Today English Privacy Policy

Last Updated: September 30, 2026

Effective Date: September 30, 2026

Important Notice:

"Today English" is an English reading and vocabulary learning application developed and operated by Wuhan Guanshandu Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter "we" or "us"). We understand how important your personal information is to you, and we process it in accordance with the Personal Information Protection Law of the People's Republic of China and other applicable laws, following the principles of legality, legitimacy, necessity and good faith. Before using "Today English", please read this Policy carefully and make sure you fully understand it, especially the provisions marked in bold. If you have any questions about this Policy, please contact us using the details in "How to Contact Us".

By clicking to agree to this Policy, or by using "Today English" or registering or logging in to an account, you confirm that you have fully understood and agreed to all of this Policy.

This Policy explains:

• 1. How We Collect and Use Your Personal Information
• 2. How We Use Local Storage and Cookies
• 3. How We Share, Transfer and Publicly Disclose Your Personal Information
• 4. How We Store Your Personal Information
• 5. How We Protect Your Personal Information
• 6. How You Manage Your Personal Information
• 7. Protection of Minors' Personal Information
• 8. Third-Party SDKs and Services
• 9. How This Policy Is Updated
• 10. Third-Party Websites
• 11. Scope of Application
• 12. Miscellaneous
• How to Contact Us

1. How We Collect and Use Your Personal Information

Personal information means any information, recorded electronically or by other means, relating to an identified or identifiable natural person, excluding information that has been anonymized. Sensitive personal information means personal information that, once leaked or unlawfully used, may easily harm a person's dignity or endanger their personal or property safety, including biometric data, religious beliefs, specific identities, medical and health information, financial accounts and location tracking, as well as the personal information of minors under the age of 14. We collect and use only the personal information necessary for the functions described in this Policy, and only for the purposes stated here.

1.1 Features Available Without Logging In

You can use article reading, tap-to-look-up definitions, word pronunciation, sentence translation, vocabulary review, the word book, reading statistics, the vocabulary size test and the reading level assessment without registering or logging in. You only need to log in to set a nickname and avatar, view system messages, submit feedback or manage your account.

1.2 Account Registration and Login

"Today English" uses mainland China mobile numbers for login. A number that has not been registered will have an account created automatically the first time it is used to log in. You may choose either of the following methods:

• One-tap login with this phone's number: with your confirmation, we use the Alibaba Cloud Number Verification Service to have your mobile carrier (China Mobile, China Unicom or China Telecom) verify and provide the mobile number of this device. Verification requires your network type, carrier information, IP address and basic device information; see Section 8 for details.
• Mobile number + SMS verification code: you enter your mobile number and we send a verification code to it through Alibaba Cloud SMS. On Android devices, if you tap Allow in the system prompt, the system passes the single SMS message containing the code to the app so the code can be filled in automatically. We do not read any of your other messages, and you may decline and enter the code manually.

Under the real-identity requirements of the Cybersecurity Law of the People's Republic of China, a mobile number is required to register an account. If you do not provide one, you will not be able to log in, but you can still use all the features listed in Section 1.1.

To keep your account secure, detect unusual logins and provide the "Login Device Management" feature, we collect the following device information when you log in: device brand, model, manufacturer, CPU architecture, screen size and pixel density, operating system version, system language, time zone, network type, app version, whether the device is an emulator, device identifiers (the IDFV on iOS devices, the system build number on Android devices, and a random installation ID generated when the app is first launched), and the IP address and time of login. During this process we do not collect the IMEI, IMSI, MAC address or device serial number, nor advertising identifiers such as the IDFA or OAID.

1.3 Profile

After logging in, you may set a nickname and avatar to identify your account within the app. Avatar images are uploaded to and stored in Tencent Cloud Object Storage. Both are optional, and leaving them blank does not affect any other feature.

1.4 Learning Data Stored on Your Device

The following data is stored only in a local database on your device. It is never uploaded to our servers, and we cannot see it:

• your subscribed news sources, article list, reading progress and favorite articles;
• the words in your word book, together with the sentence each word was saved from;
• your vocabulary review plan, review history, check-ins and learning calendar;
• reading statistics such as reading time, words read, articles read and word frequency;
• results of the vocabulary size test and the reading level assessment;
• local caches of word definitions, example sentences and sentence translations;
• preferences such as dark mode, font size, dictionary settings and reading settings.

