1. Our Commitment
CVC Words is an educational website for children, teachers and parents. We believe a learning site should be calm and predictable: no account required, no personal profiles of learners, and no selling of personal information — ever. The site is supported by advertising, which we keep strictly separate from the educational content and never personalise to a child.
We deliberately keep the site simple. There is no sign-up, no login, no comment section, no newsletter form and no upload feature. Everything on the site can be used by an anonymous visitor, which means there is very little personal information for us to hold in the first place.
2. Information We Do Not Collect
To be as transparent about the negative as the positive, we do not collect or ask for any of the following:
- Names, postal addresses, telephone numbers or dates of birth of visitors or children;
- Account details, usernames or passwords — the site has no accounts;
- Payment details — the site is entirely free and contains no checkout;
- Photos, voice recordings, uploaded files or free-text messages from children;
- Precise location data (GPS or similar);
- Any use of information about your child to personalise advertising, or any advertising profile built by us from your child's activity.
3. Information We Do Collect
3.1 Anonymous usage statistics
We use Statcounter, a privacy-focused web analytics service, on a small number of pages (the home page, the phonics guide, teaching resources, flash cards and quiz pages). Statcounter records aggregated information such as page views, referring websites, approximate country-level location and browser/device type. This information is used only to understand which learning resources are useful and to fix problems. It is not used to identify individuals and is not linked to any account, because there are no accounts.
3.2 Server logs
Like almost every website, our hosting provider automatically records standard technical logs when a page is requested — for example the IP address of the requesting device, the date and time, the page requested and the browser's user-agent string. These logs are used for security, fraud prevention, troubleshooting and keeping the site online. We do not attempt to link log entries to individual people.
3.3 Email correspondence
If you contact us by email ([email protected]), we receive your email address, your message and anything you choose to include. We use it solely to reply to you and to keep a record of the conversation. Please do not send us personal information about a child — a first name or a general question is more than enough.
3.4 Children's activity inside games
Our flash-card and quiz games keep score and progress in the memory of your browser tab only. Scores are not saved to the server, not linked to a cookie, and disappear when the tab is closed or the page is refreshed. We do not record which words a child answered correctly or incorrectly.
3.5 Advertising
The site is supported by advertising delivered through Google AdSense. To show adverts, Google and its partners may use cookies and similar technologies, and may receive your device's IP address, approximate location (derived from IP), browser and device information, and the page you are viewing. That information is used to select an advert appropriate to the page and to measure whether it was displayed, to limit how often the same advert appears, and to detect invalid activity.
The site is directed at children. We have configured our advertising so that personalised or interest-based advertising is not used here: adverts are requested in non-personalised mode, meaning they are not selected using a visitor's browsing history, inferred interests or previous activity. We also ask our advertising provider to treat this site as child-directed and to exclude categories of advert that are unsuitable for young readers. We never pass a child's name, progress, answers or any other information to an advertising provider — nothing of that kind is entered on the site in the first place. Adverts are clearly separated from the educational content and are never designed to look like part of a lesson, game or word card.
For visitors in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, a consent message is shown before advertising cookies are set, and you can change or withdraw your choice at any time through the link on that message.
4. Cookies and Similar Technologies
A cookie is a small text file that a website can ask your browser to store. We keep our own use of cookies to a minimum. The only third-party cookies that may be set are anonymous visitor statistics and those used by our advertising partner, Google AdSense, as described below. We do not use retargeting cookies, and we do not run cross-site behavioural tracking of learners on this site.
| What | Type | Purpose | Set by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Visitor statistics | Analytics | Counting unique visits and page views so we know which resources help teachers. May be set on the pages listed in section 3.1. | Statcounter |
| Advertising | Advertising | Delivering and measuring the adverts that keep the site free, and limiting repeat impressions. Personalised advertising is not used on this site. See section 3.5. | Google AdSense |
| Font delivery | Technical | Serving the site's typefaces. Google Fonts does not set cookies for this use. | Google Fonts |
| Browser preferences | Local storage | Remembering interface choices such as a selected vowel or volume setting, where supported. Stored on your device only. | cvc-words.com |
How to control cookies and adverts
You can accept, block or delete cookies at any time in your browser settings (usually under "Privacy" or "Cookies"). Blocking analytics or advertising cookies does not affect any activity, game or word list on this site. You can also install Statcounter's opt-out cookie from statcounter.com, or use your browser's private/incognito window, which discards cookies when you close it.
To control advertising specifically, you can manage or reset the Google Ad Settings for your Google account, or install the industry opt-out tools offered by the Digital Advertising Alliance. Because adverts on this site are served in non-personalised mode, these settings mainly affect adverts you see on other websites.
The site does not respond differently to the "Do Not Track" browser signal, because it does not run cross-site tracking in the first place.
5. Third-Party Services
Some features are delivered by external providers. When your browser loads these resources, the provider receives your IP address and standard request information. We have chosen providers that are widely used by educational sites, and we list them here so you can review their own policies:
- Statcounter — anonymous visitor statistics, on the pages listed in section 3.1. See the Statcounter privacy policy.
- Google Fonts — delivers the Inter and Nunito typefaces used across the site. See the Google privacy policy.
- ResponsiveVoice — provides the optional "listen to the word" speech feature on the home page. Audio is generated from fixed word lists; nothing your child types or says is sent to the service. See the ResponsiveVoice privacy policy.
- cdnjs (Cloudflare) — a public library host that delivers JavaScript used by the flash-card and quiz games. See the Cloudflare privacy policy.
