Privacy Policy • 7ESL

Last updated: 14 October 2026

This Privacy Policy explains what information 7ESL collects when you use our website at 7esl.com (the "Site"), how we use it, who we share it with, and the choices you have. It covers free use, free accounts, and paid membership plans. We try to write this in plain language rather than legalese. If anything here is unclear, please email us at privacy@7esl.com.

Who we are

7ESL is operated as an independent online publishing project. The operator of the Site and data controller for the personal information described in this Privacy Policy is James Manheim, an individual based in the United States. There is no separate legal company entity behind 7ESL. In this Privacy Policy, "7ESL," "we," "us," and "our" refer to the operator above.

For privacy questions and requests to exercise your rights, email privacy@7esl.com. Postal correspondence may be addressed to 3011 W Grand Blvd, #407, Detroit, MI 48202.

Information we collect

Information you give us

We receive whatever information you choose to give us in these situations:

you email us or send us a message from your profile
you post in the forum or leave a comment
you report a bug
you fill in a form on the Site

This is typically your name, email address, and the contents of your message. We use it to respond to you and to handle your request. Forum posts and comments are public (see "What other people can see" below).

Your account

You can use most of 7ESL without an account. If you create one, we store:

your name, which is shown as your display name
your email address
your password, in hashed form
your profile photo, if you upload one (otherwise you get an animal avatar)
your country (we ask for it when you sign up with an email address; it is shown on your profile)
your month and year of birth (not the day)
whether you signed up as a learner or a teacher

If you sign in with Google, Google shares your name, email address, and profile picture with us. We do not receive your Google password.

Learning data

When you use the Site while signed in, we record your activity so that we can show you your own progress. This includes:

the lessons, courses, tests, games, books, and exercises you use
which questions you answered correctly
the answers you gave to questions you got wrong (saved to your mistake notebook)
your level-test results
your XP, level, badges, and streak
the words, notes, and review history in your vocabulary deck
the classes you belong to
where a practice feature saves it, the writing you submit and the feedback you received, so you can review it later

If you use the Site before signing in, some of this activity is recorded against a random device identifier stored in your browser, not against an account. That activity is not linked to you and is deleted automatically after a short period.

Classes and homework

Teachers can create classes, and students join a class with a class code while signed in. The teacher of a class can see each student's display name and their progress, scores, and reports for the work the teacher assigns, and can remove students from the class.

Teachers can also share homework through a link and an assignment code. A student can complete this homework without an account by typing their name. We store that name, the student's answers, the score, any AI feedback, and the teacher's comments, so that the teacher can see the results and export them. The student's browser keeps a receipt so they can see their own result again. Homework submissions are deleted automatically after 90 days.

Teachers decide what their students do on 7ESL. If you are a student and have a question about class data, you can ask your teacher or contact us.

Your learning plan

If you set up a learning plan, we store the answers you give: who the plan is for, an age group (not a date of birth), your goal, the exam and the month of the exam if you choose one, the level you think you are at, the skills you want to focus on, and how much time you have each day. We also store the steps you mark as done and short practice signals from our learning features (for example, that one part of your writing was weaker in your last few tasks), so that we can suggest extra practice. Your plan also uses your level test results, and some activities mark steps as done automatically. If you answer the plan questions before you sign up, we keep your answers in a cookie on your device for one day, so we can save them when you create your account. If you set up a plan for your child, we store only the child's age group, not their name. You can change or delete your plan at any time in Settings.

