Children's Privacy Policy
Last updated: 14 August 2026
This Policy outlines our practices for collection, use, disclosure and parental consent for the personal information of children (users under the age of 13 in the US, or the relevant age of digital consent as otherwise defined by applicable laws).
We comply with applicable laws, including the U.S. COPPA and Kenya’s Data Protection Act, which require special protection for children’s personal information. For more information about COPPA and general tips about protecting Children’s online privacy, please visit the FTC's Online Privacy and Security page. For more information about our privacy practices generally, see our Privacy Policy at https://ello.com/legal/privacy-policy
1. Information we collect
We apply heightened security measures for children’s data. We do not use children’s data for marketing or share it with third parties for advertising purposes. We delete children’s personal data when it is no longer needed for the purpose for which it was collected or when consent is withdrawn.
Definition of inactive subscription: An account is considered “Inactive” if there is no active subscription, and there has been no login or meaningful interaction with the account for a continuous period of 24 months.
What does Ello collect? | Why does Ello collect it? | How long does Ello keep it? |
|---|---|---|
Raw audio recordings | We use audio recordings for the child to interact via voice with the AI Teacher. These recordings are also used to evaluate reading fluency and pronunciation. We keep these recordings for 30 days in case there are safety concerns with the child’s session. | 30 days after sessions with no safety flags 5 years after session with safety flag |
Transcripts of a child’s session with the app | We use transcripts to remember what the child has worked on and is interested in, to personalize future sessions, and to flag anything concerning for AI safety review. We also use them to help resolve support requests. We also use them to create learning updates for parents, such as emailed summaries of a child's reading progress. They are necessary to personalize the service, and therefore we retain all transcripts for the lifetime of a subscription, plus three years in the case an account is re-activated. | 3 years of inactive subscription 5 years after session with safety flag |
Learner profiles: a profile of the child’s academic progress, skills, and interests, derived from child’s use of the app | Learner profiles allow the AI Teacher to personalize instruction for each child. They are necessary to provide the service, and therefore we retain all profiles for the lifetime of a subscription, plus three years in the case an account is re-activated. | 3 years of inactive subscription |
Child profile: First name, age, birth month and year, grade, academic level, educational context, activities and interests | We use this information to greet each child by name and to choose books, activities, and difficulty levels appropriate for their age and educational context. It is necessary to provide the service, and therefore we retain this information for the lifetime of a subscription, plus five years in the case an account is re-activated. | 5 years of inactive subscription |
Parent contact information | We use this contact information to set up and manage accounts, send required notices (like consent confirmations and privacy policy updates), and respond to support requests. We only send marketing messages if parents opted in. It is necessary to provide the service, and therefore we retain this information for the lifetime of a subscription, plus five years in the case an account is re-activated. | 5 years of inactive subscription |
Consent record | We retain a record of what parents agreed to and when. This is a legal requirement for children's services, and it protects parents and children. We retain it for legal purposes. | 5 years of inactive subscription |
Payment record | We retain payment records to process subscriptions, handle refunds and billing questions, and meet financial and tax record-keeping obligations. | 5 years of inactive subscription |
Customer support communication | We keep a history of a parent’s questions and our replies, which helps us resolve issues faster if they reach out again and improve how we support families. | 5 years of inactive subscription |
Usage analytics | We do not profile individual children for analytics purposes, but we may use aggregated, anonymized data for analytics. We use this data to understand how features are used across the app (things like which activities kids engage with most and how often the app is opened). Some information about usage may be used for service provision. Any identifiable usage analytics is anonymized or deleted 5 years of inactive subscription. | 5 years of inactive subscription |
App performance analytics (error logs, telemetry) | These logs help us spot and fix bugs quickly, keep the app running smoothly, and protect the service against fraud and security issues. Any identifiable performance analytics is anonymized or deleted 5 years of inactive subscription. | 5 years of inactive subscription |
If a session is flagged for a safety concern, the audio recording and transcript from that session are retained for up to 5 years from the date of the flag, where necessary to investigate the concern or to meet a legal obligation. This applies only to the flagged session.
Parents have the option to enable General Service Improvement. This requires explicit verifiable parental consent upon sign-up, and parents can withdraw this consent. If enabled, the child’s data collected, included audio recordings and AI transcripts, would be retained for 5 years after inactive subscription with the purpose to generally improve our service, including improvements to child speech recognition models and pedagogical performance of the AI tutor.
General Service Improvement is an optional setting available during account creation and within the Ello app. It is not required to use the Ello service.
2. Who we share your data with
From time to time, we may engage third-party service providers to help us provide or improve our Services. These providers may access or process your personal information solely for the purpose of performing their contractual obligations. We limit the information provided to these service providers to that which is reasonably necessary for them to perform their functions, and they are bound by contractual obligations on confidentiality of such information.
The categories of related third parties with whom we may share data with are:
- Service providers: Entities that provide services for the use and development of Ello, such as hosting, data storage, analytics and IT support.
- Communications providers: Entities that deliver the email and text messages we send to parents, including account notices and learning updates about a child's progress. These providers process this information solely on our instructions and may not use it for their own purposes.
- Model providers: Ello uses LLMs as part of its AI tutor features. Information provided during interactions with the AI tutor, including conversation transcripts and audio inputs, may be processed by LLMs solely to provide the service, personalize learning experiences, and improve Ello’s educational functionality. Ello does not permit LLM providers to use this information for their own purposes or to train their general-purpose models, except as permitted by law and consistent with this policy.
- Marketing partners: We may contact adult users who have consented to receive marketing communications about Ello and related third-party services. We do not share your data with third parties for their own marketing purposes, however we may feature their products or services in our messages. You can withdraw this consent or opt-out of contextual marketing at any time by contacting support@ello.com or using the ‘unsubscribe’ link in our emails. We never sell child data to third parties or advertise directly to children.
- Payment processors: Entities responsible for processing payments and secure handling of financial transactions.
- Legal and compliance partners: Entities involved in ensuring legal compliance, responding to legal requests, or conducting audits, which may include legal advisors or regulatory authorities.
3. Parental Consent
Ello obtains verifiable parental consent before collecting, using, or disclosing personal information from your Child. We obtain your consent through “Text Plus” two-step text message process. After you indicate consent in the app, we send a confirmation code to the mobile number you provided. When you enter the code in-app, your consent is recorded, and we send a follow-up text confirming that you have consented to this notice, with a link to this notice, and with instructions on how to revoke consent.
If you do not consent, then we will not collect, use or disclose any personal information about your Child, and your Child will not be allowed to use features which require personal information. If you are not using our services for any other purposes and do not provide consent within a reasonable time from the date the direct notice was sent to you, we will also delete your online contact information from our records.
4. Parental Rights and Controls
Parents may contact us at support@ello.com at any time to:
- Withdraw consent for further collection or processing of their child’s data.
- Request access, correction or deletion of their child’s personal information. Please note that a request to delete records may lead to termination of an account, membership, or other service.
5. Version Log
Past versions of the Children’s Privacy Policy are publicly available for review as follows:
April 2026: https://ello.com/legal/childrens-privacy-policy-april-29-2026
February 2026: https://ello.com/legal/childrens-privacy-policy-feb-25-2026