Loka -- Privacy Policy

Last updated: 2026-11-02

This policy says what Loka collects about you, why, which companies handle it for us, how long we keep it, and what deleting your account removes. Loka is made by Volley Technology Inc. ("we", "us"). The policy covers the Loka app on iPhone and Android and the Loka website.

The short version

Loka is an AI tutor. To work, it sends your voice and your messages to OpenAI and Google.
We record your voice in conversations, lessons and practice. We keep the recordings until you delete your account. You can stop recording at any time in Settings.
Lo, your tutor, keeps notes about you, including things you tell it about your life, so it can teach you better.
Our analytics know which account did what. They do not get your email address or what you say.
We do not sell your data, and Loka shows no ads.
You can delete your account in the app or on the website at any time. "Deleting your account" below says exactly what that removes today and what it does not remove yet.

What we collect

Your account

Your email address.
Your password, stored only as a secure hash. If you sign in with Google or Apple, there is no password, and we keep the account id Google or Apple gives us.
When you created the account, when you last signed in, when you accepted the Terms of Service and this policy, and when you agreed that your voice and messages go to OpenAI and Google and that your recordings are kept.

What you tell us when you start

The name you want Lo to call you.
The language you speak, the language you are learning, your level, why you are learning, and the topics you picked.
Your settings, such as Lo's voice and how fast the tutor speaks.

What you say and type

Your voice, while the microphone is on in a conversation, a lesson, a practice round, or a chat with Lo.
What you said, written out as text, and everything you type to Lo.
What the characters, Lo and the coach say back to you.
Your answers in lessons and practice, and how they were marked.
Your reports. When you report a line the AI said, we keep the line, who said it (a character, Lo or the coach), the reason you picked, when you reported it, and the session it came from, under your account.
Your problem reports. When you report a problem from Settings, we keep what you wrote, what kind of problem you picked, the talk, lesson or chat you picked (if any), a screenshot if you add one, which app you used (iPhone, Android or the website) with its version, and the time on your device, under your account. A screenshot stays on our server: it is never sent to an AI model or anyone else.

Recordings of your voice

We record your voice in every conversation with a character, when you speak to Lo or the coach, and when you practice phrases. A conversation's recording also holds what the character said. With each recording we keep what our speech recognition heard.

You can stop this at any time: in Settings, open Account and turn off "Keep recordings of my voice". Loka then stops recording you, straight away. Recordings already kept stay until you delete your account, or until you ask us to delete them.

What Lo keeps about you

To teach you well, Lo keeps notes from your conversations:

things you mentioned about your life, your plans and the people in it;
the topics you enjoy or avoid, and how you like to learn;
a short summary of you as a learner, and what to work on next;
your recent chats with Lo, and lines Lo saved to come back to;
the words and grammar you have met, how well you know each one, and the mistakes you made.

These notes are written by AI from what you said and typed. Lo keeps them so she can remember past talks and pick up where you left off; she also tells each new learner so when they first meet her. They are kept until you delete your account (see "How long we keep it").

How you use Loka

Which conversations, lessons and practice you did, when, and for how long.
How many minutes of voice you used each day. There is a daily limit.

From your phone or browser

The phone app sends crash reports and performance data (see Sentry below) and its version number.
The phone app makes a random id for each install of the app and keeps it on the phone. It is used to count how often the app is opened, and it is linked to the Loka account made on that phone.
Each time it opens, the phone app asks Expo whether a newer version of its code is ready (see Expo below). For this it keeps a second random id for the install, which is not linked to your account.
The website uses a cookie and the browser's local storage (see "Cookies and storage").
Your time zone, used to plan your day. We do not store it.
Your IP address, which our server uses to stop abuse and does not store. The companies below may see it when your device talks to them.

We do not collect your location, contacts, photos or payment details. Loka has no advertising id and does not track you across other apps or websites.

