Ello collects only what it needs to teach your child and keep them safe. And yes, Ello 2.0 records your child reading aloud: that's how the tutor listens.
What does Ello collect from me, the parent?
Your first and last name, email address, mobile number, and IP address
Your child's first name, age, birth month and year, grade, academic level, activities and interests, and educational context
Anything you enter in our sign-up forms
Billing information, so we can process your payment
Account events, such as when you create an account or start a subscription
We ask for your child's birth month and year to set age-appropriate levels, never their full date of birth.
When you install the app or start a free trial, we may share that with our marketing analytics partners, and combine limited data from them with those events, only to measure our own marketing. We never use your child's information for this.
What does Ello collect from my child?
Audio recordings of your child speaking. They let your child talk with the tutor, and we use them to assess pronunciation and fluency, create transcripts, and review sessions for safety. With the "Help Improve Ello" toggle (General Service Improvement) on, they also improve our speech recognition.
Transcripts, used to track progress and interests, build a Learner Profile that personalizes learning, send you learning updates, and review for safety. With Help Improve Ello on, they also improve the tutor.
Activity data: how your child uses app features, any purchases, and how often and how long the app is used.
Device and performance data: device details, session identifiers, loading times, error and crash logs, and usage signals. It keeps Ello secure and working, and is never used for advertising.
Who processes the recordings?
Ello's AI tutor uses large language models from third-party providers. They may process your child's audio and transcripts solely to provide the service, personalize learning, and improve Ello's educational features. Ello does not permit them to use your child's information for their own purposes or to train their general-purpose models. If our safety systems flag a session, our team is alerted and may review it. All data is protected with encryption, restricted access, and secure storage.
For how the tutor works and what keeps your child safe, see Does Ello Use AI, and How Is My Child Kept Safe?
What does Ello never collect?
Sensitive information: political affiliations, religious or philosophical beliefs, race or ethnicity, sexual orientation, health data, genetic information, criminal history, credit or financial data, trade union membership, or government ID numbers. We don't obtain personal information from third parties, and we never combine your child's data with data from other sources.
What does Ello never do?
Sell your or your child's personal information.
Advertise to children, show targeted ads, or use in-app tracking for third-party advertising.
Share children's information with advertising networks or data brokers, or let a third party collect it in the app for its own purposes.
Offer social features or social sign-in. Nothing your child creates is posted publicly. A story is only shared if you pass on the link (see Does Ello Use AI, and How Is My Child Kept Safe?).
Can I stop the recording?
Speaking aloud is core to how Ello teaches, so recording can't be switched off in normal use. Using recordings to improve Ello is optional. Turning off Help Improve Ello withdraws your consent and deletes your child's data. See How Do I Manage My Child's Data and Help Improve Ello?, which also covers how long data is kept.
Classroom Mode, our version for teachers and librarians, uses speech recognition only and collects no child-identifying personal information.
Our full policies are the Privacy Policy, the Children's Privacy Policy, and the COPPA Notice. Questions? Contact our support team. See Contact Support and Response Times.