Because this data is not stored on our servers and we do not offer cloud sync, it cannot be recovered after you uninstall the app, clear the app's data or change devices. Deleting your account does not delete this local data; you can delete it by uninstalling the app or clearing its data.

1.5 Article Reading

To show you articles, your device connects directly to the third-party news websites you subscribe to (currently including CNN and AP News). It reads article titles and links from their public pages, and fetches article pages in the background to count words and estimate reading difficulty. When you open an article, the in-app browser loads the original web page directly, and any scripts, advertisements and cookies on that page are provided by the website.

During this process, the third-party news website can obtain network information such as your device's IP address, browser identifier (User-Agent) and time of access, and may use cookies or similar technologies under its own privacy policy. This collection is carried out independently by the website operator, does not pass through our servers, and is beyond our control. We recommend that you read the privacy policies of these websites. If you do not want to visit a particular website, you can unsubscribe from that source in the subscription settings on the home page.

Our servers only provide your device with the catalog of available news sources. We do not learn which sources you subscribe to or which articles you read.

1.6 Word Lookup and Pronunciation

When you tap a word, the app first uses its built-in offline dictionary, which makes no network request. For words not in the built-in dictionary, the app requests the definition from our content delivery network (CDN); to play pronunciation, the app downloads the word's audio from the CDN. These requests contain only the word being looked up and no account information. If audio is unavailable, the app uses your device's text-to-speech (TTS) engine to read the word aloud, which is performed by the speech engine configured in your system settings.

1.7 Sentence Translation

When you tap "Translate", the app sends the text of the sentence you chose to translate to our server, and the translation is generated by the GLM large language model of our commissioned model provider, Zhipu AI (Beijing Zhipu Huazhang Technology Co., Ltd.). We provide Zhipu AI only with the sentence to be translated, never your account, mobile number or device information. To avoid repeated requests, our server caches translation results for no more than 3 days, and translations are also saved on your device so you can view them again.

Translations are generated automatically by artificial intelligence, may contain errors or inaccuracies, and are provided for learning reference only.

1.8 Smart Recommendation Sorting

When "Smart Recommendation Sorting" is on, the app sorts and mixes the articles on the home page locally on your device based on the topics and sources of articles you have read, to help you find content you are interested in more quickly. Sorting is done entirely on your device; your reading history is not uploaded and is not used for advertising or marketing. You can turn this feature off at any time in "Me - Reading Settings", after which home page articles are listed in the order they were fetched.

1.9 System Messages

After you log in, the app retrieves system messages addressed to your account (such as service announcements and account security reminders) from our servers. The app does not currently send you push notifications.

1.10 Feedback and Customer Support

When you submit feedback, we collect the feedback text, any images you choose to upload (up to 3), any contact details you choose to provide and your account information, in order to resolve your issue, contact you and improve the product. Feedback images are stored in Tencent Cloud Object Storage. Please do not include personal information unrelated to your issue in your feedback or screenshots. If you contact us by email, we receive your email address and the content of your message, which we use only to reply to you.

1.11 Network Logs

When you use online features such as login, word lookup, translation and system messages, our servers automatically record network logs, including your IP address, time of access, the endpoint requested, system language and app version. These are used to keep the service secure and stable, prevent malicious requests and troubleshoot problems. We do not use network logs for user profiling or marketing.

1.12 Device Permissions

The app requests the following permissions only when you use the related features:

The app does not request location, microphone, contacts, SMS, call log or calendar permissions. The automatic code fill described in Section 1.2 does not require the SMS permission and needs your confirmation each time. Some system or third-party components may declare other permissions in the installation package (such as audio recording, vibration or biometrics), but the app's features do not use them.

You can revoke any granted permission at any time in your device's system settings. The related feature will then stop working, but other features will not be affected.

1.13 Information We Do Not Collect

• location, contacts, call logs, SMS content, or the list of installed apps;
• biometric information such as fingerprints, facial data or voiceprints;
• real-name verification information such as ID card numbers;
• financial account information such as bank card numbers or payment accounts (the app currently has no paid features);
• advertising identifiers such as the IDFA or OAID.

