Privacy policy

1. Who we are

EssayGuide is operated by Yiek Siew Hao in Malaysia for students learning writing and language skills. Questions and privacy requests can be sent to essayguideapp@gmail.com. This notice is available in English and Bahasa Melayu. App features and available controls differ by version and platform.

2. Information you provide

• Accounts: email, an account identifier and sign-in details provided by your chosen sign-in service. Authentication is handled by Firebase; passwords are not published in your profile.
• Profile: name, username, avatar choices and any birthday, gender, school, state, education level or target exam you choose to add.
• Learning and reading: lesson completion, answers or review items, XP, streaks, quests, virtual coins, unlocked avatar items, favourites, highlights, reading progress and saved word history.
• Intro answers and practice preferences: chosen subjects, self-reported experience, writing difficulties, daily practice target and optional reminder choice. After sign-in, one completed intro response is linked to your account for private administrator reporting to understand students and improve EssayGuide. Guest answers wait on the device until sign-in. The reporting dashboard shows aggregate counts rather than names or emails. Your practice-time counter and later goal changes stay on that device; deleting your account removes its uploaded intro response.
• Community: comments and replies, likes, leaderboard activity, contributor insights, content reports and blocking preferences. When you block another learner, the app asks for a reason category and a short written explanation; these are sent privately to EssayGuide administrators to help keep the community safe.
• Learning-content reports: the question, notes or proverb reference, explanation language, report reason and any optional message. These reports are private to administrators.
• Optional Pro feedback: if you respond after Pro access ends, we save your selected reason, optional explanation, plan, platform, membership-period reference and response date with your account identifier for private administrator reports. You can skip this request. Account deletion removes feedback linked to your account.
• Contributions and support: writing, author attribution, submitted files and details supplied when you send feedback or ask for help.
• Essay and study-tip images: an optional cover image for a submitted essay, and up to 9 photos or in-text images you add to a study tip. You choose these from your photo library or paste them; the app does not access other photos. Study tips include your secondary school and may also include your state, the college or university where you study now and, if you choose, the name of a scholarship you hold. Uploaded images are private to you and EssayGuide reviewers until a submission is approved.

Only share information you are comfortable providing. Where a field is optional, you can leave it out. Information needed for a feature, such as an email for account access, may be required to use that feature.

3. Device, purchase and website data

Service providers may process device and app identifiers, IP addresses, basic request logs, purchase or entitlement records and notification tokens to deliver and protect the service. Google AdMob supports advertising in eligible app versions and may process device or advertising identifiers, ad interactions and diagnostic information according to device settings and applicable consent requirements.

In the new Android and iOS learning experience, an optional rewarded ad can earn an extra lesson-start heart. To avoid duplicate rewards, the app saves a reward reference and claim date against the account. If a reward is waiting to sync, a pending reference is saved on that device. Watching an ad is optional; it is not a condition of creating an account or using the free daily allowance. Ad availability and privacy options depend on the app version, region and device settings. Contact us about withdrawing an advertising consent if you cannot find an available privacy control.

Updated app versions use Firebase Crashlytics for crash diagnostics, including app/device versions, code stack traces and provider diagnostic identifiers. We do not add your account identifier, email, student writing or answers to these reports. Automatic sharing is enabled in release versions by default; you can change Profile → Share crash reports on that device. Turning it off disables collection and requests deletion of unsent reports on the device; already submitted reports follow the provider’s retention arrangements.

When you use online word meanings or translations, the selected word or phrase is sent to dictionaryapi.dev, Free Dictionary API (freedictionaryapi.com) or Google translation services as needed. These services receive the network request and may process your IP address and request metadata. EssayGuide does not add your account identifier or the full essay to these lookup requests. Chinese CC-CEDICT dictionary definitions are bundled on your device. Pronunciation uses your device’s speech service; voice downloads or speech processing may depend on the engine and its settings.

Purchases are handled by Apple or Google. RevenueCat uses the account identifier and purchase or entitlement information to connect Pro access to the appropriate account. EssayGuide does not receive your full payment-card details from those stores.

This website has no account sign-in, email signup form or integrated advertising or analytics tools. Essay readers and quizzes use temporary browser state; website answers, language selections and sample rewards are not sent to the app database. Hosting providers may keep operational request logs. Opening a store or external service uses that service’s own privacy policy.

4. Why we use it

• Provide accounts, reading tools, lessons and community features.
• Save supported preferences and progress, and restore them when you sign in.
• Manage membership, purchases, rewards and avatar unlocks.
• Deliver permitted notifications and respond to support requests.
• Review submitted work, prevent abuse and maintain the service.
• Meet applicable legal requirements.