- Google AdSense — delivers the adverts that keep the site free. Google may set its own cookies as described in section 3.5. See the Google advertising policies and the Google privacy policy.
- Our web host — stores the site and keeps the technical server logs described in section 3.2.
We do not use social media pixels, advertising networks other than Google AdSense, data brokers, session-recording tools or third-party chat widgets.
6. How We Use Information
Where we do hold information, we use it only for the following purposes:
- to operate, maintain and secure the website;
- to understand in aggregate which pages and resources are useful, so we can improve them;
- to display adverts that fund the site, in the non-personalised mode described in section 3.5;
- to reply to questions, corrections and permissions requests you send us;
- to comply with legal obligations and to respond to lawful requests.
We never sell, rent or trade personal information, and we do not use any information to build behavioural profiles of adults or children.
7. Children's Privacy
CVC Words is designed for use by children aged roughly 4–7, usually with a parent or teacher nearby. Protecting children's privacy is the reason the site works the way it does.
- No account, no data entry. Children are never asked to register, sign in, enter a name, upload a photo or record their voice.
- No personalised advertising to children. Adverts on this site are requested in non-personalised mode, so they are not selected using a child's browsing history or interests, and we do not build a profile of a child for advertising. We also ask our advertising provider to treat the site as child-directed and to exclude categories unsuitable for young readers.
- No child-specific data. Game scores stay in the browser tab and are never transmitted or stored. We do not create profiles of individual learners.
- Analytics are aggregate only. Visitor statistics are not used to identify or follow a child across pages or sessions.
This approach is intended to meet the spirit of the US Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which requires parental consent before collecting personal information from children under 13 (and treats a site directed at children as subject to its rules, including its limits on advertising), and the UK/EU GDPR provisions on children's data (including the UK Age Appropriate Design Code). Because we do not knowingly collect personal information from children, no parental consent process is needed. If you believe a child has sent us personal information in an email, contact us and we will delete it promptly.
8. Legal Bases for Processing (EEA & UK)
If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, data protection law requires us to state a legal basis for each use:
- Legitimate interests — keeping the site secure (server logs), understanding aggregate usage so we can improve the educational content, and displaying non-personalised adverts that fund a free resource. These interests are balanced against visitors' rights, and the data involved is minimal and not used to profile children.
- Consent — where analytics or advertising cookies require it in your jurisdiction, they are set only in line with your choices; you may withdraw consent at any time by blocking or clearing cookies or using the advertising controls in section 4.
- Contract or pre-contract — replying to an email you send us.
- Legal obligation — where we must retain or disclose information to comply with the law.
9. Your Rights
Depending on where you live, you may have some or all of the following rights. We honour them for all visitors, regardless of location:
- Access — ask whether we hold personal information about you and receive a copy;
- Rectification — ask us to correct inaccurate information;
- Erasure — ask us to delete information we hold about you;
- Restriction and objection — ask us to limit or stop certain processing;
- Portability — receive information you provided in a structured, machine-readable format;
- Withdraw consent — where processing relies on consent, withdraw it at any time;
- Complain — lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority (in the UK, the Information Commissioner's Office).
To exercise any of these rights, email [email protected] with enough detail for us to understand your request. We aim to respond within 30 days and will never charge a fee for a reasonable request. We may ask you to confirm your identity only if necessary to protect the information from being disclosed to the wrong person.
10. Data Retention
We keep information only as long as we need it:
- Emails — kept while the conversation is active and for up to 24 months afterwards, then deleted;
- Server logs — retained for a short period by our hosting provider for security and troubleshooting, then automatically deleted or aggregated;
- Analytics — aggregate statistics contain no personal identifiers and may be kept indefinitely;
- Game progress — never leaves your browser tab and is gone when the tab closes.
11. Data Security
The site is served over HTTPS, so traffic between your browser and our server is encrypted. Access to the server and its logs is restricted to the small team that maintains the site, protected by strong passwords and kept up to date. Because we store almost nothing, the risk to visitors is correspondingly low — but no internet transmission can be guaranteed to be perfectly secure, and we encourage parents to supervise internet use as they normally would.
12. International Transfers
Our hosting, our advertising partner and the third-party services listed in section 5 may process technical data in countries outside your own, including the United States. Where that happens, the providers rely on recognised safeguards such as standard contractual clauses. The information involved is limited to technical data (IP address, page requested, browser type) and aggregate statistics.
13. Links to Other Websites
Some pages link to external resources, such as research papers or curriculum documents. Once you follow a link away from cvc-words.com, the privacy policy of that website applies, and we are not responsible for its content or practices. We recommend reviewing the policy of any site before providing personal information there.
14. Changes to This Policy
We review this policy at least once a year and whenever we add a feature that affects privacy. When we make a material change — for example, introducing a new third-party service — we will update the date at the top of this page and, where appropriate, highlight the change on the home page. Continuing to use the site after a change means you accept the updated policy.
15. Contact Us
Questions, corrections, data requests or concerns about this policy are welcome at [email protected]. We read every message and aim to reply within a few working days. For anything relating to a child's information, please put "Privacy" in the subject line so it is handled promptly.
16. Summary
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Do I need an account? | No. There are no accounts anywhere on the site. |
| Do you collect children's data? | No. No names, photos, voice or individual progress are collected. |
| Do you show adverts? | Yes — Google AdSense adverts fund the site. They are served in non-personalised mode and are never selected using a child's interests or behaviour. |
| Do you sell data? | Never. |
| What do you actually collect? | Anonymous page-view statistics, standard server logs, and emails you send us. Google AdSense also receives technical information needed to show adverts (see section 3.5). |
| How do I contact you? | [email protected] |