Privacy policy

Grove (on the App Store as “Grove: Learn English”), version 3.0, for iPhone, iPad and Mac, and its share extension; and Grove 0.2 for Android phones and tablets and for Windows PCs, downloaded from this website.
Effective date: 25 October 2026.

This page says what Grove keeps, where it keeps it, when anything leaves your device, and how to delete it. It is written for learners, parents and teachers, and it describes what the app actually does.

In short

Grove does not collect personal data. Nothing you read, write, say or score is sent to the developer.
There is no account, no advertising, no analytics, no tracking and no third-party code (SDKs) in Grove.
Your work is kept on your own device, and you can delete it in Settings.
On iPhone, iPad and Mac, Grove goes online only when you share a web link to it, when you switch on iCloud sync, or, on a device that cannot recognise speech by itself, after someone has said yes to Apple’s speech service. Nothing is sent to that service before the yes.
On Android and Windows, Grove goes online only when you press Check for updates (it then reads one small file on this website), when you share a web link to it on Android (it then opens that one page to pick the article out), or, on an Android device that cannot recognise speech by itself, after someone has said yes to the device’s online speech service. It has no sync. See Grove for Android and Windows.
Grove is the same for every learner and does not ask who is learning. The dictionary hides rude and offensive words until someone turns that off.

1. Who makes Grove

Grove is made by Gaurav Taxak (“the developer”, “we”). You can write to gauravtaxak@gmail.com about anything on this page.

2. What Grove does not collect

Grove has no server of its own, and nothing in the app sends information to the developer. In particular, Grove does not:

ask for a name, an email address, an age or a birth date, or have any account or sign-in;
send what you read, write, say, record or score to the developer or to anyone else;
show advertising, or contain analytics, tracking or crash-reporting code of its own;
use your location, contacts, photos, camera or advertising identifier;
include code from other companies that collects or sends anything: Grove for iPhone, iPad and Mac is built only on Apple’s own frameworks; Grove for Android and Windows is built with Flutter (Google’s open-source toolkit) and a few open-source packages, each read through to make sure it collects nothing and sends nothing.

The app’s privacy manifests, which Apple reads, declare no tracking and no collected data, for the app and for its share extension.

About Apple. Apple runs the App Store, iCloud and the speech service mentioned below. If you have agreed in your device’s settings to share analytics with app developers, Apple may pass crash reports and general app statistics to the developer. That is Apple’s service, described in Apple’s privacy policy; Grove adds nothing to it.

3. What stays on your device

To work, Grove keeps the following in its own folders on the device. None of it is sent to the developer.

What Grove keeps, and whether it can travel through iCloud
What	Details	Through iCloud?
Course progress	Unit and stage checks, review cards, the placement result, timed-test results, and the answers given in each timed-test sitting (the last 60 sittings).	Progress, cards and results, only if sync is on. The answers of each timed-test sitting stay on the device.
Writing and speaking	Drafts, plans, earlier versions (the last six checked), the answers a learner keeps, and recordings of kept spoken answers.	Never.
Reading speeds	Words a minute on timed readings.	Never.
Your reading	The list of books you have opened (title, author and where the file is; the last 40), where you stopped in each, and web pages shared to Grove.	Only where you stopped in each book, if sync is on. Books and pages themselves never.
Words and notes	Words kept in Words I Met, with the sentence and book each came from; highlights and notes, with the passage they mark.	Yes, if sync is on.
Look-up history	The words you look up, with the sentence and book you met each in (the last 40 times for each word), so the word card can show where you met it before. Delete this learner’s work deletes it.	Never.
Settings	The way through the first steps, the accent and voice, text and light, timers, whether the dictionary hides rude and offensive words, whether sync is on, and the answer to the speech-service question.	Never.

Backups. Your device’s own backups (iCloud Backup, or a backup to a computer) include Grove’s folders, except recordings: Grove keeps recordings out of device backups.

How long. Everything stays until you delete it (see How to delete your data) or delete the app. The lists noted above keep only their most recent entries.

4. The microphone and speech recognition

When Grove asks

Grove asks your device for the microphone and for speech recognition the first time a learner chooses to speak: to read a passage aloud, to say a word, or to answer a speaking task. Where Grove will only record, it asks for the microphone alone. You can say no, or turn either off later in your device’s privacy settings; every speaking task can then be done aloud without recording.

