What Tilebird keeps, and where.

Who is responsible

Tilebird: Sentence Builder is made by Josh Waller, trading as Kovus, in Perth, Western Australia. Email josh@kovus.dev with a privacy question or request.

Children and grown-ups

Tilebird is a sentence practice app for children on iPhone and iPad. It has no accounts and no sign-in, and it does not ask for a date of birth or an email address. A learner's nickname is optional, so a grown-up can use a made-up name.

A grown-up looks after learners, settings and the purchase in Parents. Parents is protected by a six-digit PIN, which a grown-up sets after working out a maths question. The PIN is a safeguard for a shared device. It does not check who the adult is.

What is stored on the device

Tilebird stores the following in its own storage on the device. Up to six learners can share one device.

• Each learner's nickname (optional, up to 20 characters) and the avatar they chose.
• Practice progress, such as the answers a learner checks, whether a hint or example was used, which lessons are finished and where to pick up again.
• Settings, such as sound and whether recording is allowed.
• A random code for this installation of the app, which ties the parent PIN to the practice on this device.
• A note of a purchase waiting for approval: a request code, product code, pending status, and the times it started and was last updated. This waiting note is set to expire after 24 hours; it does not cancel Apple's request. The app also keeps the time it last found the purchase active. These notes do not unlock lessons; access is checked with the App Store.

The PIN itself is not stored. The app keeps a salted hash of it (a scrambled code made from the PIN) in the iOS Keychain on this device.

Kovus does not receive any of this and cannot see it.

Voice recording, if a grown-up allows it

Recording is off until a grown-up turns it on in Parents. The first time, iOS asks for permission to use the microphone. With recording on, a child can record their own sentence, up to 30 seconds, and play it back.

Tilebird tries to delete a recording when the step ends or a grown-up turns recording off. It checks for leftover recordings each time the app opens and tries to remove them, including files left by a force-quit. If removal fails, a file can remain until a later attempt succeeds. Recordings never leave the device. They are not marked and are not stored in the learner's practice. Microphone access for Tilebird can be turned off in the device's Settings.

Narration

Where Tilebird reads instructions aloud, it plays audio files that are part of the app. No learner data is sent to any speech service.

What leaves the device

Tilebird has no server of its own. Its network use is limited to the App Store (loading the price, buying, restoring and checking whether a purchase is active) and opening its privacy and support pages on kovus.dev from Parents. It has no advertising, analytics, crash-reporting or tracking software, and it sends nothing about a learner or their practice to Kovus.

The one-time purchase

Lesson 1 is free. The Starter Course Unlock is a one-time in-app purchase, not a subscription, and it unlocks the other 15 lessons of the Starter Course. Apple's App Store handles the purchase through StoreKit, Apple's in-app purchase system. The app talks to StoreKit through expo-iap, an open-source library built into the app. Apple handles the payment and the Apple Account, and Kovus does not receive payment card details. Read Apple's privacy policy for how Apple handles purchases.

Restore purchases, in Parents, asks the App Store whether the Apple Account already owns the purchase. It brings back access to the lessons, not a child's practice.

Device backups

Apple can include Tilebird's data, such as nicknames, practice and settings, in an iCloud backup or a computer backup of the device, depending on the device's settings. Kovus cannot see those backups or delete them.

Restoring a backup can bring practice back as it was when the backup was made, including a learner or practice that you have deleted since.

Deleting practice

In Parents, if you have more than one learner, choose the learner under PRACTICE FOR. Then choose Manage followed by the learner's name. Reset practice clears that learner's practice from the app and keeps the learner. Delete learner removes the learner and their practice from the app. Other learners are not affected.

Tilebird has no single control that erases all of its data. Deleting the app removes its learners, practice and settings from the device. iOS may keep the scrambled PIN in the Keychain after Tilebird is deleted. If Tilebird is installed again, it does not use that old PIN and asks a grown-up to set a new one. None of these steps changes an older backup made by Apple.

If Tilebird ever cannot open its saved practice, a grown-up can choose to keep the earlier data and start fresh. The earlier data then stays on the device in a separate file that the app does not show, until Tilebird is deleted. Reset practice and Delete learner do not change that file.

This website

tilebird.com.au has no cookies, analytics, advertising, tracking or forms. It is hosted by Vercel, which handles standard request information, such as the IP address, browser details and the page asked for, to deliver the site and keep it secure.

The privacy and support links in Parents open the same pages on kovus.dev in a web browser. A visit to kovus.dev is separate from the app and is covered by the Kovus website privacy policy.

Privacy requests

The Kovus privacy policy sets out how to ask for access, correction or deletion of personal information. Kovus receives no learner or practice details from the app. A support email contains what a parent chooses to send, along with their email address and the email's delivery information.

Email josh@kovus.dev to ask what Kovus holds about you, to ask for a correction or deletion, or to make a privacy complaint. You can find information about privacy complaints at the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

Changes and contact

Kovus may update this policy when the app changes. The date at the top shows the latest update. Email josh@kovus.dev with a question or request, or read Tilebird support.