Privacy, terms, and who we are.

What we hold about you

• Your email address, and the language pair, level, lesson size, cadence, send time and time zone you chose.
• What you told us about yourself in the signup box, and anything you tell us later.
• The text of the emails you send us. A reply to a lesson is the whole point of the product, so we read it and keep it for a while. How long is in the table further down.
• Notes made from your replies: short third person facts and preferences ("is renovating the kitchen", "prefers shorter stories"), plus the mistakes worth working on. These are what make the next lesson yours.
• The lessons we wrote for you, so you can read them again in your archive.
• A list of the words you have met in those lessons, so your tutor can bring one back a week later instead of teaching it to you twice.
• Which one tap buttons you pressed in a lesson ("too easy", "just right", "too hard"), because that is how the difficulty moves.
• Whether to write to you as a man or a woman, if your own writing has made it plain. We never ask you and we never guess from your name. Many of the languages we teach mark it in the first sentence, so a guess would be wrong out loud.
• Your name, if you have told us it, which most people do the first time they introduce themselves in a reply. We never ask for it, we never take it from your email address, and an account without one works exactly the same. You can change or clear it on your settings page at any time.
• Which link brought you here, if you arrived from one of our own: a short word like "expatdaily", or the name of the website that linked to you. It tells us which of the places we write actually reaches people. It is a single word kept with your account, it is not a profile, and nothing is stored in your browser to work it out.
• If you subscribe, a Stripe customer and subscription id. We never see or store your card number.

Where your data is

The database is in the United States. That is the sentence most privacy policies bury, so here it is first. If you live in the EU, your data leaving it is something you should be able to read in ten seconds, not find in a footnote.

Cuéntame runs on a private server in the United States, rented from VPSDime, a hosting company that keeps the hardware and the network running and has no other part in the product. Your email address, your settings, the notes your tutor keeps, your replies and your lesson archive are held in a single Postgres database on that server, reachable only from the machine itself and never exposed to the internet.

It is looked after properly, and here is exactly what that means, so you can hold us to it. The database is dumped every night and a copy is shipped off the machine to encrypted object storage, so a disk failure is an inconvenience and not the end of your lessons. Once a week the newest stored backup is read back and checked table by table, because a backup nobody has ever restored is not a backup. Old copies expire on a schedule instead of piling up for ever. An automated check runs every ten minutes against the live database and raises an alarm if anything is wrong, including whether your lesson actually went out. All traffic to this site is encrypted in transit, and the only people with access to the machine are the one person who runs it.

Two pieces of it happen elsewhere, and they are both about mail:

• Lessons go out through Amazon SES in the London region, so the mail we send you leaves from the United Kingdom.
• Your replies come in to a mailbox at Namecheap PrivateEmail. Namecheap is a United States company, and we do not get to choose a region for that mailbox. Our software collects your reply from it and deletes it from the mailbox.

So there are three countries here: the United States for the server, the mailbox and the model that writes your lessons, and the United Kingdom for sending. For the United Kingdom, the European Commission has decided it protects your data adequately, which is all that is needed. For the United States, the transfer is made under the European Commission's standard contractual clauses, the contract terms written for exactly this. The next section says which company sees what.

Who else sees it, and exactly what they see

Cuéntame is built and run by one person. That is a deliberate choice, not a shortcut: it means a very short list of companies touches your data, and exactly one human being can read it. We name every one of them below rather than hide them behind the phrase "trusted partners". A fifth, VPSDime, rents us the machine and holds the server described in the section above. There is no sixth.

Anthropic (USA) writes the lessons	Your lessons are written by Claude, Anthropic's language model. Each time we write you a lesson or read a reply, it receives your language pair, your level and size settings, your notes, your first name if you have given us one, and, when you write to us, the text of that reply. It never receives your email address, your surname or your payment details. Your text is not used to train models. Anthropic is in the United States, like the server, so the paragraph above covers it.
Amazon Web Services, SES delivers the mail	Sends the lesson to your inbox, so it holds your email address and the lesson itself. We send from the AWS London region, in the United Kingdom.
Namecheap PrivateEmail receives the mail	Runs the mailbox your replies arrive in, so it holds your address and the text of what you wrote until our software collects it. A United States company.
Stripe takes the payment	Only if you subscribe. Stripe holds your card details and your billing address. We hold only the ids Stripe gives us.

Nobody else, and we mean nobody: no analytics company, no advertising network, no font service, no content delivery network. The visitor counting described below is our own code on our own server, and this page loads nothing from a third party at all.

Cookies, and how we count visitors

This website sets exactly one cookie, called cu_session. It keeps you signed in after you use a sign in link, and nothing else. Until you use one, this site sets no cookie at all. It is strictly necessary for the site to work, which is why there is no cookie banner: there is nothing to consent to.

We do count how the website is used, because we would otherwise be guessing at which parts of it help and which confuse people. We wrote that counting ourselves and it runs on our own server. It records page views, how far down a page people read, which questions they open and which buttons they press. There is no third party in it at all: no Google Analytics, no Facebook pixel, no advertising tag, and nothing about your visit is sent anywhere else.

