Privacy Policy

TalkIELTS ("we", "us") operates the AI IELTS Speaking practice service at https://talkielts.com. For payment-related matters, Paddle.com Market Ltd acts as Merchant of Record (see Section 4).

Contact: [email protected]

Account data: email address, display name, and password (hashed) when you register.

Practice data: audio recordings of your spoken answers, your transcribed answers, AI-generated transcripts, band scores, and feedback created when you use the Service.

Billing data: subscription status and plan. Payment details (card number etc.) are collected and stored by Paddle — we never see or store your card details.

Technical data: server logs (IP address, timestamps, request paths) used for security and operation.

• Provide the Service: authentication, sessions, scoring, and reports;
• Transcribe your speech (ASR) and evaluate answers (LLM) via third-party AI providers;
• Manage your subscription and entitlements;
• Communicate service updates, security notices, and (if opted-in) product news;
• Detect abuse and keep the Service secure.

We do not sell your personal data.

Payments are processed by Paddle.com Market Ltd as Merchant of Record. Paddle collects and processes your payment information under its own privacy policy, available at paddle.com/legal/privacy-policy. When you check out, personal data necessary for payment processing (e.g. email) is shared with Paddle.

To generate transcripts, scores, and feedback, your spoken answers are sent to third-party AI services (speech-to-text and large language model providers, currently hosted on Alibaba Cloud and similar platforms). These providers process data on our instructions to deliver the Service. Audio and transcripts may be retained by the provider for a short period in line with their policies.

Account and practice data are retained while your account is active. If you delete your account, we delete or anonymize your personal data within 30 days, except where retention is required for accounting or legal obligations.

Depending on your jurisdiction (e.g. GDPR, UK GDPR, CCPA), you may have rights to access, correct, export, or delete your personal data, and to object to or restrict certain processing. To exercise any right, email us at [email protected]. We respond within 30 days.

You may also lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority. Note that for payment data processed by Paddle, requests should be directed to Paddle.

We use only strictly necessary storage: your session token (localStorage) to keep you signed in. We do not use advertising or third-party tracking cookies. Analytics, if added later, will be privacy-respecting and disclosed here first.

The Service is not directed at children under 13 (or the minimum digital-consent age in your country). We do not knowingly collect data from children. If you believe a child has provided data, contact us and we will delete it.

Data is transmitted over HTTPS/TLS. Passwords are stored only as secure hashes. We apply access controls and monitoring appropriate to a small production service, but no internet service can guarantee absolute security.

Your data is processed on servers in mainland China / Hong Kong (application, database) and by AI providers' infrastructure. Where required, transfers rely on appropriate safeguards.

We may update this Privacy Policy. Material changes will be notified by email or in-app at least 7 days before the effective date. The "Last updated" date above always reflects the current version.

Privacy questions: [email protected]