Privacy Policy

Effective 7 August 2026 · HootiniLabs is a Hackney Lane Group Ltd product

1. Who we are

HootiniLabs ("the app", "we") is a learning app that teaches artificial intelligence through short lessons, an AI tutor, and mini-games. It's available as a web app at app.hootinilabs.com and as a mobile app. It is operated by Hackney Lane Group Ltd (United Kingdom).

2. What we collect — and where it lives

• Your learning progress (name or nickname you enter, lessons completed, XP, streaks, feathers, game scores, settings) is stored locally on your device in your browser or app storage. It is not sent to our servers today. If you clear the app's data or uninstall, it is deleted.
• Date of birth / age. We ask your age once, to make content age-appropriate and to require a parent or guardian's consent for children under 13. Your date of birth stays on your device — it is not transmitted to us.
• AI tutor messages. When you ask Hootini (the AI tutor) a question, the text of your question is sent securely to our tutor service (hosted on Supabase) and processed by an AI model provider (Groq) to generate a reply. Messages are used only to answer you and are not stored as a conversation history on our servers — don't include passwords or sensitive personal details in tutor chats. The tutor is switched off entirely for users under 13 (see section 4).
• Reported answers. If you tap Report beneath one of Hootini's replies, that reply and the question that produced it are sent to us so we can review the answer and improve the tutor's safety. Nothing else about you is attached.
• Anonymous usage analytics. We record basic product events (for example "lesson completed" or "game played") tied to a random device identifier — not your name or email. No advertising identifiers, no cookies, no cross-site tracking, and no sale of data, ever. No analytics at all are collected from users under 13.
• Purchases. Payments are processed by Stripe (web) or Google Play / Apple (mobile apps). We never see or store your card details — those stay with the payment provider.

3. Accounts

HootiniLabs has no user accounts. There is no sign-up, no login and no password. You can use every feature without giving us an email address or any other way of identifying you, and we hold no profile about you. Your progress is kept on your device only.

We may add optional accounts in future so progress can sync between devices. That feature is not built into the app today. If we add it, we will update this policy and our Google Play disclosures before it is released, and accounts would always be optional.

4. Children

HootiniLabs is intended for ages 13 and over. The app asks for a date of birth on first use, and children are not shut out — they are given a deliberately restricted experience instead:

• If a date of birth under 13 is entered, the AI chat tutor is switched off completely. No text a child writes is ever sent to our servers or to any AI provider.
• No usage analytics are collected from under-13 users at all — not even the random device identifier described above.
• They keep the Junior Wizards lessons, which are written for younger learners and contain age-appropriate content only.
• Continuing also requires confirmation that a parent or guardian is present and consents.
• The date of birth stays on the device — it is never transmitted to us. We show no advertising of any kind, to anyone.
• Parents and guardians can remove everything using "Reset progress" in the app, by clearing the app's storage, or by uninstalling — and can contact us with any question at any time.

5. Notifications

If you enable reminders, the app schedules local notifications on your device (streak reminders and an occasional "come back" nudge). These are generated on your device, can be turned off in the app or your system settings, and involve no server tracking.

6. Third-party services we rely on

• Vercel — hosts the web app and this website.
• Supabase — runs the AI tutor service and stores the anonymous usage analytics described above (hosted in the EU).
• Groq — processes tutor questions to generate answers.
• Stripe / Google Play / Apple — payment processing.
• Google Fonts — typefaces for the website and app.

Each processes only what's needed to provide its function, under its own privacy policy.

7. Your rights and choices

• Access / deletion: your progress lives on your own device — you can see it in the app and delete all of it instantly using "Reset progress" (Profile → Reset progress), by clearing the app's storage, or by uninstalling. Because we hold no account, that removes everything about you that we could identify.
• Analytics: events are anonymous and tied only to a random device identifier. Email us and we will delete that identifier's events.
• If you're in the UK/EU, you have rights under UK GDPR / GDPR (access, rectification, erasure, portability, objection). Email us and we'll help.

8. Security & retention

All network traffic uses HTTPS. We keep data only as long as needed for the purposes above. We do not sell or rent personal data to anyone.

9. Changes to this policy

If we make material changes (for example if optional account sync is ever added), we'll update this page and the effective date above.

10. Contact

Questions, requests, or concerns: r4mobile1980@gmail.com · Hackney Lane Group Ltd · hackneylanegroup.com