Axiophase
Tong Learn
Privacy policy
Tong Learn translates between English and Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese) entirely on your phone. It has no account, no ads and no analytics.
Nothing leaves your phone
The app does not ask Android for internet access, so it cannot send anything anywhere. Speech recognition, translation and text reading all run on the phone. Installed from Google Play, the app's language models (about 1.3 GB) are downloaded by the Play Store right after the app itself, like the app; the app only checks how far that download has got.
What the app uses, and why
- Microphone: to hear what you and the other person say, while you hold or turn on the mic. The sound is turned into text on the phone and not recorded or kept.
- Camera: to read signs, menus and other text. Live camera frames are read and then dropped. A photo you take with the shutter, or one you pick or share into the app, is kept with the conversation (see below) until you delete it.
- Notifications: only if you turn on the daily phrase in Settings.
- Starting after a restart: so the daily phrase, if turned on, keeps its time.
What is kept on the phone
- The conversation on screen (text, translations and photos you added), until you clear it or delete a bubble.
- Phrases you save, your fixes to translations, your own words, and your Learn progress.
- Your settings.
These stay in the app's private storage. If your phone's Google backup is on, your phrases and progress are included in it, encrypted with your screen lock (the conversation and its photos are not). Settings → Backup can also save them to a file you choose, and restore them from one. Uninstalling the app deletes them from the phone.
Sharing
Nothing is shared with us or anyone else. Two things pass through Android's share menu, only when you tap them: sharing text or an image into the app from another app, and Settings → Your fixes → Export, which hands your translation fixes to the app you pick (for example e-mail).
Children
The app is not directed at children and collects no data from anyone.
Changes
A changed policy will be published at this address with a new date.