Legal documents

Terms of use

Last updated: 25 September 2026

1. General and acceptance of these terms

Welcome to "English Vocabulary Words". The Site offers a free, browser-based tool for learning vocabulary between any two of its 73 supported languages, in both directions. These terms of use, the privacy policy, the cookie and local-storage policy, the disclaimer and the accessibility statement set out on this page (together, the "Legal Documents") are reachable from a permanent link in the Site's footer and from the storage-choice banner, which is not shown on entry but appears the first time you ask the Site to keep something. The "Agree and save" button concerns storage on your device only; it is not acceptance of the terms and is not acceptance of the privacy policy. Use of the Site is subject to these terms, and the Site's footer says so on every screen. The privacy and cookie policies are notices explaining how information and device storage are handled. If you do not agree to the terms, please do not use the Site.

Agreement by a press — one deliberate act of acceptance before the first round. Before a practice round can begin on a device, or any other control of the app acts, these terms have to be agreed to once, and since 14 September 2026 the agreement is given by a press rather than by a tick in a box. The home screen shows, directly under the "Start Learning Now" button, one line saying that by pressing that button you agree to the terms of use, and the same line stands under the "Continue to a short practice" button that appears under the home example once that example has been answered and which starts the same round at the same level and length; pressing either button is agreement to these terms — which name the other Legal Documents in the sentence above and, in the language clause below, make the English text the governing one — and the round then begins. Since 18 September 2026 a third button starts that same round: "Start learning at your level", at the end of the quick vocabulary check described in clause 2. It stands on the check's own screen, which is reached by a press on the home screen that has already given the agreement, so it carries no agreement line of its own; pressed on a device that no longer holds the record, it opens the dialog described next. Every other control that operates the app — opening the Favourites, Words to improve, My words, Statistics and Customize screens, the Advanced Learning listening screen, the Five Games screen and any of the five games on it, the quick vocabulary check, the button that opens the daily quiz, starting a round from a saved list, a retry or a replay, turning the pair of languages round or changing the practice choices, and the "Install app on this device" control — when pressed before the terms have been agreed to, opens a short dialog that says, in one line, that by pressing "Agree and continue" you agree to the terms of use, with a link to them; pressing it is the same agreement, and the control then does what it was pressed to do, while "Not now" closes the dialog and does nothing. From 1 to 14 September 2026 the agreement was a tick in a box under the "Start Learning Now" button, which every one of those controls required first (until 6 September 2026 a level card started a round as well; the three level cards are now a choice of level on the Customize screen and start nothing); an agreement given by that tick against the same version of these terms remains valid. The home screen also displays one automatically loaded example question. Viewing it, pressing the speak button that reads the example word aloud or the one that reads its answer aloud once that answer is shown, retrying a failed example load and expanding "More options" need no agreement and are not one. Selecting an answer to the example is never refused: one line under its two answers says that by answering you agree to the terms of use, so on a device that holds no record the first answer is itself the agreement — the same act as the two presses above — and writes the record privacy clause 2 describes, while the answer starts nothing and writes nothing else, as privacy clause 3a describes. Until 14 September 2026 answering and playing the example required the tick. Expanding the tools does not grant permission to operate them. The home screen also carries, directly under its heading, one line saying that by pressing any button on that screen you agree to the terms of use; every button on the home screen — "Change Languages", "More options", the speakers, the tiles and bands, the example's answers and a retry included — is pressed under it, so the first such press on a device that holds no record is the agreement and writes the record, and nothing on that screen is refused or asks twice; a link to another page, and the small "i" beside a control, open something to read and are not a press that agrees. What needs no agreement is reading — the home screen itself, the Help screen, the questions page and these documents — and the pair of languages can be seen before anything is pressed; the "Change Languages" control opens whether or not the device holds the record, the pair you choose is kept under the functional rule of privacy clause 2 as before, and until 6 September 2026 that control was refused with the rest. The agreement is recorded on the device only — the record, its fields, its 24-month retention and how it is deleted are described in privacy clause 2 — and it is not sent to the operator, so the operator holds no register of who has agreed. A device that still holds the record is not asked again; a device that no longer holds it — after the full deletion described in privacy clause 2, after the record expires, after these terms change materially, or in a browser that blocks storage — is asked to agree again before the next round. Reading the Site's pages, the Help screen, the questions page and these documents requires no agreement. The agreement does not replace the sentence above: use of the Site remains subject to these terms in any event, and agreeing to them is not the storage consent described in the privacy policy, just as "Agree and save" is not acceptance of these terms.

Entry code — a check the operator can switch on. Since 16 September 2026 the operator can set the Site to show, now and then, a four-digit code that has to be typed back before the app does anything else — once every hour, every two hours or once a day on each device, at the operator's choice. The code is asked for in a panel on the home screen itself, with the rest of that screen switched off until it is typed; typing it and pressing "Confirm" answers the operator's check and is not a press that agrees to these terms — the line on the home screen about pressing any button does not cover it, and the agreement is asked for afterwards as it is on any device that holds no record. The code is made, shown and checked on your device; it is not sent to the operator, nothing about it is counted, a wrong entry only shows the same code again, and the only thing kept is the time you last typed it correctly, in the record described in privacy clause 2, so that the Site does not ask again before the interval has passed. Whether the check is on reaches your browser in the same answer that issues the session token described in privacy clause 3a, with no request of its own. Reading these documents, the questions page and the landing pages needs no code; while the check is switched off, none of this happens.

The daily quiz. Since 21 September 2026 the operator can offer a daily quiz of words chosen for each date (clause 2), opened by a "Today's quiz" button on the home screen. That button is one of the home screen's buttons and is pressed under the line at the top of that screen, so on a device that holds no record pressing it is the agreement and writes the record privacy clause 2 describes; one line under the quiz's answers says the same of answering, for a device whose record was deleted while the quiz stood open. Closing the quiz and retrying a failed load are not an agreement. Answering starts nothing, and the quiz keeps nothing on your device.

A message from the operator. Since 22 September 2026 the operator can publish a short message for every visitor (clause 2), which the app shows in a window over its home screen — the one window on the Site that opens by itself. Reading it needs no agreement, and closing it — with its "Close" button, the Escape key or a press outside it, or its closing by itself after the time the operator set — is not a press on the home screen and is not an agreement to these terms; on a device that holds no record, the agreement is asked for afterwards exactly as it is anywhere else. While the entry code described above is being asked for, the message waits until the code has been typed.

Language — the English text governs where applicable law permits. The Legal Documents are written in English and, subject to mandatory applicable law and only to the extent enforceable, the English text is the authoritative version. This applies to every translated text anywhere on the Site, and not only to these terms: the disclaimer summarised in the footer, the storage dialog, and any other notice the app shows in a language other than English. The non-English notice, disclaimer-summary and privacy-summary layers were generated by artificial intelligence and have not been proofread, edited or linguistically reviewed by a person. Those translations exist so that a reader who does not read English is still told what the Site is and is not. They are summaries offered for convenience and do not replace the documents on this page. Subject to mandatory applicable law and only to the extent enforceable, they create no right and no obligation of their own, and in case of any discrepancy the English version prevails. Beneath the footer's translated disclaimer summary that sentence is shown twice: in the language inferred for the reader, so that the reader it is addressed to can actually read it, and in English directly beneath it. The English is the original and remains the authoritative one, so that the sentence about faulty translations cannot itself be defeated by a faulty translation of it. The Site's other translated notices do not repeat that sentence. The storage dialog and the footer's privacy summary carry links to the documents on this page instead. The dialog that withdraws consent, and the label shown under the consent button on the Customize screen, are placed beneath the English text they summarise, which stays on screen beside them — those are translated because withdrawing consent must be as easy as giving it, and the request to store is itself shown in every language the app supports. This clause governs all of them just the same.