What is recorded and kept

Reading aloud and saying a word: Grove listens to show which words came through clearly. Nothing is saved to a file or kept.
Speaking tasks: the answer is recorded to a temporary file so the learner can play it back. It is kept only if the learner keeps the answer. A take that is tried again or not kept is deleted at once, and any left over are deleted the next time Grove opens. Kept recordings stay on the device, outside device backups, until you delete them.
Speech recognition only shows what it heard. Nothing a learner says is scored by it.

On the device first

Wherever the device can turn English speech into words by itself, Grove requires it to do so on the device. The voice does not leave the device.

Apple’s speech service: only after a yes

Some devices cannot recognise speech by themselves. On those, recognition would mean sending the sound to Apple’s speech service. Grove asks once, before a reading or speaking task, whether it may do this. The question says that where a child is learning, a grown-up should answer.

Nothing is sent until someone says yes, either to that question or with the switch Send speech to Apple’s speech service when this device cannot listen by itself in Settings ▸ Speech and recordings.
Until then, or after a no, Grove only records (for a speaking task) or the learner reads aloud without it.
The answer can be changed at any time with the same switch in Settings. Where a child uses Grove, a parent or teacher should give the answer, or check it there.

What Apple does with speech it receives is covered by Apple’s own privacy policy, not by this one. The developer receives none of it.

5. iCloud sync (optional)

Off until you turn it on: Settings ▸ Across your devices ▸ Keep my devices in step. It works only when the device is signed in to iCloud.
Your own iCloud account: Grove uses Apple’s iCloud key-value storage to carry a small amount of data between your devices signed in to the same Apple account. Grove has no server, and nothing in Grove sends this data to the developer.
What travels: where you stopped in each book (stored under the book’s title), the words you kept in Words I Met (with their sentences), your highlights and notes (with the passages they mark), and your progress in the course (review cards, checks, the placement result and timed-test results).
What never travels: drafts and written answers, recordings, the answers of each timed-test sitting, reading speeds, look-up history, books and saved web pages, and settings.
Turning it off stops Grove sending or taking in anything more. It does not empty what is already in iCloud. To take everything Grove has put in iCloud out of it, use Settings ▸ Across your devices ▸ Remove Grove’s copy from iCloud…; it also turns sync off on that device. Turn sync off on your other devices first, or they will put their own copy back. Delete this learner’s work clears the course progress kept in iCloud, whether sync is on or not. Highlights, notes and kept words that you remove while sync is on are removed from the iCloud copy too.
iCloud is Apple’s service; Apple’s privacy policy covers it.

6. Web pages shared to Grove

From Safari: choosing Share ▸ Grove picks the article (its headline, site name, author line, text and web address) out of the page that is already open in Safari. The share extension leaves it in a folder on your device that only Grove and its extension share. The extension sends nothing over the internet. If too little of the article can be found on the page, the extension passes on just the link, and Grove fetches the page as described next.
From an app that passes only a link (or in the case just described): Grove opens that one page once, out of sight, to pick the article out. This is the only time Grove itself fetches a web page, and only secure (https) addresses are fetched. As with any browser visit, the website receives the request (for example, your device’s internet address) and may run its own scripts while the page loads. Grove keeps no cookies or other website data from that visit.
The article is saved as a page in Grove’s own folder on the device, with the site it came from named on it. Remove from this list takes it off the Recently opened list in Read and deletes Grove’s saved copy of the page.
The website’s own privacy policy covers what the website does.

7. Books and files you open

Grove opens EPUB, PDF, Word (.docx), RTF, Markdown, HTML and plain-text files that you choose, and reads or converts them on the device. Nothing in them is sent anywhere.
A book you open from your own files is read where it is. Grove remembers its title, author and where it is, so it can open it again from the Recently opened list in Read.
EPUB, Word, text and web-page books are shown with every internet connection blocked, so a picture, font or script inside a book cannot reach the web.
A web or email link that you tap in a book or PDF opens in your browser or mail app, outside Grove. Grove itself does not fetch it, and the website’s or mail app’s own privacy policy covers what happens there.
In Settings, Privacy policy on the web opens this page in your browser.

8. Grove for Android and Windows

Grove for Android and Windows is made from the same course, dictionary and books, and keeps the same promise: no account, no advertising, no analytics, no tracking, and nothing sent to the developer. Everything above applies to it, except where this section says otherwise.