1.14 Exceptions to Consent

Under applicable laws and regulations, we may process your personal information without your consent in the following circumstances:

• where necessary to conclude or perform a contract to which you are a party;
• where necessary to perform statutory duties or obligations;
• where necessary to respond to a public health emergency, or to protect the life, health or property of a natural person in an emergency;
• where personal information is processed within a reasonable scope for news reporting, public opinion supervision or other activities in the public interest;
• where personal information that you have made public, or that has otherwise been lawfully made public, is processed within a reasonable scope;
• other circumstances provided by laws and administrative regulations.

1.15 Changes of Purpose

If we intend to use your personal information for a purpose not stated in this Policy, or beyond the scope directly or reasonably related to the purpose stated at the time of collection, we will inform you and obtain your consent in advance.

2. How We Use Local Storage and Cookies

The app uses a local database and app storage on your device to keep your login status, learning data and preferences. Your login credentials are kept in the secure storage provided by the system (the iOS Keychain or Android encrypted storage).

When the in-app browser opens a third-party web page, that website may write cookies to your device or use similar technologies. These cookies are set and managed by the website and are governed by its own privacy policy. We ourselves do not use cookies or similar technologies to track your behavior, and do not use them for advertising.

You can delete this locally stored data by clearing the app's data or uninstalling the app.

3. How We Share, Transfer and Publicly Disclose Your Personal Information

3.1 Sharing

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it with advertisers or data brokers. We do not share your personal information with any company, organization or individual outside our company except in the following circumstances:

• with your separate prior consent;
• Commissioned processing: we engage the service providers listed in Section 8 (Alibaba Cloud, Tencent Cloud and Zhipu AI) to provide number verification, SMS delivery, image storage, content delivery and translation on our behalf. We provide only the information necessary for each purpose, and require them by contract to process it only for the agreed purposes and in the agreed manner, and not for any other purpose;
• as required by laws and regulations, or by administrative or judicial authorities acting in accordance with law.

Information collected directly by a third-party news website when you visit it in the in-app browser is not information we provide to that website; see Sections 1.5 and 10.

3.2 Transfer

We do not transfer your personal information to any company, organization or individual. If personal information must be transferred because of a merger, division, dissolution, declaration of bankruptcy or similar event, we will inform you of the recipient's name and contact details and require the recipient to continue to perform the obligations set out in this Policy. If the recipient changes the original purpose or method of processing, it must obtain your consent again.

3.3 Public Disclosure

We do not publicly disclose your personal information unless we have your separate consent, or disclosure is required by laws and regulations or by judicial or administrative authorities acting in accordance with law.

3.4 Exceptions to Prior Consent for Sharing, Transfer and Public Disclosure

Under applicable laws and regulations, your prior consent is not required to share, transfer or publicly disclose your personal information in the following circumstances:

• where directly related to national security or national defense;
• where directly related to public safety, public health or major public interests;
• where directly related to criminal investigation, prosecution, trial or enforcement of judgments;
• where necessary to protect the life, property or other major legitimate rights and interests of you or another person, and it is difficult to obtain the consent of the person concerned;
• personal information that you have disclosed to the public yourself;
• personal information collected from lawfully and publicly disclosed information, such as lawful news reports and government information disclosure.

4. How We Store Your Personal Information

4.1 Storage Location

Personal information collected and generated within the People's Republic of China is stored on servers within the People's Republic of China. We do not provide your personal information to parties outside China.

Please note that some of the news websites you subscribe to are located outside China. When you visit them in the app, your device connects directly to the website; the network information the website obtains does not pass through us, and this is not a transfer of your personal information abroad by us.

4.2 Retention Period

We retain your personal information only for the shortest period necessary to achieve the purpose of processing, unless laws and regulations provide otherwise:

• Account information (mobile number, nickname, avatar) and login device records: until you delete your account;
• Login logs and network logs: no less than six months, as required by the Cybersecurity Law of the People's Republic of China;
• Feedback: for a reasonable period after your issue is resolved, and no later than the deletion of your account;
• Translation cache: no more than 3 days;
• Data stored on your device: kept on your device and managed by you; deleted when you uninstall the app or clear its data.

After the retention period ends, we delete or anonymize your personal information. Where the retention period required by laws and regulations has not yet expired, or deletion is technically difficult, we will stop all processing other than storage and necessary security measures.