2. The service

• The Site's pages, styles and scripts are static files, and its quiz logic, its checking of answers and all practice data run on the user's device ("client side"). The words themselves come from the Site's own word service on the same domain: it supplies the round being practised, and the display text of bank words already saved on the device when a saved list is opened. That service has no registration, no user accounts and no user-submitted content, and it is not sent anything the user typed in the app. The limited exceptions for hosting logs, that service's request data, email and browser speech services are described in the privacy policy.
• The service is provided free of charge, AS IS and AS AVAILABLE, with no undertaking as to availability, continuity or freedom from faults.
• The Site's English headwords were put together by the operator, most of them the operator's own words: the operator set the themes, how many words were wanted and which letters they were to begin with, wrote the greater part of the list, and used AI tools only to suggest further candidates against those instructions. AI tools then sorted the finished list into the three levels and produced every translation of it into the other supported languages; neither the level assignments nor the translations have been proofread, edited or linguistically reviewed by a person. Choosing which English word to teach is not a check of what that word was translated into. Since 25 September 2026 the operator may also move an individual word to another level, pause it or withdraw it from the Site, as the last item of this clause describes; that too is the operator's choice of what to teach, and not a review of the other level assignments or of any translation. AI-generated output may contain errors, inaccuracies or translations that do not suit the context. Users should check a translation before relying on it.
• The operator may change, suspend or discontinue the service, in whole or in part, at any time. Notice of a permanent discontinuation will be published on the Site a reasonable time in advance, as far as circumstances allow; temporary interruptions, maintenance and faults do not require advance notice. Because the Site has no registration and no user accounts, the operator has no way to contact users directly, and any such notice will be published on the Site itself — for example as a message from the operator of the kind described below. Discontinuation does not delete the data stored on your device — it stays in your browser, but you will not be able to use it through the Site; downloading a copy of the words you added while the service is still running is recommended.
• Advanced Learning (listening mode). Besides the quizzes, the Site offers a screen that reads a round of words aloud rather than asking questions: each word is spoken in the language being practised and then in the language it is practised against, and the Site moves on to the next word by itself. Nothing is spoken on opening the screen — the reading begins only when the user presses Play, and it can be paused, repeated, skipped or left at any time; the pause between the two languages and the pause between words are set on the screen itself. Because one press starts a sequence rather than a single word, that press can hand the whole round to the speech engine, in both languages, including any words the user added themselves that fall in the round; a round can be up to 50 words, and the screen offers to read the same set again or a new one. What that means for the text leaving the device is set out in privacy clause 3. No round played this way is recorded as a game and it changes no statistic or score. The spoken sound is produced by the browser or device, is not recorded, and remains subject to disclaimer clause 5.
• Quick vocabulary check. The home screen offers a short check — twenty-one multiple-choice questions, seven from each of the three levels, with no time limit — that ends by showing how many were answered correctly at each level and by suggesting which level to begin at, with a button, "Start learning at your level", that sets that level and starts an ordinary round there. It tests recognition of single words only, it is scored in your browser, and it is recorded nowhere — no game, statistic, point, favourite or words-to-improve entry comes of it. Its result and its suggestion are an informal, automated estimate, offered free of charge and without any commitment: the operator does not undertake, promise or warrant that they reflect your actual vocabulary or your level in any language, that they are accurate or complete, or that they suit any purpose, and they are not an assessment of either. See disclaimer clause 2c and clause 8 below. What the check asks the Site's word service for is set out in privacy clause 3a.
• Daily quiz. On some days the Site offers a quiz of up to fifty words that the operator chose from the Site's word bank for that calendar date, each asked in the language being practised with four answers to choose from and no time limit; "I don't know" counts as wrong. It is opened with a "Today's quiz" button that stands on the home screen on the dates that have one. Which words, on which dates and whether it is offered at all are the operator's choice and may change or stop at any time. The quiz follows the date on your own device, so it changes at midnight where you are; a quiz begun before midnight can be finished. It is scored in your browser and recorded nowhere — no game, statistic, point, favourite or words-to-improve entry comes of it — and it is not a test or an assessment of any kind. It is offered free of charge, as is and without any commitment: the operator does not undertake that a quiz will be offered on any day, at any time or in any pair of languages, that its words or their translations are correct or suitable, or that its score means anything beyond the answers given in it. See disclaimer clause 2d and clause 8 below. What it asks the Site's word service for, and what is counted, is set out in privacy clause 3a.
• Messages from the operator. From time to time the operator may publish a short written message for the Site's visitors — for example news about the Site, a change to it or to these Legal Documents, or a planned interruption. It is shown in a window over the app's home screen, once on each device: to every visitor who opens the Site while it is published, and to a page already open on the home screen within seconds of its publication; it is never shown over a round, a game or a list, and waits until the home screen is back. It is the operator's own text, in plain words with no link or image, shown in the language the operator wrote it in and not translated; only the window's heading and its buttons are in the reader's language. Since 25 September 2026 the operator may choose, for the whole message, one of a few fixed colours with its icon, a larger text size, bold text and its alignment, and a number of seconds after which the window closes by itself: the window then shows the time left, a "Keep open" button stops the countdown, and a mouse pointer resting on the window pauses it; a window that closes by itself counts as closed, so it is not shown on that device again. The operator may change, replace or delete a message at any time, and a changed message is shown once more. A message never asks for a password, a payment or personal information. A message is information offered free of charge, as is and without any commitment: it is not an offer, a promise, an undertaking or advice of any kind, and it does not amend these terms or any other Legal Document — a message may announce a change to them, but the change is made only by updating this page, as clause 9 describes. See disclaimer clause 2e and clause 8 below. What reaches your browser for it, and what your device keeps, is set out in privacy clauses 2 and 3a.
• Days in a row. Since 24 September 2026, when saving on this device is switched on, the results screen shows how many days in a row, ending today, at least one practice round was finished on this device, with an invitation to come back tomorrow. The number is counted in your browser from the round history already kept on the device (privacy clause 2); nothing more is stored for it, it is sent nowhere, and it is not shown without consent to save. It counts only what this browser on this device holds: a round played on another device or in another browser, a round that the history does not keep, a changed device date, or deleting the history or the saved data changes or ends it. It is an encouragement, not a record of study, an achievement or an assessment. It is offered free of charge, as is and without any commitment: the operator does not undertake that it is kept, correct or shown, and nothing depends on it.
• Home Screen icon. The Site offers a control on the home screen, labelled "Install app on this device", which asks the browser or operating system to add a shortcut to the Site. Since 24 September 2026 the results screen may offer the same thing once per page visit, after a practice round in which at least seven answers in ten were right, under the question "Want the app on your Home Screen?"; it asks for the same shortcut, and everything in this clause applies to it as it does to the control on the home screen. That shortcut is a Home Screen or app-launcher icon for this same Site, labelled helium3words.com. It is not a native application, it is not distributed through an app store, and it does not create an offline copy of the Site. Opening the Site from that icon is use of the Site and remains subject to these terms and the other Legal Documents, including the same on-device saving after "Agree and save". A network connection is required; without it the shortcut will not present the Site. It is not an application distributed through an app store. The operator publishes no app under this name in any app store and is not responsible for anything that claims to be one. A browser may still offer its own shortcut or bookmark in addition to the Site's control. Earlier releases could leave a service worker or Cache Storage copy used for offline use; this release does not offer offline use, deletes those leftovers when the browser allows it, and if it cannot, the browser's site-data controls are the remaining route. Removing a Home Screen icon may, but does not necessarily, delete stored data; see disclaimer clause 4.
• Updating the word bank may take words off your lists. The operator may use AI tools to add, regenerate, replace or otherwise change AI-generated word-list content, and may remove content from the bank, at any time; since 25 September 2026 the operator may also, at any time and without notice, pause an individual word, withdraw it from the Site, restore it, or move it to another level, for every language at once. Statistics, favourite marks and the words-to-improve list are stored per word identifier. While the Site does not serve a word — because it was removed, paused or withdrawn, or because its identifier changed — that word is not asked in rounds and does not appear on the Favourites, Words to improve or hardest-words lists, although what was gathered on it stays on your device; if the word is served again under the same identifier, it returns with that record. In the meantime that record is not shown word by word, and it is deleted only by the deletion controls described in privacy clause 2 or by clearing this site's data in your browser. A word moved to another level is asked at its new level from then on. The words you added yourself are not affected.

3. Content added by the user

The Site lets a user add words and translations of their own ("user content") for personal practice, up to 300 words across all the pairs together and 60 characters in each field. That content is stored in the browser's local storage on the user's device only, is not transmitted to the operator and is not stored on a server controlled by the operator; the operator has no access to it and no ability to view, monitor, back up or restore it. User content is not published, is not shown to any other visitor and forms no part of the Site's word bank. A word the user adds is asked in one place only. It is asked by the "Practise them" button on the "My words" page, in the pair it was added under, and by nothing else: it does not join a round drawn by level or the mixed-level round, it is not read aloud by the Advanced Learning screen unless that round is one of the user's own words, it cannot be marked as a favourite, it never joins the words to improve or the hardest words, and it is not counted in the practice statistics or in the points kept for a level. A round made of those words shows its own score while it is played and on the results screen that follows, and leaves nothing on the device afterwards but the words themselves. Nothing about any of it is visible to anyone else: as stated above, the words are held on the user's own device, are not transmitted to the operator, are not shown to any other visitor and form no part of the Site's word bank, and they change no other user's quizzes, levels, lists or statistics. One deliberate action has a separate consequence: if the user presses the speak button for a word they added, their browser or operating system may send that text, an IP address and technical data to its speech-service provider, as explained in privacy clause 3. The same applies on the Advanced Learning screen, and there a single press of Play can send several such words in turn rather than one: words the user added under the pair being practised are eligible for the round it reads aloud, and each is spoken in both of the pair's languages. Pausing or leaving the screen stops it.

