This policy explains how the Pilot Study AU iPhone app (and its widgets) and this website handle personal information. We are committed to handling personal information in line with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs).
The short version
- Your study data stays on your device. We don’t run accounts or servers for the app, and we don’t collect your study data.
- Speech practice is processed on your device. Audio is never recorded to storage and never sent off the device.
- There’s no advertising, no tracking, and no third-party analytics or SDKs in the app.
- Apple handles purchases. We never see your payment details.
- If you email us, we use your email only to reply and to fix the problem you reported.
What the app stores, and where
Pilot Study AU stores the following only on your iPhone or iPad, inside the app’s private storage and an App Group shared with the app’s own widgets:
- Study settings: the licence or goal you’re studying for, your exam date (optional), the exams you’ve chosen, daily study minutes, reminder settings and training stage, and any “coming soon” courses you’ve asked to be shown when they’re ready.
- Optional aircraft details: the aircraft type and registration or callsign you enter for radio practice (for example “TQK”). These are used only to personalise practice radio calls.
- Study progress: answers to practice questions and lesson checks, flashcard review history, mock exam results, weekly check-in answers, radio drill attempts and the text of your typed or spoken practice calls, streaks and daily usage counts, and any flashcards you create.
- Widget snapshot: a small summary (streak, today’s progress, days to your exam, card of the day) so the Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets can display it.
None of this is sent to us or to anyone else, and we can’t see it. It isn’t synced to iCloud in this version of the app. It is included in your device’s normal iCloud or computer backups, which Apple controls under your Apple Account settings.
Deleting your data: in the app, go to Settings › Delete my data and start again. This immediately erases your progress, reviews, mocks, radio attempts, custom cards and settings from the device and cancels reminders. Deleting the app also removes it. Purchases aren’t affected, because they’re held by Apple (use Restore Purchases).
Microphone and speech recognition
If you use Speak in radio practice, the app asks for microphone and speech-recognition permission. Speech is converted to text using Apple’s on-device speech recognition. The app requires on-device recognition and turns Speak off on devices that don’t support it.
- Audio is processed live and is not saved to a file or sent anywhere.
- Only the resulting text is kept with your attempt, on your device, so you can review your feedback.
- You can use typed practice instead and never grant microphone access. You can change these permissions at any time in iOS Settings.
Notifications
If you allow notifications, the app schedules local reminders on your device, such as study reminders, a streak reminder, mock-exam time warnings and a reminder before a free trial ends. They’re scheduled by the app itself. No push service is used, and no notification data leaves your device.
Purchases
Subscriptions and passes are sold through Apple’s App Store. Apple processes the payment and gives the app only the transaction and entitlement information it needs to unlock Pro features, which the app checks on your device. We receive no name, email address or payment details from these purchases. See Apple’s privacy policy for how Apple handles purchase data. You can manage or cancel subscriptions in iOS Settings › [your name] › Subscriptions.
Analytics and diagnostics
The app has no third-party analytics. A small number of usage events (for example “lesson completed”) are written only to your device’s local system log for debugging and are never transmitted by the app. If you choose, in iOS settings, to share analytics with app developers, Apple may share crash reports and diagnostic data with us under Apple’s terms. Those reports don’t include your study data.
Tracking and advertising
The app shows no ads and does not track you across other companies’ apps or websites. It doesn’t use the advertising identifier, and it never asks for tracking permission.
Contacting us and “Report a problem”
“Report a problem” in the app opens a draft email in your own mail app. It’s prefilled with the question or item ID and the app version, and you choose whether to send it. If you email us, we collect your email address, your name if you include it, and whatever you write. We use this only to reply to you and to fix content or bugs. We keep these emails only as long as we need them for that purpose, and we’ll delete them on request.
Emails are stored by our email provider, which may store data on servers outside Australia. We take reasonable steps to make sure any provider we use protects your information in line with the APPs.
This website
This website doesn’t use analytics, advertising or tracking cookies, and it has no sign-up or contact forms. Like most websites, our web hosting provider may automatically record standard server logs (such as IP address, browser type and the pages requested) to keep the site secure and working. We don’t use these logs to identify you. Links to the App Store and other sites are covered by those sites’ own privacy policies.
Anonymity
You can use the app without telling us who you are. There’s no account or sign-up. If you contact us, you can use a name or email address that doesn’t identify you, although we need a working email address to reply.
How we protect information
Your study data never leaves your device through the app, so it’s protected by your device’s own security (passcode, Face ID or Touch ID, and encryption). For emails you send us, we take reasonable steps to protect them from misuse, loss and unauthorised access, and we delete them when we no longer need them.
Disclosure
We don’t sell, rent or share personal information. We would only disclose information you’ve sent us if the law requires it.
Children
The app is intended for student pilots and isn’t directed at children under 13. We don’t knowingly collect personal information from anyone, children included.
Access, correction and complaints
Because we don’t hold your study data, it’s all in your hands on your device, and you can view or delete it at any time. If you’ve emailed us, you can ask to see, correct or delete the information we hold about you.
For any privacy question or complaint, contact us at hi@studypilot.com.au. We’ll respond within 30 days. If you’re not satisfied with our response, you can contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) at oaic.gov.au or on 1300 363 992.
Changes to this policy
If this policy changes, we’ll update the effective date at the top of this page and, for material changes, note it in the app’s release notes. If we ever add features such as accounts, cloud sync or analytics, we’ll update this policy before they’re released.