What is different

No iCloud, and no sync of any kind. Section 5 does not apply. Each device keeps its own copy, and nothing travels between devices.
Web pages shared to Grove. Text you select in a browser and share to Grove is read exactly as it was handed over and saved as an article in Grove’s own folder; nothing is fetched. A browser on Android passes only the link when you share a page, so Grove does what section 6 describes for an app that passes only a link: it opens that one page once, out of sight, to pick the article out, and only secure (https) pages. As with any visit, the website receives the request (for example, your device’s internet address) and may run its own scripts while the page loads; Grove fetches no pictures for it and keeps no cookies or other website data from that visit. The article is saved in Grove’s own folder, with the site it came from named on it, and Remove from this list in Read deletes it.
Books and files (EPUB, PDF, Word, RTF, Markdown, HTML, plain text) are read and converted on the device, with no internet connection. On Android, a book you open or share is copied into Grove’s own folder first, because Android lets an app read a chosen file only for a short while; that copy is left out of device backups.
Sharing your work: where the Apple version has a Share button, this version copies the text, for you to paste where you choose.

Check for updates

Grove for Android and Windows is not in an app store, so nothing updates it by itself. Settings ▸ This version ▸ Check for updates reads one small file on this website (version.json), only when you press it, and says whether a newer version is ready, with a link to this website. As with any visit, the website’s host (GitHub Pages) receives the request, including your device’s internet address; nothing about you or your work is sent. Grove does not check by itself.

Speech recognition

Android: where the device can turn English speech into words by itself (Android 12 and later, with an on-device recogniser), Grove makes it do so on the device, and the voice does not leave the device.
On an Android device that cannot, recognition would mean sending the sound to the device’s online speech service (Google’s, or the device maker’s). Grove asks once whether it may, and the question says that where a child is learning, a grown-up should answer. Nothing is sent until someone says yes, there or with the switch in Settings ▸ Speech and recordings; until then, Grove only records. What that service does with speech is covered by its own privacy policy, not by this one; the developer receives none of it.
Windows: Grove does not turn speech into words. It records spoken answers so that the learner can play them back, and that is all.
Recordings are kept as section 4 says: only when the learner keeps the answer, on the device, outside device backups.

Permissions on Android

Internet, used only for Check for updates and to open the page of a link shared to Grove. (The online speech service, where someone has allowed it, is the device’s own and reaches the internet by itself.)
Microphone, asked for the first time a learner records a spoken answer or reads aloud to the device. You can say no, or turn it off later in the device’s settings; every speaking task can then be done aloud without recording.

On Windows, whether apps may use the microphone is set in Settings ▸ Privacy & security ▸ Microphone.

Where it is kept

Android: in Grove’s own folder on the device, which other apps cannot read. Android’s own backup (to the device owner’s Google account, when it is turned on) may include Grove’s progress, work, settings and articles, as it does for any app; recordings, the copies of books and the dictionary Grove unpacks are left out of it.
Windows: in the Windows user’s own app-data folder (AppData\Roaming\Gaurav Taxak\Grove). A spoken answer that is recorded but not kept waits in the user’s temporary folder until it is deleted.

How to delete it

The steps in How to delete your data are the same in this version. To remove everything: on Android, uninstall Grove (this deletes its folder); on Windows, uninstall it in Settings ▸ Apps, which removes what it kept for the Windows user who uninstalls it. An older Android backup may still hold Grove’s data (never recordings) until that backup is replaced.

Some screens have a Share button: a task’s answer, Share my work and results, and the notes for a book. Each one hands text to your device’s share menu, and you choose where it goes, for example to a teacher. Grove never sends your work by itself, and it has no way to send a recording file anywhere.

10. How to delete your data

Open Settings with the gear button (on a Mac, Grove ▸ Settings…).