English Club

The English Club offers free live speaking sessions run by volunteer hosts. If you take part:

Sessions. When you reserve a place, we store your reservation, whether you attended, and any rating or comment you leave about the session. The host of a session sees the display names of the members who reserved a place.
Rooms. If you join a topic room, we store your membership and your notification choices, and we can send you in-site notifications and a weekly summary email about the room.
Following, hiding and reporting. You can follow other members, hide a member, or report a member to our moderators. A member you hide is not told. To protect younger members, members aged 16 or 17 cannot follow or be followed in the club.
Moderation. Our moderators may warn a member, pause their social features for a period, or remove them from the club. We keep a record of these actions and of the reports behind them.
Hosts. If you host, we store the sessions you create, including their title, time, description and meeting link. Hosts receive a Teacher Pro plan while they keep hosting.
Live calls. Sessions take place on the video-call service linked from the session page. When you join a call, that service's own privacy policy applies.

AI-powered tools and speaking practice

Some tools use AI. Examples include the Grammar Checker, Paraphraser, Summarizer, Essay Checker, IELTS Writing and Speaking practice, AI marking of homework, and the teacher Lesson Plan and Quiz generators.

How your text is processed. When you use one of these tools, the text you enter is sent to our AI provider, OpenAI, to generate your result. We do not keep the text you submit to our AI writing tools. We do keep usage information, such as how many requests you made and word counts, so that we can apply fair-use limits.
What not to enter. Please do not enter personal, confidential, or sensitive information into these tools.
Speaking practice in Pro. The Pro speaking test sends your recording to OpenAI to turn it into text. We do not store your audio: it is deleted as soon as it has been transcribed. We may keep the transcript (up to 2,000 characters) with your result so that you can see your feedback.
Free speaking practice. Free speaking practice uses your browser's built-in speech recognition. Depending on your browser, your browser provider (for example, Google in Chrome) may process the audio under its own privacy policy.

Information collected automatically

When you visit 7ESL we automatically receive certain technical information:

IP address
Browser type and version, device type, and operating system
Referring URL (the page that linked you to us)
Pages viewed on our Site, time spent, and how you arrived
Generic interaction events (clicks, scrolls, search queries on the Site)

This information is collected through standard web logs and analytics tools, including Google Analytics and Google Search Console. We use it to understand which lessons are useful, fix problems, and improve the Site.

Our own learning features do not store your IP address. Where we need to limit how often an action can be repeated (for example, to stop abuse of the AI tools), the address is turned into a one-way hash that is kept only briefly and then discarded.

Cookies and similar technologies

We use cookies and similar technologies (such as local storage and pixel tags) for:

Making the Site work. Examples include keeping you signed in, remembering whether you chose content for kids or adults, remembering your settings in tools (such as your flashcard mode), and keeping your homework receipt.
Measuring how the Site is used (Google Analytics).
Showing advertising, including personalized advertising where permitted (see the Mediavine section below). Ads are not shown to members on paid plans.

You can control or block cookies in your browser settings. In the EU, the UK and Switzerland, analytics cookies stay off until you agree: you can accept or refuse them in the cookie banner, and change your mind at any time with the "Cookie choices" link at the bottom of every page. Our advertising partner shows its own consent banner for advertising cookies. Blocking essential cookies may break parts of the Site, such as signing in.

What other people can see

Your profile page shows your display name, profile photo, and the profile details you choose to make public, such as your bio. Your email address and your plan are never shown publicly. Profile pages are not indexed by search engines.
Leaderboards show your first name, the initial of your last name, and your profile photo.
Forum posts and comments are public and show your display name.
In a class, your teacher sees the information described in "Classes and homework" above.
In the English Club, other people using the club can see your display name and profile photo in the list of members going to a session and in the club's member list, and the host sees who reserved a place.

Third-party services

We use the following third-party services that may receive information about your visit. Each operates under its own privacy policy.