It stores nothing on your device. No cookie, no local storage, nothing kept in your browser and nothing read back out of it. To tell one visitor from another for a single day we take your IP address and your browser's name, mix them with a secret that never leaves our server, and keep only the scrambled result, which also has today's date mixed into it. Your IP address itself is never written down. Because the date is part of the scramble, the same person visiting tomorrow is a completely different value to us and there is no way to connect the two. We can see that four hundred people read the page on Tuesday. We cannot see that one of them came back on Friday, and we have deliberately built it so we never can.

If your browser sends "Do Not Track" or the Global Privacy Control signal, nothing is recorded at all. These counts are deleted after 180 days. If you would rather we did not count your visit even so, write to us and we will tell you how to block it.

This page loads nothing from anybody else. No script, no image, no stylesheet, no font. Even the two typefaces are stored on our own server and served from it, so that opening this website does not quietly tell a company you have never heard of that you were here. That is unusual and it is deliberate.

Your lesson emails carry no open tracking pixel and no click tracking. They contain no images at all, so there is nothing in them that can report back. We do not know whether you opened a lesson. We do know when you press one of the one tap buttons inside it, because pressing it changes your next lesson.

How long we keep it

Nothing is kept "just in case". Every kind of thing here has a life span, and a job runs and deletes it when that runs out.

The notes your tutor keeps about you, your lessons, your word list	As long as your account is open	These are not data we collected on the side. They are the service: take them away and the next lesson is written for nobody in particular. You can forget any single note yourself, whenever you like.
The text of the replies you write to us	As long as your account is open	Your replies are your half of a conversation with your tutor, not something we collected on the side, so they stay for as long as the lessons they answer. They go the moment your account does, and you can have any of it deleted sooner just by asking.
The raw email your reply arrived in	90 days	Every mail carries a layer of machinery under the words: headers, routing, the quoted lesson underneath. We keep that layer briefly because it is what answers "my reply did nothing, what happened", a question that arrives weeks late and never years late. Then it is deleted and your words stay.
How the website was used: page views, how far down a page was read, which buttons	180 days	None of it is tied to you. The value that separates one visitor from another already stops meaning anything at midnight, by design, so this window is housekeeping rather than protection: two seasons is long enough to ask whether this spring was better than last.
Operational records: which emails went out, whether a job finished	About a year	This is how we can answer "did my lesson on the 14th actually send?", and how a fault that only appears once a month gets found. It is about the machinery, not about you.
Sign in links	A month after they expire	They are dead long before that: a sign in link is single use and expires on its own. The record stays a little longer so that we can look into it if you tell us a link did not work.
If you unsubscribe, or you never subscribed and go quiet	12 months, then all of it	Counted from your last sign of life: your signup, your last lesson or your last reply. Twelve months and not six, because people pause for a summer and a journal built over months is the one thing here that cannot be rebuilt. A paid subscription is never deleted for going quiet: a subscriber who stops reading is still a customer.
If you ask us to delete your account	Within 30 days	Usually the same week. No form, no retention offer, no "are you sure" maze.

We also back the database up, so that a broken disk does not lose your lessons. Backups age out and are replaced, and anything we deleted leaves them as they do. We never restore one to bring back an account somebody asked us to delete.

One thing outlives your account, and it is there to protect you. When we delete you, we keep your email address run through a one way scramble: a fixed string of letters and numbers that cannot be turned back into your address and cannot be used to write to you. We keep it for good, for exactly one reason. It is the only way to recognise your address if it is ever typed into our signup form again, so that we can never email you after you asked us to stop. It is the only thing that survives, and if we threw it away too, the promise never to contact you again is one we could not keep.

How to see, correct or delete it

To see it or correct it: sign in and open your settings. Your settings, your language pair and every note your tutor is working from are on that page. Press "forget" on a note and your tutor stops using it, for good, and it drops off the page. You can also just reply to a lesson and say it in your own words.

Three things are not on that page, and we would rather tell you than let you assume otherwise: the original text of the emails you sent us, the list of words you have met, and whether your writing has told us to address you as a man or a woman. Ask us and we will send you all three. They belong on that page and they are not there yet.

To take it with you or delete all of it: write to hola@heycuentame.com and ask. We will send you everything we hold, or delete it, within 30 days. There is no form and no retention offer: you ask, it is done. Deletion removes your account, your notes, your replies, your word list and your lesson archive. Two things stay: the minimum billing records the tax rules require, which is the amount and the date and nothing about your lessons, and the scrambled address in the box above.

To stop the emails without deleting anything: use the unsubscribe link at the bottom of any lesson. That link opens a page with a single button on it, and nothing stops until you press it. That is deliberate: company mail scanners follow every link in a message before you ever see it, and a robot should not be able to end your lessons. If you are paying, that page tells you before you press it that your subscription is cancelled at the same time, because we will not keep charging you for something we have stopped sending. The unsubscribe control that Gmail and Apple Mail put at the top of the message works straight away, because that one is you pressing it.