Responsibility for content a user adds — for its substance, its accuracy and its lawfulness — rests with that user alone. Do not enter personal or sensitive information, login credentials, or content that is unlawful or infringes anyone else's rights into these fields. Because the content is stored in the browser only, it may be erased at any time — for instance by clearing browser data, in private browsing mode, by withdrawing consent to save on the device, or by changing device — and the operator is not responsible for its loss and cannot restore it. A user may delete their content at any time: a single word, or all the words added in the pair currently selected, using the buttons on the "My words" page — the words added in the other pairs are not affected by that button. That deletion is final and cannot be undone. Nothing else is stored about those words — no counter, no favourite mark and no words-to-improve entry — so nothing else is deleted with them; it changes no unrelated data and does not withdraw consent to save. Keeping a downloaded copy is recommended, using the "Download my words as a text file" button on that page, which creates a file on the user's own device; responsibility for keeping and using that file rests with the user. Rights in user content remain with the user; nothing in clause 5 below grants the operator any right in that content.

4. Licence to use

You are granted a limited, personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable and revocable licence to use the Site for personal, non-commercial learning purposes only. To the extent permitted and enforceable under applicable law, any other use — including copying, reproduction, distribution, sale, rental, public display, creation of derivative works, data scraping, or commercial use of the Site's content — requires the operator's prior written permission. Nothing in this clause restricts a use that applicable law does not allow these terms to prohibit.

5. Intellectual property

Rights are reserved only to the extent that they lawfully subsist in the Site's human-authored code, design, structure, arrangement and presentation. Third-party rights, if any, remain with their owners.

The translations of the word list, and its division into levels, were generated by artificial intelligence, and the app icon was derived from AI-generated artwork (OpenAI gpt-image 2.0, August 2026) whose source file carries Content Credentials identifying OpenAI. Depending on the country and the amount of human authorship involved, those elements may not attract copyright protection. Nothing here asserts exclusive rights in an individual word or translation, or in a purely AI-generated element. No claim is made to human linguistic editing of the word bank: its translations have not been proofread, edited, corrected or linguistically reviewed by a person. What the operator does claim, where the law permits, is the human-authored part of the Site — its code, its design, its structure and presentation, the operator's own selection and arrangement of the English headword list the Site teaches, and the decisions about which languages, which levels and which features to offer. To the extent permitted and enforceable under applicable law, the contractual use restrictions in clause 4 apply independently of whether copyright subsists in every element.

6. Prohibited uses

To the extent permitted and enforceable under applicable law, the following uses are prohibited. Nothing in this clause restricts a use that applicable law does not allow these terms to prohibit.

• Using the Site in breach of any law or of these terms.
• Attempting to disrupt the Site's operation, to circumvent technical limits, or to overload the hosting infrastructure.
• Automated use (bots, crawlers and the like) to copy content, other than lawfully operating search engines.
• Removing or obscuring copyright notices or credits.
• Presenting the Site's content as a certified, sworn or official translation, or as a qualification, certificate or assessment of a language level — the result or the suggested level of the quick vocabulary check, and the score of the daily quiz, included. See clauses 2a to 2d of the disclaimer.

Reporting an infringement or an error. If you believe that something published on the Site infringes your rights, or that a translation or other content is wrong, write to contact@helium3words.com with enough detail to identify it. Reports are assessed to identify the affected material and decide whether action is needed. Reported material may be removed; affected word-list content may instead be regenerated or replaced using AI. Assessing a report is not human linguistic proofreading, editing or review, and the operator does not manually correct the AI-generated word-list content.

7. Minimum age and minors

The Site is intended for users aged 14 and over. It is not intended for, directed at or marketed to children under 14, and must not be used by anyone under that age. The "Agree and save" action concerns device storage only and is not used as an age declaration. If the law of the user's country of residence sets a higher age for independent consent, that higher age applies. A user below that higher age must not choose persistent saving without the authorisation of a parent or guardian where the applicable law permits that authorisation; the quiz remains usable without persistent saving. In Spain, Article 7 of Organic Law 3/2018 (LOPDGDD) sets the age for a child's own data-protection consent at 14.

The Site has no registration, accounts, advertising, third-party analytics, cross-site tracking or profiling — the only count of use it keeps is the anonymous visit count described in privacy clause 3a — and the app asks for no name, email address or other identifying detail. Technical server logs, and information sent voluntarily by email, are processed as described in the privacy policy. The operator treats the Site as a general-audience vocabulary tool and does not knowingly collect personal information from a child under 13. That assessment is based on the Site as a whole — including its subject matter, presentation, actual audience and marketing — and not on the age statement in these terms alone. If the audience or presentation changes, the operator must reassess the position under the United States Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

Use by minors aged 14 to 18 should take place with the knowledge of a parent or guardian. A parent or guardian who believes a child under 14 has used the Site may contact the address in clause 11. Scores, preferences, the words-to-improve list and user-added words can be deleted on the device using the app's deletion buttons or the browser's site-data controls; a request concerning server logs or an email can be sent to the same contact address.

8. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, the operator is not liable for indirect, consequential, special or punitive damage, or for loss of data caused by the browser, the user's device or circumstances outside the operator's reasonable control. Nothing in these terms excludes or limits liability that applicable law does not allow to be excluded or limited, including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, and liability arising from fraud, intentional misconduct or gross negligence, where the law so provides. See also the "Disclaimer" section below.

The quick vocabulary check. The result and the suggested level of the quick vocabulary check (clause 2) are given without any commitment, promise or warranty as to their accuracy, completeness or suitability, and they must not be relied on for any decision. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, the operator is not liable for any decision taken, or any loss suffered, in reliance on them. The sentence above on liability that cannot be excluded or limited applies to this paragraph as to the rest of these terms. See disclaimer clause 2c.

The daily quiz. The daily quiz (clause 2) and its score are given without any commitment, promise or warranty as to their availability, accuracy, completeness or suitability, and they must not be relied on for any decision. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, the operator is not liable for any decision taken, or any loss suffered, in reliance on them, or for a quiz that is not offered, is changed or is withdrawn. The sentence above on liability that cannot be excluded or limited applies to this paragraph as to the rest of these terms. See disclaimer clause 2d.

Messages from the operator. A message from the operator (clause 2) is given without any commitment, promise or warranty as to its accuracy, completeness, timeliness or suitability, and it must not be relied on for any decision. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, the operator is not liable for any decision taken, or any loss suffered, in reliance on a message, or for a message that is not shown, is shown late or more than once, is changed or is deleted. The sentence above on liability that cannot be excluded or limited applies to this paragraph as to the rest of these terms. See disclaimer clause 2e.

Force majeure: the operator will not be liable for delay, fault or interruption of service arising from circumstances outside its reasonable control — including a fault or outage at the hosting provider, a communications failure, a cyber attack, an infrastructure failure, a change in the browser or operating system on the user's device, or an order of a competent authority.

Responsibility for unlawful use: to the extent permitted by law, a user is responsible for a third-party claim caused directly by that user's intentional unlawful use of the Site or material intentional breach of these terms. This does not apply to ordinary use, to a claim caused by the operator, or where mandatory consumer law provides otherwise.

Time limit for claims: to the extent applicable law permits an agreed period, a claim connected with the Site must be brought within one year of the event giving rise to it. This does not shorten a limitation or prescription period fixed by mandatory law, and in particular does not shorten a period that consumer law fixes for a user; where such a period applies, it prevails over this paragraph.

9. Changes to these terms

The operator may update the Legal Documents from time to time. The date of the last update appears at the top of each document. A material change will be highlighted on the Site in a reasonably prominent notice before it applies, where practicable — which may be a message from the operator of the kind described in clause 2 — and will not retroactively expand the operator's rights over information already provided. If a change requires renewed consent to device storage, the Site will ask for it separately before that storage continues.

The authoritative version of the Legal Documents is always the one published at helium3words.com, identified by its update date. The current release does not offer offline use, including when the Site is opened from a Home Screen icon. A copy kept by the browser itself (for example a previously opened tab) may be older than the current text.

