Privacy Policy
Kioo is used by children. That shapes every decision on this page. We collect the least we can, we never sell it, we show no third-party behavioural adverts, and you can delete it all whenever you like.
The short version
- We collect a display name, an email address, and what you do in the app so we can show your progress.
- A phone number is optional, and only used for Mobile Money payments and account recovery.
- Homework photos are processed to answer the question, then deleted. They are never used to train AI models.
- We do not sell personal data, we do not run advertising networks, and we do not track you across other apps or websites.
- You can delete your account and your data at any time — here or in the app.
1. Who we are
Kioo is operated by Kioo Education, based in Kampala, Uganda. We are the data controller for the information described in this policy.
| Service | The Kioo mobile app (com.kioo.app) and the website at kioo.site |
|---|---|
| Operator | Kioo Education, Kampala, Uganda |
| Privacy contact | privacy@kioo.site |
| General support | support@kioo.site |
This policy applies to the Kioo app on Android and iOS, the Kioo website, and the Kioo Pro checkout. It does not apply to anything a third party does on their own site — for example, your Mobile Money provider's own app.
2. Children using Kioo
Kioo is built for pupils in Primary 1 to Primary 7 — roughly ages 6 to 13. We design to the principle that a child's account should be useful with as little personal data as possible.
- No public profiles. There is no way for one Kioo user to find, see or contact another.
- No messaging, no comments, no uploads to a feed. Kioo has no user-to-user features at all.
- No behavioural advertising. We show no third-party adverts and we do not build advertising profiles.
- No persistent advertising identifiers. We do not collect the Android Advertising ID or its equivalents.
- No sale of personal data. Ever, to anyone, for any purpose.
Where a parent or guardian sets up or supervises an account, they may link their own account to the child's through the Parent Portal. A linked parent can see the child's learning activity, pay for a subscription on the child's behalf, and request deletion of the child's account. See the parents' guide for how linking works.
We aim to comply with the Ugandan Data Protection and Privacy Act, 2019, the US Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) where it applies, the UK Age Appropriate Design Code principles, and Google Play's Families policy requirements. If you believe a child's account was created without the involvement of a parent or guardian, email privacy@kioo.site and we will delete it.
3. What we collect, and why
| Data | Why we need it | Required? |
|---|---|---|
| Display name | To greet you in the app and label your progress. A first name or nickname is fine. | Required |
| Email address | Sign-in, email verification, password reset, and linking a parent to a child. | Required |
| Password | Stored only as a salted one-way hash. We never see or store the password itself. | Required |
| Phone number | Matching a Mobile Money payment to your account, and account recovery. | Optional |
| Class level (P1–P7) | To show the right lessons. | Optional |
| Learning activity lessons opened and completed, quiz attempts and scores, bookmarks, study streak, in-app searches |
To run the features you came for: progress, history, best scores, mastery, saved lessons, and the streak. | Required |
| Homework photos | Only when you tap the camera in the AI Tutor. Sent to an AI provider to read the question and produce a solution. See section 5. | Optional |
| AI Tutor questions and answers | So your past questions appear in the app and you can re-read the working. | Optional |
| Payment metadata transaction reference, amount, currency, method, status, payer phone number |
To activate your subscription or credits, and to handle refunds and disputes. | Only if you pay |
| Device and diagnostic data app version, OS version, device model, crash reports, error logs, IP address in server logs |
To fix crashes, detect abuse, and know which app versions still need supporting. | Required |
What we deliberately do not collect
- Precise location or GPS.
- Contacts, calendar, SMS, or call logs.
- Microphone audio. Read-aloud is text-to-speech output; it does not listen.
- Photos from your gallery other than the single image you choose to send to the AI Tutor.
- Advertising identifiers, or any cross-app or cross-site tracking.
- Biometrics, health data, or any special-category data.
4. Our legal grounds for using your data
| Purpose | Ground |
|---|---|
| Running your account and showing your progress | Performance of our contract with you |
| Processing a payment and activating Pro or credits | Performance of our contract with you |
| Sending a homework photo to an AI provider | Your consent, given each time you choose to send a photo |
| Security, abuse prevention, crash diagnostics | Our legitimate interest in a safe, working service |
| Keeping financial records | Compliance with tax and accounting law |
| Service emails — verification, password reset, receipts, critical notices | Performance of our contract with you |
Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time — simply stop using the AI Tutor, or delete your account. Withdrawing consent does not affect processing that already happened.
5. Homework photos and the AI Tutor
The AI Tutor is the one place Kioo sends your content to another company, so it deserves its own section.
What happens when you send a photo
- You tap the camera and take or choose a photo of a homework question.
- The image is uploaded to our server over an encrypted connection.
- It is passed to an AI provider — Google (Gemini 2.5 Flash) for most subjects, and Anthropic (Claude Sonnet, with vision) for maths, where accuracy on handwritten working matters more.
