Spelling Stars
Privacy Policy
Effective date: 2 November 2026
Spelling Stars is operated by Marcy's Lab Pte. Ltd. ("we", "us" or "our"). This policy explains how we handle information about parents or guardians, children and visitors to spelling-stars.sg. Marcy's Lab Pte. Ltd. is registered in Singapore (UEN 202635955R), at 60 PAYA LEBAR ROAD, #06-53, PAYA LEBAR SQUARE, SINGAPORE 409051.
For privacy questions, access or correction requests, withdrawal of consent, or help deleting data, contact product.spelling-stars@marcys-lab.sg. Please do not include passwords, child PINs or unnecessary child information in your message.
1. Parents or guardians and children
Spelling Stars helps primary-school children practise spelling and dictation. An adult manages the family account and creates each child's profile. Children do not independently register or provide an email address or password: they use a nickname, avatar and PIN within their family's access arrangements.
Please use a nickname rather than a child's full name. When you use the app's Optical Character Recognition (OCR) feature to read a spelling or dictation list from a photo, photograph only the word list and keep names, contact details and photographs of people out of the frame. Parents or guardians can review their family's learning records and request correction or deletion.
Spelling Stars is designed for children of primary-school age, roughly six to twelve; a parent or guardian decides how long a child benefits from it. The adult who creates a family account must be the child's parent or legal guardian, or act with that person's authority, and must be old enough to agree to our terms. By creating a child's profile, the parent or guardian consents to the processing described in this policy on the child's behalf. We rely on that consent as given; we do not verify a parent or guardian's identity or their relationship to the child. A parent or guardian may withdraw consent at any time by contacting us, which ends the child's use of the service and starts deletion of the child's data.
2. Information we handle
| Category | Examples and purpose |
|---|---|
| Adult account | Email address, nickname, account identifier, protected sign-in credentials, account type and access timestamps, used to operate and secure the account. If you sign in with Google, we also receive your Google account identifier, your email address and whether Google has verified it, and your given name, used only to create and sign in to your parent or guardian account and to connect Google to it. We never receive your Google password, and we do not keep the profile picture Google offers. |
| Sign-up requests | The email address and a hashed one-time code, and a keyed hash of the address to limit sign-up emails, kept up to 2 days. |
| Child profile | Nickname, avatar, protected PIN, parent or guardian relationship, learning level and preferences, used to provide family-managed practice. |
| Learning material | Spelling words, dictation passages, list titles, assignments, dates and any school/class details you enter, used to prepare exercises. |
| Uploaded worksheets | Images you submit for text extraction, including any information visible in the image. |
| Learning activity | Answers, attempts, scores, missed words, starred words, practice history and settings, used to deliver practice and show progress to the parent or guardian. |
| Usage counts | For each family and month: new words added, audio made, worksheet photos scanned and how often a plan limit was reached, used to apply the plan's limits and, as totals that never name a family, to check our running costs. |
| Sign-in days | The days on which each parent or guardian and each child signed in (no time of day, device or network address), and hourly totals of sign-ins that name no one. Used, only as totals that never name a family, to see how many families use the service, whether they return, and when demand peaks. Kept for 13 months. |
| Plan and payments | Your plan, its period and payment method (card or PayNow); any promotion or service code you used, and a note from us about why; the dates of trials, payments, renewals, declined payments and cancellations; the amounts charged; and Stripe's references to your customer record, payment pages and saved card. We never receive or store your full card number or security code. Used to provide Plus, take payments, send payment emails, prevent repeat free trials and handle refunds and disputes. |
| Generated content | Speech audio, extracted text and learning material generated from submitted content. |
| Access and diagnostics | Session identifiers, family-device records, request and error information, and network information such as IP addresses processed for delivery and abuse prevention. |
| Communications | Information you sent to ask for beta access, support or feedback, whether you turned on the daily summary email, and service-email delivery records. |
| Account deletion | Request and cancellation information needed to carry out the deletion process described in our retention notice. |
Signing in with Google. Sign-in with Google is optional. When you choose it, your browser is sent to Google to sign in there and Google tells us who you are; we keep the Google account identifier, the email address it verified and your given name, and a record of when Google was connected, disconnected or used to sign in, which you can see on your Account page. You can disconnect Google at any time and sign in with an emailed code instead. If you connect Google, a keyed hash of the Google account identifier is kept after deletion as described in section 3. Google's own handling of your sign-in is described in Google's privacy policy.