10. Governing law and jurisdiction

These terms make no choice of a governing law and grant no exclusive jurisdiction to the courts of any particular country. Which law applies, and which courts may hear a matter concerning the Site, is decided by the ordinary rules of private international law that apply to the user.

Reservation in favour of consumer users: nothing in these terms derogates from mandatory protective consumer-law provisions that cannot be contracted out of and that apply to the user in their country of habitual residence, and nothing in them deprives the user of the protection those provisions afford. In particular:

• Spain and the European Union — a user acting as a consumer and residing in Spain or another EU Member State may bring proceedings in the courts of their own country of residence, and may only be sued there, in accordance with Articles 17–19 of Regulation (EU) 1215/2012 (Brussels I bis).
• Latin America — a user acting as a consumer retains every right conferred on them by the mandatory consumer-protection law of their country of residence, which in most of the region applies territorially and cannot be displaced by a choice of foreign law: among others Mexico's Ley Federal de Protección al Consumidor, Argentina's Ley 24.240, Colombia's Ley 1480 de 2011 (Estatuto del Consumidor), Chile's Ley 19.496 and Peru's Ley 29571.
• United States — a consumer residing in the United States retains any right conferred on them by the mandatory consumer law of their state of residence.

Where a provision of this clause conflicts with such a protective provision, the protective provision prevails, without affecting the validity of the remaining terms. If any provision of these terms is held invalid, the remaining provisions stay in force.

11. The operator and contact

Who runs the Site. The Site is run by a private individual — First Name: Ronen, Last Name: Adler — as a personal project. It is not a company, has no registered business behind it, and is not operated by or on behalf of any organisation. He is also the data controller named in clause 7 of the privacy policy. The designated contact route is:

• Email: contact@helium3words.com

Nature of the operator: the Site is run as a personal, non-commercial project by an individual who does not act through a company or a registered business, charges nothing for use of the Site, displays no advertising on it and derives no income from it. There is accordingly no commercial register entry, no tax or registration number, and no professional body or authorisation scheme to declare.

No postal address is currently published. Whether further identification details are required can depend on the law applicable to the actual operator, service and markets deliberately targeted. The Site is already public, so the operator must verify promptly with appropriate local advice whether the email and controller name supplied here satisfy those rules and add any detail that is required. The Site's no-revenue status is a relevant fact, not a universal legal exemption.

How to get in touch: email contact@helium3words.com. This is the Site's contact address for every matter — terms of use, privacy, accessibility and reports of errors in the content. The operator must keep the mailbox working and monitored for as long as the Site publishes it.

Privacy policy

Last updated: 25 September 2026

1. What stays on your device — and the limited exceptions

The Site was designed on a "privacy by default" basis (Privacy by Design & by Default). It has no registration, accounts, forms that submit information, third-party analytics tools (such as Google Analytics), marketing pixels, advertising or cross-site tracking. Scores, favourite marks, the words-to-improve list, round history, preferences and words you added stay on the device. The quiz asks the Site's same-origin API for the words of the current round, and Advanced Learning, any of the five games behind the home screen's game tile, the quick vocabulary check and the daily quiz, ask it the same way for the words they read aloud or put as questions — the daily quiz also sending the calendar date shown by your device's clock, so that the service can answer with that date's quiz. A page left open on the home screen also asks it, every few seconds, whether the operator has published a message for visitors, sending nothing but the request itself (clause 3a). The app also tells that service, in a request of a word or two, that the page opened, that the home screen was scrolled, that a round was started from the home screen and at which level, that one of twelve of its buttons was pressed, that a control was pressed before the terms were agreed to, that the home example was answered for the first time on that page load, or that the daily quiz was answered or finished on that page load, for the anonymous visit count described in clause 3a. Opening Favourites, Words to improve or the hardest-words list asks that same API for the display text of the opaque identifiers already stored for the bank words on all three of those lists, two languages at a time, and starting a practice round from one of them asks for the words of that list. Those identifiers are not scores, not typed answers and not the text of words you added; identifiers of words you added are not sent. Most of them are opaque codes that mean nothing outside the Site's own word list, though a device that saved a word under an older release may still send an identifier built from the English headword until that copy is replaced. The operator nevertheless processes limited personal information: through the hosting provider's technical server logs, when a person voluntarily sends an email, and through the two short-lived records its own word service keeps — the request limits and, since 16 September 2026, the hash with which the visit count counts a browser once. In addition, a browser or operating-system speech service may process text only after the user deliberately presses a control that produces speech — a speak button, which reads one word, or Play on the Advanced Learning screen, which starts a reading that continues through the round until it is paused or the screen is left. Those exceptions are described in clauses 3 and 3a. The "type the answer" quiz is checked on the device only and the typed answer is neither transmitted nor retained.

A short summary of this policy is shown in the app's footer in the language inferred for the reader, so that a reader who does not read English is still told what reaches the operator. It was generated by artificial intelligence and has not been proofread, edited or linguistically reviewed by a person; it is offered for convenience, it does not replace this policy, and, subject to mandatory applicable law and only to the extent enforceable, this English page governs where the two differ. The contact address and the link to this page sit beside it in English.

2. Data stored on your device only (localStorage and sessionStorage)

Saving progress on your device happens only after express consent (opt-in) given in the consent banner, and it can be withdrawn at any time on the Customize screen. You are not asked anything when you open the Site. The request appears only when you ask for a persistent feature — for example, marking a word as a favourite, adding a word, collecting words to improve, or pressing "Save on this device". Refusing does not stop or restart a quiz already in progress; the requested item is simply not saved permanently. Without consent, practice progress stays in the current page's memory and disappears when that page closes. Separate records may remember a language, level or display choice that the user expressly made — and, with the display choice, which message from the operator was last closed — a minimal consent-choice record prevents repeated requests, a record of your agreement to the terms of use, given by a press on the home screen, prevents the Site asking for that agreement on every visit, and, when the operator has switched on the entry code described in terms clause 1, a record of the time you last typed it prevents the Site asking for it again before the interval has passed; each is described below. After consent, the following practice data is stored solely in your browser's local storage, on your device. Scores, favourite marks, the words-to-improve list, round history, preferences and words you added are not sent to the operator. Opening Favourites, Words to improve or the hardest-words list, or practising those lists, sends only the identifiers already stored for those bank words — usually opaque codes, though clause 1 describes an older, headword-built form some devices still hold — so the Site can return their display text in the two languages of the pair; identifiers of words you added are not sent:

