Last updated: 22 September 2026
Pownin is operated by Sai Sanjay Golla, Johannastraße 30, 13581 Berlin, Germany (the "controller" of the personal data described here).
Data protection questions: privacy@pownin.app. Anything else: contact@pownin.app.
We have not appointed a Data Protection Officer; our processing does not require one. If that changes, we will update this policy.
Pownin is a German conversation coach. During a Live Coach session the app listens through your device's microphone so it can help you speak German — it tells you what was said around you and what you can say back.
The microphone is open for the whole session, not only when you are speaking. It stays open if you lock your screen; iOS shows the microphone indicator the whole time. It closes when you end the session, when you pause, or automatically after five minutes in which you have not spoken.
Audio from your microphone. During a Live Coach or Practice session, audio is streamed directly from your device to our AI provider, OpenAI, so it can be understood and responded to in real time. Our own servers never receive the audio. We do not record it and we do not store it.
Transcripts. Speech in a session is converted to text by the AI provider so the coach can respond. We do not store transcripts of Live Coach sessions. In Practice mode, what you said is sent to our server once at the end of the session to generate a summary; we do not keep that text afterwards.
Your voiceprint. If you complete voice enrolment, the app creates a mathematical representation of your voice. This is biometric data. We use it only to tell your voice apart from other people's during a session. The voiceprint itself never leaves your device. During a session, the app may send the AI provider a short signal derived from it — in effect "that was the learner" or "that was someone else" — so the coach knows who spoke. That signal contains no audio and cannot be used to reconstruct your voice.
Your settings and progress. Your German level, profile details you enter, and counts of sessions, words and phrases. If you create an account, these sync to our servers so you can use more than one device.
Usage minutes. We count how many minutes of Live Coach and Practice you use, so we can apply the free allowance and your subscription. This is stored on our servers against your account or guest identity.
Technical and usage data. A random device identifier, app version, session start and end times, error codes, and anonymised events describing which screens you use. We do not collect crash reports.
Your email, if you create an account or join the waitlist. For accounts, your email and sign-in method are held by our authentication provider. For the waitlist, the address you submit and the date and entry point of your signup.
Payment data. Subscriptions are handled by Apple. We do not receive or store your payment details. Our subscription provider receives a confirmation that you have subscribed and your account identifier, nothing more.
This section matters and we want to be direct about it.
When you use Live Coach, Pownin hears whoever else is speaking near you. Their speech is streamed to the AI provider in the same way as yours, so the app can tell you what they said. We do not record or store their audio, and we never create or save a voiceprint of anyone who is not you.
These people have not agreed to this, and we cannot ask them.
Your responsibility. Laws about listening to other people vary and are strict in Germany and much of the EU. In Germany, recording someone's private spoken words without their consent can be a criminal offence (§201 StGB). Before using Pownin around other people, make sure you are allowed to. Do not use it where conversations are confidential — medical appointments, legal meetings, and similar. Do not use it with the screen locked in a place where others cannot see the microphone indicator.
Our commitments. Third-party audio is never stored by us. No voice embedding of a non-user is ever created. Speech that is not yours is discarded when the session ends.
| What | Why | Legal basis (GDPR Art. 6) |
|---|---|---|
| Audio and transcripts | To provide the coaching you asked for | Performance of a contract (6(1)(b)) |
| Voiceprint and the speaker signal derived from it | To tell your voice from others | Explicit consent (9(2)(a)) |
| Settings, progress, usage minutes | To personalise coaching and apply your allowance | Contract (6(1)(b)) |
| Technical and usage data | To keep the app working and improve it | Legitimate interests (6(1)(f)) |
| Account email | To let you sign in and sync across devices | Contract (6(1)(b)) |
| Waitlist email | To invite you and measure interest | Consent (6(1)(a)) |
| Website visits and signup events | To measure whether our advertising works | Consent (6(1)(a)) |
Your voiceprint is biometric data under Article 9. We ask for your explicit consent before enrolment, and you can withdraw it at any time by deleting your voiceprint in the app.
Our providers process data in the European Union or in the United States. Where data leaves the EEA we rely on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework or on Standard Contractual Clauses.
We do not sell your data. We do not share it with advertisers.
Under the GDPR you can ask us to give you a copy of your data, correct it, delete it, restrict or object to how we use it, or send it to another provider. You can withdraw consent at any time. Write to privacy@pownin.app and we will respond within one month.
Deleting your account in the app removes your account, settings, progress and usage records from our servers. It does not delete your voiceprint from your device — delete that separately in the app, or remove the app. It does not reach data already held by our providers under their own retention periods; write to us if you want us to request that.
You can also complain to a supervisory authority. Ours is the Berlin Beauftragte für Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit.
You can try Pownin without signing up. A guest identity is created on your device and stored securely; it is not linked to your name or email. Your settings, progress and voiceprint stay on your device. Your usage minutes are counted against the guest identity on our servers. If you later create an account, your guest usage is transferred to it.
To limit abuse, we keep a hashed record of the network address from which guest identities are created. It cannot be used to identify you.
If you delete the app, on-device data is gone and we cannot recover it.
If you have not opened the app for three days, it may show you one quiet reminder. This is scheduled on your device and involves no data leaving it.
Pownin is not intended for children under 16. We do not knowingly collect data from them.
We will post changes here and update the date above. If a change is significant we will tell you in the app.
privacy@pownin.app
Sai Sanjay Golla, Johannastraße 30, 13581 Berlin, Germany