Daily summary email. On the Plus plan, a parent or guardian can turn on an optional daily summary email from the Account page; it is off until you turn it on. On days when your children practise, it is sent to your account email address in the evening and lists each child by nickname, the lists they practised, their scores, the words to go over, and how many family devices are set up. It is sent only to you. You can turn it off on the Account page or with the link at the end of each email, without signing in.
Feedback form. Anyone can send us feedback from our feedback page, without an account. We store the kind of feedback you choose, your message, the email address you give if you would like a reply, and details the page adds by itself: the page you came from, your screen size, your browser and the app version. We do not store your network (IP) address; we keep only a keyed hash of it, or of the network block it belongs to, so that one connection cannot send us unlimited messages. We use the email address only to reply to you. Feedback may be processed by automated tools to sort it and draft replies, and we review every reply before it is sent. We keep feedback for 12 months and then delete it, and we delete it sooner if you ask. Please do not include a child's name in your message.
An uploaded worksheet is processed in memory by the app's current image-extraction route rather than saved as an image in its database or audio store. The extracted words you choose to save become learning material. Sending the image to the OCR service provider is a separate processing step, with the provider retention described below.
The reviewed spelling flow plays generated speech and accepts typed or tapped answers. It does not require a recording of your child's voice.
Practice timing is recorded for each session: when it started, how long it took, the time taken over each answer and how often each word was replayed, each Learn it run and how long it lasted, and how often and for how long the app was left or was not in front. It is shown only to the child's parent or guardian, is a record of the session rather than a judgement about the child, and is kept for seven days. Starred words and practice results are kept until the dictation is deleted, or the child or the family is deleted.
3. Why we use information
We use information to create and manage family accounts; prepare and deliver exercises; show parents or guardians their children's progress; keep sessions and family devices secure; prevent abuse; take payments for Plus and handle failed payments, refunds and disputes; recognise a returning family and prevent repeat free trials, using a keyed hash of the parent or guardian's email address and, if a Google account was connected, a keyed hash of its Google identifier, both kept after deletion (see the data retention notice); diagnose faults; respond to support requests; send relevant service messages; and carry out data-rights and deletion requests.
We collect, use and disclose personal data for the purposes explained here, with consent where required or where otherwise permitted by applicable law. Withdrawing consent may prevent us from continuing features that need the affected data; we will explain the consequences when you contact us.
We do not sell personal data and do not share it for advertising. The service shows no advertising. Usage measurements are limited to operating and improving the service, such as demand and peak-load figures used to size servers; they are not used to profile families or children. Family content, including worksheets, word lists, results and generated audio, is not used to train artificial-intelligence models: our providers process it only to deliver the feature requested, under the provider terms described in section 4. With your consent, Marcy's Lab may email you about its other products. Every such email carries a way to opt out, and you can withdraw that consent at any time by contacting us. The beta application form collected a parent or guardian's name, email address, a short note about the children and how you heard of us, and offered no marketing choice. The form no longer collects anything; applications already held remain until they are removed under our retention schedule.
4. Service providers and AI processing
We use the following providers to operate Spelling Stars:
| Provider | Role and information involved |
|---|---|
| Fly.io | Runs the application and background services, processing application requests and operational information. |
| Supabase | Hosts the application database and private audio storage, including account, family, learning and generated-audio data. |
| Anthropic | Feedback sorting. An AI assistant may read messages sent through the feedback form to sort them and draft replies, which we review before sending. The message, its kind, the reply address if given and the page details described in section 2 are sent to it. |
| OpenAI | Extracts text from worksheet images, generates learning clues and word breakdowns from submitted words, transcribes the generated audio to check its quality, and, like Anthropic, may sort feedback-form messages and draft replies. Uploaded images, the relevant text and the generated audio are sent to its APIs. For feedback sorting, the same feedback details as for Anthropic are sent, and we review every draft reply before it is sent. The quality check uses generated audio, never a recording of a child. |
| Microsoft (Azure AI Speech) | Converts the words and passages in your lists into generated speech. Only that text is sent; it returns the audio, which we store. No account details, child profiles or results are sent. Microsoft states that it does not store the text or the audio of these requests. |
| TypeSafe | Checks that generated speech says the intended words, by comparing the list's words or passage with OpenAI's transcript of that speech. Only that text is sent, no audio. |
| Resend | Delivers service emails, processing recipient addresses, message contents and delivery information. |
| Stripe | Processes Plus payments by card, Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayNow, as Stripe Payments Singapore Pte. Ltd. We send Stripe your email address and our internal account identifier, never anything about your children. Stripe collects your card or PayNow details directly on its own payment page, along with information about the device and browser used there to prevent fraud, and sends payment receipts to your email address. It keeps its own transaction records as the law requires of it. See Stripe's privacy policy. |
| Optional sign-in. Processes your Google account sign-in and sends us your account identifier, email address, its verification status and your given name. Google's processing of your sign-in is under Google's privacy policy. |
OpenAI states that API data is not used to train its models by default unless the customer opts in. Its standard API abuse-monitoring logs may retain customer content for up to 30 days, with exceptions such as legal requirements; retention varies by endpoint and approved account controls. We do not promise zero provider retention. See OpenAI's API data controls.
