Privacy policy
der die gif is a vocabulary trainer for German noun articles. It is built to work without an account and to collect as little as possible. There is no advertising, no analytics SDK, and no tracking across other apps or websites.
No account, no sign-in
You never create an account, and we never ask for your name, email address or phone number. When the app first runs it generates a random identifier and stores it in the device Keychain. It is not derived from your device, your Apple ID or anything about you — it is a random number, and its only job is to let the server recognise the same installation on a later request. The app shows it to you in Settings so you can quote it if you contact us.
What stays on your device
Your learning progress lives on the device: which nouns you have answered, your score per noun, the review schedule, your custom decks, your daily goal and streak, and your settings. The word list and the pronunciation audio are bundled inside the app, so practising works offline. Reminders are scheduled locally — there is no push notification server.
What the server stores
When the app syncs, the following is stored against the random identifier described above:
- the identifier, when it was first and last seen, and the app version;
- your energy balance and the timestamps used to compute it, plus a record of reported usage batches — this is what keeps the free allowance honest;
- your review state per noun: which noun, its difficulty and stability, when it is next due, how many times you have answered it, and your score;
- your custom decks — name, emoji and the list of words in them;
- purchase records from Apple: the transaction identifier, which product was bought, its status and expiry date. We never receive or store your payment details. The payment is handled entirely by Apple; we only get Apple's signed confirmation that it happened;
- anything you explicitly share: a shared result page holds your score, a shared deck holds a copy of that deck. Both exist only if you tap share.
A shared result page deliberately does not publish the words you got wrong.
What we do not collect
No name, no email, no contacts, no photos, no location, no advertising identifier, no device fingerprinting, and no tracking across apps or websites. The app never shows the App Tracking Transparency prompt, because there is nothing to track.
Who else is involved
- Apple — processes every purchase and subscription, and notifies our server when one renews, expires or is refunded, so your access stays correct.
- Vercel — hosts the service and stores the clips and audio files.
- Neon — hosts the database described above.
These providers process data on our behalf. We do not sell your data, and we do not share it for advertising.
Why we are allowed to store it
Storing your progress, energy balance and purchase status is necessary to provide the app you asked for (Article 6(1)(b) GDPR — performance of a contract). Keeping purchase records also satisfies our legal and accounting obligations (Article 6(1)(c)).
How long we keep it
Progress and deck data are kept while the installation is in use, and deleted when you ask. Purchase records are kept longer: they are the evidence behind a refund or chargeback dispute and are subject to accounting rules. Shared pages stay up until you ask us to remove them.
Your rights
Under the GDPR you can ask for a copy of your data, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it. Because there is no account, the identifier in the app's Settings is the only way we can find your data — please include it when you write. Deleting removes your progress, decks and shared pages; purchase records are unlinked from the identifier rather than destroyed, for the reason above.
You can also wipe everything held on the device at any time without contacting us, using “Reset progress” in Settings, or by deleting the app.
You have the right to complain to a data protection authority if you believe we have handled your data badly.
Children
The app is aimed at adult learners, in particular adults taking German integration courses. It is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect data from them.
This website
This site sets no cookies, runs no analytics, and loads nothing from third-party hosts. Share pages render only what the sharer chose to publish. Hosting-level access logs (IP address, request time) are processed by our hosting provider, Vercel, to operate the service, and we do not use them.
Contact
The person responsible for this data (the controller) is Andrey Gubanov; the postal address is on the Impressum. Questions about this policy, or a request about your data: write to support@derdiegif.com, or see the support page.