Why we use it

To run the tutor: to hear you, answer you, and teach at your level.
To remember you: so Lo can pick up where you left off and choose what to practice next.
To let you hear yourself again in your progress recap on the website.
To improve Loka: the team listens to recordings and reads conversations to check quality and fix problems, and uses them to test better speech recognition and a better tutor.
To send account emails: verifying your address and resetting your password. We send no marketing emails.
To keep track of who signed up: the team keeps one list of the people who signed up for Loka, in the app or through one of our sign-up forms or events, so it can tell when two sign-ups are the same person, who has an account, and how much each account has been used.
To act on your reports: the founders read every line you report and fix the cause where they can.
To keep Loka working: analytics show us how Loka is used, and crash reports help us fix bugs.

Our legal grounds (EU and UK)

We use your data to run the service you signed up for. We keep your recordings and use your conversations to improve Loka because you agree to it when you sign up. Analytics and crash reports are in our legitimate interest in keeping Loka working. You can withdraw your consent to recordings at any time by turning off "Keep recordings of my voice" in Settings.

Companies that handle your data for us

Each company gets only what it needs for its job.

Company	What it gets	What for
OpenAI	Your voice, live, during a conversation with a character. Your voice when you speak to Lo or the coach or practice a phrase. The text of the conversation.	The characters you talk to, live; turning your speech into text; reading some characters' lines aloud; writing practice exercises from phrases you were taught.
Google (Gemini)	What you said and typed, Lo's notes about you, your answers. If your conversations with characters in Korean or Mandarin run on Google's voice model: your voice, live, and the text of each conversation that runs on it; in Korean, also recordings of the lines you said in your conversations with characters, sent once each one ends.	Lo's chat and lessons; the coach after a conversation; new rounds of a conversation; marking your answers; picking out facts for Lo's notes; reading Lo's lines aloud. On Google's voice model: the character you talk to, live, and turning your speech into text; in Korean, listening to your lines again to check they were written down right.
Google Sign-In	Your email address and Google account id, if you sign in with Google.	Signing you in.
Apple (Sign in with Apple)	Your email address, or the private address Apple makes for you, and your Apple account id, if you sign in with Apple.	Signing you in. When you delete your account, we ask Apple to end Loka's access.
PostHog	Your Loka account id; events such as "conversation started" or "lesson finished"; your level and languages; errors on our server.	Analytics.
Sentry	Crash and performance reports from the phone app, tagged with the id of the session that was running.	Finding and fixing crashes.
Expo	From the phone app, each time it opens: a random id for the install, whether it is an iPhone or Android phone, which version of the app's code it runs, and, after the app failed to start, the start of that error. Not your account, your email address or what you say.	Delivering updates to the app's code without a new download from the store.
Resend	Your email address and the email we send you.	Sending account emails.
Airtable	If you have an account: your email address, your Loka account id, the name your sign-in gave us, when you created the account, whether you confirmed your email, your target language, and the latest recorded sign-in and authenticated activity times. If you signed up through one of our forms or events: your name, email address, phone number or messenger id, your preferred contact channel and the answers we keep from it. For anyone on the list: signup sources, registration and identity-review flags, internal/test status, source references and the team's notes. Not what you said, typed or recorded.	The team's list of who signed up.
Railway	Everything we store.	Hosting our server, database and files.

OpenAI and Google handle this data under their terms for customers of their APIs. OpenAI's terms do not let it use what we send to train its models.

On the website, PostHog also gets the events your browser sends, under an id kept in your browser that is linked to your Loka account when you sign in. From the phone app, PostHog gets each time the app is opened, under the app's install id, which is linked to your Loka account when you make one on that phone. PostHog may work out your rough location (country and city) from your IP address.

Our server, database and files are in Singapore. OpenAI, Google, Apple, PostHog, Sentry, Expo, Resend and Airtable are companies based in the United States, and PostHog and Sentry keep their data there. So what you give Loka is also sent to the United States and handled there, where the privacy laws may differ from those where you live.

Copies we keep for quality checks

To check quality and fix problems, the team keeps copies of some data on its own computers:

conversation logs (what was said, and what the tutor did);
our server's logs, which include your email address and lines from conversations;
your recordings, copied each night;
copies of the database;
a few conversations, kept as test cases in our private code repository on GitHub.