5. How We Protect Your Personal Information

5.1 Security Measures

• Data between the app and our servers is encrypted in transit with HTTPS, and API requests carry signatures to prevent tampering and impersonation;
• login credentials are kept in the secure storage provided by the system;
• avatars and feedback images are uploaded to cloud storage with temporary credentials, and no long-term keys are stored in the app;
• access to our servers and databases is controlled so that only authorized personnel can access personal information to the extent necessary, subject to confidentiality obligations;
• we maintain an emergency response plan for personal information security incidents.

5.2 What You Can Do

Please keep your phone and SMS verification codes safe and never share a code with anyone. Our staff will never ask you for a verification code for any reason.

5.3 Security Incidents

Despite these measures, no information on the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure, because of technical limitations and possible malicious attacks. If a personal information security incident occurs, we will promptly inform you, as required by law, of the basic facts and possible impact of the incident, the measures we have taken or will take, suggestions for protecting yourself and reducing risk, and the remedies available to you, and we will report the incident as required by the regulatory authorities. We will notify you through in-app messages, SMS or similar means; where individual notification is impractical, we will publish an announcement.

6. How You Manage Your Personal Information

Under the Personal Information Protection Law of the People's Republic of China and other applicable laws, you have the following rights over your personal information:

6.1 Access and Correction

• Nickname and avatar: view and change them on the "Me" page;
• Mobile number: change it in "Me - Settings - Account & Security - Change Phone Number";
• Login devices: view the devices that have logged in to your account in "Me - Settings - Account & Security - Login Device Management";
• Local learning data: view, edit or delete words in the "Word Book"; delete articles and manage subscribed sources on the home page; view reading statistics and assessment records under "Me".

If you are unable to access or correct your information in these ways, please contact us using the details in this Policy.

6.2 Copying and Portability

You may request a copy of the personal information about you held on our servers by contacting us using the details in this Policy. Where the conditions set by the national cyberspace authorities are met, you may ask us to transfer your personal information to another personal information processor you designate. Your learning data is already stored on your own device.

6.3 Deletion

You can delete words, articles and subscribed sources in the app at any time, or delete all local data by clearing the app's data or uninstalling the app. You may also ask us to delete personal information on our servers in any of the following circumstances:

• the purpose of processing has been achieved, cannot be achieved, or the information is no longer necessary for that purpose;
• we stop providing the service, or the retention period has expired;
• you withdraw your consent;
• we have processed your personal information in violation of laws, regulations or our agreement with you;
• other circumstances provided by laws and administrative regulations.

After you delete information from our service, the corresponding information in backup systems may not be deleted immediately, but will be deleted when the backups are updated.

6.4 Deleting Your Account

You can apply to delete your account in "Me - Settings - Account & Security - Delete Account". After you apply, your account enters a 30-day cooling-off period, during which you can cancel the deletion simply by logging in again. When the cooling-off period ends, the account can no longer be recovered, and we will delete or anonymize the personal information associated with it, unless laws and regulations provide otherwise. Deleting your account does not delete the learning data stored on your device; to delete it, uninstall the app or clear its data.

6.5 Withdrawing Consent

You can change or withdraw your authorization in the following ways:

• turn off permissions such as camera and photos in your device's system settings;
• turn off "Smart Recommendation Sorting" in "Me - Reading Settings";
• log out; to withdraw your consent to this Policy entirely, withdraw your privacy policy authorization in "Me - Settings - Privacy Settings", or delete your account.

After you withdraw consent, we will no longer be able to provide the corresponding service, but the withdrawal does not affect the validity of processing carried out on the basis of your consent before it was withdrawn.

6.6 Automated Decision-Making

We do not make decisions that significantly affect your rights and interests solely through automated decision-making. "Smart Recommendation Sorting" only changes the order of articles on the home page, locally on your device, and you can turn it off at any time.

6.7 Rights of a Deceased User's Close Relatives

In the unfortunate event of your death, your close relatives may, for their own lawful and legitimate interests, exercise the rights to access, copy, correct and delete your relevant personal information, unless you arranged otherwise during your lifetime.