Feedback sorting may use Anthropic's or OpenAI's API, a business plan, or a personal plan. Under the plans and settings we use, neither provider may use feedback to train its models. Each keeps it for a limited time under its own terms; we do not promise zero provider retention. See Anthropic's privacy policy.
Microsoft states that it does not retain or store the text sent to its real-time text-to-speech service, or the audio that service generates. See Microsoft's data, privacy and security information for text to speech.
TypeSafe states that it does not train or fine-tune its models on the text it receives. See TypeSafe's privacy policy.
Our providers can change. Speech generation and the other services we rely on are a fast-moving market. Providers change their terms, retire or replace services, or leave the market, sometimes with little warning, so we expect the providers named in this section, and the countries where your text is processed, to change from time to time as market conditions and the availability of services change. When that happens we will update this section and the effective date at the top of this policy. Whichever provider we use, we will strive to hold it to the commitments in this policy, and send it only what its task needs. Where the law requires your consent for a new use, we will ask for it rather than rely on this policy.
Information may also be disclosed when required by law or a valid legal process. Access for support and operations should be limited to people who need it for their work.
5. Family access and optional shared lists
Family accounts are designed to keep children's profiles and results within their family's access, with operational access where needed to run and support the service. The service has no child social feed or friend network in its design.
Where a public list catalogue is available, publishing a list makes its content and displayed metadata available to other families, who may adopt it (a copy they can edit) for their own children. Do not publish personal details or material you lack permission to share. Publishing a list does not authorise publication of your children's learning results.
Publishing is always the parent or guardian's choice. Every list a parent or guardian publishes is reviewed by us before it appears in the catalogue, and we may decline or remove a list at any time. If your family account is deleted, copies that other families have already adopted stay with those families, with your name and any school or class labels removed.
6. Cookies and browser storage
The app uses cookies for signed-in sessions and family-device access. Browser storage also remembers preferences such as playback speed and appearance. Blocking or clearing these can sign you out, end remembered device access or reset preferences.
Browser-stored preferences can remain on a device until cleared. Deleting an account does not reliably erase every browser cache, download or email already held on a user's device. You can clear the site's data using your browser settings.
The landing page and the app set no third-party cookies and load no third-party scripts. Service emails carry no open or click tracking.
Stripe's payment pages are on Stripe's own site and use Stripe's cookies under Stripe's policy.
We count visits to our public pages on our own servers, without setting cookies or third-party tools, to learn how people find us. We keep only daily totals. Browsers sending Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track are counted as a bare page view only.
7. Where information is processed and how it is protected
Marcy's Lab operates from Singapore. Your data is stored in Singapore, on Fly.io and Supabase. Resend sends email from its Tokyo region. Microsoft converts list text into speech in its Southeast Asia region, in Singapore; if that region is busy or unavailable, a request may instead be processed in its East Asia region, in Hong Kong. OpenAI, Anthropic and TypeSafe process requests in the United States. Stripe processes payments in Singapore and in other countries where it and its service providers operate, including the United States. Provider support may take place elsewhere. Google processes an optional Google sign-in under its own policies and locations. The service has no regional access lock.
The app uses measures including protected PIN storage, family access controls and private audio storage. Security also depends on how the service is deployed and operated. No system is completely secure; contact us if you suspect unauthorised access.
8. Retention, deletion and your choices
Read Data Retention and Deletion for the seven-day account-deletion process, data categories, and unresolved backup/provider retention details. Deletion of an entire family account affects the parent or guardian and all linked children.
You may contact us to request access to or correction of personal data, withdraw consent, raise a concern, or request deletion. We may need proportionate information to verify your identity and authority over a child's account. We will explain any applicable limitations and respond within the period required by law. Depending on applicable law, additional rights may include portability, objection or restriction of processing, and complaint to a regulator. Singapore users may contact the Personal Data Protection Commission.
9. Changes
We will update the effective date when this policy changes and provide appropriate notice of material changes. Changes to the providers named in section 4 are expected as market conditions and the availability of services change; we give notice of them by updating section 4 and the effective date. Where a new use requires consent, a policy update alone will not replace that consent.