• helium3words.com.words-quiz.word-stats.v8 — practice statistics per word and selected language pair (correct and wrong answers, and the level the word belongs to, so the statistics page can count each level), the words you marked as favourites, and the words-to-improve list together with the count of consecutive correct answers on each word still on it. All three are kept against the pair of languages and not against one of them, so the same two languages are the same record whichever of them you chose first. All three kinds of data live under the same key, but each has its own deletion button and each is deleted on its own: clearing the statistics resets the counters only and leaves the favourite marks and the list intact. The identifiers in this record — usually opaque codes; clause 1 describes the older form — are what the Favourites, Words to improve and hardest-words screens send when they ask the Site for display text; the counters, marks and list themselves stay in this browser. Words you added yourself are not recorded here at all: they are asked only from the "My words" page, cannot be marked as favourites, never join the words to improve and are not counted in these statistics, so this record holds nothing about them. A device that gathered such records under an earlier release discards them the next time the app reads this key.
• helium3words.com.words-quiz.games.v8 — a round made of the words you added yourself is not recorded here, because none of its answers wrote a counter and none of its points were kept; every other round is, up to the last 500 rounds (time, score, the points the round earned, duration, which of the exercises was played and at which level, the practice direction — including whether the round asked both directions in one round — and which of the pair's two languages was the one being practised). Since 24 September 2026 the results screen also counts from it, in your browser, how many days in a row ending today a round was finished on this device, and shows that number; nothing more is stored for the count and it is not sent anywhere.
• helium3words.com.words-quiz.score.v2 — the points you have earned, kept as one running total for each level of each language pair you have practised, together with the number of answers at that level that were given after pressing the hint button. The points are worked out in this browser from your own answers — a correct answer earns more at a higher level and more when typed than when chosen from a list, an answer given after a hint earns half, a wrong answer subtracts a fixed amount, and "I don't know" or the clock running out subtract nothing — and a running total never falls below zero. Nothing here is attached to an individual word, so a word leaving the word list does not remove points already earned. A round of the words you added yourself adds nothing to this record: those words are not counted in a level, so the points earned on them are shown while the round is played and kept nowhere. This record is deleted by "Delete the statistics only", together with the counters that earned it.
• helium3words.com.words-quiz.settings.v8 — personal preferences (selected language, the language it is practised against, words per round, how many answers a multiple-choice question offers, how the next word arrives — a waiting time or advancing on click, the answer time limit (off by default), the practice direction and whether it asks both directions in one round, the quiz type, the preferred voices, the speed the words are read out at, the two pauses set on the Advanced Learning screen — between the two languages and between words — how many times each word is read out on that screen, how many times the whole set is read out there, whether the keyboard shortcuts are switched on — on by default, and whether collecting words to improve is switched on — off by default). It also holds which exercise and which level you last practised — the level chosen with the level cards on the Customize screen or with a chip on the Advanced Learning screen, or, since 18 September 2026, with the "Start learning at your level" button at the end of the quick vocabulary check, which sets the level that check suggested, and whether the Advanced Learning screen was last opened on a level or on the Mix — so that the home screen and the Advanced Learning screen can offer the same one again; it is deleted with the rest of this key. Since 15 September 2026 the level is also kept in the separate level.v1 record described below, which is what remembers it when saving consent has not been given.
• helium3words.com.words-quiz.language.v1 — the language being practised, the language practised against it, the selection date, and an internal true/false marker confirming that the choice was explicit. Without valid saving consent, those are the only fields retained. While saving consent is valid, the record may additionally hold up to five recently selected language codes to populate the Recent list; if consent is absent, refused, withdrawn or no longer valid, that earlier-choice history is omitted and any existing copy of it is removed. Codes are short language tags such as pt or pnb; they are not all two letters. The record has no identifier, device details or practice results and is not uploaded to the operator. Practising in a selected language does ask the Site's word service for that pair's words, so the two language codes travel with the request and it may appear in the technical server log described in clause 3; this record itself is not attached, nor is any score, and the saved identifiers described in clause 1 are sent only when a saved list is opened or practised. The current-pair record is stored without consent only after the user deliberately chooses a language, as a requested interface preference under the Article 5(3) / Article 22.2 exemption. Before that choice, the page briefly reads the browser's declared language list to suggest an initial pair. That list is a browser setting, not a location detection; it is used for the initial selection, not written to device storage, and consulted again on a later visit only if no explicit choice is saved. The language record expires after one year and can be removed with "Reset settings to defaults", with the full delete-and-withdraw action, or through the browser's site-data controls.
• helium3words.com.words-quiz.display.v1 — how you asked the app to look, and which message from the operator you last closed, and nothing else: whether you chose the dark or the light colours, whether you switched bold text on, whether you switched the on-screen tooltips on, whether you switched the home screen's example question off, whether you switched off the band that opens the quick vocabulary check, since 22 September 2026 the identifier of the last message from the operator that you closed (terms clause 2) — a code the Site gives the message, the same on every device, kept only so that the same message is not shown to you again — and the date you chose. It holds no identifier of you or of your device, nothing about your practice, nothing about your device, and it is never sent to the operator. This record is not stored under consent, on the same basis as language.v1 above it: an interface preference you explicitly requested, by pressing one of the controls described below, is within the exemption in Article 5(3) of the ePrivacy Directive as implemented in Spain in Article 22.2 of Law 34/2002 (LSSI). It exists for the same reason too, and the reason is stronger here: a reader who needs a dark background or heavier text to read comfortably, and who declined to have their score saved, would be handed the light theme again on every single visit with no way to stop it. The Site's colours are not taken from what your device prefers — it opens light for everybody until you choose otherwise here, and the pair of languages described in the entry above is the one thing the Site does take a hint from — and nothing is written at all while the appearance is at its defaults and no message has been closed: choosing dark, bold or the on-screen tooltips, switching the example question or the vocabulary-check band off, or closing a message from the operator creates the record, and setting all five back again removes it once no closed message is held either. It is written only when you change one of those five choices — with the chips on the Customize screen, or, for the example question, with the "Hide the example question" button under the card on the home screen — when you close a message from the operator, with its "Close" button, the Escape key or a press outside it, or when the message closes by itself after the number of seconds the operator set, and when the app learns that the message you closed has been deleted, to forget its identifier again; and it is read by this page of legal documents, by the questions page, by the landing page and by each of the arrival pages under /lang/ that carry the same landing page in one of the interface languages, by the maintenance page and by the operator's own two pages — the one that reads the visit count described in clause 3a, and the one that checks which English words the bank is still missing — as well, so that they open in the colours you chose rather than standing at the default behind an app set to the other theme; those pages read it and never write it. It is dropped a year after the date it records; you can remove it sooner with "Reset settings to defaults" on the Customize screen, which also returns the app to its light, unbolded appearance with the tooltips switched off and the example question and the vocabulary-check band shown, and forgets the message you closed — so a message still published is shown to you once more — or by clearing this site's data in your browser.
• helium3words.com.words-quiz.level.v1 — the level you chose, and nothing else: which of the three levels you last chose — with one of the level cards on the Customize screen, with a level chip on the Advanced Learning screen, which sets the same level, or, since 18 September 2026, with the "Start learning at your level" button at the end of the quick vocabulary check, which sets the level that check suggested — and the date you chose it. When the level was set from the vocabulary check, the record holds that level and its date and nothing about the check — not its answers, not its result, and not that the level came from it. It holds no identifier, nothing about how you answered, nothing about your device, and it is never sent to the operator; starting a round does send the chosen level to the Site's word service together with the two language codes, as the entry for language.v1 above describes for those codes, but this record itself is not attached to any request. This record is not stored under consent, on the same basis as the two records above it: a preference you explicitly requested by pressing a control is within the exemption in Article 5(3) of the ePrivacy Directive as implemented in Spain in Article 22.2 of Law 34/2002 (LSSI). It exists because the level is a choice made on the Customize screen — the level "Start Learning Now" begins at — and a visitor who declined to have their progress saved, or was never asked, would otherwise choose Level 3, refresh the page and be handed Level 1 again on every visit, with nothing on the screen to say why. Nothing is written at all while the level is at its default: choosing Level 2 or Level 3 creates the record, and choosing Level 1 again removes it. While saving consent is valid the same level is also kept among the preferences in settings.v8; the same press writes both, and if they ever disagree this record decides. It is written only when you choose a level, and read only by the app page — when it opens, so that the example question on the home screen can be asked at your level, and when another open tab of the app changes it. The record was introduced on 15 September 2026. It is dropped a year after the date it records; you can remove it sooner with "Reset settings to defaults" on the Customize screen, which also returns the app to Level 1, with the full delete-and-withdraw action, or by clearing this site's data in your browser.
• helium3words.com.words-quiz.entry-code.v1 — the time you last typed the entry code, and nothing else. Terms clause 1 describes the code: when the operator has switched it on, the app shows a random four-digit code and asks you to type it before anything else works, once every hour, every two hours or once a day on each device, whichever interval the operator chose. The code is drawn in your browser, shown in your browser and checked in your browser; it is not sent anywhere, no count of tries is kept, and this record holds no code, no identifier, nothing about how you answered anything and nothing about your device. It exists so that the interval can be measured from something: without it the code would be asked for again on every page load. This record is not stored under consent, on the same basis as the three records above it: a record strictly necessary to provide the service you asked for — without it the service would stop to ask for the code at every page load — is within the exemption in Article 5(3) of the ePrivacy Directive as implemented in Spain in Article 22.2 of Law 34/2002 (LSSI). Nothing is written at all on a device the operator has not asked a code from: while the code is switched off no such record exists, and the app learns whether it is on from the same answer that issues the session token described in clause 3a, with no request of its own. It is written only when you type the code correctly, and read only by the app page — when it opens, and when another open tab of the app types the code, which closes the question in this one. A browser that blocks storage keeps the time in the open page only, so such a device is asked once per visit. The record was introduced on 16 September 2026. It is dropped two days after the time it records, since no interval the operator can choose is longer than a day; it is removed sooner with the full delete-and-withdraw action or by clearing this site's data in your browser, and "Reset settings to defaults" leaves it in place, because it is not an interface preference.
• helium3words.com.words-quiz.custom-words.v2 — words you added yourself on the "My words" page (both sides of the selected pair, those two language codes, the level, and an internal number that keeps the entries apart), up to 300 words across all pairs. Words added under an earlier release as English plus one other language are kept as that English pair. The app stores and checks that text locally and does not send it to the operator. If you deliberately press the speak button for one of those words, the browser or operating-system speech service may send that word, an IP address and technical data to its vendor for processing; see clause 3. You can edit or delete one word, or delete the selected pair's added words. The download button builds the text file locally and does not upload it.
• helium3words.com.words-quiz.install.v1 — a leftover from earlier releases that used to time an install/offline suggestion. The current release does not write this key. If an older visit left a copy, it is deleted with the rest of the app's keys when you delete all app data, and it contains no identifier or practice results.
• helium3words.com.words-quiz.terms-accept.v1 — whether you agreed to the terms of use (a single yes value; no record is kept of a device that has not agreed), the date, and the version of the terms the agreement was given against. It is written only when you agree — by pressing "Start Learning Now" or "Continue to a short practice" under the line that says the press is the agreement, by answering the home example under the line that says answering is, by pressing any other button on the home screen under the line at the top of that screen that says the same, or by pressing "Agree and continue" in the dialog a control reached by another route opens, each a deliberate act described in terms clause 1; until 14 September 2026, by ticking a box under the button — and it exists so that a device which has agreed once is not asked to agree again on every visit. It is stored on the same footing as the consent-choice record below: the record of an explicit choice, held without saving consent. It is valid for no more than 24 months, and a record given against an older version of the terms is not read as current agreement; in either case the agreement is simply asked for again. It holds no identifier and is never sent to the operator, who therefore has no register of who agreed. It is deleted by "Delete all app data and withdraw consent" and by clearing this site's data in your browser; "Reset settings to defaults" leaves it in place, because agreement to the terms is not an interface preference.
• helium3words.com.words-quiz.consent.v1 — the choice (agree or refuse), the date and the applicable policy version. It is valid for no more than 24 months. A refusal is a strictly necessary preference so the Site respects the answer instead of asking repeatedly. This, language.v1, display.v1, level.v1, entry-code.v1 and terms-accept.v1 are the only records the Site may hold without consent. A simple refusal does not erase language, level or display choices already made, nor the record of your agreement to the terms, nor the time you last typed the entry code. The separate full delete-and-withdraw action removes those records and leaves only a minimal refusal record.
• helium3words.com.words-quiz.purge-signal.v1 — not a stored record but a signal to the app's other open tabs. When you delete all app data, the app writes the moment of the deletion under this key and removes it in the same operation, so that another tab can tell a full deletion from an ordinary refusal and stop writing its own data back. It holds nothing about you and does not survive the action that creates it.
• helium3words.com.words-quiz.editor-draft.all.v1, and helium3words.com.words-quiz.editor-draft.es.v1 left by an earlier version of the same tool — a temporary draft from the words editor, held in sessionStorage and only after consent to save. Both are deleted when consent is withdrawn or when the tab's session ends. The editor is a maintenance tool and the server does not serve it, so a visitor to the Site cannot create these entries; they are listed because an earlier visit may have left one.