- The provider returns a step-by-step explanation, which we show you and save to your question history.
- The image itself is deleted from our servers once the answer has been produced and stored.
What we require of AI providers
- Content sent through their commercial APIs is not used to train their models.
- They act as our processors — they may only use the content to return an answer to us.
- Providers may retain content briefly for abuse monitoring under their own terms, after which it is deleted.
Please don't photograph anything private
The camera is for homework. Do not photograph faces, ID documents, bank details, medical information, or anything else personal — not yours and not anyone else's. If you send one by mistake, email privacy@kioo.site and we will remove the record.
Your saved questions and answers stay in your account until you delete them individually, clear your tutor history, or delete your account. More on how the AI behaves — and its limits — in our Responsible AI policy.
6. Who we share data with
We share personal data only with the service providers below, only so they can do a specific job for us, and only under a contract that requires them to protect it. We do not sell personal data, and we do not share it with advertisers, data brokers, or analytics networks that build profiles across services.
| Provider | What they do for us | What they receive | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| DigitalOcean | Hosts our servers and database | All application data, at rest | Frankfurt, Germany |
| AI Tutor — general subjects (Gemini) | The homework photo and question text | Google infrastructure | |
| Anthropic | AI Tutor — maths escalation (Claude) | The homework photo and question text | Anthropic infrastructure |
| Flutterwave | Processes Mobile Money and card payments | Name, email, phone number, amount | Africa / EU |
| Resend | Sends transactional email — verification, password reset, receipts | Email address and the message content | EU / US |
Card details never reach us. When you pay by card, the card number is entered on Flutterwave's own secure checkout. We receive only a transaction reference and a status.
We may also disclose data where we are legally required to — a valid court order or a lawful request from a regulator — or to protect the safety of a child. We will tell you if that happens unless we are legally prevented from doing so.
7. Where your data is stored
Kioo's servers and database are hosted in a DigitalOcean data centre in Frankfurt, Germany. If you are in Uganda or elsewhere in East Africa, your data therefore leaves the country. We chose an EU location deliberately: it sits under a strong data-protection regime and gives good latency to the region.
Transfers to our providers are protected by contractual data-protection terms, including Standard Contractual Clauses where those apply.
8. How long we keep things
| Data | Kept for |
|---|---|
| Account details and learning progress | As long as the account is open |
| Homework photo (the image file) | Deleted once the answer is generated and saved |
| AI Tutor question and answer text | As long as the account is open, or until you delete it |
| Server and error logs | Up to 90 days |
| Crash reports | Up to 12 months |
| Everything above, after you delete your account | Erased within 30 days |
| Financial and transaction records | Retained as long as tax and accounting law requires, in a restricted form separated from your learning data |
9. How we protect it
- All traffic between the app and our servers uses HTTPS with TLS 1.3, with certificates renewed automatically.
- Passwords are stored as salted one-way hashes, never in a form we can read.
- Administrative access is limited to the small number of staff who need it, and is logged.
- Database backups are encrypted.
- We keep dependencies patched and review changes before they ship.
No system is perfectly secure. If a breach affects your personal data and creates a real risk to you, we will notify you and the relevant authority without undue delay. Our full security posture and our responsible-disclosure policy are on the security page.
10. Your rights
Whatever country you are in, we offer everyone the same set of rights:
| Right | How to use it |
|---|---|
| Access — get a copy of your data | Email privacy@kioo.site. We reply within 30 days. |
| Correction — fix something wrong | Most fields are editable in the app under Profile. Otherwise email us. |
| Deletion — erase your account and data | In the app: Profile → Delete Account. Or use the deletion request form. |
| Portability — take your data elsewhere | Ask us and we will send a machine-readable export. |
| Object / restrict — limit certain processing | Email us and tell us what you want stopped. |
| Withdraw consent | Stop using the AI Tutor, or delete your account. |
| Complain | Contact us first — but you can go to your data-protection regulator. In Uganda that is the Personal Data Protection Office (PDPO). |
A parent or guardian linked to a child's account may exercise all of these rights on the child's behalf. We may ask you to confirm your identity before acting on a request, to make sure we are not handing someone else's data to the wrong person.
11. Cookies and local storage
The Kioo app uses no cookies. It stores a sign-in token and your preferences on your own device so you do not have to log in every time.
The Kioo website uses only strictly necessary storage — a light/dark theme preference and, during checkout, a short-lived session. No advertising cookies, no cross-site trackers. The full detail is on the cookies page.
12. Changes to this policy
If we change how we handle personal data in a way that materially affects you, we will update the date at the top of this page and give notice in the app before the change takes effect. Continuing to use Kioo after that means you accept the updated policy.
13. Contact us
Privacy questions, requests, or complaints:
- Privacy: privacy@kioo.site
- Security reports: security@kioo.site
- Child safety concerns: safety@kioo.site
- Everything else: support@kioo.site
Kioo Education, Kampala, Uganda.