The short version. We collect only what we need to teach English and keep accounts safe. Children use Talszo only through a parent or guardian's account and with their consent. We show no adverts, we don't sell personal information, and we use no tracking or analytics cookies. You can see, change or delete your information at any time.
1. Who we are
Talszo (“we”, “us”) is an English-learning service for ages 2 to 80, available at welearn.talszo.com and in our mobile apps. Talszo is operated by Sugendra Reddy trading as Talszo, South Africa.
We are the “responsible party” under South Africa's Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) and the “personal information handler” under China's Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL). Our Information Officer is Sugendra Reddy, reachable at support@wereddy.online.
2. What we collect
| Category | What it includes |
|---|---|
| Account | Name, email address, password (stored only as a secure one-way hash), account type (parent/guardian or adult learner), country if you give it, and when you last signed in. |
| Learner profiles | For each learner (up to 6 per account): first name or nickname, chosen avatar, birth year only (not full date of birth), age group, English level and display settings such as large text. |
| Learning activity | Lessons started and completed, quiz answers and scores, XP, coins, streaks, badges, items collected in the learner's world and weekly league position. |
| Live classes | Classes booked, attendance, and the stars and short notes a teacher gives after class. The video call itself runs on a third-party service (see section 5). We do not record classes. |
| Consent records | When you accepted this policy and the Terms, when a parent gave consent for each child, the policy version, and the IP address used at the time. |
| Security records | IP addresses of sign-in attempts and a log of important account and staff actions, used to protect accounts and investigate misuse. |
| Teachers and staff | Name, email, a short public bio, and vetting status and notes. |
| Payments (when paid plans launch) | Plan purchased, amount, date, payment method type and any proof of payment you upload. We do not receive or store full card or bank account numbers. |
What we don't collect: precise location, contacts, photos of learners, or voice recordings. Read-aloud audio is generated on your own device. We show no advertising.
3. Why we use it
- To provide the service: running accounts and lessons, saving progress, grading quizzes, rewards, and live classes. This is necessary to perform our agreement with you.
- To protect children and keep accounts secure: parental consent, age-appropriate design, fraud and abuse prevention. This is our legal obligation and legitimate interest.
- To report progress to parents: the parent progress report.
- To improve lessons: looking at overall, combined patterns such as which questions learners often get wrong. This is our legitimate interest.
- To contact you: service and safety messages. We will send marketing only if you opt in, and you can opt out at any time.
We do not use personal information for automated decisions that have legal or similarly significant effects on anyone.
4. Children
- Anyone under 18 can use Talszo only through a parent or guardian's account. The parent creates the child's profile and gives consent for that child, and we keep a record of that consent.
- Under PIPL, information about children under 14 is “sensitive personal information”. We process it only with a parent or guardian's separate consent, and only as needed for the child's learning.
- Children cannot message other users. The weekly league shows only a first name with an initial and the avatar. Learners aged 2 to 5 don't take part in leagues at all.
- Live-class teachers are vetted before they can teach. Teachers see only a learner's profile name, level and class record.
- Parents can view, correct or delete a child's profile at any time in the app. Deleting a profile deletes that child's learning history.
4a. Recordings, video assessments and AI feedback
Live lessons may be recorded so that the teacher and family can review progress, for teacher training and quality checks, and to resolve complaints. Video assessments that learners record in the app are watched and marked by Talszo teachers, who may reply with their own video.
Promotional and research use. We may use lesson recordings, video assessments and other recorded submissions (or short parts of them) to (a) research and improve our courses and advice to learners, and (b) in Talszo's promotional videos, website and social media. For learners under 18 we do this only with a parent's or guardian's consent, which is asked for separately in the app, and we never show surnames, addresses or contact details. You can withdraw consent at any time by emailing us; we will stop using the material in new content and remove it from our own channels where reasonably possible.
AI lesson feedback. To write each learner's lesson feedback, Talszo may send the lesson's questions, the learner's answers, first name, age group and level to Google's Gemini service. We do not send email addresses, payment details or videos for this. You can ask us to switch AI feedback off for your account.
Share & Win. If you join a referral competition we record who signed up through your link. Your name and photo appear on the public leaderboard only if you choose to show them.
5. Who we share it with
We never sell personal information. We share it only with:
- Hosting: IONOS, which stores our servers and database.
- Live-class video: Jitsi Meet (meet.jit.si, operated by 8x8) or, where a teacher provides one, VooV Meeting (Tencent). When a learner joins a class, the video provider processes the audio and video stream and the display name.
- Lesson videos: some lessons embed videos from YouTube (Google) or link to Bilibili. Those providers may collect information under their own policies when the video plays.
- Payment providers: for example PayPal, PayFast, your bank, WeChat Pay, Alipay or KBZPay, who process the payment under their own terms.
- AI feedback: Google (Gemini API) processes lesson answers to write feedback, as described in section 4a.
- Exchange rates: prices are converted with public exchange-rate data; no personal information is sent.
- Authorities: where the law requires it, or to protect someone's safety.
6. Where your information is stored
Our servers are run by IONOS in the United States. This means your information may be transferred outside your country, including outside South Africa and mainland China. We do this only with safeguards: contractual protections with our host, the security measures in section 8, and, where the law requires it (for example under PIPL), your separate consent, which we ask for when you create an account.
Overseas recipient: Sugendra Reddy trading as Talszo, contact support@wereddy.online. You can exercise your rights against us as described in section 9.
7. How long we keep it
- Account and learning data: while your account is active. If you delete your account, we remove your account, learner profiles and learning history from our live database straight away.
- Consent and security records: kept for 3 years after the event, as proof that we followed the law, and then deleted.
- Backups: deleted data can stay in encrypted server backups for up to 30 days until those backups are overwritten.
- Accounts inactive for 3 years may be deleted after we email a reminder.
8. Security
We use encrypted connections (HTTPS), hashed passwords, signed sign-in tokens, limits on repeated sign-in attempts, staff access based on role, and an audit log of staff actions. No system is perfectly secure. If a breach affects your information, we will notify you and the relevant regulator as the law requires.
9. Your rights
Depending on where you live, you can ask us to:
- tell you what information we hold about you and give you a copy
- correct inaccurate information (most of it you can edit yourself in the app)
- delete your information. You can delete your whole account in the app under Settings → Delete account, and delete a single learner profile from the profile screen.
- object to or limit certain uses, or withdraw consent. Withdrawing consent doesn't affect what we did before, but we may not be able to continue the service without it.
- move your data to another service (portability), where the law provides for this.
Email support@wereddy.online. We will answer within 30 days, or sooner where the law requires. We may need to confirm your identity first. Parents and guardians can exercise these rights on behalf of their children.
10. Cookies and device storage
We use no advertising or analytics cookies. The app stores a sign-in token and your preferences (such as interface language) on your device so you stay signed in. The staff panel uses a session cookie. If you clear your browser storage, you will be signed out.
11. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy. If we make important changes, we will tell you in the app or by email and, where the law requires it, ask for your consent again. The version and date are shown at the top.
12. Contact and complaints
Information Officer: Sugendra Reddy · support@wereddy.online.
If you are not satisfied with our response, you can complain to a regulator:
- South Africa: the Information Regulator, inforegulator.org.za
- Mainland China: the Cyberspace Administration of China or your local cyberspace authority
- Elsewhere: your national data protection authority