice features; comments in course group conversations |
| Learning data | Progress, practice history, corrections, reflections, feedback, and estimated proficiency levels |
| Billing | A Stripe customer reference and your plan. We never see or store your card number |
| Support | What you send us by email or contact form |
2.2 Collected automatically
| Category | What |
|---|---|
| Usage | Features used, session duration, practice sessions started and completed |
| Device | Device type, operating system, browser, app version, screen size, language |
| Network | IP address, general region derived from it |
| Cookies and local storage | See Section 7 |
2.3 What we don't collect, and what we don't do with your voice
- Precise geolocation
- Advertising identifiers — we don't collect an advertising ID from your device
- Biometric identifiers. We record your voice for speaking practice, as described in 2.1. We do not create a voiceprint, and we do not use your voice to identify or authenticate you. Recordings are used to give you pronunciation and language feedback, and for nothing else
- Information from data brokers, marketing lists, or enrichment services — we don't buy or receive personal data from third parties
- Special-education status, ELL classification, disability, or demographic categories
3. How we use it
- Provide the Service — run practice sessions, generate and deliver AI Output, transcribe and give feedback on speaking practice, save your work, track progress
- Authenticate you and keep your account secure
- Generate feedback and estimates — advisory only, see Section 5
- Provide support
- Process payments through Stripe
- Keep SoWo safe — detect abuse, investigate safety reports, enforce our Terms
- Understand feature usage in aggregate
- Communicate about your account — and, for Facilitators who opt in, product news
- Comply with law
We do not use your information to train AI models. See Section 5.
We do not use Learner information for marketing or advertising, at any age.
4. Who we share it with
We share only what a provider needs to do its job. The categories of service providers we use:
| Category | What they do for us | Do they see your content? |
|---|---|---|
| AI model providers and routing services | Generate practice content, feedback, corrections, and images from your prompts, and transcribe speaking practice | Yes — prompts, voice recordings you make in speaking practice, and the output returned |
| Document processing | Extract text from documents you upload | Yes — the contents of those documents |
| Cloud hosting and infrastructure | Run the application and store your data, including recordings | Yes |
| Database providers | Store your account and content | Yes |
| Payment processing | Handle subscriptions and billing | No — billing information only, never your content |
| Authentication | Sign you in securely, including with a passkey or an Apple account | No — authentication data only |
| Website and customer relationship tools | Run joinsowo.com and handle enquiries | No — website visitors and contact-form submissions only |
We will tell you at least 30 days in advance before we begin using a new category of provider, or make a change that materially affects how your content is handled. If you'd like to know which specific providers we use, email support@joinsowo.com and we'll tell you.
We also share information when:
- You choose to — content you share with a Facilitator or your course group
- The law requires it — and we'll tell you first unless we're prohibited from doing so
- To protect people — where necessary to prevent serious harm
- In a business transfer — if SoWo is acquired or merged, subject to this policy, and we'll notify you
We never share your information for anyone else's marketing.
5. AI and your content
We don't train on your content. We don't train models of our own.
How routing works. We use a third-party routing service to send your content, including voice recordings from speaking practice, to AI model providers. We configure it to route only to providers whose published data policies state that they do not use inputs or outputs to train their models, and we do not enable optional prompt-logging. Our routing service does not retain the content of prompts or responses.
What providers may retain. AI model providers may keep content briefly for security and abuse detection — typically no more than 30 days — before deleting it. These commitments come from providers' own published terms. We do not contract with each provider directly and cannot independently verify their internal practices. We'd rather tell you that than imply a guarantee we haven't signed.
Proficiency estimates. The Service may generate an estimated proficiency level for a Learner. These are automated estimates, not accredited or standardized assessments. They're advisory to the Facilitator, who must review them before relying on them, and they must never be the sole basis for a placement or grading decision.
Human review. Content flagged by our safety systems may be reviewed by a small number of trained SoWo personnel, to determine whether it violates our Terms, or whether a Learner may need help. That access is limited to the people who need it. We don't otherwise read or listen to your content.
6. Learners under 18
Everyone on SoWo is 13 or older. We don't serve children under 13. If we learn a user is under 13, we close the account and delete the data.
If you're 13 to 17, you can email support@joinsowo.com with any question about your information, and you can delete your account at any time.
These protections apply to every user, at every age — we don't make you tell us how old you are to get them:
- No advertising. We don't sell your information, share it for advertising, serve targeted advertising, or build advertising or behavioural profiles.
- No marketing to Learners. We don't send Learners marketing.
