Privacy Policy

Last updated: May 2026 · Bolo - Little Talkers

The short version: Bolo does not collect, store, or sell any personal information about you or your child. Two things are worth reading carefully: (1) the microphone section — when your child speaks in Hear and Repeat mode, your browser sends audio to Google or Microsoft for speech recognition; Bolo never receives or stores that audio; and (2) the optional Google Drive sync — if a parent chooses to connect Google Drive, the family photos they personally upload are stored in their own private Google Drive folder. This is entirely optional, requires an explicit sign-in, and can be disconnected at any time. This developer never receives or has access to those photos.

Who runs this app

Bolo is built and maintained by Lavkesh Dwivedi, an independent developer based in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Texas, USA. This is not a company. Contact via lavkesh.com.

No data collected by this app

Lavkesh Dwivedi does not operate any server, database, or backend that receives data from Bolo. The app has no accounts, no logins, no analytics, no advertising, no tracking pixels, no cookies (beyond what your own browser may set automatically), and no third-party data sharing of any kind. Nothing about you or your child is transmitted to this developer.

What the app uses on your device

Feature	What happens	Data leaves your device?
Voice playback (all modes)	Browser text-to-speech speaks a word. Chrome may send the word text to Google's voice servers; Edge may send it to Microsoft's. No name, age, or identity data is included.	Only the word text (e.g. "cat") may go to the browser's voice provider. No child identity data.
Microphone - Hear and Repeat	Your browser records a short audio clip and sends it to Google (Chrome) or Microsoft (Edge) for speech recognition. Bolo receives only the resulting text and checks if it matches the target word.	Yes. Audio goes directly from your browser to Google or Microsoft. Bolo never receives or stores the audio.
Camera - Show and Tell	Live video is analyzed entirely on your device by TensorFlow.js (coco-ssd model). No image or video data is sent anywhere.	No. All camera processing is on-device only.
Settings (localStorage)	Language preference, chosen voice, pitch, rate, and volume are saved in your own browser's local storage on your device. This data is controlled by you: clear it at any time through your browser settings.	No. Never leaves your device and is not accessible to this developer.
Family photos (optional)	Parents can upload personal photos for family members (Mummy, Papa, Dada, etc.) in the My Family section. Photos are stored on your device's local storage. You can optionally sync them to your own Google Drive (see below).	Only if you choose to connect Google Drive. Photos go directly to your personal Google Drive; this developer has no access.
Google Drive sync (optional)	If a parent taps "Sync with Google Drive" and signs in, family photos are stored in a private app-specific folder in their own Google Drive account. This folder is invisible in the regular Drive UI and can only be read by this app. No other data is synced. The feature requires an explicit parent action to enable and can be disconnected at any time.	Yes, but only to your own Google Drive account. Photos are not shared with this developer or any other party.
Offline cache (service worker)	App files are cached on your device so the app works without an internet connection after the first load.	No. Contains only app code, no personal data.

Android app permissions

The Android version of Bolo (available on Google Play) requests the following device permissions:

Microphone (RECORD_AUDIO): Requested only if you open the Hear and Repeat activity. Used solely for speech recognition as described above. You can deny this permission; all other activities will continue to work.
Camera (CAMERA): Requested only if you open the Show and Tell activity. All camera processing runs entirely on your device using TensorFlow.js. No images or video are transmitted anywhere. You can deny this permission; all other activities will continue to work.
Internet (INTERNET): Required for the app to load and for text-to-speech and speech recognition services. The app caches itself for offline use after the first load; internet is not required for most features once cached.

Android permissions can be reviewed and revoked at any time in your device Settings > Apps > Bolo > Permissions.

Third-party services

The following third-party services may process data when Bolo is used. All processing is initiated by your browser or device, not by Bolo, and governed by those companies' own policies.

Service	Triggered by	What they may receive	Their policy
Google (Chrome speech)	Hear and Repeat in Chrome	Short audio clip of child's voice	Google Privacy Policy
Microsoft (Edge speech)	Hear and Repeat in Edge	Short audio clip of child's voice	Microsoft Privacy Statement
Google (Chrome TTS)	Voice playback in Chrome	Short word text strings (e.g. "cat")	Google Privacy Policy
Microsoft (Edge TTS)	Voice playback in Edge	Short word text strings (e.g. "cat")	Microsoft Privacy Statement
Google OAuth & Drive (optional)	Only if a parent chooses to enable Google Drive sync. Google authenticates the user and provides access to a private app folder in their Drive. Google may process authentication data per its own policies.	Authentication information and family photos (only if Drive sync is enabled). This developer does not receive this data.	Google Privacy Policy

Note for Android app users: On Android, text-to-speech and speech recognition are provided by your device's installed speech engine (typically Google, or your device manufacturer's engine). The same handling applies: Bolo receives only the resulting text transcript and never the audio itself. Audio from Hear and Repeat is shared with Google's speech recognition service (or your device's installed speech engine) and is subject to that service's privacy policy.