Google Analytics (analytics): Google LLC. Google's privacy policy. You can opt out using the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on.
Mediavine (advertising): Mediavine, LLC. Mediavine's privacy policy. Mediavine partners and opt-out information are described in the "Mediavine Programmatic Advertising" section below.
Stripe (payments): Stripe, Inc. Stripe's privacy policy.
OpenAI (AI features and speech-to-text): OpenAI, L.L.C. The text or recording you submit to our AI features is sent to OpenAI to generate your result. OpenAI's privacy policy. Under OpenAI's API terms, this content is not used to train their models by default.
Google Cloud Text-to-Speech (reading text aloud): Google LLC. When you use a read-aloud or "how to pronounce" feature, the text you choose is sent to Google to create the audio. We do not send your name or email address with it. Google's privacy policy.
Mailgun (email delivery): Sinch Email (Mailgun Technologies, Inc.). Used to send account, billing, and reminder emails. Mailgun's privacy policy.
Google Sign-In and Google reCAPTCHA (sign-in and spam protection): Google LLC. Used if you choose "Sign in with Google," and to protect our forms from spam. Google's privacy policy.
YouTube (video lessons): Google LLC. Videos embedded in our lessons and courses are served by YouTube, which may set its own cookies when you play them. Google's privacy policy.
Gravatar (profile pictures in comments): Automattic Inc. Automattic's privacy policy.
Cloudways (hosting): Cloudways Ltd. May process your IP address as part of routing requests to our Site. Cloudways' privacy policy.
DigitalOcean (file storage and delivery for images, audio, and downloads): DigitalOcean, LLC. DigitalOcean's privacy policy.

We do not sell your personal information for money. Some U.S. state laws treat targeted advertising as a "sale" or "sharing" of personal information. If you are a resident of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, or another U.S. state with similar laws, see "Your rights" below.

Payments and subscriptions

If you buy a paid plan (Ad-free, Pro, Teacher Plus, or Teacher Pro), your payment is handled by our payment processor, Stripe. 7ESL never sees or stores your full card number. We store only the information needed to manage your plan:

your plan and billing period (monthly or yearly)
its status and renewal or end date
for Teacher Pro, the number of student seats
a customer and subscription reference from Stripe

Stripe processes your payment information as an independent controller under its own privacy policy. You can manage or cancel your plan from Settings in your profile. For billing questions, email billing@7esl.com.

Plans bought on 7esl.com apply to the website. Our mobile app is billed separately through the app store you use, under that store's terms.

Emails we send

Account and billing emails about changes to your account, such as password resets, plan changes, payment problems, and class seat updates for teachers. We send these because they are needed to run your account.
Learning reminders and progress emails, such as streak reminders and weekly progress. Every one of these emails has an unsubscribe link, and you can unsubscribe from one type or from all reminder emails.
Forum notifications, which you can turn off with the link in each email.
English Club emails, such as notes about sessions you reserved (for example, if a session is cancelled), a weekly summary for the rooms you joined, and a note when a room you asked about opens. Room emails have a one-click unsubscribe link.

Mediavine Programmatic Advertising (Ver 1.1)

The Website works with Mediavine to manage third-party interest-based advertising appearing on the Website. Mediavine serves content and advertisements when you visit the Website, which may use first and third-party cookies. A cookie is a small text file which is sent to your computer or mobile device (referred to in this policy as a "device") by the web server so that a website can remember some information about your browsing activity on the Website. First party cookies are created by the website that you are visiting. A third-party cookie is frequently used in behavioral advertising and analytics and is created by a domain other than the website you are visiting. Third-party cookies, tags, pixels, beacons and other similar technologies (collectively, "Tags") may be placed on the Website to monitor interaction with advertising content and to target and optimize advertising. Each internet browser has functionality so that you can block both first and third-party cookies and clear your browser's cache. The "help" feature of the menu bar on most browsers will tell you how to stop accepting new cookies, how to receive notification of new cookies, how to disable existing cookies and how to clear your browser's cache. For more information about cookies and how to disable them, you can consult the information at All About Cookies. Without cookies you may not be able to take full advantage of the Website content and features. Please note that rejecting cookies does not mean that you will no longer see ads when you visit our Site. In the event you opt-out, you will still see non-personalized advertisements on the Website. The Website collects the following data using a cookie when serving personalized ads:

