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Privacy policy

Last updated 26 October 2026

This explains what yucast collects about you, why, who else sees it, and what you can ask us to do about it. We collect as little as we can. We don't sell your data or show ads. We do count how yucast is used, from our own servers, without storing anything on your device to do it.

Who is responsible

yucast is run by a sole trader in the United Kingdom, who is the controller of your personal data. Contact: support@yucast.app.

What we collect

  • Your email address, if you sign in. It's the only personal detail we ask most people for. We use it to send you sign-in links, an occasional email about new features, which you can turn off, and, rarely, important messages about the service or these policies.
  • Your name, if you're a tutor and send a story to the library. It's shown on the stories we accept, so learners know who wrote them. You can change it on your profile.
  • Your public profile, if you're a tutor and fill it in: a username, which is its address, an optional line about you, and an optional link to where you teach. Once you publish it, anyone can see it at yucast.app/@ your username, and search engines can list it: your name, username, those details, your stories in the library, the levels and topics they're in, and your badges. It never shows your email, stories shared only with your students, anything waiting or sent back, your listening, or any reviewing. You can turn it off on your profile at any time. If you change your username, the old one forwards to the new for 30 days.
  • Sign-in sessions: when you sign in we record the time, your IP address and your browser type against the session, to keep you signed in and to spot misuse.
  • Who shared yucast with you, if you arrived through a link carrying someone's referral code and agreed to the referral cookie below. We note the code when you create an account, so we know which of our partners brought people in.
  • Searches and reports: topics you search for and problems you report, with anything you write about them, so we know which stories to write next and which to fix. If you're signed in, they're linked to your account. Each report is emailed to us with your address, so we can reply. A story you report as inappropriate is hidden from you.
  • What you write in Studio, if you're a tutor: your stories, a count of the AI drafts and fill-ins you use each day to keep within daily limits, and a random code that your share links carry, so we know who you've brought to yucast. If you send a story to the library, we keep a record of each request and our answer, including any note we send back.
  • Stories you create: what you asked for, the story written from it, and a count of the stories you create each week to keep within the weekly limit. They're private: nobody else can open one by its link. Our admins can read them, to look into a problem with one and to improve how stories are written.
  • What you listen to, if you're signed in: which stories you play, on which day, how long you listen, how many times you play each sentence, whether you finish, and whether hanzi, pinyin or English was showing. We use it only to show you your streak and progress, to suggest what to listen to next, and to count your free stories each week. It isn't shown to anyone else.
  • Your level, if you choose one, so we can offer you stories at it.
  • Your Pro subscription, if you buy Pro: whether you're subscribed, monthly or yearly, when it renews or ends, and the payments provider's reference for it. We get this from the payments provider. We never see your card or bank details.
  • How yucast is used: things like which stories are played, finished and shared, and when someone starts buying, starts or ends Pro. If you're signed in, this is linked to your account's ID, never your email or name. If you're not, it's linked to a code that changes every day and can't be traced back to you. Nothing is stored on your device for it, and we use it only to make yucast better.
  • Morning reminders, if you turn them on: the address your browser's push service gives us for that browser, its time zone, and the time you chose. We use them only to send that browser a reminder each morning you haven't listened yet.
  • What's new: which of our notes about new features you've closed in the app, which of our emails about them we've sent you, and whether you've turned those emails off, so you don't get the same one twice, or any you've said no to.
  • Emails you send us, and our replies.
  • Server logs: like any website, our servers log requests, including IP addresses, for security and to fix problems.

Stored on your device

Some things are kept only in your browser and never sent to us: the list of stories you've listened to recently, your level and playback settings, how many free stories you've used as a guest, and, for a tutor, whether you've closed the note about your first story in the library. Clearing this site's data in your browser removes them.

We use two cookies:

  • A sign-in cookie, which keeps you signed in for up to 60 days. yucast can't keep you signed in without it.
  • A referral cookie, only if you open a shared link carrying a referral code and say yes when we ask. It holds that code for 30 days, so that if you create an account we know who shared yucast with you. It holds nothing about you. Your answer is remembered in your browser so we don't ask again.

Everything else stored on your device is there to make a feature you're using work, so the referral cookie is the only thing we ask about.