Settings ▸ Privacy ▸ Delete this learner’s work… deletes from this device: progress in the course and its checks, review cards, timed-test results and sittings, drafts and plans, kept answers, recordings, reading speeds and the look-up history. It also resets the learner’s own settings (the way through the first steps, and Take it slower) and clears the copy of the course progress in iCloud. The device’s settings stay, among them the voice, the text size and whether the dictionary hides rude and offensive words. It asks first, and it cannot be undone. On a learner’s other devices, do the same there.
Settings ▸ Speech and recordings ▸ Delete all recordings… deletes only the recordings. The answers stay, without their sound.
Books, words and notes are not removed by the steps above. Take a book off the Recently opened list in Read with Remove from this list, a word with Remove from Words I Met, and highlights and notes in Notes & Highlights.
Everything: delete the app. On iPhone, iPad and Android this deletes everything Grove keeps on the device; on Windows, uninstalling Grove removes what it kept for that Windows user. On a Mac, moving the app to the Bin may leave its data in your user Library, so use the steps above first.
Backups and iCloud: an older device backup may still hold Grove’s data (never recordings) until that backup is replaced. For what stays in iCloud, see iCloud sync.

Because none of this data reaches the developer, we have no copy to delete on our side.

11. Children

Grove is made for school pupils as well as adults. It is the same for every learner: it does not ask who is learning, or anyone’s age, and every stage, its practice questions and its timed tests are open to all. Choose with a child what to use, and sit with a young child.

No personal data is collected from children. Grove collects no personal data from anyone, so a child’s name, voice, writing, results and reading never reach the developer.
Speech, with a grown-up’s answer. On a device that cannot recognise speech by itself, Grove asks once whether it may send speech to Apple’s speech service (on Android, the device’s online speech service), and sends nothing until someone says yes. The question says that where a child is learning, a grown-up should answer. The answer can be changed in Settings ▸ Speech and recordings. On a device that recognises speech by itself, the voice does not leave the device.
The dictionary’s filter. Settings ▸ Look up ▸ Hide rude and offensive words is on until someone turns it off. While it is on, the dictionary hides offensive words and slurs, and explicit sexual words and senses, in Look up, in search by meaning and on the word card, while words a school teaches for the body, health and keeping safe stay. It is a setting of the device, so Delete this learner’s work leaves it as it is. No word list is perfect, so a grown-up should still be near a young child who looks words up.
Links. A web or email link in an imported book or PDF opens in the device’s browser or mail app, outside Grove (see Books and files you open).
iCloud, if a grown-up turns it on (iPhone, iPad and Mac only). The place in each book, course progress, kept words, highlights and notes then travel through the device’s own iCloud account, which is Apple’s service. The developer still receives nothing.
No contact with others. Grove has no chat, no messages, no profiles and no way for a child to reach other people through it.
Shared devices. Grove has no pupil accounts, so on a class set of devices or a family device one learner’s drafts and answers can be seen by the next. Use Delete this learner’s work before a device is passed on.

12. How this fits the law

This section explains, in plain words, how Grove’s design relates to the main laws on children’s data. It is not legal advice.

India: Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023

The Act sets duties for anyone who processes people’s digital personal data. For children (under 18) it adds more, including verifiable consent from a parent and a ban on tracking, behavioural monitoring and targeted advertising aimed at children. Grove does not collect or receive any child’s personal data, and there is no tracking, behavioural monitoring or advertising of any kind by the developer. The progress Grove records is kept on the device for the learner’s own use, under the control of the family or school that uses it.

United States: Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)

COPPA applies to apps and websites that collect personal information from children under 13. Grove does not collect personal information from children: nothing a child types, says or records is sent to the developer. Speech goes to Apple’s speech service (or, on Android, to the device’s online speech service) only on a device that cannot recognise speech by itself, and only after a yes that, where a child is learning, a grown-up should give.

United Kingdom and European Union: GDPR

Because nothing from Grove reaches the developer, the developer holds no personal data about you or your child from the app, so there is nothing for us to give access to, correct or erase. The data Grove keeps is on your device, under your control: you can see it in the app and delete it as described above. Grove starts with the private choices: sync is off, nothing is sent to Apple’s speech service until someone says yes, and the dictionary hides rude and offensive words. If you email us, we hold that email (see below), and you can ask us to delete it.

13. If you email us

If you write to gauravtaxak@gmail.com, we receive your email address and whatever you write. We use it only to reply to you. We do not share it, and we do not add you to any list. A pupil should ask a parent or teacher to write for them.

14. Changes to this policy

If a later version of Grove changes what it keeps or sends, we will update this page, with a new effective date, before that version is released. The notice inside the app (Settings ▸ Privacy ▸ Privacy: what Grove keeps) will change with it.

15. Contact

Gaurav Taxak
Email: gauravtaxak@gmail.com

For help with the app, see the support page.