IP Address
Operating System type
Operating System version
Device Type
Language of the website
Web browser type
Email (in hashed form)

Mediavine Partners (companies listed below with whom Mediavine shares data) may also use this data to link to other end user information the partner has independently collected to deliver targeted advertisements. Mediavine Partners may also separately collect data about end users from other sources, such as advertising IDs or pixels, and link that data to data collected from Mediavine publishers in order to provide interest-based advertising across your online experience, including devices, browsers and apps. This data includes usage data, cookie information, device information, information about interactions between users and advertisements and websites, geolocation data, traffic data, and information about a visitor's referral source to a particular website. Mediavine Partners may also create unique IDs to create audience segments, which are used to provide targeted advertising. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices to opt-in or opt-out of this data collection, please visit National Advertising Initiative opt out page. You may also visit Digital Advertising Alliance website and Network Advertising Initiative website to learn more information about interest-based advertising. You may download the AppChoices app at Digital Advertising Alliance's AppChoices app to opt out in connection with mobile apps, or use the platform controls on your mobile device to opt out. For specific information about Mediavine Partners, the data each collects and their data collection and privacy policies, please visit Mediavine Partners.

How we use information

We use the information described above to:

Operate and maintain the Site
Provide your account, dashboard, progress, vocabulary deck, streak, and other learning features
Run classes and homework for teachers and their students
Generate results from the AI-powered tools you choose to use
Process payments and manage your plan
Send account, billing, and reminder emails
Respond to emails and requests you send us
Understand which content is helpful and improve our lessons
Detect and prevent abuse, spam, fraud, and security issues, and apply fair-use limits
Display advertising, including, where permitted, personalized advertising
Comply with our legal obligations

Our legal basis for processing under the EU/UK GDPR depends on the activity:

Performance of our agreement with you: to provide your account, learning features, classes, and any paid plan.
Your consent: for non-essential cookies, personalized advertising, and marketing emails.
Our legitimate interest: in operating, securing, and improving the Site, and in sending learning reminders you can unsubscribe from.
Compliance with legal obligations: such as keeping tax and accounting records.

How long we keep information

Account, results, and progress: kept while your account exists. If we delete your account or erase your data at your request, this information is removed. A small number of records are kept with your identity removed where they form part of another person's record, such as a class you taught.
Detailed activity records: deleted automatically after a set period. Learning events are kept for 90 days, answer records for 1 year, and the XP history for 2 years. Game sessions are kept for 60 days for visitors who are not signed in and 1 year for signed-in users.
Homework submitted without an account: deleted automatically after 90 days.
Learning plan: kept until you delete it or your account. Practice signals older than 30 days are no longer used for suggestions.
English Club reports about a member: kept for up to 12 months. If a host deletes their account, the sessions they ran are kept without their name, because they are part of other members' history.
AI usage counts: deleted after 90 days.
Speaking recordings: not stored; deleted as soon as they are transcribed.
Billing records: kept for the period required by tax and accounting law.
Email correspondence: kept for as long as needed to respond and to keep a record of the conversation. This is typically up to three years from last contact, unless the correspondence relates to an ongoing matter.
Analytics data: Google Analytics keeps user-level and event-level data for no longer than 14 months, after which it is deleted automatically.
Server logs: typically rotated within 30–90 days.

Who we share information with

We share information only with:

The third-party services listed above, which process information on our behalf or in their own right under their own policies.
The teacher of a class you join, as described in "Classes and homework."
Law enforcement or other government authorities where required by law, where we have a good-faith belief that disclosure is necessary to prevent harm, or to enforce our Terms of Use.

We do not sell personal information to data brokers.

Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have rights regarding your personal information. These can include the right to access, correct, delete, or export your information, to restrict or object to our processing of it, and to withdraw consent.

