Pleco

Privacy Policy

Updated May 1, 2026

Summary

We’re Pleco Inc., a US company that makes Chinese-language learning apps and runs pleco.com. We try to keep the data we collect minimal:

  • We don’t use third-party analytics, advertising, or tracking pixels.
  • We don’t share your personal information with anyone for marketing or promotional purposes.
  • For most users, the only personal data we hold is what you give us when you make a purchase (name, email; payment details are handled by Stripe or PayPal, not us) or when you register on our discussion forums.
  • Our apps receive whatever information Apple’s App Store and Google Play share with developers, plus crash logs and a hashed device serial number that helps us with support.

The rest of this policy explains the legal details. If you have questions, email us at support@pleco.com.

1. Introduction

1.1 This policy explains what personal information we collect from visitors to pleco.com and users of our apps, how we use it, and what rights you have over it. It applies whenever Pleco Inc. is acting as a data controller — that is, whenever we determine why and how your personal data is processed.

1.2 In this policy, “we”, “us”, and “our” refer to Pleco Inc. Our contact details are in section 12.

1.3 We use cookies on the discussion-forum portion of our website. Where those cookies are not strictly necessary, we will ask for your consent the first time you visit the forums.

2. Information we collect

We collect the following categories of personal information:

  • Usage data — IP address, approximate location, browser and OS, referral source, pages visited, and timing of visits. Source: our server logs.
  • Account data — your name and email address. Source: you, when you create an account.
  • Profile data (forum users only) — anything you choose to put in your forum profile, which may include your name, contact details, profile picture, date of birth, and personal interests. Source: you.
  • Publication data (forum users only) — any post or content you publish on our forums. Source: you.
  • Transaction data — your contact details, the products purchased, and details of the transaction. Card details are collected and held by our payment processors (Stripe and PayPal), not by us. Source: you and our payment processors.
  • Notification data — your email address, if you sign up for newsletters or product notifications. Source: you.
  • Correspondence data — the content and metadata of any message you send us through our contact form, by email, or by mail. Source: you and our website.
  • Device data (app users only) — device model, OS version, IP address, crash logs, and a hashed hardware serial number. Source: your device’s operating system, via our app.

3. How we use information, and why

3.1 We use the information above for the following purposes:

  • Operating the website and apps, including providing the services you request, communicating with you, maintaining backups, and ensuring security. Legal basis: performance of a contract with you, and our legitimate interest in the proper administration of our business.
  • Processing purchases and refunds, and keeping records of transactions. Legal basis: performance of a contract with you, and our legitimate business interests.
  • Operating the discussion forums, including displaying your profile and the content you publish. Legal basis: your consent.
  • Sending newsletters and product notifications that you’ve signed up for. Legal basis: your consent.
  • Improving our products and services, preventing fraud, and helping with customer support — including retrieving past purchases when a user can’t recover them from email. Legal basis: our legitimate interests.
  • Establishing, exercising, or defending legal claims, and obtaining insurance or professional advice. Legal basis: our legitimate interests.
  • Complying with legal obligations to which we are subject.

3.2 We will not share your personal information with any third party or affiliate for marketing or promotional purposes, and we do not use third-party analytics, advertising, or tracking pixels on our website or in our apps.

3.3 Please don’t send us another person’s personal information unless we’ve asked for it.

4. Sharing information

4.1 We use Stripe Inc. and PayPal Inc. to process payments. We share transaction data with them only as needed to process payments, refunds, and related queries. Their privacy policies are at stripe.com and paypal.com.

4.2 Our apps are distributed through Apple’s App Store and Google Play. Apple and Google receive purchase records, crash data, and device information from your interaction with their stores; we don’t provide them with any additional personal information beyond that.

4.3 We may disclose your personal information where we are legally required to, where it is necessary to protect someone’s vital interests, or where it is necessary for the establishment, exercise, or defence of legal claims.

5. Cookies

5.1 We use cookies on our discussion forums. Cookies that are not strictly necessary for those forums to function are subject to your consent the first time you visit them.

5.2 Most browsers let you block or delete cookies through their settings. Consult your browser’s help documentation (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, etc.) for current instructions.

5.3 Blocking all cookies will affect the usability of many websites, including the forum portion of ours.

6. How long we keep information

6.1 We keep your personal data only as long as we need it for the purposes set out in this policy, plus any retention period required by law (for example, transaction records for tax purposes).

6.2 In practice:

  • Forum profile, publication, and notification data: kept until one month after you ask us to delete it (the time it takes for backups to roll over).
  • Account, transaction, correspondence, usage, and device data: kept for as long as your account or our records of you are active, plus the period required to meet legal, tax, accounting, and dispute-resolution obligations.

6.3 We may retain data longer where it is necessary to comply with a legal obligation or to protect someone’s vital interests.

7. Security and breaches

7.1 We use reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect your personal information against loss, misuse, and unauthorized access.

7.2 If a personal-data breach occurs that is likely to result in a risk to your rights, we will notify the relevant supervisory authority and, where required, affected users in accordance with applicable law.

8. Your rights (EU and UK)

8.1 If you’re in the EU or UK, you have the following rights under GDPR / UK GDPR:

  • Access — confirmation of whether we hold your personal data, and a copy of it. The first copy is free; additional copies may carry a reasonable fee.
  • Rectification — correction of inaccurate data and completion of incomplete data.
  • Erasure — deletion of your data in certain circumstances (for example, when it’s no longer needed, or you withdraw consent). Some exclusions apply, including where we need the data to comply with a legal obligation or to defend legal claims.
  • Restriction — limiting how we process your data while a dispute is resolved.
  • Objection — objecting to processing based on our legitimate interests, including objecting to direct marketing at any time.
  • Portability — receiving the data you’ve provided to us in a structured, machine-readable format, where processing is based on consent or contract.
  • Withdrawing consent — at any time, where the legal basis for processing is consent. Withdrawal does not affect the lawfulness of processing before the withdrawal.
  • Complaint — lodging a complaint with the data-protection authority of your habitual residence, place of work, or place of the alleged infringement.

8.2 To exercise any of these rights, contact us using the details in section 12.

9. Your rights (US)

9.1 If you’re a resident of California, Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, or another US state with comprehensive privacy legislation, you have rights similar to those in section 8 — broadly, the right to know what personal information we hold about you, the right to have it corrected or deleted, the right to opt out of having it “sold” or “shared” (we do not sell or share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising), and the right not to be discriminated against for exercising these rights.

9.2 To exercise these rights, contact us using the details in section 12. We may need to verify your identity before responding.

10. Children’s privacy

10.1 Our website and apps are not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us and we will delete it.

11. Changes to this policy

11.1 We may update this policy from time to time. The date at the top of this page reflects when it was last updated.

11.2 If we make material changes, we will notify you by a notice on our website, by email (where we have your email address), or by other reasonable means before the changes take effect.

12. Contact us

Pleco Inc. is registered in the State of Delaware (registration number 3226860). Our registered agent in Delaware is Agents & Corporations, 1201 N. Orange St, Suite 600, Wilmington, New Castle County, Delaware 19801. Our principal place of business is in White Plains, New York.

You can contact us: