Tap AAC Privacy Policy: What the App and Accounts Keep

The short version

Tap AAC is a picture-communication (AAC) app that works on your device. You don't need an account to use it, and it has no advertising, no analytics and no crash reporting. If you don't sign in, what you put into it stays on the device, apart from backups and anything you share yourself.

Signing in is optional and is for adults. If you sign in, we keep your account and the books you put in it online, so you can use a book on another device, work on it at tapaac.com/app, and share it with a team you invite. On the web app the team can also keep goals, goal data, notes and a history of changes. We don't sell your information or use it for advertising. You can delete your account and data at any time.

What the app keeps on the device

Your communication book (pages, buttons, words, colours) is saved in the app's own storage on the device.
Photos you take with the device's camera app or choose with Android's photo picker are copied into the book. The original photo is not changed.
Voice recordings you make for a button, and messages recorded with the Record button, are kept in the same storage.
Videos you pick or record for a button are kept in the same storage, on that device only. They are never put in a backup file or a cloud book.
Settings (voice, speed, touch options, the editing PIN), saved buttons, saved phrases and quick phrases are kept on the device. The PIN is stored as plain text: it is there to stop the book being changed by accident, not to protect data.
The word diary is on from the start. It writes down each word said, with the time, the page and how it was chosen (a button, typing or a word guess), for the Word report and the therapist's report. You can turn it off or clear it in Settings > Word diary & reports.
What word guesses learn, and recent sentences: the word guesses (on the keyboard and on the Word Guesses page) learn how the person talks: short runs of up to four words from what is said, and the words typed on the keyboard (on from the start). The app also remembers the last sentences said, so one tap says them again. Learning can be turned off, and what was learned or the recent sentences can be forgotten, in Settings > Word diary & reports.
The purchase: Google Play's order number and purchase token, so the app stays unlocked without an internet connection.

The word diary, what word guesses learned, typed words and recent sentences are never put in a cloud book. They do go into backups (see "Backups, sharing and printing" below).

Camera and microphone

Camera: Tap AAC has no camera permission. A photo or video is taken by your device's own camera app, only when you ask for one.
Microphone: used only while you record your own voice for a button. Nothing is recorded at any other time.

Both are optional. Everything else in the app works without them. Photos and recordings are part of the book, so if you put the book in your account they are stored with it (see below).

Speech and word guesses

Words are spoken by Bella, the app's own voice, which is built into the app and works without an internet connection, or by your device's own text-to-speech engine. Word guesses are worked out on the device too. Nothing you say or type is sent to us. If you choose an online voice in your device's text-to-speech settings, that engine's own privacy policy applies.

Buying the app

Tap AAC is free for 30 days, then unlocked with a one-time purchase through Google Play. Google Play handles the payment; we never see your card details.

Once a day, a device unlocked by a Play purchase checks whether that purchase was refunded. It sends our database (Google Firebase) only a one-way code made from the purchase (a SHA-256 hash of Google Play's purchase token), with nothing about you or the person using the app. (If you are signed in to Account & sharing, the request carries that sign-in, as every request to our database does, but nothing about it is kept.) We keep the same kind of code, and the date, for each purchase Google Play tells us was refunded, and nothing about the buyer. If the purchase was refunded, the unlock is turned off. A device that never signs in and was never bought does not contact Firebase at all.

Accounts (optional, for adults)

You can sign in with your Google account in Tap AAC under Settings > Account & sharing, or at tapaac.com/app. Accounts are for parents, carers, teachers and therapists, and for adults who use AAC themselves. A child should never need to sign in: a child's book belongs to the parent's or carer's account, and the therapist joins by invite. We never see your Google password.

What an account keeps

Your account: your name, email address and an account ID from Google, and when you signed up and last signed in. On the web app you can also add a title others see (for example "Speech therapist") and say what you do (family, speech therapist, teacher, or someone who uses AAC), which sets up your home screen. Only you see that last choice.
Cloud books: for each book you put in your account, its name, pages, buttons, words, pictures, and any photos and recordings in it. Photos and recordings are stored inside our database, with the book.
The person the book is for (web app): their name, whether they are a child or an adult, and, if you add them, their birth year and notes for the team (for example likes, dislikes and how they point).
Goals and goal data (web app): each goal's wording, area, target words, status and due date, and the data taken on it: the date, how many chances, how many were right, how much help was given, and a short note.
Notes (web app): session notes, observations and home updates, with a date and, if you choose, the goal they are about.
Activity history (web app): a line for each change made on the web app, saying who made it, what they did and when, for example “cleared the button ‘want’ on Home”, “took data on ‘Asks for more’: 4 of 5” or “joined the team (can look)”. A note that isn't for the whole team shows only as "added a note".
The team: who is on each book, what each person can do, and each member's name, email address and title.
Invites you make: the book's name, the person's name, your name, what the invite allows, when it runs out and how many times it has been used.

What is not uploaded: the word diary, what word guesses learned, typed words, recent sentences, the app's settings, saved buttons, saved phrases, quick phrases, videos, Record-button messages and the purchase stay on the device.

Who can see what

Everyone on a book's team can see the book, the person's details, the goals and goal data, team notes and the activity history, and each other's name, email address and title.
Notes are seen by the people the writer chooses: "Everyone on the team", "Owner and editors only" (the owner and people who can edit), or "Only me" (just the writer).
Changing things: the owner and people who can edit can change the book, the person's details, goals and goal data, and add notes. Only the writer of a note can change it. Only the owner can invite people, remove them or delete the book.
Us: LMNOP LABS can access account data to run the service and to help if you ask us to. We don't look at it for any other reason, and we don't sell or rent it.

