Does Readigo store my child's voice?

No recordings are kept. The audio is uploaded for analysis and the file is deleted right after the analysis completes. Readigo builds no voice profiles.

Is Readigo's speech recognition on the device?

No. Speech is turned into text by a cloud provider, ElevenLabs. If you need on-device processing, Google's Read Along and Kids Shelf say they offer it.

Who gets my child's data?

ElevenLabs receives the audio for transcription. OpenAI receives the transcript, the expected text and the child's age, not the audio. Other providers handle crash reports, subscriptions and pseudonymous analytics. All are listed in the privacy policy at readigo.app/en/privacy.

Does Readigo show ads or sell data?

No. The business model is the subscription, with no ads and no data sold.

Does the app ask me before it records?

Yes. A parent is asked to agree before the first recording, and the screen names each provider and what it receives.

Which reading app is safest for my child's voice?

Short answer: If keeping the voice on the device matters most, pick an app that processes speech there: Google's Read Along and Kids Shelf both say they do. Readigo does not. Its audio goes over an encrypted connection to the cloud, is turned into text by a speech provider, and is deleted right after analysis. Readigo keeps no recordings and builds no voice profiles, but it is not on-device.

Demo

What the app hears during one short passage

It starts on its own. The passage lights up word by word, the way the app follows a child reading aloud - and slows down where the reader stumbles.

Listening

Milo the fox found a red kite stuck high in the old oak tree, and he tugged until it came free.

Tricky words get an orange mark.

The five checks

Five questions sort most read-aloud apps for privacy: (1) does the voice leave the device, (2) are there ads or trackers, (3) is the app clear about COPPA, (4) is it clear about GDPR, and (5) does it need an extra account. The answers below are from each app's own pages. We have not audited any app's code except our own.

What happens to your child's voice in Readigo

When a child reads aloud, the audio is sent over an encrypted connection to our cloud storage and to a speech-to-text provider, ElevenLabs, which returns a transcript. A second provider, OpenAI, scores the transcript against the text and receives no audio. The audio file is deleted right after analysis. We keep no recordings and build no voice profiles. Speech is not processed on the device.

Before the first recording the app asks a parent to agree, and the screen names each provider and what it receives. Our privacy policy lists the same providers, where they are based and the safeguards for sending data abroad.

One limit worth knowing: we cannot promise that a provider stores nothing. Our policy says OpenAI does not train its models on API data and may keep API requests for up to 30 days to catch abuse. For the audio, ElevenLabs processes it under a data-processing agreement and our policy says it is deleted after processing.

Readigo against the five checks

Check	Readigo	Plain answer
1. Voice stays on the device	No	Audio goes to the cloud for analysis and is deleted right after.
2. No ads or trackers	No ads, no data sold	The app does use crash reporting, subscription management and pseudonymous usage analytics. They are listed in the privacy policy.
3. COPPA	Covered in the policy	The policy has a COPPA section with parental consent, and the app asks a parent before recording starts.
4. GDPR	Covered in the policy	The policy names each provider, its location and the transfer safeguards.
5. No extra account	Parent signs in	The parent signs in with Apple or Google. The child has no login of their own.

Read the privacy policy itself at readigo.app/en/privacy rather than relying on this summary.

Apps that keep speech on the device

Two apps say their speech recognition runs on the device. Google's Read Along, a free Android app, says voice data is analyzed in real time on the device and is not stored or sent to Google servers, and works offline. Kids Shelf, a free app for iPhone, iPad and Android, says speech recognition runs only on the device, with no audio sent to any server, and its App Store label says no data is collected. Both are the developers' statements, and we have not tested them.

Two other apps describe limits without saying where audio is processed. Amira, a school tool, says its microphone opens only for the assigned passage, it creates no voiceprint, and audio can be deleted on request. Bookbot's App Store label lists contact info, usage data and diagnostics as not linked to the user, and we found no statement about where its speech is processed.

If on-device processing is your requirement, choose Read Along (Android) or Kids Shelf. Readigo is for families who accept cloud processing with immediate deletion and want a score for every sentence and a parent report in return.

Questions to ask any reading app

Where is the audio processed, and by whom? Is it stored, and for how long? Does the app build a voice profile? Which companies receive data, and is that written in the privacy policy? Does the app ask a parent before the first recording? A vendor that answers these in plain words is easier to trust than one that says only "private and secure".