Every key created by the app uses its unique prefix. Updates may migrate valid saved data from older app-key versions to the current keys and remove the superseded copies; implementation version numbers are intentionally not listed here because they change with releases. The app never clears unrelated browser storage. Withdrawal is synchronised with other open tabs so deleted data is not written back. If a consent record expires or becomes invalid, saved practice data is not loaded and the app removes its dedicated data keys.

The app does not ask for identifying details, and its structured records contain no account or user identifier. Words you add can contain whatever text you choose to enter, including identifying text, so avoid entering personal information you do not want stored in the browser. The saved data remains under your control. The app offers the following deletion and reset actions, each with a defined scope shown to you before it runs:

• "Delete this word" ("My words" page) — deletes the selected word you added. Nothing else is stored about it — no counter, no favourite mark, no words-to-improve entry — so the word itself is all that goes. Other added words, unrelated data and consent to save are unchanged.
• "Delete the statistics only" (statistics page) — deletes the round history (games.v8), the points and hint counts (score.v2) and the correct/wrong answer counters inside word-stats.v8, in every language pair and not only the one the statistics screen is showing. Favourite marks, the words-to-improve list, the words you added, your preferences, and your consent to save are unchanged.
• "Remove all favourites" (favourites page) — removes the favourite marks for the pair currently selected inside word-stats.v8. Favourite marks in the other pairs, the correct/wrong counters on those words, the words-to-improve list, the words you added, your preferences, and your consent to save are unchanged.
• "Remove … from the words to improve" (🗑 on a row of the "Words to improve" page) — takes that one word off the currently selected pair's list inside word-stats.v8 and resets the consecutive-correct counter that belongs to it. The other words on the list, lists in the other pairs, the statistics on that word, your favourites, the words you added, your preferences, and your consent to save are unchanged. Collecting stays switched on, so a word you get wrong again will rejoin the list.
• "Clear the words-to-improve list" ("Words to improve" page) — empties the list for the pair currently selected inside word-stats.v8 and resets the consecutive-correct counters that belong to it. Lists in the other pairs, the statistics on those words, your favourites, the words you added, your preferences, and your consent to save are unchanged. Collecting stays switched on, so a word you get wrong again will rejoin the selected pair's list; switching the collecting itself off is a separate control on the settings page.
• "Delete all my words in this pair" ("My words" page) — deletes the words you added in the pair currently selected (inside custom-words.v2) and nothing besides, because nothing else is stored about them. The words you added in the other pairs, all other data and your consent to save are unchanged.
• "Reset settings to defaults" (settings page) — returns the preferences in settings.v8 (selected language, the language it is practised against, words per round, answers per question, waiting time, answer time limit, speech speed, voices, practice direction and the both-directions choice, quiz type, the two Advanced Learning pauses, how many times each word is read there and how many times the whole set is read, the record of the exercise and level last practised, the keyboard shortcuts — which return to on, and collecting words to improve — which returns to off) to their default values, returns the appearance to the light colours, normal text weight, the tips switched off and the home screen's example question and vocabulary-check band shown, and deletes the three separate records that are not stored under consent — the language you selected (language.v1), the appearance you chose, with the message from the operator you last closed (display.v1), and the level you chose (level.v1) — so that the Site opens in its default colours again, at Level 1, and in the pair of languages it offers someone arriving for the first time, rather than undoing the reset on your next visit. Because the record of your choice is gone, that pair is worked out from your browser's declared languages exactly as it is on a first visit, and the button applies it there and then, so that the screen you are left looking at is the one the next visit will open on. No other data is deleted, the words-to-improve list itself is not emptied, and consent to save is not withdrawn.
• "Delete all app data and withdraw consent" (statistics and Customize screens) — deletes every app key listed above, including language.v1, display.v1, level.v1, entry-code.v1, the record of your agreement to the terms (terms-accept.v1, so the agreement is asked for again before the next round), a leftover install.v1 from an earlier release, and editor drafts. It then keeps only a minimal consent.v1 refusal record (choice, date and policy version) so the Site does not immediately ask again, and it asks the browser to remove the Site's service-worker registration described in clause 2a. It does not clear data belonging to another site or app. A Cache Storage leftover from an earlier release is cleared on load when the browser allows it, or through the browser's site-data controls.

Earlier www origin: before the canonical-host rule introduced on 20 August 2026, www.helium3words.com could open as a separate browser origin and could therefore hold its own consent choice, local storage, Cache Storage and service worker. The current server rules redirect that host to helium3words.com so no new duplicate should be created. Browser security prevents the app on one origin from reading or deleting storage previously created on the other, so anyone who used the earlier www address should use the browser's site-data controls to remove any remaining www.helium3words.com data. The in-app deletion action applies to the origin on which it is run.

2a. Home Screen icon — still the Site, still over the network

The Site offers a control on the home screen labelled "Install app on this device". It asks the browser or operating system to add a shortcut to this same Site. Since 24 September 2026 the results screen may offer the same thing once per page visit, after a round in which at least seven answers in ten were right, under the question "Want the app on your Home Screen?". Before it shows that offer, the page asks the browser whether the Site is already installed on the device, where the browser supports that question; the browser answers the page itself, nothing is sent to the operator, the answer is not stored, and the offer is not shown when the Site is already installed. A press of that offer is not counted (clause 3a). The shortcut is an icon only, labelled helium3words.com. It is not a native application, it is not distributed through an app store, and it does not create an offline copy. Using the Site from that icon is using the Site: the Legal Documents continue to apply. A network connection is required; without it the shortcut will not present the Site. The Site remains fully usable in an ordinary browser tab without adding an icon. A browser may still offer its own shortcut or bookmark in addition to the Site's control. The operator publishes no app under this name in any app store and is not responsible for anything that claims to be one.

The public manifest and icons are requested by the browser so it can display a name and icon. Ordinary hosting logs may record those requests as described in clause 3. A small service worker is registered so that supporting browsers can offer the icon. That worker intercepts no request — the browser fetches each of them from the Site's server itself — and it does not keep a Cache Storage copy of pages for offline use. Leftover Cache Storage from earlier releases that did offer offline use is deleted on load when the browser allows it, and the full delete-and-withdraw action in clause 2 asks the browser to remove the worker's registration itself.

