Privacy Policy — Hoot & Learn

Last updated: 23 July 2026 · Covers the whole Hoot & Learn family: Hoot Games, Hoot Language, Hoot AI, Hoot Code, Hoot Money, Hoot Write, Hoot Feelings, and Hoot History

1. What we collect

No app in the Hoot & Learn family collects, transmits, or stores personal information on any server, and none have user accounts or registration. The only data any app saves is stored locally on your device (browser localStorage): game progress, best scores, badges and stickers earned, chosen language and age group, and accessibility preferences. This data never leaves your device and is removed automatically when you uninstall the app or clear its data.

2. Speech and microphone use (Hoot Language only)

Hoot Language is the only app in the family that uses the microphone, for two optional features: Speak (pronunciation practice) and Live Conversation. Both rely on your device's or browser's built-in speech recognition. On some browsers (for example Chrome), that built-in recognition is itself processed by the browser vendor's own speech-recognition servers (e.g. Google's) — your spoken audio may leave your device through that browser-level service as part of turning speech into text, before any result reaches our app. Hoot Language itself never records, stores, or otherwise accesses the raw audio.

• Speak mode: the resulting text is compared to the target word entirely on your device. Nothing is sent anywhere by our app.
• Live Conversation: the resulting text transcript (never audio) is sent to our AI-assisted feature described below.

The microphone is only ever active while you are using one of these two features, and only in Hoot Language — no other app in the family requests microphone access.

3. AI-assisted features

Three features let a child get a generated response to something they typed or said: Hoot Language's Live Conversation, Hoot AI's Prompt Playground, and Hoot Write's Get Feedback. When used, the child's typed text or spoken-to-text transcript, plus the game's prompt/context, is sent to a small server we control, which forwards it to Anthropic's Claude AI to generate a reply or feedback, then returns the response to the app.

• We do not send Anthropic any account, device, or identifying information — only the text of the exchange.
• Each app shows an in-product reminder not to type or say personal information (name, address, school, etc.).
• We do not retain the content of these exchanges after the reply is generated; requests are rate-limited.
• These features are optional — a child can use every other part of the app without ever triggering them.

4. Advertising (web browser only)

The web browser versions of Hoot Language, Hoot Code, Hoot Feelings, Hoot Money, Hoot Write, and Hoot History show ads served by Google AdSense. The Android/Kindle Fire app store versions of every app in the Hoot & Learn family are ad-free — AdSense is not included in those builds. Hoot Games and Hoot AI do not show ads in any version, web or app.

5. Children's privacy (COPPA)

The Hoot & Learn family is designed for children aged 2–12. We comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and equivalent regulations worldwide:

• We do not collect personal information from children (or from anyone).
• We do not allow children to share personal information within the apps, and remind them not to.
• There is no chat with other people, no social networking, and no user-generated content shared with others.
• There are no external links visible to children within games.
• There is no behavioural advertising directed at children; where ads appear (see §4), they are limited to the web-browser versions of five apps and never appear in any app store build.
• Parents do not need to provide consent for a child to use any app in the family, because no personal information is collected.

6. In-app purchases

There are no in-app purchases anywhere in the Hoot & Learn family. Paid apps are one-time downloads; all content is included.

7. Third-party services

Service	Used by	What's shared
Anthropic (Claude AI)	Hoot Language, Hoot AI, Hoot Write	Typed/spoken text the child submits to an optional AI feature — no identifying info
Browser speech recognition (e.g. Google, on Chrome)	Hoot Language	Audio, while the Speak or Live Conversation feature is active, handled by the browser/OS itself
Google AdSense	Hoot Language, Hoot Code, Hoot Feelings, Hoot Money, Hoot Write, Hoot History — web versions only	Standard ad-serving data; not present in app store builds
Google Fonts	all apps	Fonts are bundled and loaded locally — no request to Google servers

No app in the family uses analytics, crash reporting, or social media SDKs.

8. Device permissions

No app in the family requests camera, contacts, location, photos, or other sensitive device permissions. Hoot Language requests microphone access only while its Speak or Live Conversation feature is active (see §2).

9. Internet connection

Every app works without an internet connection for its core content. An internet connection is only needed for the optional AI-assisted features (§3) and, in web browsers, to load ads on the apps listed in §4.

10. Data security

Because progress data is stored locally on your device and we retain no account data or AI-exchange content on our servers, there is minimal risk of a data breach involving your child's information.

11. Changes to this policy

If we change our privacy practices, we will update this policy and the relevant app store listing. We are committed to never collecting personal information from users, especially children.

12. Contact

If you have questions about this privacy policy or any app in the Hoot & Learn family, please contact us at: admin@localbutlr.com

This app is compliant with: COPPA (USA) · UK GDPR and GDPR (EU/UK) · Google Play Families Policy · Amazon Kids+ content requirements · Apple App Store guidelines for kids apps.