Language Shadowing – Terms and Conditions

1. Agreement to Terms

By creating an account, accessing, or using the Language Shadowing web application (the "Service"), you agree to be bound by these Terms and by our Privacy Policy, incorporated here by reference. If you do not agree, do not access or use the Service.

2. Eligibility

The Service is intended for individuals who are (i) at least 16 years old (or the age of digital consent in your country, whichever is higher) and (ii) legally capable of entering into binding contracts. By using the Service, you represent and warrant that you meet these requirements.

3. Account Registration and Security

Authentication Methods

You may create and access your account through either:

• Google Sign‑In, powered by Firebase Authentication
• Email and password authentication, also powered by Firebase Authentication

Account Information

For Google Sign‑In users, your Google display name, email address, and profile photo are used to create your Language Shadowing profile. For email/password users, your email address is used as your primary identifier. You must ensure this information is accurate and kept up to date.

Credentials

You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials (whether Google account or email/password) and for all activity that occurs under your account. Notify us immediately of any unauthorized use.

Sign‑Out

You may sign out at any time from the application's settings menu.

4. License to Use the Service

Subject to these Terms, we grant you a limited, non‑exclusive, non‑transferable, revocable license to access and use the Service for personal, non‑commercial language‑learning purposes. All rights not expressly granted are reserved by us and our licensors.

5. User Content

Definition

"User Content" means any text, audio, images, or other materials you upload, import, create, record, or otherwise generate through the Service, including custom phrase collections and background images.

Ownership

You retain all rights to your User Content. By submitting User Content, you grant us a worldwide, royalty‑free, sublicensable license to host, store, reproduce, and display such content solely for the purpose of operating and improving the Service.

Responsibility

You are solely responsible for your User Content and for ensuring it does not violate any law, proprietary right, or these Terms.

6. AI‑Generated Content and Text‑to‑Speech (TTS)

Generative Features

The Service may offer AI‑powered phrase suggestions and TTS audio generation ("Generated Content"). Generated Content is provided "as is" without warranty of accuracy, completeness, or suitability. Always verify important translations or pronunciations independently.

Licensing

Subject to your compliance with these Terms, you may use Generated Content for personal, non‑commercial learning. Commercial redistribution or public broadcasting requires prior written consent.

7. Acceptable Use Policy

You agree not to:

• Use the Service for unlawful, harmful, or harassing activity;
• Upload or generate content that is defamatory, obscene, hateful, or infringes third‑party rights;
• Reverse engineer, decompile, or attempt to extract the Service's source code;
• Circumvent technical protections or misuse Firebase databases;
• Interfere with, or disrupt, the Service or servers;
• Use automated systems (bots, scrapers) except via our documented APIs;
• Share your account credentials with others or allow others to access your account.

Violation may result in immediate suspension or termination of your account.

8. Privacy and Data Protection

Personal Data

We process the following categories of personal data:

• Google account identifiers (UID, display name, email, profile photo);
• Collections and phrases you create or import;
• Usage statistics (e.g., total phrases listened, language‑pair preferences, timestamps of activity, first‑practice dates);
• Settings and visual‑theme preferences.

Storage

Data is stored in Google Cloud Firestore (EU multiregion) with backups per Google's redundancy policies. Audio files are cached via Firebase Storage.

Legal Basis

For users in the UK/EU, processing is based on the performance of our contract with you (Art. 6 (1)(b) GDPR) and our legitimate interests in improving the Service (Art. 6 (1)(f)).

Retention

Personal data is retained for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide the Service, then securely deleted or anonymized within 30 days of account deletion.

Your Rights

Where applicable, you have rights of access, rectification, erasure, data portability, restriction, and objection. Contact us to exercise these rights.

Third‑Party Services

Google LLC (Firebase) processes data as our processor under the Google Cloud Data Processing and Security Terms.

9. Intellectual Property

The Service, including all software, design elements, and content (excluding User Content), is our property or that of our licensors and is protected by intellectual‑property laws. All trademarks, logos, and service marks displayed in the Service are our property or that of third parties.

10. Third‑Party Links & Services

The Service may contain links to third‑party websites or integrate third‑party APIs (e.g., Google, text‑to‑speech providers). We do not endorse and are not responsible for third‑party services' content, policies, or practices.

11. Subscriptions & Payments

At present, the Service is free of charge. If we introduce paid features or subscriptions, additional terms and payment details will be provided, and continued use will constitute acceptance of those terms.

12. Termination

We may suspend or terminate your access to the Service at any time, with or without notice, if we reasonably believe you have violated these Terms. Upon termination, Sections 5–9, 11–17 survive.

13. Disclaimer of Warranties

The Service is provided "as is" without warranties of any kind, either express or implied. We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted or error‑free.

14. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, we shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages resulting from your use of or inability to use the Service.

15. Changes to Terms

We may modify these Terms at any time. We will notify you of any material changes by posting the new Terms on the Service. Your continued use of the Service after such posting constitutes your acceptance of the new Terms.

16. Governing Law

These Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the jurisdiction in which we operate, without regard to its conflict of law provisions.

17. Contact Information

If you have any questions about these Terms, please contact us at hello@lingopaper.com.

Annex A – Definitions

"Phrase Collection" means a group of input/output phrase pairs, including any associated metadata and audio.

"Shadowing" means the language‑learning technique of repeating spoken phrases immediately after hearing them.