Only the team can reach these copies.

How long we keep it

Your account, Lo's notes, your progress, conversation logs and recordings on our server: until you delete your account. Nothing removes them on a timer: Lo's notes are how she remembers you, so they stay as long as your account does.
Analytics in PostHog, crash reports in Sentry and the phone app's update checks at Expo: for as long as each service keeps them under our plan.
Our server's logs at Railway (they include your email address and lines from conversations): for as long as Railway keeps them under our plan.
What we send OpenAI and Google: they may keep it for a limited time to watch for abuse, as their terms allow.
The team's list of who signed up, at Airtable: until we remove you. Deleting your account does not remove you from it yet (below); ask us and we will.
Copies kept for quality checks: until we remove them. Deleting your account does not reach most of them yet (below).

Deleting your account

You can delete your account in the phone app or on the website: open Settings, then Account, then Delete account, and confirm. It cannot be undone. If you cannot sign in, email us from your account's address and we will delete it for you.

Deleting your account removes, at once:

your account, your sign-in details, and the sign-ins that keep you logged in;
your profile, your progress, Lo's notes about you, your phrasebook and your lesson history;
your conversation logs on our server;
your recordings on our server;
your reports of AI lines, and your problem reports with their screenshots.

If you signed in with Apple, we also ask Apple to end Loka's access to your Apple account.

It does not remove yet:

analytics events in PostHog and crash reports in Sentry;
our server's logs held by Railway, until Railway deletes them;
your entry in the team's list of who signed up, at Airtable;
the copies kept for quality checks (above). The nightly copy of your recordings is usually removed the next night. The other copies stay until we remove them.

We are working to bring all of these under deletion. Until then, email us and we will remove them for you.

Your choices and rights

See and correct: your name, languages, level and Lo's voice are in Settings.
Get a copy: email us and, within 30 days, we will send a copy to the email address on your account (never to another address, so nobody else can ask for your data in your name): one file with everything our server holds about you, attached, or as a download link when it is too large to attach. It holds your account details, Lo's notes about you, your progress, your phrasebook, your conversation logs and your recordings. It leaves out your password, which we never store in readable form, and the codes that keep you signed in. Copies held by the companies above and the team's copies (see "Copies we keep for quality checks") are not in it; ask us and we will tell you what they hold.
Delete: in the app or on the website (above), or by email.
Recordings: turn off "Keep recordings of my voice" in Settings, Account, and Loka stops recording you. To have the recordings already kept deleted, email us.
Microphone: you can turn off Loka's access to the microphone in your phone's or browser's settings. You can still type to Lo, but conversations with characters need your voice.
Your rights under the law: depending on where you live (for example under GDPR, UK GDPR or the CCPA), you can ask to see, correct, delete or move your data, or object to how we use it. Email us. You can also complain to your local data protection authority.

We do not have a Data Protection Officer. Requests are handled by the founders.

Children

Loka is for people 18 and older. When you sign up you confirm you are at least 18. If we learn that an account belongs to someone under 18, we delete it. See the Terms of Service.

Cookies and storage

On the website:

One cookie, volley_session, keeps you signed in for up to 30 days.
PostHog keeps an id in a cookie and in local storage to count visits. After you sign in it is linked to your Loka account id.
Local storage keeps your name, your account id and your Lo window settings, so the page opens quickly.

In the phone app: the app keeps a sign-in token in the phone's secure storage (the Keychain on iPhone). On iPhone it stays on that phone and is not included in backups. Signing out or deleting your account removes it. The app also keeps its random install id there, on that phone only (see "From your phone or browser"). Signing out does not remove it.

We use no advertising cookies and no trackers from other companies.

Changes to this policy

We will tell you about important changes by email or in the app before they take effect. The date at the top shows the last change.

Contact

Volley Technology Inc.

Privacy questions and requests: support@volley-flow.com

Help with the app: the Support page.