Privacy Policy / የግላዊነት ፖሊሲ

📋 Overview

መንጃ ፍቃድ በቀላል መንገድ ("Driving Theory in Simple Steps") is a free educational app that helps Ethiopians worldwide learn driving theory in Amharic. This Privacy Policy explains what data we collect, why, and how we use it.

By using this app, you agree to the practices described in this policy.

📦 Data We Collect

We collect only the minimum data necessary for the app to function:

• Anonymous User ID — A random identifier that is not linked to your name or contact details. It is used to save your learning progress and to connect it with the optional data described below.
• Learning Progress — which signs and topics you have studied, quiz scores, and exam results. Stored locally on your device and optionally synced to our backend (Supabase) using only your anonymous ID.
• Device Information — device type, operating system version, and app version. Used for crash reporting and compatibility checks only.
• Location (optional) — If you allow it when the app asks, the app reads your phone’s location while the app is open (never in the background), turns it into a city name, and stores the coordinates and the city together with your anonymous ID. We use this only to choose which nearby driving instructors’ ads to show you. If you have not been asked yet, the app may estimate only your city from your IP address and store that city (we do not store the IP address itself). If you decline, that estimate is deleted and not used again. You can refuse location and still use the whole app.
• Diagnostic reports — When something goes wrong (for example a sound does not play, a download fails or the app crashes), the app may send a short technical report to our server. It contains the error message (with private parts of web addresses, keys, tokens and email addresses removed), the name of the audio file involved, your phone’s manufacturer and model, the Android and app versions, the type of network, whether you were online, and a random code for that session. A report may be linked to your anonymous ID. It does not contain your name, contact details, voice recordings or location.
• Microphone — Used only when you tap the microphone button to answer by voice. The recording is sent through our server to Google Cloud Speech-to-Text to recognise the number you said. We do not store recordings.
• “Why?” explanations — When you ask the app to explain why an answer is right or wrong, the question and the answers are sent through our server to Google’s Gemini AI service, which writes the explanation. Your name and contact details are never part of this request.

📢 Advertising (Google AdMob)

This app uses Google AdMob to display advertisements. AdMob may collect and use data to serve personalized ads based on your interests.

AdMob may collect:

• Advertising ID (resettable in your device settings)
• Approximate location (IP-based, not GPS)
• App usage data and interaction with ads

Google's Privacy Policy: policies.google.com/privacy
You can opt out of personalized ads via your device settings: Settings → Google → Ads → Opt out of Ads Personalization.

🚗 Driving-Instructor Ads

Besides Google ads, the app shows ads from local driving instructors. To choose which ones to show, we compare your saved city (or, if you allowed location, your coordinates, to find the nearest instructor within about 30 km) with the instructors’ cities. The instructors do not receive your location or any other data from the app.

🎙️ Microphone Permission

The app requests microphone access only for the voice-answer feature in Engine A (the audio-based learning engine). Voice audio is sent through our server to Google Cloud Speech-to-Text for recognition and is not stored or logged by us.

You can deny microphone permission and still use the full app — voice answering will simply be unavailable.

🌐 Internet Access

Internet access is used for:

• Loading audio files and images for signs and topics (from Supabase Storage)
• Syncing your learning progress to the cloud (anonymous, no login required)
• Text-to-Speech (Google Cloud TTS) for Amharic voice explanations
• Loading advertisements (Google AdMob)
• Finding your city: from your location if you allow it, or estimated from your IP address if you have not been asked yet
• Sending the question to Google’s Gemini AI when you ask for an explanation
• Sending short diagnostic reports when something goes wrong

🤝 Third-Party Services

We use the following third-party services:

• Supabase — anonymous data storage and backend (Privacy Policy)
• Google AdMob — advertising (Privacy Policy)
• Google Cloud Speech-to-Text — voice recognition (not stored)
• Google Cloud Text-to-Speech — Amharic audio generation
• Google Maps Geocoding — turns your coordinates into a city name
• ipapi.co — turns an IP address into an approximate city
• Google Gemini — writes the “Why?” explanations

👶 Children's Privacy

This app is intended for users aged 16 and above (minimum age for driving theory study in most countries). We do not knowingly collect data from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided us with personal data, please contact us.

🔐 Data Security

All data sent between the app and our servers is encrypted using HTTPS/TLS. Anonymous IDs are randomly generated and do not contain your name or contact details.

🗓️ How Long We Keep Data

• Learning progress, the anonymous ID and location data are kept until you ask us to delete them.
• Diagnostic reports are kept only as long as needed to find and fix problems, and are deleted on request.
• If you decline location, any city that was estimated from your IP address is deleted and is not used again.
• Voice recordings are not stored.

🗑️ Your Rights

• Delete your data — Uninstalling the app removes all locally stored progress data. To request deletion of data stored on our servers (including location and diagnostic data), contact us.
• Opt out of personalized ads — Via your device's ad settings.
• Refuse or withdraw location access — In your device settings at any time. The whole app keeps working.
• Deny microphone access — In your device settings at any time.

🔄 Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Changes will be posted on this page with an updated date. Continued use of the app after changes constitutes acceptance.