Privacy policy for US Citizenship & Civics Test

At a glance

• No user account: US Citizenship & Civics Test does not run an account system of its own.
• No ads, no tracking and no third-party analytics tools.
• Your content is stored on your device and, if you back it up, in your device backups. We never receive a copy.
• For some content, the app retrieves public sources on the internet; for technical reasons, their operators receive your device’s IP address.
• As a rule, we only receive personal data when you send us an email.

This privacy policy applies to the app “US Citizenship & Civics Test.” Our general privacy policy applies when you visit our website. Below, we explain which data is processed and when, on which legal basis, and what rights you have. This is how we meet our information obligations under Art. 13 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Controller

The controller responsible for data processing in connection with the app “US Citizenship & Civics Test” within the meaning of the GDPR is:

We are not legally required to appoint a data protection officer. For any questions about privacy, you can reach us directly at info@aploapps.com.

What the app processes

The app requires no account. Your progress, settings and results are stored only on your device. To keep answers current, the app downloads public information from senate.gov and USA.gov and, from version 1.2, from our website aploapps.com. Like any website, these servers receive your device’s IP address and see which page is requested (for USA.gov, your state’s page); the app sends them no account, ZIP code or other personal data. From version 1.2, answers you say out loud or write by hand are checked on your device only and are never recorded or sent.

• Stored only on your device: your study settings⁠—the test version, your state or territory, the 65/20 option, your representative’s name if you enter it and, from version 1.2, your ZIP code, congressional district, interview date, help language and reminder time⁠—as well as your progress, saved and missed questions and your results (mock interviews and, from version 1.2, reading and writing practice). If you back up your device, they may also be included in those backups. From version 1.2, the app finds your congressional district from your ZIP code using district data built into the app; your ZIP code never leaves your device.
• Senators and governor: when you open the app (from version 1.2, about every two weeks), when you choose another state and when you tap “Refresh Now” in Settings, the app downloads the list of U.S. senators from senate.gov, the website of the U.S. Senate, and the page for your state or territory from USA.gov, a website of the U.S. General Services Administration. For technical reasons, these servers receive your device’s IP address and the request itself, so USA.gov also sees which state’s page is requested. The app sends them no account, ZIP code or other personal data.
• From version 1.2, the app also checks our website aploapps.com at most once a day, and whenever you tap “Refresh Now” in Settings, for two public files that are the same for everyone: the answers that change with elections and appointments (such as the President, the Vice President, the Speaker of the House and the Chief Justice) and the list of members of the U.S. House of Representatives, as published by the Clerk of the House. The request is a plain download without cookies or identifiers and contains no account, ZIP code, state or other personal data. Like any visit to this website, it is processed by our hosting provider Render and the content delivery network Cloudflare, which receive your device’s IP address and may keep it in server logs (see “Hosting and server log files” in our general privacy policy). We have no access to these logs.
• The legal basis for these downloads is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR; our legitimate interest is showing you up-to-date answers. The websites senate.gov and USA.gov are operated in the US, where a level of data protection comparable to the EU’s is not always ensured; we do not receive the data these servers process. For Render and Cloudflare, see our general privacy policy.
• Answering out loud (version 1.2 and later): if you choose to say an answer or a practice sentence out loud, the app uses the microphone and Apple’s speech recognition in on-device mode only. Your voice is turned into text on your device and compared there with the official answers or the practice sentence. Neither the audio nor what you said is ever recorded, saved or sent⁠—to us or to Apple. The app keeps only how many spoken answers were correct and which practice sentences you read correctly. If your device can’t recognize speech on the device, the app offers typing instead. On devices with Apple Intelligence, Apple’s on-device model may also suggest whether an answer that wasn’t accepted means the same as an official one; that check stays on your device too.
• Writing practice (version 1.2 and later): what you write with your finger or Apple Pencil is read by Apple’s text recognition (Vision) on your device and compared there with the practice sentence. Your handwriting and the recognized text are never saved or sent; the app keeps only which practice sentences you wrote correctly.
• Reminders, widgets and Siri (version 1.2 and later): reminders are local notifications that the app schedules on your device, only if you turn them on. The widgets read a small summary of your progress (your test version and the 65/20 option, readiness and whether you’re on track, streak, what’s due, the next question and the question of the day, your interview date, your state or territory and your latest mock interview result) that the app saves in a storage area on your device that only its own widgets can read. When you use Siri or Shortcuts with the app, Apple processes your voice request under Apple’s privacy policy; the app receives only the command (for example “Quiz me”) and, if you tell it, whether you knew the answer. Questions and answers are read aloud by your device’s own speech synthesis (Listen and hands-free listening), without an internet connection.
• From version 1.2, so that Premium shows right away when you open the app, the app remembers on your device whether Premium was active the last time it checked with Apple.
• The app contains no ads and no third-party analytics or tracking services.