5. What other people can see

Comments, replies, published contributions, leaderboard entries and some profile activity are social features. The number of likes on a comment is visible to other learners, but the list of who liked it is not. Names or usernames, avatars, school/state information, education or exam details, rankings and shared progress may be visible to other app users where these features display them. Published writing may include the author attribution you provide. When an essay or study tip is approved and published, its cover image, photos, in-text images and the school, college or university and scholarship details you added are shown to other learners with it.

Updated app versions include comment review, reporting, user blocking and deletion of your own comments. Reports, blocking preferences and the reasons you give for blocking are used for safety. They are not displayed as public posts, and a blocked learner is not shown your reason. Moderators can review reports and block reasons and restrict harmful content or accounts.

Favourites, saved highlights and word history are stored for your account’s reading experience. Do not put private contact details, sensitive personal information or another person’s data into public comments or contributions.

6. Service providers and transfers

EssayGuide relies on services including Google/Firebase for authentication, cloud database, file storage and supported notifications; Google AdMob for advertising in supported app versions; RevenueCat for membership; Apple and Google for app distribution and payments; and Vercel for this website’s hosting.

These providers may process information on infrastructure outside Malaysia. Their own terms, privacy notices and security arrangements apply to the services they provide. We share information needed to deliver features, handle your requests, protect the service or comply with legal obligations.

Read the provider notices: Firebase, Google, RevenueCat, Apple and Vercel.

7. Storage and retention

Supported account data is stored in the cloud. The app also uses device storage and offline caches. Pending heart deductions and lesson completions are also saved on the device with operation references so interrupted cloud saves can be retried without applying the same operation twice. Unfinished lesson questions, answers, activity progress and remaining time are saved on that device so the same attempt can resume without another heart charge. These attempts are separate from cloud-synced completion records; their answer content is removed from the recovery record when the attempt is completed or discarded. Published learning corrections are cached for offline use. Administrative publishing history and recoverable essay archives are private to administrators; account-linked contribution snapshots are included in account-deletion cleanup. Some preferences, including the explanation language and crash-report sharing, are device settings; they are not automatically shared across devices. Guest reading data may remain only on that device. Cloud sync requires the same account and may depend on connectivity and app version. Reinstalling the app does not reliably restore guest-only data or an unredeemed local ad reward.

We keep information for as long as reasonably needed to provide the features it supports, maintain an active account, resolve disputes, prevent abuse or satisfy applicable legal obligations. Deletion requests may require identity checks. When handling a request, we will explain any records that must be retained and why, including relevant transaction records. Backups and provider logs may have separate retention arrangements. Private intro responses, optional Pro feedback and learning-content reports linked to your account are included in deletion cleanup. In-app account deletion in updated versions also removes contributions linked to your account. A minimal account-identifier deletion record is retained to prevent old devices from recreating deleted data. For email requests or older contributions we cannot link, identify the work and attribution so that we can address them.

We use access controls and provider security features, but no storage or transmission method can be guaranteed completely secure.

8. Your choices and requests

• Edit supported profile fields, remove supported saved reading items and change preferences in the app.
• In updated versions, open Profile → Account & safety → Delete my account. Confirm your choice and sign in again when asked. Use reporting and blocking controls on supported community content.
• Control camera, photo and notification permissions in your device settings. Declining camera access does not prevent using unrelated reading and learning features.
• Use available advertising privacy controls or contact us about your choices.
• Request access, correction, withdrawal of consent, limits on direct marketing, account deletion or other rights available under applicable law. Withdrawing information or consent needed for a feature can prevent us from providing that feature.

The account and data request page explains in-app deletion and the email support route if you cannot access your account or the control is unavailable. Contact us about removing a comment or published contribution if your app version has no removal control. We may ask for information needed to confirm your identity. Never send a password or payment-card number.

Deleting an account or uninstalling the app does not cancel a store subscription; cancel it in your app store separately. This website does not itself sign you in or automatically delete an app account.

9. Younger students

EssayGuide is intended for secondary-school students aged 13 and above. If you are under 18, involve a parent or guardian before creating an account, making purchases or publishing personal information. Parents or guardians can contact us about a young person’s data or request assistance with removal, including if a child below 13 has provided information. Avoid sharing details that identify or locate a child in public contributions.

10. Updates and contact

We may update this notice as features, providers or requirements change. The date above identifies this version. Contact essayguideapp@gmail.com with questions, concerns or privacy requests. For information about rights and complaints in Malaysia, see the Personal Data Protection Commissioner’s resources.