Our legal basis is the contract with you for the lessons you asked for. Under the GDPR you may also object, ask us to restrict processing, or complain to your national data protection authority. If you are in the EU and we get something wrong, we would much rather you told us first.

What you get

A personal language lesson by email, at the cadence you choose: a short story written around your life, the new words in it, a question or two, a grammar note that compares your target language with the one you already speak, and one personal question. You can reply to any lesson, in your own words, and the lessons that follow take account of what you said.

The lessons are written by a language model. It is very good and it is not perfect. Treat a lesson as a tutor's draft, not as a reference grammar.

Billing

You start with a free trial of 7 days. We ask for your card at the start, through Stripe, but nothing is charged during those 7 days. The trial begins on the day your card is accepted.

Unless you cancel before the trial ends, the subscription starts automatically and your card is charged for the first month on the day after the trial's last day. We show you that exact date as soon as your card is accepted, so the first charge is never a surprise. If you cancel at any point inside the trial you are charged nothing at all.

After the trial, it costs €9 a month for the first 25 students, which stays at that price for as long as you keep the subscription, and €12 a month after those places are taken. One price whatever cadence you pick: daily costs the same as three times a week.

You can also pay for a whole year at once: €90 a year for the first 25 students, and €120 a year after those places are taken. That is twelve months for the price of ten, two months free, for exactly the same lessons. A yearly subscription gets the same 7 day trial, and it renews once a year rather than every month.

The subscription renews every month, or every year if that is what you chose, until you cancel, and Stripe charges the card you gave them. Prices include VAT where it applies.

Cancelling

You can cancel at any time, with no notice period, no phone call and no "are you sure" maze. Reply to any lesson and say so, or write to hola@heycuentame.com. Your lessons continue to the end of the month or year you have paid for, and then stop.

Cancelling during the trial costs you nothing. Your lessons stop, your card is never charged, and there is nothing to claim back. You do not need to give a reason. Cancel with the button on your settings page, which every lesson links to.

What we do not promise

We do not promise that you will become fluent, pass an exam, or reach any particular level. Nobody honestly can: that depends on you. We promise a lesson written for you, at the cadence you chose, that listens when you write back.

We also cannot promise the service is never interrupted. It is a small product on one server and things occasionally break. If a lesson does not arrive, tell us and we will fix it.

Fair use

One account is for one person. Please do not use the reply channel as a general purpose assistant, resell the lessons, or try to make the tutor do something other than teach you a language. We may close an account that does, and refund the unused part of what you have paid for.

The law that applies

The law of the country named in "Who we are" below applies, and nothing in these terms takes away the rights you have as a consumer under the law of the country you live in.

Trading name	Cuéntame, a product of the trader named below. The website is heycuentame.com.
Trader	Milan Krstic, sole trader (autonomo). There is no company between you and the person who writes this: an autonomo is a self employed individual, personally responsible for the service and for your data.
Registered address	C/ Cirilo Amorós 58, Puerta 1, 46004 Valencia Spain. This is the address our business is registered at, held for us by our legal and tax advisers. Post sent here reaches us. It is not an office you can call in at, so please write to the contact address below first.
VAT	Not VAT registered. As a Spanish autonomo below the registration threshold we do not charge VAT and cannot issue a VAT number. Prices on this site are the whole price: there is nothing to add at checkout.
Contact	hola@heycuentame.com. A person reads it. Replies to a lesson go to a different address, reply@heycuentame.com, which is read by the software that writes your next lesson.
Data controller	The same person and entity named above. There is no separate company holding your data.
Data protection officer	None. A product this size is not required to appoint one. Write to the contact address instead.

Cancelling

Any time, no notice, no reason needed. Reply to any lesson with "cancel", or write to hola@heycuentame.com. Your lessons run to the end of the month you have paid for and then stop. We do not bill you again.

Cancelling during the free trial

Simplest case of all: cancel before the 7 days are up and you are never charged. There is no payment to refund and nothing to claim. Cancel with the button on your settings page, which every lesson links to, or write to hola@heycuentame.com. You are told the exact charge date when you sign up, so you always know it in advance.

Your 14 day right of withdrawal, if you are in the EU

If you live in the EU, you normally have 14 days from the day you subscribe to withdraw from the contract and get your money back, without giving a reason. To use it, write to hola@heycuentame.com within those 14 days and say you are withdrawing. We refund to the same card, within 14 days of hearing from you.

There is one thing you should know before you subscribe, and it is the standard rule for anything digital that starts immediately:

When you subscribe, you ask us to start sending lessons straight away, and you accept that you lose your right of withdrawal once we have. You tell us this when you confirm the payment. In plain terms: once the lessons for the new month have started arriving, the 14 day right no longer applies to that month, and what is left is the ordinary cancellation above.

If we broke it

If lessons stopped arriving while we kept charging you, or what we sent was broken, that is our mistake: we refund it in full, and none of the above matters. Everything else is what the 7 free days are for: you read real lessons, written for you, before any money moves.