Earlier-version cleanup: older builds could register a service worker automatically or after "Enable offline use", and could write install.v1. This release does not treat those as a current offline choice and it no longer writes install.v1. On load it tries to delete this app's leftover Cache Storage. If the browser prevents that cleanup, clearing the Site's data in browser settings is the remaining route.

Saved progress from the icon. Device storage is unchanged: after "Agree and save", statistics, favourites, added words and settings stay in localStorage on the device, are not sent to the operator, and are managed with the same deletion controls. Opening from the icon does not create a separate store of the Site's own making. On iOS and iPadOS a Home Screen shortcut can have a storage area of its own, separate from the browser tab. Statistics, favourites, added words and the saving choice do not necessarily carry over between the tab and the icon. Removing a shortcut may delete that storage; it is not guaranteed. Use the app's deletion buttons or the browser's site-data controls when deletion must be verified. Keeping a copy of any words you added is recommended.

The scoped deletion actions are confined to the words or records they name. Resetting settings removes language.v1, display.v1 and level.v1 but no practice data. The full delete-and-withdraw action removes every listed app key and then creates only the minimal refusal record described above. Clearing the site's data in browser settings also removes leftover Cache Storage. In private browsing mode storage may be temporary; the Site keeps working when persistent storage is blocked.

3. Third-party services

• Fonts: the Site does not download or distribute font files and does not call any external font service. Text is displayed using the default fonts already available in your browser and operating system.
• Speech (Web Speech API): words are spoken using the speech engine built into your browser or operating system. The Site sends it text only: it does not record, store or transmit audio, it holds no sound recording of any kind, and the sound you hear is made on your own device or by the voice service of the browser vendor you chose. In some browsers the spoken text, your IP address and technical data about the browser or device may be sent for processing to the browser vendor's servers (Google's network voices, for example). That processing is governed by the privacy policy of the browser or operating-system vendor you chose. This applies to words you added yourself as well, if you press the speak button on one of them.
• How much text a press sends: a speak button sends the one word it sits on. Play on the Advanced Learning screen sends a whole round: every word of the set in turn, each in both of the pair's languages, continuing until you pause it, leave the screen or the set ends. A round holds as many words as "words per round" is set to on the Customize screen — up to 50 — and each word is read in both of the pair's languages, as many times over as the screen's repeat setting asks, up to three; one press can therefore hand the speech engine up to 300 separate pieces of text. The screen also offers to read the same set again or a new one, each of which is a further round. Words you added yourself are eligible for those rounds under the pair they were added to. This changes how much text may reach a browser vendor's servers, not who receives it or on what terms: the recipient, the purpose and the governing policy are the vendor's, exactly as described above. If you would rather no text left the device this way, do not use the speak buttons or the Advanced Learning screen. A device whose voices are all local sends nothing outward in either case, and which voices are local is a property of your browser and device rather than of the Site.
• A Home Screen shortcut: adding an icon is carried out by the browser and operating system after you use the Site's control or the browser's own command. The Site does not receive an installation event and no saved progress is sent. The browser may request the public manifest and icon files, so ordinary hosting logs may record those requests, and the browser vendor may be involved as described in its own privacy policy. Using the Site in an ordinary tab never requires a shortcut.
• The hosting provider and current route: the Site uses a hosting.com-branded hosting account. hosting.com's Service Terms and Company Details pages, checked on 3 September 2026, name A2 Hosting, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, as the contracting entity trading as hosting.com, and its privacy policy names Hosting Holding Germany BidCo GmbH, Kennedy-Ufer 11, 50679 Cologne, Germany, as its representative for residents of the EU and EEA. hosting.com publishes no data-processing agreement; its help documentation says one is supplied on request through a support ticket, and the operator has not yet obtained it. Public network records checked on 20 August 2026 route the live web and local domain-mail endpoints to a US usc1 hosting environment. That describes the current public endpoints only; logs, backups, support systems or subprocessors may be handled elsewhere under the applicable account terms and DPA. Hosting infrastructure receives technical request data and may record the IP address, request time and resource, browser or user-agent and operating-system information, referrer, response and related security information. An IP address may be personal data. Purpose and legal basis: security, abuse and fault detection, and reliable delivery of the Site, based on the operator's legitimate interests under Article 6(1)(f) GDPR. The logs are not used by the operator for marketing or profiling. Retention: at most three months. A log entry, including the IP address, is kept on the hosting server for no longer than three months from the request and is then deleted; in the operator's own hosting account, checked on 3 September 2026, the raw access log is processed and archived every 24 hours and each archived copy is deleted after one day, so an entry normally exists there for no more than about two days, and the operator keeps no other copy. An incident copy is deleted after the investigation and any related legal hold end. Three months is the upper limit the operator states for the provider's server-level copies; the provider's exact routine period within that limit has not been separately verified. See hosting.com's privacy information (external link, opens terms.hosting.com).
• Email enquiries: if you write to contact@helium3words.com, the operator receives your email address, any name or signature you provide, message content and ordinary email metadata. They are used only to answer the enquiry, handle a rights or accessibility request, assess a content report and remove or arrange AI regeneration or replacement of affected material, meet a legal obligation or establish and defend legal claims. The basis is legitimate interests in answering and administering enquiries (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR), compliance with a legal obligation where applicable (Article 6(1)(c)), or steps requested by you where Article 6(1)(b) applies. Ordinary correspondence is deleted within 24 months after the matter closes; information reasonably required for an unresolved legal obligation or claim is kept only for the applicable period. Public DNS checked on 20 August 2026 routes domain email through the hosting environment described above. That proves routing, not the mailbox's configuration: the domain's email service and its infrastructure providers process the message to deliver and store it, and any forwarding configured by the operator can involve another recipient or provider.
• Recipients and transfers outside the EEA: hosting.com and the domain's email infrastructure process information needed to host the Site and deliver email; a browser or operating-system speech provider may separately receive spoken text and technical data when the user activates speech. Their infrastructure may process information in the United States or another country. The official US Data Privacy Framework list, checked on 3 September 2026, carries a record whose legal name is A2 Hosting, LLC and whose public name is hosting.com, active for non-HR data under the EU–U.S. framework, its UK extension and the Swiss–U.S. framework from 27 April 2026 to 27 April 2027; an older record for A2 Hosting, Inc. is shown as under re-certification review. That framework can apply only to processing covered by that certification. The Site is already public, and the operator must promptly verify and retain the applicable Article 28 data-processing terms, named subprocessor and email-provider chain, and exact Chapter V safeguard for each relevant transfer. Any recipient or processing not covered by that verified framework requires the safeguard stated in its applicable DPA or provider terms. No unconditional choice between Standard Contractual Clauses and the EU–U.S. Data Privacy Framework is asserted without that account-specific verification. The operator does not sell or rent personal information and does not disclose it for behavioural advertising.

3a. The Site's own word service

The home example. Opening the home screen automatically requests one example question with two answer choices for the selected language pair and level, including before the terms have been agreed to. The same happens when the pair or level changes, when you return to the home screen, or when you retry a failed example load. This uses the same session token, technical request data and request limits described below. Since 15 September 2026 you can switch the example off — with "Hide the example question" under the card, or "Example question" on the Customize screen — and while it is off the card is not shown and no example is requested at all; the request that fetches the session token then still carries your pair and level, so that the pair's word counts can come back with it, and nothing else changes; since 16 September 2026 the answer to that same request also says whether the operator has switched on the entry code described in terms clause 1, and how often it is asked, which is how the app knows to ask for it without a request of its own. That choice is kept in the display.v1 record described in clause 2, and the same chips on the Customize screen bring the card back; the home screen itself offers no control for that. Since 17 September 2026 the operator can also hide the example for every visitor at once, from the operator's own page: while it is hidden the card is not shown on any device, no example is requested, the "Example question" choice on the Customize screen is not offered, and the answer to the session-token request says so, which is how the app knows without a request of its own; nothing is stored on your device for it, and showing it again is the operator's press alone. Since 14 September 2026 answering is never refused: a line under the two answers says that by answering you agree to the terms of use, so on a device that holds no record the first answer writes the agreement record described in clause 2 and nothing else (until then answering required the tick described in terms clause 1); an answer starts nothing and adds nothing to practice data. The example and the chosen answer remain only in page memory until the example is replaced or the home screen is left; they are not saved or added to practice statistics, points, favourites, words to improve or game history. The example word, and its answer once that answer is on screen, can each be read aloud by a speak button beside it; that is the browser or operating-system speech described in clause 3, it needs no agreement, like answering, and it sends nothing to the operator and adds nothing to the count. The first answer to the home example after each page load, whether right or wrong, sends only first_answer to the visitor count. No answer text, selected choice, correctness, word identifier or language is sent with that event. Later example answers on the same page load do not add another count; reloading the page allows another, so this is not a count of unique people. The event writes nothing to browser storage and adds no start or named button-press event. The button that appears under the answered example, "Continue to a short practice", starts a round and is counted as one, as the next paragraph describes; since 14 September 2026 its press, like the press of "Start Learning Now", is also the agreement to the terms when the device does not yet hold it (terms clause 1), and that agreement is recorded on the device only, as clause 2 describes — nothing about it is sent.

