In short
The app has no accounts or developer-run analytics. Drawing, colouring and photo conversion run on the device. Optional Google AdMob ads handle technical data as described below; spoken hints depend on the voice installed on the phone.
Advertising is enabled by default and parents can switch it off. Adverts use the internet and can preload before a video is requested. Sharing and the selected speech engine may also use the network. Advertising behavior is described further down this page.
If you take only one thing from this page: nothing your child makes in AnkoKids leaves the phone unless you personally choose to share it.
Data handling
The app has no accounts or developer-run analytics service. Drawing progress is stored on the phone. The advertising SDK handles technical data as described below.
The drawing features do not ask for:
- Names, email addresses, phone numbers or any other contact detail.
- Your child's age. The age band you pick is a difficulty setting, stored on the phone.
- Location, in any form, precise or approximate.
- Advertising identifiers, device identifiers or an installation identifier.
- Usage statistics, crash reports, session lengths or analytics events.
- Uploads of photographs, drawings or other creations to a developer-run service. Photo conversion uses the image you select on the device.
What stays on the device
The app saves a small amount of information so it can pick up where your child left off. All of it lives in the app's own private storage, which other apps cannot read, and all of it is removed when the app is uninstalled.
| What | Why |
|---|---|
| Chosen language, age band and sound settings | So the app opens the way you left it. |
| Which drawings are finished, and the stars earned | To show progress and to suggest what to try next. |
| Finished pictures, as image files | So they appear in the gallery and can be looked at again. |
| Photos converted into drawings, and the drawings made from them | So a lesson your child made stays available. |
The parent-area reset erases lesson progress and stickers and closes categories earned by completing drawings. It keeps gallery drawings, photo lessons and categories previously opened with a rewarded video. Delete gallery drawings and photo lessons individually, or clear the app's storage in Android settings to remove all local app data. Uninstalling removes private app storage. Files you exported or shared remain in their chosen destination until you delete them there.
The current free-draw page is saved as a draft, with a backup of the previous save. Undo history lasts for the current session.
Photos and the camera
The Photo to Drawing feature asks for a picture, either from the camera or from your gallery. That picture is turned into a sketch and into a set of traceable lines entirely on the phone, using code that runs inside the app. Working out which part of the picture is the subject, and setting the background aside, also happens on the phone. The conversion does not upload the image or send it to an outside image-processing service. Optional advertising is separate from conversion and may use the network.
Subject detection uses a model bundled with the app and runs locally without a first-use model download or Google Play services. When you save a photo lesson, an orientation-corrected reference photo, the sketch and the lesson data are saved in the app's private storage so the lesson still works tomorrow. Photo conversion isolates the foreground subject; it does not offer a whole-scene mode. Deleting the drawing, by holding it in the Photo lessons category, deletes the saved reference photo with it.
The app only ever sees the single picture you choose. It does not scan your gallery, and on modern Android versions it uses the system photo picker, which grants access to that one image and nothing else.
Adverts
Google AdMob advertising is enabled by default. Parents can switch adverts off in the parent area. The SDK may initialize and preload adverts before a video is requested. Drawing, photo conversion, the gallery and earning categories by completing drawings remain available without watching adverts. Sharing and the selected speech engine follow the policies of the receiving app or voice provider.
How they are shown
- A short advert can start by itself only after something is finished: a lesson, a saved drawing, a saved photo lesson or sketch. These are limited to three in any 30 minutes, five in any hour and ten a day.
- Every advert, including a category-unlock advert, counts toward the same timing and daily limits. Categories earned by completing drawings open even if no advert can play.
- Other videos play only when somebody taps a button that says what watching gives them.
- No advert appears during a drawing, during a lesson, or on top of anything a child is touching.
- The initial alphabet, number and practice categories are open from the start, depending on the selected language. More categories are earned by completing every drawing in an open category. In advertising-enabled versions a grown-up can alternatively choose a rewarded video when the timing and daily limits allow. Resetting progress closes earned categories; video-unlocked categories remain open until all app data is cleared.
- Opening a category with a video requires the parent gate. Other video offers are hidden from children unless a parent enables them.
- Everything the app needs to work — drawing, free drawing, turning a photo into a drawing, the gallery and the sticker book — is available without watching anything.
- Parents can turn adverts off. Completing a category can still open another category without a video.
How often
When advertising is enabled, all adverts share these limits: none during the first three minutes of a session, at least four minutes between advert starts, at most three in any 30 minutes, five in any hour and ten per local calendar day. The day's count resets at midnight. Category-unlock and rewarded adverts have no exception. An advert is counted when it appears, even if it is closed early. An unavailable advert is skipped rather than displayed later over an activity.
What Google receives
Every request the app makes is tagged for child age treatment and capped at a G content rating. These settings request child-appropriate ad treatment. They do not mean that the advertising SDK collects no technical data.
Google documents collection of technical data by its Mobile Ads SDK, including IP addresses, ad interactions, diagnostics and identifiers, depending on settings and SDK version. See Google Mobile Ads data disclosures and Google's privacy information.
If you switch adverts off in the parent area, the app stops issuing new ad requests and discards pending ad loads. On subsequent launches it skips advertising SDK initialization. An SDK request already in progress may finish; switching off does not undo information already transmitted.
Permissions
| Permission | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Camera | Only when you tap Take a photo. Requested at that moment, never in the background, and declining it simply means that one button does not work. |
| Photo picker | Only when you tap Choose a photo. Access is limited to the picture you select. |
| Internet | Used for optional advertising, including preloading a video before it is requested. Switching adverts off prevents new app-issued ad requests and skips SDK initialization on subsequent launches. |
Children
This app is made for children aged roughly four to nine, and is designed to comply with the Google Play Families policy, the United States Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, and the General Data Protection Regulation as it applies to children.
Plycoder does not keep an account or drawing-history database for children. Advertising requests use child treatment to disable behavioural targeting and remarketing and parents can switch adverts off. There is no in-app messaging, social feed or built-in web browser.
Settings sit behind a parent gate that asks for a press-and-hold or a simple arithmetic answer, so that a young child cannot change them or reach outward-facing options by accident.
Third parties
No analytics provider and no crash reporting service is built into the app.
One advertising network is included, Google AdMob, configured for child-directed treatment as described above. It is a Google Play Families self-certified advertising SDK.
The app also uses two Android features:
- Text to speech. The app asks Android's built-in speech engine to read hints aloud. What that engine does is governed by your device maker's own policy, and on most phones it runs offline once voice data is installed.
- The share sheet. If you choose to share a drawing, Android hands it to whichever app you pick. From that point the receiving app's own policy applies.
If a paid version is offered in future, Google Play will handle the purchase. Plycoder would not receive your payment details.
Your rights
Data protection law gives you the right to see, correct, export and erase personal data held about you. Plycoder does not hold an account or drawing-history database. Google handles advertising data under its own policy.
The data on your phone is yours and under your control. The parent-area reset removes progress and stickers only, as described above. Use Android's app storage settings or uninstall to remove all private app data; remove exported or shared copies from their destinations separately.
Changes to this policy
If the app ever changes in a way that affects privacy, this page will be updated before that version is released, and the date at the top will change. Changes to data handling will be explained here, including any changes to the advertising features described above.
Contact
Privacy questions and deletion inquiries: [email protected], the app's published support contact. Developer: Plycoder. If you email us, your address and message are used to respond to your inquiry and retained only as needed to handle it and meet applicable obligations. Ask at the same address to delete correspondence. We do not receive your locally stored drawings or photos unless you choose to send them.
Applies to AnkoKids - Drawing Tutor, package app.plycoder.ankokids, version 1.0.0 and later.