1. Introduction
Mandarin Temple ("we," "our," or "us") operates the website and progressive web application at mandarintemple.com. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your personal data when you use our services.
We are committed to compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Singapore's Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA), China's Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL), Japan's Act on Protection of Personal Information (APPI), and South Korea's Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA).
2. Data Controller
Mandarin Temple
Contact: contact@mandarintemple.com
3. Data We Collect
3.1 Account Data
When you register, we collect your name, email address, and an encrypted password hash. If you subscribe to a paid plan, we collect billing information processed through Stripe.
3.2 Learning Data
We collect your study progress, quiz results, vocabulary reviews, lesson completions, XP earned, and learning preferences. This data powers your personalized learning path.
We also keep a record of your individual answers as you work. For each exercise you attempt, that record can include what was asked, what you answered — including text you type into an exercise, whether it was correct, which specific mistake it was (for example one tone given where another was expected), how you arrived at the answer (how many attempts, whether you used a hint, whether you changed or corrected your answer), how long you took, how long it had been since you last met that item, and which aspect of the language it exercised — meaning, the character, pinyin, tone, listening, producing the word yourself, or writing it. We also record which part of the site the exercise was on and the general device type. On a small proportion of items we ask how sure you feel before you answer and how demanding the item was; answering is optional, and skipping is stored as no answer rather than as a low one.
This record is the service rather than an optional extra: it is what schedules your reviews, fills your progress figures and drives the Learning Lab described in 3.7. It is therefore not governed by the cookie banner. If you do not want us to hold it, the way to stop it is to delete your account, which removes it — see sections 7 and 8.
Separately, and only with your consent to the analytics category, we record how much active time you spend on each learning checkpoint (the timer pauses when the tab is hidden or you are idle) to measure engagement and improve content pacing. This per-checkpoint timing is not collected if you decline analytics consent.
3.3 Usage Data
We automatically collect device type, browser, pages visited, and session duration to improve our service. This data is anonymized where possible.
3.4 Audio Data
If you use the pronunciation trainer, audio recordings are sent to OpenAI's Whisper API for transcription and immediately discarded after processing. We do not store your voice recordings.
3.5 Cookies
We use cookies as described in our Cookie Policy. You can change your cookie preferences at any time from your account settings, under Privacy.
3.6 Leaderboards & Community Activity
If you join a study circle or appear on a leaderboard, your display name, XP, level, and activity milestones (such as completing a lesson) are visible to other members of that circle and on leaderboards. Your email is never shown to fellow learners. This visibility is on by default; you can hide yourself from all leaderboards and activity feeds at any time from your My Account privacy settings, without affecting your own private progress tracking.
3.7 Learning Lab and Research
From the record described in 3.2 we derive, for each thing you study and each aspect of it, an estimate of how well you know it, how likely you are to still know it after a gap, and the errors you tend to repeat. The Learning Lab is where those estimates are shown back to you.
Who else can see them: a teacher can see summary measures for learners actively enrolled in a study circle they teach, and an administrator at your institution can see the same for circles belonging to that institution, plus a school-level summary reported per circle rather than per learner. If your account is managed by a parent or guardian, they can see your figures. Mandarin Temple staff can also reach your learning record where running the service requires it — responding to a support request, investigating a safety concern, or administering a study you have joined. Your cognitive-task results are the exception: they are pseudonymous even to us, so that whoever checks whether those measurements are sound cannot tell whose they are. Nobody outside those groups has access.
Cognitive tasks — short timed exercises such as a memory or reaction-time task — are optional, and you are never required to take one. Their results are never shown to a teacher, a guardian, or an institution.
Research participation is a separate decision again. Using your data in de-identified, pooled research is off unless you turn it on, and you can withdraw at any time without losing anything else. If your account is managed by a guardian, only they can agree to it on your behalf; the server checks this and refuses a consent granted by the learner themselves. What is measured, what we will not claim from it, and how to change your choices are set out on our Learning Lab ethics page.
4. How We Use Your Data
- Provide and personalize your learning experience
- Track your progress and generate study recommendations
- Derive per-item mastery, retention and error patterns from your individual answers, to schedule your reviews and fill the Learning Lab
- Measure per-checkpoint active study time (with your analytics consent) to improve content pacing and recommendations
- Display your name, XP and activity milestones on circle and global leaderboards and feeds (on by default; you can opt out)
- Process subscription payments
- Send essential account notifications
- Improve our platform and develop new features
- Respond to support requests
We never sell your personal data to third parties.
5. Legal Basis for Processing (GDPR)
- Contract: Processing necessary to provide services you signed up for, including the record of your answers described in 3.2 and the mastery estimates derived from it — these are what the learning service does, not an addition to it
- Consent: Analytics and marketing cookies (opt-in)
- Consent: Research participation and cognitive tasks in the Learning Lab (opt-in, separate from the cookie choice above, and revocable at any time)
- Legitimate Interest: Service improvement, security, fraud prevention
7. Data Retention
Account and learning data is retained while your account is active. Upon account deletion, all personal data is permanently removed within 30 days. Per-checkpoint timing analytics are retained for up to 24 months for engagement analysis, after which they are aggregated or deleted. Anonymized analytics data may be retained for service improvement.
The record of your individual answers, the per-item mastery derived from it, any cognitive-task results, your study enrolments and your research-consent record are retained while your account is active and are removed when your account is deleted. We do not claim a research exemption to keep any of it after you have asked to be erased.
8. Your Rights
Depending on your jurisdiction, you have the right to:
- Access — request a copy of your personal data
- Correction — update inaccurate information
- Deletion — request permanent deletion of your data
- Portability — receive your data in a machine-readable format
- Withdraw Consent — revoke consent for optional processing
- Object — object to processing based on legitimate interest
A data export and an account deletion both cover the Learning Lab data described in 3.7 — your individual answers, the mastery derived from them, any cognitive-task results and your research-consent record — as well as everything listed elsewhere in this policy.
Exercise these rights from your My Account page or by contacting contact@mandarintemple.com.
9. Cross-Border Data Transfers
Your data may be processed in locations outside your country of residence, including the United States. We ensure appropriate safeguards (Standard Contractual Clauses, adequacy decisions) are in place for all international transfers. Where your jurisdiction requires it — for example under China's PIPL, South Korea's PIPA, or Singapore's PDPA — we obtain your explicit consent to cross-border transfer via the "Cross-Border Data Transfer" option in your cookie preferences before transferring your personal data abroad.
10. Children's Privacy
Users under 16 require parental or guardian consent. If enrolled through a school, the institution is responsible for obtaining appropriate consent.
11. Security
We use industry-standard encryption (TLS 1.3), hashed passwords, and secure session management to protect your data. We conduct regular security reviews.
12. Changes to This Policy
We will notify you of material changes via email or in-app notification. Continued use after changes constitutes acceptance.
13. Contact
For privacy inquiries, contact us at contact@mandarintemple.com.