The microphone - what actually happens

This is the most important section to understand. When your child uses Hear and Repeat and taps the mic button:

Your browser (not Bolo) opens the microphone and records a short audio clip of your child speaking a word.
Your browser sends that clip directly to a speech recognition server: Google if you are using Chrome, Microsoft if you are using Edge.
The server returns a plain-text transcript (for example, "cat").
Bolo receives only that text string and checks whether it matches the target word.
Bolo never receives, stores, processes, retransmits, or has any access to the audio recording itself.

Because Bolo never receives or retains the audio, Bolo does not "collect" that audio under the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) or any other applicable law. The audio passes directly from your browser to Google or Microsoft. Their handling is governed by their own privacy policies and COPPA obligations, not by this policy.

If you prefer that no audio be sent to any third-party server, simply do not use the Hear and Repeat activity. All other activities (Tap and Learn, Picture Match, Show and Tell, My Family) do not use the microphone at all.

Optional Google Drive family photo sync

The My Family section lets parents upload personal photos for family members (Mummy, Papa, Dada, and so on). These photos are stored only on the device where they are uploaded unless a parent chooses to enable Google Drive sync.

If a parent taps "Sync with Google Drive" and signs in with their Google account:

Google authenticates the parent via OAuth 2.0. This developer does not handle or receive the password or credentials.
The app requests only the drive.appdata permission — a restricted scope that gives access to a private, hidden app folder in that person's Drive. It does not grant access to any other files in Google Drive.
The family photos the parent has uploaded are stored in that private folder. No other app data, child information, or personal information is stored in Drive.
The photos are synced across devices that sign in with the same Google account. This developer has no access to Drive or those photos at any point.

The Drive sync feature is entirely optional. It is off by default. It requires an explicit parent action to enable. It can be disconnected at any time from within the app. Bolo does not prompt children to connect Google Drive.

No advertising, no analytics, no trackers

Bolo contains no advertising networks, no analytics scripts (no Google Analytics, no Mixpanel, no similar services), no social media plugins, and no tracking of any kind. There are no cookies set by this developer. There is no monetization of user data. Bolo does not respond to Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control signals because there is no tracking to disable.

Children's privacy (COPPA)

Bolo is designed for children ages 1 to 6. Under the U.S. Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA):

Bolo does not collect any personal information from children or parents.
Bolo does not knowingly collect, use, or disclose personal information from children under 13.
Because Bolo does not collect personal information, the data collection and verifiable parental consent requirements of COPPA do not apply to this developer. This policy is provided as a matter of transparency.
The optional Google Drive sync is a parent-facing feature. Children do not interact with it. The photos stored are of adults (family members), not children. The parent's Google account credentials and Drive data are governed by Google's privacy policy, not this one.
The only data that flows through the app involving audio is voice in Hear and Repeat mode. That audio passes directly from your browser to Google or Microsoft and is never received by Bolo. The FTC's guidance confirms that an operator who does not receive audio has not "collected" it under COPPA.
No information is shared with advertisers, analytics providers, data brokers, or any other third party by this developer.
No personal information is required to use the app.

Because Bolo retains no data, there is nothing to request, review, or delete on this end. For concerns about audio that Google or Microsoft may have processed, contact those companies directly using the links in the Third-party services section above.

International users

Bolo does not collect personal data from users anywhere in the world. No data is transferred internationally by this developer. Users in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, Canada, India, or any other jurisdiction should note that this developer receives no personal data from use of this app. Users in India should additionally note that this developer does not act as a data fiduciary under India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023, as no personal data is processed by or transmitted to this developer.

Your choices

To avoid any microphone use: skip Hear and Repeat. All other modes work without microphone permission.
To avoid any camera use: skip Show and Tell. All other modes work without camera permission.
To avoid browser TTS data: use a browser with locally installed voices and disable network voices in your browser settings.
To clear your locally saved settings: clear your browser's local storage for this site through your browser settings.
To disconnect Google Drive: open My Family, tap "Family Photos", and tap "Disconnect" next to the Drive connection. This removes the app's Drive token from your session. To delete the photos from your Drive folder, open Google Drive, go to Settings > Manage Apps, and remove Bolo's data.
To avoid Google Drive entirely: simply do not tap "Sync with Google Drive". The feature is off by default and requires an explicit parent sign-in to activate.

Changes to this policy

If anything meaningful changes, the "Last updated" date above will change. If a future version of this app introduces any data collection, this policy will be updated before that version is released and the summary at the top will reflect it.

Contact

lavkesh.com