- Your Facilitator can see your work. The Facilitator who invited you can view your practice and progress, and can listen to recordings you make in speaking practice.
For parents and guardians. You can ask about your child's information at support@joinsowo.com, and we'll respond within 30 days after verifying the request. Where your child is 13 or older, we may need their involvement — the law generally treats them as the holder of their own privacy rights at that age.
7. Cookies and similar technologies
In the SoWo application, we use only what's needed to run it:
- Essential — signing you in, keeping your session, security. These can't be turned off.
- Functional — remembering preferences like language and theme.
On our website, joinsowo.com, our website platform records basic visit information — pages viewed, visit counts, and referring links — so we can see how people find and use the site. This is first-party: it stays with us and our website provider, and it isn't shared.
We do not use third-party analytics services. We do not use advertising cookies, do not collect advertising identifiers, and do not engage in cross-context behavioral advertising or tracking across other sites and apps.
You can block or clear cookies at any time in your browser settings. Blocking essential cookies will stop you being able to sign in.
We honor Global Privacy Control. If your browser sends a GPC signal, we treat it as an opt-out of any sharing that would qualify under applicable state law.
8. How long we keep it
While your account is open, we keep your information so the Service works — your content, your voice recordings, your practice history, your progress.
When you ask us to delete something, we do. Email support@joinsowo.com and we'll delete your account or specific content within 30 days. You can also delete individual content, including recordings, yourself at any time in the app.
When you close your account, we keep it recoverable for 30 days in case you change your mind. After that, tell us if you'd like your data deleted and we'll remove it within 30 days.
What we keep regardless:
| Category | Retention |
|---|---|
| Billing records | 7 years, as required for tax and accounting |
| Security and audit logs | 90 days |
| Safety and moderation records | 24 months where we acted on a report |
| Aggregate, de-identified analytics | Indefinitely — cannot be linked back to you, and we don't attempt to re-identify it |
Backups. Deleted data may persist in encrypted backups until they cycle out on our normal rotation.
Being straight with you: we don't currently delete inactive data automatically on a schedule — we delete it when you ask. We're building automatic deletion, and we'll update this policy with specific periods when it's in place. If you'd like your data removed at any time, just ask and we'll do it.
9. Your rights and choices
Whoever and wherever you are, you can:
- Access what we hold about you
- Correct anything inaccurate
- Delete your content, your recordings, or your whole account
- Export your content in a machine-readable format
- Opt out of marketing — Learners don't receive any
- Control cookies through your browser settings
Email support@joinsowo.com. We'll acknowledge within 10 business days, verify it's you, and respond within 45 days. No charge.
If you're in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, or another state with a comprehensive privacy law, you also have the right to confirm processing, obtain a portable copy, correct, delete, and opt out of sale, sharing, targeted advertising, and profiling with legal effects. We don't sell or share personal information, serve targeted advertising, or profile in ways producing legal effects, so there's nothing to opt out of. You may appeal a decision by replying to our response; we'll answer within 45 days. We won't discriminate against you for exercising any right.
If you're in Colorado, note the Colorado Privacy Act gives specific protections to consumers under 18, described in Section 6.
If you're in California and under 16, your personal information is treated as sensitive personal information, with the additional protections that carries.
10. Security
- Encryption in transit (TLS)
- Access to production systems limited to the people who need it
- Authentication through a dedicated identity service, supporting passkeys and Sign in with Apple
SoWo is an early-stage product and we are still building out our security program. We'd rather tell you that than list controls we haven't finished. If you have specific security requirements, email support@joinsowo.com and we'll tell you exactly where we stand.
No service is perfectly secure. If a breach affects your personal information, we'll notify you and any required regulator without unreasonable delay.
Report a security issue: support@joinsowo.com.
11. Where your data lives
SoWo is operated from the United States and your information is stored and processed there. AI providers may process content in other regions.
SoWo is offered in the United States only. We do not knowingly offer the Service to residents of the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom.
12. Changes
If we start collecting something new, we update this policy to describe it before we start collecting it.
If we change something that reduces your rights — how we share your information, how long we keep it, or the commitments in "The short version" — we'll email you and give you reasonable notice, never less than 14 days, before it takes effect.
Everything else — clarifications, corrections, and descriptions of new features that don't change what we do with your information — takes effect when posted, and we'll update the date at the top.
Prior versions are available on request at support@joinsowo.com.
13. Contact
Social World, LLC · Colorado, United States · mailing address available on request.
Privacy, security, and general questions: support@joinsowo.com
See also our Terms of Service, our Copyright Policy, and How SoWo Uses AI.