Privacy policy

Bright Lives English ("we", "us") is a free English-learning website run by two English teachers. We keep things simple: you can use every lesson without an account, and we collect as little information as possible. If you have any questions, email us at hello@brightlivesenglish.com.

Information you give us

• Newsletter. If you sign up, we store your email address, the level you choose (optional) and the page where you signed up. We use this only to send you our newsletter. Every email has an unsubscribe link, or you can email us and we'll delete your details.
• Learn & Give. When you finish a lesson for the first time, your browser sends the lesson's name and a random number made on your device (not your name, email or IP address). We keep only a scrambled version (a hash) of that number and the lesson, so the same lesson isn't counted twice. We use it only to count how many books learners have helped give.
• Weekly leaderboard. If you add your score to a leaderboard, we store the nickname you type, your score and the lesson. Nicknames and scores are shown publicly on that lesson for the rest of the week. Please don't use your real full name.

Classes

Teachers can make a free class link. When a student joins a class, they choose a nickname (we ask them not to use their full name). Their device gets a random number, which we keep only in a scrambled form (a hash). The teacher sees the class's numbers, and later each student's nickname, the lessons they finish, their quiz scores and the words they practise. We never ask students for an email, a name or an account.

A teacher can give an email when they make a class. We use it only to send the class links and milestone news (for example, "your class finished 25 lessons"). To stop spam, we keep a scrambled form of IP addresses for one day, then delete it. Classes with no activity for 12 months are deleted automatically, and a teacher can delete their class and all its data at any time on their Class Progress page.

Daily reminders

If you turn on daily reminders in My learning, your browser gives us a push address for this device (made by your browser's push service, such as Google, Apple or Mozilla). We store that address, the hour you chose and your level, so we can send one reminder a day. When you study, your device tells us so that day's reminder is skipped. We don't store your name, email or IP address with it. Turn reminders off in My learning (or block notifications in your browser) and we delete the address.

Information saved on your device

Your lesson progress, flashcard choices, quiz best scores, daily streak and nickname are saved in your browser's local storage. This data stays on your device. We can't see it, and it isn't sent to us. You can delete it at any time by clearing your browser's site data.

Your Word Bank, review progress and Level Test result are stored only in your browser. Nothing is sent to us. A backup file you download stays with you.

Services we use

• Netlify hosts this website, receives newsletter sign-ups and stores leaderboard scores. Like most web hosts, it keeps basic technical logs (such as IP addresses) to run and protect the service.
• YouTube (Google) shows our videos. We use YouTube's privacy-enhanced mode, and the video only loads when you press play. After that, YouTube's own privacy policy applies.
• Google Translate loads only if you choose a language from the Language menu. It sets a cookie to remember your language. If you don't use it, nothing is loaded from Google Translate.
• Pronunciation check. The "Say it" button uses your browser's speech recognition. Depending on your browser, your voice may be processed by the browser maker (for example Google in Chrome, Apple in Safari). We never receive or store any recording.
• Google Analytics (Google) counts visits so we can see which lessons are popular and improve the site. It sets cookies and collects information such as the pages you view, how you arrived, your approximate location and your device type. We don't use it to identify you. You can block it with your browser's privacy settings or the Google Analytics opt-out add-on.

We run small search ads on Google. If you arrive by clicking one of our ads, Google adds a click ID to the link and a cookie remembers it, so we can see whether ad visitors use the lessons (for example, finish a quiz) and compare them with visitors who found us another way. We don't use remarketing or personalised advertising, and visitors who don't click an ad are not affected.

Our fonts are hosted on our own site.

Affiliate links

Some pages may contain affiliate links to English courses. If you click one, the course provider may use cookies to know that you came from us. See our affiliate disclosure.

Children

Our lessons are suitable for all ages. If you are under 16, please ask a parent or guardian before signing up for the newsletter or adding your name to a leaderboard.

Your rights

You can ask us to show, correct or delete the information we hold about you. Email hello@brightlivesenglish.com and we'll reply within 30 days.

Changes

If we change this policy, we'll update the date at the top of this page.