Privacy Policy
Effective July 16, 2026
Cognate ("the app," "we," "us") is a vocabulary and etymology app. This page explains what information the app handles, how it's used, and who it's shared with. We've tried to write it in plain language rather than dense legal text.
No account required
Cognate doesn't ask you to sign up, log in, or create a profile. There's no username, password, or account database on our end.
What the app stores on your device
Your word history, saved phrases, and "mastered" status are saved locally on your phone, using standard on-device storage. This information never leaves your device and isn't visible to us. Deleting the app, or clearing its storage, deletes this data completely.
What gets sent to generate content
When you look up a word, paste text into the reading companion, or describe a situation in "How to say it," that text is sent to Google's Gemini API to generate the response you see. We don't store this content on our own servers — it passes through to Google and back to your device.
This means the words you search, the text you paste, and the situations you describe are subject to Google's Privacy Policy in addition to this one. Avoid pasting sensitive personal information into the app.
Account and data deletion requests
Because Cognate doesn't use accounts, there's usually nothing on our servers tied to you specifically. If you've contacted us for support, or you'd like to confirm we don't hold any data associated with you, you can submit a request on our account deletion page. That form sends your name, email address, and message to us through our email provider, Brevo, solely so we can read and respond to your request.
What we don't do
- We don't run analytics or tracking SDKs in the app.
- We don't sell or share your information with advertisers.
- We don't build user profiles for advertising purposes.
Children's privacy
Cognate isn't directed at children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect information from them.
Changes to this policy
If this policy changes, we'll update the effective date above. Continued use of the app after a change means you accept the updated policy.
Contact
Questions about this policy, or about your data, can be sent to www.landrybiang@gmail.com.