Anonymous data collection in AssistiveWare apps

At AssistiveWare we take the privacy of our users very seriously and we aim to be extremely transparent about the measures we’ve put in place to protect it.

We collect limited usage data from our applications to help improve their quality, reliability, and usability. Some data is collected by default, while other data is collected only after explicit user consent.

Note that all data described in this page is collected anonymously, meaning it does not contain information that can be used to identify an individual user, to guarantee user privacy. In no instance do we collect conversation data or user-created content for analytics or product improvement purposes.

Some of our applications do send data to AssistiveWare’s servers connected to individual users. This data is used to provide the services connected to the apps, such as remote backup, syncing between devices, providing insights, and sharing for the user. We do not use that data for analysis or product improvement. This data is out of scope for this page, as this page describes only additional anonymous data collection. If you’d like to explore in detail how we treat data and privacy, please read the Privacy and Data Policy for details on each of our apps.

We also invite you to read our blog post calling on the AAC field to better protect the privacy of AAC users. In this document, we provide a jargon-free explanation of what data we currently collect in our AAC apps.

Anonymous data collection in our apps

The following table show which categories of data are collected anonymously for each of our apps. The following table provides a description of each of the categories.

App	Always collected	Collected after explicit consent
Proloquo2Go	Application setup App usage Data collection consent	Feature engagement Language use (English only) Word use (English only)
Proloquo4Text	Application setup App usage Data collection consent	Feature engagement Language use (English only) Word use (English only)
simPODD	Licensing App usage Data collection consent	Feature engagement Content interaction Configuration
Proloquo	Licensing Application setup App usage Data collection consent	Feature engagement Configuration Language use (English only)
Proloquo Coach	Licensing App usage Data collection consent	Feature engagement Content interaction Configuration Language use (English only)
Micalo	Licensing Application setup App usage Data collection consent	Feature engagement Configuration Language use (English only)
Estello	Licensing Application setup App usage Data collection consent	Feature engagement Content interaction Configuration
Pictello	No data collected	No data collected
Keeble	No data collected	No data collected
Keedogo, Keedogo Plus	No data collected	No data collected

Data collection categories

The following table shows the description of the data categories used above. Note that not all apps collect all categories.

Data category	What is collected?	Why do we collect data?
Licensing	Trial, subscription and licensing actions.	Keep track of patterns in trials and subscriptions for business purposes.
Application setup	Progress through the setup (onboarding) of the app.	Keep track of possible problems during licensing, sign-in and setup.
App usage	Basic app usage data, such as app version, iOS version, device type, country, region, vocabulary configuration, accessibility features, and usage duration.	Keep track of total active users, retention, typical configurations, and accessibility needs. This helps us understand user needs, spot potential issues and prioritize development.
Data collection consent	Whether approval to send anonymous data that requires consent has been given.	Keep track of patterns in changes in consent status.
Feature engagement	User interaction with specific features, interface elements, and features of the app.	To understand which features users engage with, evaluate their effectiveness or interface elements, and prioritize enhancements.
Content interaction	Which articles and/or news items have been read. For apps that offer lesson material, which lessons have been given.	Get insight into the use of the material provided in our apps.
Configuration	Statistics on the changes made to app configuration and content. No user-created data is collected.	Keep track of the need for configuration and changes in the app setup.
Language use (English only)	The number of different words spoken in a week. The total number of words spoken in a week. The number of times words from a list of 120 core words are spoken in a week.	Develop ways to measure progress in language development and communication. Identify ways we can improve products for better language and communication outcomes.
Word use (English only)	Whether a word from a standard list of common words was spoken at least once in a week. A standard list is used to avoid capturing personal names and places. To avoid capturing the context in which words are used data is not collected daily but weekly.	Get insight into which words are important for AAC users. Used to improve products for better language and communication outcomes.

This overview may change over time as our projects evolve. Any changes will be reflected on this page.