Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy – ArabicRoom

Last updated: Feb 17, 2025

This Privacy Policy explains how ArabicRoom (“we”, “us”) collects, uses and shares your personal information when you use www.arabicroom.com and its services: the Learning Hub word search, vocabulary lessons, Smart Review, Practice Sets, games and class games, classical Arabic courses, and our e-mails. If you do not agree with this policy, please do not use the service. Questions: ahlan(at)arabicroom.com.

Summary of key points

What we collect: your account details, your learning activity, and basic technical data. Card details are handled by Stripe; we never see them.
What we receive from others: your name, e-mail and picture from Google if you sign in with Google, and your subscription status from Stripe.
AI: the words you search and the content of Practice Sets are sent to OpenAI or DeepSeek to write explanations – never your name or e-mail.
We do not sell your data and we do not use it for advertising.
Class games: your teacher sees your name or nickname and your results in the games you join.
Your rights: you can ask to see, correct, export or delete your data at any time.

What information we collect
How we use your information
Legal bases for using your information
AI explanations (“Fasiha.AI”)
Video clips
Cookies and similar technologies
Who we share your information with
Class games, schools and universities
Children
International transfers
How long we keep your information
How we keep your information safe
Your privacy rights
Do-Not-Track signals
Additional rights for residents of California and other US states
Changes to this policy
How to contact us

1. What information we collect

In short: what you give us, what your use of the site creates, and a little from Google and Stripe.

Information you give us

Account: name, e-mail address, username and password (stored only as a secure hash).
University e-mail (optional): if you add one in Settings to get university access, we store it after you confirm it from the link we send.
Your content: words you save, Practice Sets you create or import, and settings such as your language.
Messages: what you write in the live chat, the contact form or comments.

Information created when you use the service

Learning activity: searches, saved words, reviews and their schedule, game results, XP, streaks and achievements, lessons you open.
Class games (VocabHunter): the name or nickname you play with, your answers, scores and your creature’s look.
Technical data: IP address, browser and device type, pages visited, and the website that first sent you to us (for example a search engine, an AI assistant or a class link).

Information we receive from others

Google: if you sign in with Google, we receive your name, e-mail address, Google account ID and profile picture.
Stripe: when you subscribe, we receive your plan, payment status, and Stripe customer and subscription IDs. Your card number is collected and stored by Stripe, not by us.

2. How we use your information

In short: to run the service, to improve it, and to keep it safe.

To create and manage your account and let you log in.
To provide the features: your saved words, review schedule, progress, games and Practice Sets.
To run class games, including the teacher’s view of results.
To manage subscriptions, free trials and university access.
To send e-mails about your account and, if you keep them switched on, reminders and a weekly summary.
To understand, with statistics, which features and which channels help learners.
To answer your messages and support requests.
To protect the site against abuse, fraud and attacks, and to meet legal obligations.

3. Legal bases for using your information

In short: if you are in the EU, the UK or a similar jurisdiction, we rely on one of the following.

Contract: to provide the service you signed up for, including a paid subscription.
Consent: for optional things such as reminder e-mails and analytics cookies where consent is required. You can withdraw consent at any time.
Legitimate interests: to improve the service, understand how it is used, and keep it secure, as long as these interests do not override your rights.
Legal obligation: for example keeping payment records for tax purposes, or answering a lawful request.

4. AI explanations (“Fasiha”)

In short: AI writes the explanations; it receives the word, not you.

Fasiha explanations, summaries and generated Practice Sets are produced by AI services from OpenAI or DeepSeek. We send them only the word you searched or the content of the Practice Set (its topic and words). Your name, e-mail address and account details are not included. Explanations may be saved and shown to other learners who search for the same word. AI answers can contain mistakes; please use them as a learning aid.

5. Video clips

In short: clips play in YouTube players, and YouTube has its own policy.

Real video clips are shown through embedded YouTube players, and When a clip plays, YouTube may set cookies and receive your IP address, under Google’s Privacy Policy.

6. Cookies and similar technologies

In short: a few cookies to run the site and count where students come from; none for advertising.

Necessary: login session, language preference and security.
First-visit source: the cookie ar_src remembers for 90 days which website first brought your browser to us, so we can count sign-ups by source. It contains no name or e-mail.
Browser storage: a random identifier for our own statistics, and the state of a game you are playing, so that reloading the page does not drop you out of a class game.
Third parties: Google Analytics, the Tawk.to chat, YouTube players and Cloudflare (security) may set their own cookies.

