Last updated: 12 September 2026
Japanese Word is a Japanese vocabulary app for English speakers. This policy describes what it does and does not do with your information.
1. What this app collects
Nothing. The app has no account, no sign-in and no server of its own. What you do in it — every answer, every score, every setting — is yours and stays on your device.
The developer does not receive your name, email address, phone number, contacts, location, or any identifier. There is no analytics software in the app and no crash reporting.
The app does show ads, and the ad network collects some data of its own. That is described in section 6, and it is separate from everything above: your study record is never given to the ad network.
2. What is stored on your device
The app stores the following on your device only:
- which words you have studied, and whether your last answer in each mode was right or wrong;
- the days you studied, used for the streak;
- results of the proficiency and level-up tests;
- the words you have starred;
- your settings: the furigana and romaji switches, the voice's speed and volume, and the daily reminder's time and weekdays.
This is held in the app's private storage — a local database and the device's own settings area — which the operating system removes when you uninstall the app. None of that is sent to us or to anyone else.
3. Deleting your data
You can delete all of it at any time from inside the app: Settings → Reset study progress. That removes every score, study day and starred word.
The word list itself stays, because it ships inside the app rather than being downloaded. Uninstalling the app removes everything.
4. Speech
The app reads Japanese aloud using the text-to-speech engine built into your device's operating system. No audio is recorded, and the app has no microphone permission. How the OS handles the text it is given is governed by your device maker's own privacy policy (Google or Apple).
5. Permissions
The app requests these and no others:
| Permission | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Notifications | The daily study reminder, if you turn it on |
| Alarms and reminders | Delivering that reminder at the time you chose |
| Run at startup | Re-booking the reminder after the device restarts, so it keeps arriving |
| Vibration | The reminder notification's vibration |
| Internet access | Loading the ads. Nothing else in the app uses the network: the word list ships inside the app, so studying works with the network switched off |
| Advertising ID | Google's advertising identifier, used to choose ads. You can reset or delete it in your device's own settings |
The app cannot see your location, contacts, photos, files or microphone.
6. Advertising
The app shows one banner ad at the bottom of the Home, Record and Settings screens. There are no ads on any study screen, and there are no full-screen or video ads anywhere.
The ads are served by Google AdMob. To choose and measure them, the Google Mobile Ads SDK collects:
- your approximate location, worked out from your IP address;
- how you interact with the ads;
- information about your device and about how the SDK is running;
- advertising identifiers — Android's advertising ID, or Apple's identifier for advertisers where you have allowed it.
Google collects and shares that data for advertising, analytics and fraud prevention, and encrypts it in transit. It is described in Google's own disclosures for Android and iOS, and governed by Google's privacy policy.
None of your study record goes to Google. The ad network is not given the words you have studied, your scores, your streak or your settings.
Your choices about ads
- In the EEA and the UK, the app asks for your consent the first time it runs, using Google's own consent form. You can change that answer at any time: Settings → Ad privacy choices.
- On Android, you can reset or delete your advertising ID, and turn off ad personalisation, in your device's settings.
- On iOS, this app never asks to track you — you will see no tracking prompt — so ads here are not personalised using Apple's advertising identifier.
There is still no analytics SDK and no crash reporting in the app.
7. Children
The app is not aimed at children, and it is not part of Google Play's Families programme, because it serves ads. The app itself collects nothing from anyone, including children; what the ad network collects is described in section 6.
There is no in-app purchase, no user-generated content and no way for users to contact each other.
8. Word data
The words, readings and meanings come from JMdict, © Electronic Dictionary Research and Development Group, used under CC BY-SA 4.0 and modified for this app.
This is an attribution notice, not a data-sharing arrangement: the dictionary is bundled inside the app, and nothing is sent to its publisher.
9. Changes to this policy
If what the app collects changes, this page will say so before that version ships. It was last changed when banner ads were added in version 1.2.0: before that, the app contained no advertising software at all.
10. Contact
- Developer: Masayuki Suda
- Email: topman31daasuu@gmail.com