6.8 Responding to Your Requests

For security reasons, we may need to verify your identity before processing a request. We will reply within 15 working days of receiving your request. We generally do not charge for reasonable requests. We may refuse requests that are unreasonably repetitive, require excessive technical means, put the legitimate rights and interests of others at risk, or are highly impractical, and we will explain our reasons to you.

7. Protection of Minors' Personal Information

"Today English" is intended for English learners of all ages, including primary and secondary school students. We protect minors' personal information in accordance with the Personal Information Protection Law of the People's Republic of China, the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Minors, the Provisions on the Online Protection of Children's Personal Information and other applicable laws.

7.1 Guardian Consent

If you are a child under the age of 14, please use the app under the guidance of your parent or other guardian, after they have read and agreed to this Policy. We treat the personal information of children under 14 as sensitive personal information. If you are a minor aged 14 or over but under 18, please read this Policy and use the app under the guidance of your guardian.

7.2 Minimal Collection

The app's learning features can be used without logging in, learning data is stored locally on the device, and no personal information such as a mobile number is required. We recommend that children use the app without logging in. We collect information as described in this Policy only when a user logs in, sets a nickname and avatar or submits feedback, and use it only for that feature.

7.3 Reading Content

Articles on the home page come from third-party news websites written for a general audience, not specifically for minors. Guardians should pay attention to and guide what minors read.

7.4 Guardians' Rights

Guardians may contact us using the details in this Policy to access, correct or delete the personal information of a minor in their care, or to delete the minor's account. If we discover that we have collected a child's personal information without guardian consent, we will delete it as soon as possible.

8. Third-Party SDKs and Services

To provide certain features, the app integrates software development kits (SDKs) from third parties, and we engage third parties to provide some services. We assess their security and constrain their handling of personal information by contract.

8.1 Third-Party SDKs Integrated in the App

After you agree to this Policy, if you are not logged in, the Alibaba Cloud Number Verification SDK may check the network environment and pre-fetch the number after the app starts, to shorten the wait for one-tap login. The pre-fetched result is used only to display a masked number on the one-tap login page; we do not obtain your full mobile number until you tap to log in.

8.2 Third-Party Services We Engage

These third parties' collection and processing of personal information is also governed by their own privacy policies. We will update this section promptly whenever a third-party SDK or service is added or changed.

9. How This Policy Is Updated

We may revise this Policy from time to time. We will not reduce your rights under this Policy without your explicit consent. The revised Policy will be published in the app, and the "Last Updated" date at the top will be changed.

For material changes, we will notify you prominently, for example with an in-app pop-up, and obtain your consent again where necessary. Material changes include, without limitation:

• a major change to our service model, such as the purposes, types or manner of processing personal information;
• a change in the main recipients of shared, transferred or publicly disclosed personal information;
• a major change in how you exercise your personal information rights;
• a change in our contact details or complaint channels;
• a personal information protection impact assessment indicating high risk.

10. Third-Party Websites

The app links to or loads the following third-party websites and content:

• News source websites: the article list and article pages come from the third-party news websites you subscribe to, and original pages are loaded in the in-app browser;
• other websites you reach by tapping links in a web page or opening a page in the system browser.

These websites are operated independently by their respective operators and may contain their own advertisements and third-party tracking technologies. Anything you browse, register, log in, comment on or submit on these websites is collected directly by that website and governed by its own privacy policy; it does not pass through our servers, and we have no knowledge of or control over it. We recommend that you read a website's privacy policy before providing it with any personal information.

11. Scope of Application

This Policy applies to the iOS and Android versions of the "Today English" application and related services. It does not apply to third-party websites and services accessed through the app, or to information collected independently by third parties.

12. Miscellaneous

12.1 The headings in this Policy are for convenience only and do not affect the meaning or interpretation of any provision.

12.2 The conclusion, effectiveness, interpretation, performance, amendment and termination of this Policy, and the resolution of disputes, are governed by the laws of mainland China.

12.3 Any dispute arising from this Policy shall first be resolved through friendly negotiation. If negotiation fails, either party may bring a lawsuit before the people's court with jurisdiction over the domicile of Wuhan Guanshandu Technology Co., Ltd.

12.4 This Policy is provided in Chinese and English. In case of any inconsistency between the two versions, the Chinese version prevails.

Wuhan Guanshandu Technology Co., Ltd.