Why we're allowed to use it

We use your email address, sessions, level, the stories you create, your Pro subscription, and, if you're a tutor, your name and Studio stories to run your account and the features you use (performance of a contract). The referral cookie is set only with your consent, which you can withdraw at any time by clearing this site's cookies, or with the button above if this browser has it. Morning reminders are sent only because you turned them on (consent), and turning them off withdraws it. Emails about new features go to you because you have an account with us, which the law allows for news about a service you already use (the "soft opt-in"). Every one of them says how to stop them, and so does your profile. Everything else — security and abuse prevention, server logs, searches and reports, your listening history, how yucast is used (including the daily code for visitors who aren't signed in, which is personal data for the day it lasts), and the referral code on your account — rests on our legitimate interest in running, protecting and improving yucast, in ways you'd reasonably expect.

Who else sees it

We use a small number of service providers to run yucast. They process data only on our instructions:

  • A cloud hosting provider runs our servers, stores the audio, and sends our emails, from data centres in London.
  • A database hosting provider stores our database.
  • An AI provider receives the text involved when AI writes or annotates a story, including a tutor's Studio drafts.
  • A text-to-speech provider receives the Chinese text of a story to turn it into speech.
  • A product analytics service, in the EU, receives the record of how yucast is used described above, and nothing else.
  • A payments provider sells Pro on our behalf, as the seller, and handles payment and tax. If you buy Pro, it gets your email address and your account's ID from us, and your payment details from you, directly. It tells us only whether you're subscribed, monthly or yearly, and until when.
  • A web font service serves the site's fonts, so your browser contacts its servers, and shares your IP address with them, when a page loads.
  • Your browser's push service, run by the company that makes your browser, delivers morning reminders, if you turn them on. Each reminder is encrypted for your browser, so the push service can't read it.

The AI and text-to-speech providers see story text, not your account. If you're a tutor, don't put your students' personal details in a story. If you'd like to know which company provides any of these services, ask us.

Some of these services process data outside the UK. Where they do, the transfer is covered by UK adequacy regulations or the UK's approved data transfer agreements. We'll also share data if the law requires it.

How long we keep it

  • Your account and email address, until you delete it.
  • Sign-in links, 15 minutes. Sessions, up to 60 days.
  • Studio stories, and the record of any you sent to the library, until you delete them or your account. Deleting your account deletes them, with two exceptions. Ones in the library stay there, without your name. Ones someone else has listened to are taken down, but we keep their text, no longer linked to you, so the days they listened still count in their streak. A library story can't be deleted from Studio; ask us.
  • Stories you create, until you delete your account. Deleting one takes it out of your stories for good, but we keep its text so the days you listened to it still count in your streak.
  • Your name, until you change it or delete your account.
  • Your Pro subscription's record, until you delete your account. Deleting it also asks the payments provider to end Pro and remove your details, but it keeps its own record of what you paid, as a seller must by law.
  • Your public profile's details, until you change them or delete your account. A page you turn off disappears from yucast at once, but search engines can take days to notice, and keep copies for longer. An old username forwards to your new one for 30 days, then anyone can take it.
  • Your listening history, until you delete your account, which deletes it.
  • A browser's morning reminder, until you turn it off, sign out of that browser, block notifications for yucast, or delete your account.
  • Which emails about new features we've sent you, which notes you've closed, and whether you've turned the emails off, until you delete your account.
  • Searches and reports are kept after you delete your account, but no longer linked to you.
  • The record of how yucast is used, for as long as it helps us improve it. If you're signed in it carries your account's ID, not your email; ask us and we'll delete yours.
  • Server logs and emails with us, only as long as they're needed.

Your rights

You can delete your account yourself, from your profile. We email a link to confirm it, and deleting it takes effect at once.

You can ask us for a copy of your data, to correct it, to delete it, to restrict or object to how we use it, or to move it elsewhere. Email support@yucast.app from your account's address. We'll reply within a month.

If you're unhappy with how we've handled your data, please tell us first. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.

Children

yucast isn't meant for children under 13, and we don't knowingly hold their data. If you think a child under 13 has an account, tell us and we'll delete it.

Changes

If we change this policy in a way that matters, we'll email account holders before the change takes effect and update the date at the top.