Legal bases: The app processes your content and settings on your device; we have no access to them ourselves. To the extent we are the controller of this processing within the meaning of the GDPR, the legal basis is Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR: the processing is necessary to provide the app’s features to you under the license agreement for the app. This also covers the reminders you set up and checking through StoreKit whether a purchase is valid. Storing your content and settings on your device, and the app reading that information, is permitted without consent under Section 25(2) no. 2 of the German Telecommunications Digital Services Data Protection Act (TDDDG), because it is strictly necessary for us to provide the app you explicitly want to use.

Permissions on your device

For some features, US Citizenship & Civics Test (version 1.2 and later) asks for access to parts of your device:

• Notifications⁠—for reminders
• Microphone and speech recognition⁠—to check answers and practice sentences you say out loud; speech is recognized on your device only

These permissions are granted through the operating system’s standard prompt. You decide whether to allow them and can revoke them at any time in your device’s Settings. The app uses any access you grant only for the feature concerned.

Downloads and purchases

You download US Citizenship & Civics Test from Apple’s App Store. Apple is responsible for downloads, your Apple Account and payment. US Citizenship & Civics Test offers Premium, an optional monthly subscription or one-time purchase with additional features.

Purchase, payment, renewal, cancellation and refunds are handled entirely by Apple through the App Store. We never receive payment details such as card or bank information, nor the names or contact details of buyers. The app merely checks through Apple’s purchase interface (StoreKit) whether a purchase is valid in order to unlock the relevant features. Apple provides us with aggregated sales reports that do not identify individuals.

Apple’s terms and Privacy Policy⁠(opens in a new tab) apply to processing by Apple.

Crash reports and statistics from the stores

If you have agreed on your device to share analytics with app developers, Apple provides us with crash reports and usage statistics for US Citizenship & Civics Test. This data is collected and processed by Apple; according to Apple, the data developers receive does not identify you personally (Device Analytics & Privacy⁠(opens in a new tab)). We cannot link it to any individual ourselves and use it solely to fix bugs and improve the stability of the app. You decide in your device’s analytics settings whether to share data with developers and can change this at any time; Apple explains how at the same link.

Support by email

When you email us at info@aploapps.com⁠—for example with a question about US Citizenship & Civics Test or a privacy request⁠—we process your email address, your name (if provided) and the content of your message, including any details you choose to share, such as your device model, system version or screenshots. We use this data only to handle your request and reply to you.

The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR where your request relates to the use of our apps or a purchase, and otherwise Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR; our legitimate interest is answering inquiries. We handle requests concerning your data protection rights to meet our legal obligations (Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR).

We keep your message only for as long as we need it to handle your request and any follow-up questions, or to establish, exercise or defend legal claims. If an email becomes part of the records we must keep under tax law, the statutory retention periods apply, in particular under Section 147 of the German Fiscal Code (Abgabenordnung, AO): six years for business letters received and copies of those sent, eight years for accounting vouchers such as invoices, and ten years for books and records. The legal basis for this retention is Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR. While only a statutory retention obligation remains, we block the data from any other use. Once neither a purpose nor a legal obligation remains, we delete it.