Sharing a book

Only the book's owner can invite people. Someone joins with their own Google account, in the app or at tapaac.com/app.

In the app: a code that works once and runs out after 7 days.
On the web app: a link, a QR code or a code that runs out after 1, 7 or 14 days, never more than 14.
Can edit invites work for one person only, so a forwarded link can't be used to change the book. Can look invites can be used by one person or by up to 20 people, as you choose.
Anyone who signs in with an invite's link or code can see the book's name, your name and (on web-app invites) the person's name before joining, so share invites only with the people you mean.
You can cancel an invite at any time. When you remove someone from the team on the web app, links that have already been used are cancelled too, so they can't come back with them.

Health information

Goals, data and notes are stored in your account and are seen by the team as described above. Tap AAC isn't a medical-records system, and it isn't set up to meet the health-privacy laws that clinics and schools follow for their own records, so keep official clinical and school records in your own system. Write what the team needs to help the person communicate, and leave out diagnoses and other health details you don't need here.

Online services the app uses

Google Play billing, to buy the unlock and check it.
Google Sign-In and Google Firebase (sign-in and the database), only if you sign in, plus the once-a-day refund check described above.

The app has no other online services: no advertising, analytics or crash-reporting tools.

Where your data is kept

Account data is kept in Google Firebase (Google Cloud), in the United States. Google provides the sign-in, storage and servers as our service provider. It travels to and from the app and web app encrypted, and Google encrypts it where it is stored.

Backups, sharing and printing

Saving or sharing a backup, and "Share this page", create a file and hand it to the app or place you pick (Files, email, messages, cloud storage). A backup file contains your book with its photos and recordings, the settings, saved buttons and phrases, the word diary, what word guesses learned and the typed words; it does not contain videos. "Share as a LAM file" sends the word diary as a file in the same way. Where it goes from there is up to you and the app you share it with; we never receive a copy.

Android's own backup to the device's Google account (if it is turned on in Android's settings) includes the app's files, among them the word diary, what word guesses learned, typed words and recent sentences, but not videos or earlier copies of the book. Google keeps that backup for you; we can't see it.

"Print this page" and the reports go through Android's own print screen to the printer, or the PDF file, you choose.

Children

Many people who use Tap AAC are children, usually with the help of a parent, teacher or therapist. The app works fully without an account, and accounts are meant for adults. If you think a child has signed up for an account, email us and we will delete it. The app shows no advertising.

Before Account & sharing, buying, sharing a backup or a page, or opening this policy in the browser, the app asks a grown-up question: the PIN when editing is protected, otherwise a times-table question. With "Ask for a PIN before editing" on (Settings > Protection), editing and Settings ask for the PIN too.

Data we collect

If you never sign in: none, apart from the one-way purchase code in the refund check if you bought the app. If you sign in: what is listed under "What an account keeps" above, and nothing else. There are no analytics, no crash reporting and no advertising in the app, the web app or this website.

Keeping data

Uninstalling Tap AAC deletes everything it stored on the device, so save a backup first if you want to keep your book. Account data stays until you delete it. You can delete a single book, goal, entry or note, or leave a team, at any time; to delete everything, delete your account.

Deleting your Tap AAC account and data

You can delete your Tap AAC account, made by LMNOP LABS LLC, in any of these three ways. Each one asks you to confirm.

On the web app (deletes the most): at tapaac.com/app, open Account (in the side menu, or under your picture), then "Delete account". You will be asked to sign in once more.
In the app: Settings > Account & sharing > Delete my account. You will be asked to sign in once more.
By email, without the app: email support@lmnoplabs.fun from the Google email address you sign in with, with the subject "Delete my Tap AAC account". We delete everything listed below, including anything the app or web app leaves behind, and email you when it's done, within 30 days.

What is deleted: your account and profile (name, email, title), every book you own with its pages, pictures, photos, recordings and the person's details, for everyone it was shared with, the invites you made, and your place on books others shared with you. Deleting on the web app or by email also deletes the goals, goal data, notes and activity history kept with the books you own, and your notes in other people's books.

What the app's delete leaves: deleting in the app doesn't yet remove the goals, goal data, notes and activity history kept with your books on the web app, or your notes in other people's books. If you used those, delete at tapaac.com/app instead, or email us. If you have already deleted in the app, email us and we will remove what is left.

What stays:

Books already on tablets, yours and your team's, stay on those tablets, with their word diaries.
Backup files people saved, and Android backups in their Google accounts, stay with them.
In books other people own, goals and goal data you added and the activity lines that record what you did stay as part of that book's history, unless you email us to remove them. "Only me" notes another member wrote in a book you own can't be reached from your account; email us and we will delete them too.
The one-way refund codes, which say nothing about who you are.

This website

tapaac.com uses no analytics and no trackers. The web app (tapaac.com/app) loads Google's Firebase code to sign you in and read and save books, and its fonts from Google Fonts. Signing in stores a sign-in token in your browser, and the web app remembers a few choices there (such as the last person you opened). The rest of the site uses no cookies and loads nothing from other websites. Our web host may keep standard server logs (such as IP addresses and the pages requested) to keep the site running.

Emailing us

If you email us, we use your email address only to answer you.

Changes

If this policy changes, the new version will be posted at this address with a new date.

Questions

LMNOP LABS LLC
support@lmnoplabs.fun

Privacy policy