EU / UK residents (GDPR): access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability, objection, withdrawal of consent, and the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority.
California residents (CCPA / CPRA): the right to know, delete, and correct; the right to opt out of the "sale" or "sharing" of personal information; the right to limit use of sensitive personal information; and the right not to face discrimination for exercising these rights.
Other U.S. states (Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, etc.): similar rights apply under each state's law.

Download or delete your data yourself: signed-in users can download a copy of their account and learning data, or delete their account, from Settings in their profile (Your data). Deleting your account there also cancels a paid plan straight away.

To exercise any other right, or if you cannot sign in, email privacy@7esl.com. Please write from the email address on your account, or give us enough information to identify you. We may ask you to confirm your identity before we act. We respond within the time required by the applicable law (typically 30–45 days).

California residents and residents of other U.S. states with similar laws can opt out of the "sale" or "sharing" of their personal information for targeted advertising by emailing privacy@7esl.com, or through the privacy choices shown by our advertising partner. You can also opt out of personalized advertising at Your Online Choices (EU), Network Advertising Initiative (U.S.), or Digital Advertising Alliance (U.S.).

If you ask us by email to delete your account, tell us if you have a paid plan so we cancel it at the same time.

Children's privacy

7ESL is used by learners of all ages. Some sections are designed for young learners, including Phonics, our Young Learners courses, leveled reading books, and kids games.

Using the Site without an account. Children can use these sections without an account, and we do not ask them for personal information to do so.
Accounts. When you sign up we ask for your month and year of birth (we keep only these, not the day). You must be at least 13 years old to create your own 7ESL account, or older where the law in your country requires a higher age for consent to online services. If you sign up with Google, we ask for your month and year of birth the first time you sign in, on your profile page. If you tell us you are under 13, we delete the account. If it has a paid plan, we ask you to contact us first. Children under 13 must not create their own account, post in the forum, or send us personal information.
Class accounts for children under 13. A child under 13 may use 7ESL with an account only as a student in a class run by their teacher or school, with the school's authorization. The school gives that authorization on behalf of parents, as allowed by the U.S. Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) for school use. The child joins with the class code from their teacher. A class account has no email address and no photo: we collect only a first name or nickname, the month and year of birth, a password, the chosen animal avatar, and the learning data described above. The username is created by us. The teacher of the class can see the student's name, username and progress, and can reset the password. Class accounts are not shown on leaderboards, cannot post in the forum or buy a plan, and their profile page is private. We use this information only to provide 7ESL to the class, never to build a marketing profile of the child. When the student turns 13, they can turn the class account into a regular account in Settings by adding their own email address. They keep their username, password and progress, and the teacher can no longer reset the password.
Homework without an account. Students can complete homework without an account. Please ask them to enter only a first name or a nickname. We use homework submissions only to show results to the teacher and the student, and we delete them after 90 days.
Parents' rights. Parents and guardians can ask to review or delete their child's information, or to stop its further use, at any time. Contact your child's school or privacy@7esl.com. If you believe your child under 13 has created an account outside a class or given us personal information, contact us and we will delete it.

Lessons that cover slang, informal language, or mature usage are intended for adult learners and adult teachers.

International transfers

We are based in the United States. Our Site, our service providers, and our advertising partners may process your information in the United States, the European Union, and other countries. Where we transfer personal information out of the EU/UK, we rely on appropriate safeguards. These include Standard Contractual Clauses or, for certain U.S. recipients, the EU–U.S. Data Privacy Framework.

Security

We take reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect personal information against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. Passwords are stored in hashed form, and card details are handled only by our payment processors. No method of transmission over the Internet is 100% secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security, but we work to minimize risk.

Changes to this Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we make changes, we will update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. Material changes will be flagged on the Site or by email to account holders. The most current version is always available at this URL.

Contact

Privacy questions and data requests: privacy@7esl.com
Payments and subscriptions: billing@7esl.com
Postal address: 3011 W Grand Blvd, #407, Detroit, MI 48202

The operator and data controller is James Manheim, based in the United States.