Our mailbox

Emails to info@aploapps.com arrive in our Microsoft 365 mailbox. The provider is Microsoft Ireland Operations Limited, One Microsoft Place, South County Business Park, Leopardstown, Dublin 18, Ireland (“Microsoft”). Microsoft stores and transmits your messages and our replies on our behalf (data processing under Art. 28 GDPR), under the Microsoft Customer Agreement and Microsoft’s Data Protection Addendum⁠(opens in a new tab). We buy the service through GoDaddy; under GoDaddy’s terms, it is subject to the Microsoft Customer Agreement, including its data protection terms. The legal bases are the same as for handling your request.

Under its Data Protection Addendum, Microsoft also processes certain data for its own business operations incident to providing the service, such as billing and account management, internal reporting and financial reporting. Microsoft is an independent controller for this processing; according to Microsoft, it does not access the content of the mailbox for these purposes and does not use the data for profiling or advertising.

GoDaddy provides the authoritative DNS services for our domain aploapps.com, which among other things route email sent to our address to Microsoft, and is involved in provisioning and administering our Microsoft 365 account. Which data GoDaddy processes in this context, and in which data protection role, depends on the services booked and the account configuration.

Microsoft stores the contents of our mailbox (messages and attachments) only in data centers in the EU. Even so, personal data may also be transferred to the United States and to other countries outside the EU and EEA in which Microsoft or its subprocessors operate. Under Microsoft’s Data Protection Addendum, such transfers are subject to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses between Microsoft Ireland Operations Limited and Microsoft Corporation (Art. 46(2)(c) GDPR). In addition, Microsoft Corporation, Redmond (USA), is certified under the EU-⁠U.S. Data Privacy Framework⁠(opens in a new tab), so transfers to it are also covered by the European Commission’s adequacy decision (Art. 45 GDPR). For more information, see Microsoft’s privacy statement⁠(opens in a new tab).

Data security

Content in the app is protected by your device’s built-in encryption. We do not run a server of our own that stores app content.

We hold personal data ourselves only in the emails you send us. We access our mailbox only over encrypted connections.

How long data is kept

• Content in the app: stays on your device until you delete it in the app or delete the app.
• Device backups: If you back up your device, for example with iCloud Backup or to a computer, those backups can also contain copies of the app’s data (for iCloud Backup, see Apple’s information⁠(opens in a new tab)). These copies remain until the backup concerned is replaced or deleted. You manage your backups yourself; we have no access to them (see Delete your data: US Citizenship).
• Emails: we keep them only for as long as your request requires; where statutory retention obligations apply, until the relevant period ends (see Support by email).
• App Store data: Apple decides how long it keeps data about downloads and purchases.

Deleting your data

We explain step by step how to delete US Citizenship & Civics Test data on your device, and how to ask us to delete any data we hold, on the page Delete your data: US Citizenship.

Your rights

Where we process personal data about you, the GDPR gives you the right to:

• access the data we process about you (Art. 15 GDPR)
• rectification of inaccurate or incomplete data (Art. 16 GDPR)
• erasure of your data (Art. 17 GDPR)
• restriction of processing (Art. 18 GDPR)
• data portability⁠—receiving your data in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format (Art. 20 GDPR)
• withdraw any consent you have given, with effect for the future (Art. 7(3) GDPR)

To exercise your rights, simply send an informal email to info@aploapps.com. Because most data in the app lives on your device or in your device backups, you can often view and delete it yourself⁠—the page Delete your data: US Citizenship explains how.

Right to lodge a complaint

If you believe that the processing of your personal data infringes the GDPR, you have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority (Art. 77 GDPR)⁠—in particular in the Member State of your habitual residence, your place of work or the place of the alleged infringement. The authority responsible for us is:

Further information

No obligation to provide data

You are under no statutory or contractual obligation to provide us with personal data. Without your email address, however, we cannot reply to you.

No automated decision-making

We do not use automated decision-making, including profiling, within the meaning of Art. 22 GDPR.

Changes to this privacy policy

We update this privacy policy whenever US Citizenship & Civics Test, the stores through which we offer the app or the legal requirements change. The version currently published on this website applies; you can see when it was last changed under “Last updated” at the top. This privacy policy is also available in German; both versions have the same content.