Privacy Policy
Last updated: 19 July 2026
1. Controller
The controller responsible for your personal data under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is:
Robin Betts
Germany
Email: privacy@alightonthelanguage.comContact us at the email above for any privacy question or to exercise your rights.
2. What we collect
Account data. When you sign in with Apple or Google we receive and store your email address, an identifier for your sign-in (the provider name and the subject ID that provider assigns you), and the date your account was created. If you use Sign in with Apple’s hide-my-email option, we only ever see the relay address Apple gives us.
Your Content. The text you enter for lookups, and the vocabulary and review progress you save.
Technical data. Basic information needed to run and secure the service, such as request logs and error diagnostics.
We do not use advertising or third-party tracking, and we do not sell your data.
3. How and why we use it
We process your data to:
- provide the app — create your account, return explanations, and store your saved vocabulary (legal basis: performance of our contract with you, Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR);
- keep the service secure and working — prevent abuse, debug, and maintain reliability (legal basis: our legitimate interests, Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR);
- comply with legal obligations where they apply (Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR).
4. Automated explanations
To generate an explanation, the text you enter is sent to our language-model provider (OpenAI) for processing and returned to you. This processing produces explanatory text; it does not make any decision that has a legal or similarly significant effect on you.
5. Who we share it with
We share data only with service providers (“processors”) that help us run Lantern, under contracts that require them to protect it and use it only on our instructions:
- Apple and Google — to authenticate your sign-in;
- Microsoft Azure — hosting and database, hosted in the EU;
- OpenAI — processing lookup text to generate explanations.
We may also disclose data where legally required, or to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims.
6. International transfers
Some providers (including OpenAI, and depending on their operations Apple and Google) may process data outside the EU/EEA, including in the United States. Where that happens, the transfer is covered by appropriate safeguards under the GDPR — such as the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses or an adequacy decision. You can ask us for details using the contact above.
7. How long we keep it
We keep your account data and Your Content for as long as your account exists. When you delete your account, we delete this data, except where we must keep limited records to meet a legal obligation or to defend a legal claim, after which it is deleted too.
Technical logs are kept only for as long as needed for security and troubleshooting, then removed.
8. Your rights
Under the GDPR you have the right to:
- access the personal data we hold about you;
- have inaccurate data corrected;
- have your data deleted;
- restrict or object to certain processing;
- receive your data in a portable format;
- withdraw any consent you have given, without affecting processing already carried out.
To exercise any of these, email privacy@alightonthelanguage.com. You can also delete your account and its data directly in the app’s account settings.
9. Complaints
If you believe we have mishandled your data, you can complain to a data protection supervisory authority. In Germany this is the authority for the federal state (Bundesland) where the controller is based, or your own local authority. We would appreciate the chance to address your concern first.
10. Children
Lantern is not intended for children under 16, and we do not knowingly collect their data. If you believe a child has provided us data, contact us and we will delete it.
11. Changes
We may update this Privacy Policy. If a change is material we will give reasonable notice in the app. The “last updated” date above shows the current version.