Privacy
Last updated November 2, 2026
An account is required before lessons open. Every course, every lesson and the daily briefing stay free. Free learners can choose to watch an ad when they run out of hearts; there are no other ads. Crash reports go to Firebase Crashlytics. There is no product-analytics SDK. Anything else that leaves your phone is listed here, and the optional extras are off until you turn them on.
The app
Your progress
Your progress (XP, streak, answers, notes and settings) is stored in the app's database on your device. If Android backup is on for your phone, Android includes this database in your own device backup. Uninstalling the app, or Settings › Reset all progress, deletes it from the phone.
Accounts (required)
You sign in with email or Google before lessons open. On iOS you can also use Sign in with Apple. We store your email address, display name, app version, when the app last signed in, and your learning progress (XP and XP per day; study time per day and in total; the days you studied or listened; your streak and Streak Shields; sparks, achievements, quests and league standing; path progress, daily goal and chosen path; lesson counts, including how many were before 7 am or after 10 pm, and the last few hours of day you studied, used for smart reminders; and per-question practice stats) in Google Firebase (Authentication and Cloud Firestore), so you can restore it on another phone. After one successful sync, lessons work offline. Your About-you answers, notes and on-phone usage counts are not uploaded. This data is kept until you delete the account. Settings › Account › Delete account deletes the account and the synced data listed on the delete page; progress on the phone is kept. If you had a paid plan, a record of the purchase (product, dates and status, identified only by hashes, with your email, name and account ID removed) is kept so a subscription can't be moved to another account.
Ads (free learners only)
Ads are rewarded only: nothing is shown unless you tap "Watch 1 short ad" on the out-of-hearts screen, at most a few times a day. On Android they are served by Google AdMob. Where the law requires it (for example in the EEA, the UK and some US states), Google's consent form (User Messaging Platform) asks for your choice before any ad; change it any time in Settings › Account › Ad privacy choices. AdMob may collect your device's advertising ID, IP address (from which it estimates your approximate location), app-usage and interaction data, and diagnostics such as crash and performance data. Google uses it to show, measure and limit ads, for analytics and to prevent fraud; this counts as sharing data with Google for advertising. Personalised ads are used only with your consent where consent is required. Ads are limited to a general-audience (PG) rating. See how Google uses information from apps that use its services. You can reset or delete your advertising ID in Android Settings › Privacy › Ads. The iOS app does not show ads.
Paid plans and payments
On Android, subscriptions are bought and managed through Google Play. On iOS, through the App Store. The store processes the payment and we never see your card. To link a plan to your account, the app sends the purchase token or App Store transaction to our server, which checks it with the store and stores the plan and its end date with your account.
Ask Bit
Offline, Ask Bit searches the cards on your phone and nothing is sent. Online (signed in), your question, the IDs of cards you have read and your recent chat are sent to our server, which asks Google's Gemini API to write an answer from the course cards. Free and No Ads include 3 online messages a day; we keep a daily count to enforce that. The chat itself stays on your phone; our server does not store it. If you turn on "Personalise Ask Bit" in Settings › Privacy, Bit keeps up to 50 short notes of topics you asked about (keywords, not your full messages) and uses them in later answers; turn it off, or tap Forget, to delete them. Deleting your account deletes the notes and the daily count as well.
Elite: documents you upload
Elite members can upload a document (PDF, DOCX or text, up to 10 MB) for a review. The file is read on our server, the review is stored with your account, and both are deleted automatically after 30 days, when you tap Delete, or when you delete the account.
Insights and email (off until you turn them on)
In Settings › Privacy you can choose to share anonymous usage counts (such as "lesson finished", never answers or free text), optional profile answers (goal, role, industry, age band, how you found us) and product or marketing email. All are off by default. Reports only show groups of 5 or more people. Marketing email is at most 2 a week, never during your night-time quiet hours, and every email has a one-click unsubscribe link and our postal address. Settings › Privacy › Export my data downloads everything we hold about your account. Deleting your account deletes it.
Leagues, friends and certificates
Signed in, your display name and weekly XP are shown to the other learners in your league and to friends you add by invite code. Certificates show the name you choose to print, the course and the date; anyone with the certificate ID can check these at /verify. We never show your email address. Deleting your account removes your league entry, friend links and certificates, and the verify page for those certificates stops working.
Completion reward
If you claim the completion reward, we check your account's email, creation date, certificates and XP, and a hashed ID for this install of the app (not a hardware ID). Deleting your account removes the claim. The hashed install id stays so the reward can still be claimed only once, and a reward already sent leaves an anonymised accounting record (no email or name). See the reward terms.
About you
The optional answers you give during setup or later (why you're learning, role, comfort level, topics, best time, how you found the app, placement score and Bit's colour) stay on your phone. They only change where your plan starts, the suggested reminder time and Bit's colour. Edit or delete them in Settings › About you.
Onboarding counts
Only while “Share anonymous usage” is on (Settings › Privacy, off by default), the app also counts which setup and tour screens you finish and skip, on your phone only. These counts are never uploaded. Turning the switch off erases them, as does Delete my data.
Network
Besides accounts, ads and Pro above, the app checks whether a newer version is required (no personal data is sent) and, if you turn on "Check for new content daily" and enter an update address in Settings › Content, downloads content packs from that address. Packs you import from a file never leave your device. Read-aloud uses your phone's own text-to-speech voice.
Daily Briefing: once you are signed in, the app downloads the list of published briefings (titles, summaries, transcripts, notes and source links) from our Google Firebase project when you open the Briefing tab, when you pull to refresh, and about every six hours in the background when you're online. That download does not attach your learning progress. Nothing about you is sent beyond what any web request reveals (your IP address and device type), which Google receives as our hosting provider. Audio streams when you press play, or is saved on your phone if you choose Download for offline. Your listening progress, listen streak and Knowledge check answers stay on your phone (answers you type are not saved at all); bonus XP from Knowledge checks counts like other XP.
Crash reports
Release builds of the Android app send crash reports to Firebase Crashlytics (stack trace, device model, OS version and app version). They are used to fix crashes. There is no separate product-analytics SDK.
Notifications
Notifications are used only for the optional daily reminder, at the time you choose, and for playback controls while a Daily Briefing is playing.
This website
This site sets no cookies and loads no analytics or advertising scripts. Fonts and images are served from this site, not from third parties.
Your browser remembers two things on this device only, in local storage: your light or dark theme choice, and, if you use "Notify me", the email address you enter. In this preview the email is not sent anywhere. Clearing your browser data removes it.
Like any website, the server that hosts this site may keep standard access logs (such as IP address, time and page requested) for security and reliability.
Children
CEO Hero is for people aged 16 and over. It is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 16. If you believe a child has created an account, ask us to delete it, or delete it in Settings › Account.
Changes
If this policy changes, the new version will be posted here and in the app with a new date.