Privacy Policy
1. Controller
LearnGermanOnWA, contact@germancopilot.de is the controller for personal data processed through this website and the associated WhatsApp channel (Art. 4(7) GDPR).
2. What we collect and why
| Data | Purpose | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|
| Name, email, phone number | Create and run your account, send lessons and receipts | Contract (Art. 6(1)(b)) |
| Password (hashed) | Secure login | Contract (Art. 6(1)(b)) |
| Lesson and test activity | Show your progress, unlock the next lesson | Contract (Art. 6(1)(b)) |
| Payment metadata (amount, date, provider reference — never full card numbers) | Bookkeeping, refunds, statutory retention | Legal obligation (Art. 6(1)(c)), contract |
| WhatsApp messages you send us | Promotional messages if you agreed | Consent (Art. 6(1)(a)), contract |
| Exam results you choose to report (passed or not, exam provider, date, score) | Check how well our lessons and mock exams prepare students; anything published is totals only, never individual results. A few weeks after you finish a level we may email once or twice to ask (unsubscribe in any of these emails) | Legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f)) |
| Notification address of your phone or browser (only if you turn on notifications) | Tell you when your next lesson unlocks; you can turn it off on the dashboard or in your phone/browser settings at any time | Consent (Art. 6(1)(a)) |
3. Who else sees it (processors)
- Meta Platforms Ireland Ltd. — operates the WhatsApp Business Platform we use to message you.
- Stripe and PayPal — process card and PayPal payments; we never see or store full card numbers.
- Your browser's push service (e.g. Google for Chrome/Android, Apple for Safari/iPhone, Mozilla for Firefox) — delivers notifications to your device if you turn them on. The content is end-to-end encrypted; the push service only sees that a notification is being delivered.
- Your browser's speech recognition (e.g. Google for Chrome, Apple for Safari, Microsoft for Edge) — only if you use the pronunciation check in speaking practice or the speaking simulator in the mock exams: your browser sends what you say to its provider to turn it into text, and we receive only that text to check it. "Record yourself and compare" stays on your device and is never uploaded.
- YouTube (Google Ireland Ltd.) — hosts lesson videos, loaded in privacy-enhanced mode and only after you click to play a video.
- LearnGermanOnWA's hosting provider (Hostinger) — runs the server this site and the WhatsApp integration run on.
4. Retention
We keep your account and progress data while your account is active, plus a limited grace period after you ask us to delete it, to prevent accidental loss. Payment records are kept as long as tax law requires (typically up to 10 years in Germany), even after account deletion. Accounts that never set a password are deleted automatically after a few weeks.
5. Your rights
Under Articles 15–21 GDPR you can ask us for a copy of your data (also available any time from your dashboard), correction, deletion, restriction of processing, or object to processing based on our legitimate interests. You can delete your own account and its personal data from your dashboard at any time. You also have the right to complain to your local data protection authority.
6. Cookies
We set exactly one cookie, needed to keep you logged in — no advertising or analytics cookies. See our Cookie Notice for detail.