We do not use cookies for advertising or to follow you on other websites. You can block or delete cookies in your browser; logging in and some features will not work without the necessary ones. For Google Analytics you can also use the opt-out add-on.

7. Who we share your information with

In short: only with the services that run the platform for us, your teacher in class games, and authorities when the law requires it. We never sell it.

Stripe – payments (stripe.com/privacy)
Google – sign-in with Google, Analytics, YouTube (policies.google.com/privacy)
OpenAI and DeepSeek – AI explanations, only the content described in section 4
Cloudflare – content delivery and security (cloudflare.com/privacypolicy)
Your teacher – for class games you take part in (section 8)
Authorities – when required by law or to protect our rights and users’ safety
Business transfers – if ArabicRoom is merged, sold or transferred, your information may move to the new owner, who must respect this policy.
8. Class games, schools and universities
In short: teachers see their own games; schools’ student data is used only to serve those students.

The teacher who creates a VocabHunter game sees the players’ names or nicknames and their results for that game, and can send the words a student missed to that student’s review list. Players can join with a code without an account. Their game stays in the class history, and becomes part of an account only if the player chooses to create or log in to one from the results screen.

When a university or school gives its students access, we use student data only to provide the service to those students and do not sell it or reuse it for other purposes. A university e-mail you confirm is used only to check that your institution is a partner.

9. Children
In short: accounts are for learners aged 16 and older.

ArabicRoom accounts are meant for learners aged 16 and older. Teachers who use class games with younger students must have the consent their school requires; younger students can play class games with a nickname, without an account. If you believe a child has given us personal information, contact us and we will delete it.

10. International transfers
In short: your data may be processed outside your country.

The services listed in section 7 may process data in other countries, including the United States. Where the law requires it, these transfers rely on safeguards such as the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses, as provided by those services.

11. How long we keep your information
In short: as long as needed for the purpose, then we delete or anonymise it.

Account and learning data: as long as your account exists.
Class game rooms: about 2 hours; the results stay in the game history.
The code that lets a guest save a game to a new account: 7 days.
University e-mail confirmation links: 24 hours.
The ar_src cookie: 90 days.
Subscription and payment records: as long as tax and legal rules require.
Comments: until they are removed.
When we no longer need personal information, we delete or anonymise it. If that is not possible right away (for example because it sits in a backup), we keep it isolated until it can be deleted.
12. How we keep your information safe
In short: reasonable measures, but no system is perfect.

We use encrypted connections (HTTPS), hashed passwords, access checks on every request, and service keys kept outside the database. No online system is 100% secure, so please use a strong password and keep it private.

13. Your privacy rights
In short: you can access, correct, export or delete your data.

Depending on where you live (for example under the GDPR or UK GDPR), you have the right to:

access the personal information we hold about you;
correct it;
delete it, including your whole account;
restrict or object to how we use it;
receive it in a portable format;
withdraw any consent you gave;
complain to your local data protection authority.
You can change your language and e-mail preferences in your account, turn off reminder e-mails from the unsubscribe link in any of them, and download your saved words yourself (My Words → Export CSV). To correct your details, delete your account or make any other request, write to ahlan(at)arabicroom.com. We may ask you to confirm your identity and will answer within 30 days.

14. Do-Not-Track signals
Some browsers can send a “Do-Not-Track” signal. There is no agreed standard for responding to it, so we do not currently respond to these signals. We do not track you across other websites in any case.

15. Additional rights for residents of California and other US states
In short: you have the right to know, correct and delete, and we do not sell or share your data for advertising.

If you live in California or another US state with a privacy law, you may have the right to know which personal information we collect and why, to correct it, to delete it, and not to be treated differently for using these rights. The categories we collect and the purposes are described in sections 1 and 2. We have not sold personal information and have not shared it for cross-context behavioural advertising in the last 12 months, and we have no plan to do so. To use these rights, contact us as described in section 17; you can also use an authorised agent.

16. Changes to this policy
We will update this page when our practices change and change the date at the top. If a change is important, we will tell you on the site or by e-mail.

17. How to contact us
For any question or request about your privacy:
E-mail: ahlan(at)arabicroom.com
Contact form: www.arabicroom.com/contact