The quick vocabulary check. Pressing the vocabulary-check band on the home screen opens a check of twenty-one multiple-choice questions (disclaimer clause 2c). To put them on the screen the app asks this service for three ordinary rounds at once — one at each level, ten words each with four answer choices, of which the check asks seven, in the pair of languages on the home screen — carrying exactly the fields listed under "What a request carries" and counted against the request limits like any other round; the press itself is counted as one of the twelve buttons described under "A visitor count". Nothing more is asked for while the check runs. Your answers, the "I don't know" presses, the number right at each level and in all, and the suggested level are worked out in the page's memory; they are not sent, not saved and not added to any statistic, point, list or game history, and they are gone when the screen is left or the languages are changed. If you press "Start learning at your level", the app sets the level as the Customize screen's level cards do — the records in clause 2 — and starts an ordinary round, which sends its level like every round and is counted as a round started; the request does not say that the level came from the check.

The daily quiz. When the operator offers the daily quiz (terms clause 2), whether it is on and how many words each date holds reach the app in the answer to the session-token request described below, with no request of their own — and only for the dates that are already "today" somewhere in the world, never the days to come. When you press its button on the home screen — which, like every button there, is pressed once the terms are agreed to or is itself the agreement (terms clause 1) — the app asks this service for its questions in one request that carries the calendar date shown by your device's clock, which is how the quiz changes at your own midnight, and the two language codes of the pair on the home screen, and nothing else; the date is not a time and not a time zone, and the service does not store it. The request is counted against the request limits like any other. The service answers only for a date that is today somewhere on Earth, so a quiz cannot be read before its day has begun anywhere. Your answers, the "I don't know" presses and the score are worked out in the page's memory; they are not sent, not saved and not added to any statistic, point, list or game history, and nothing about the quiz is kept on your device. The first answer given in the quiz after each page load sends only the word daily_answer to the visitor count below, and reaching its result sends only daily_finish — each once per page load, with no answer, score, word, language, identifier or session token. The press of the quiz's button is not one of the twelve counted buttons.

Messages from the operator. Since 22 September 2026 the operator can publish a short message for every visitor (terms clause 2). While there is one, its text, a code identifying it and — since 25 September 2026 — how it is to be shown (its colour, text size, weight and alignment, and any number of seconds after which it closes by itself) reach the app in the answer to the session-token request described below, with no request of their own, so a page load learns of it without asking. A page that stays open asks the service whether there is a message about every ten seconds while its home screen is showing and the tab can be seen, and at once when you come back to the home screen, to the tab or to the window — never more often than once in five seconds; nothing is asked while the tab is hidden or another screen is showing. That request carries no session token, no language, no identifier and nothing from your device's storage; like every web request it carries ordinary technical data, including your IP address, described in clause 3. It is not counted against the request limits below and writes nothing on the server — no hash of your address is stored for it — because all it does is read whether there is a message. The answer is the same for every visitor: the message, or that there is none. Showing a message, reading it and closing it send nothing to the operator and are not counted in the visit count below; the one thing kept is the message's identifier, on your device only, in the display.v1 record described in clause 2, so that the same message is not shown to you again, and the app forgets it once the service answers that the message has been deleted.

The words are not downloaded with the page. The app asks the Site's own service, on the same address, for the round you are practising, and for the display text of saved bank words when you open or practise Favourites, Words to improve or the hardest-words list. This is the operator's own server rather than a third party's, which is why it has a clause of its own.

What a request carries: the two language codes, the level, how many words the round holds, which exercise it is, how many answers a question offers and whether the round asks in both directions (the Mix Directions choice on the Customize screen); identifiers of bank words the round on screen already asked, when a button continues from that round — "New words" sends them so the next round does not repeat those words, and replaying a round the other way round sends them so the service can return the accepted answers for the new direction, and "Try again" at the end of the quick vocabulary check sends the identifiers of the words that check asked, so that the next twenty-one are different; and, for the saved lists, the identifiers already stored on your device for their bank words — opening Favourites, Words to improve or the hardest-words list sends those of all three lists, so that each screen has its text, and practising or listening to one list sends that list's. A round made only of words you added still asks the service for a few ordinary bank words at the same level when it offers multiple-choice answers, to have wrong answers to show; that request carries the fields above and nothing of the words you added, neither their text nor their identifiers. Nothing else from the app's storage travels with it — no score, no statistic, no typed answer, and not the text of any word you added. Like any web request it also carries ordinary technical data, including your IP address, described in clause 3.

A session token. When the app first needs words it asks the service for a short-lived token containing a random session number. It is held in the page's memory for as long as the tab is open, is never written to your device's storage, and is forgotten when the tab closes; the next visit asks for a new one. It identifies a burst of requests, not a person, and it is not linked to anything saved on your device. Since 10 September 2026 that first request also names the language pair and level the page opens on — the pair saved on the device, or the pair a link in the address names (?from= and ?to=, with an optional &level=; the address is read when the page opens and nothing about it is stored), or otherwise the pair suggested by your browser's language list — so that the example question and the pair's word counts come back together with the token in one request rather than two or three; it carries nothing beyond the fields listed under "What a request carries", and it is counted against the request limits below exactly as separate requests would be. Since 19 September 2026 the app may also ask for a new token before the old one has run out — at most once a minute, after it has noticed that the word list changed — only to read from the answer which version of the app a reload would bring, so that it can offer that reload; that request carries nothing the first one does not. Since 21 September 2026 it asks for a new one in the same way, at most once a minute, when the date on your device's clock turns over while the daily quiz is offered, or when the service answers that a date has no quiz, so as to learn which dates have one; that request, too, carries nothing the first one does not. Since 22 September 2026 the answer also carries the operator's message, when there is one, as the paragraph on messages above describes.

Request limits, and the one personal-data record the operator keeps. So that one visitor or one script cannot exhaust a small hosting account, the service counts requests. To count them it stores, in a small database of its own, a keyed hash of the IP address — the address itself is not written down, but a keyed hash of it is not anonymous either, and is treated here as personal data — or, for the rows that count one session, a keyed hash of the session number, together with a count of requests, a count of words and the time window they belong to. It holds no word text, no score and nothing else about you. Purpose and legal basis: preventing abuse and keeping the Site available and affordable, on the operator's legitimate interests under Article 6(1)(f) GDPR. Retention: a row expires with the window it counts — at most 48 hours — and is never read or counted after that; expired rows are deleted by a cleanup the service runs each time it counts a request against these limits, so deletion follows the expiry as soon as the next such request arrives. It is used for nothing else: not for marketing, not for profiling, not to recognise a returning visitor, and it is not combined with any other record. You may object to it under Article 21 GDPR at the address in clause 7.

A visitor count. When the app page opens, each time a round is started from the home screen — by the "Start Learning Now" button, since 14 September 2026 also by the "Continue to a short practice" button under the answered home example, since 18 September 2026 also by the "Start learning at your level" button at the end of the quick vocabulary check the home screen opens, and until 6 September 2026 also by one of the level cards, which have since moved to the Customize screen as a choice of level and start nothing — the press that is itself the agreement to the terms included, since 14 September 2026 (terms clause 1) — and each time one of twelve of the app's buttons is pressed once the terms have been agreed to — Install app, Advanced Learning, Favourites, Improve, My words, Statistics, Customize, Five Games, Change Languages and, since 18 September 2026, the vocabulary check on the home screen, and Type the answer and Flashcards on the Customize screen — the app tells the service so in a request that carries the word visit, the word start together with the level chosen (1, 2, 3 or mixed), or the word press together with the name of the button, and nothing else — no language, no identifier and no session token. The same install offered on the results screen after a good round (clause 2a) is not one of those twelve: a press of it is not counted. Since 5 September 2026 a press of one of those controls made before the terms have been agreed to — which opens the agreement dialog instead of acting, as terms clause 1 describes; until 14 September 2026 it was refused by the agreement box — is told to the service too, in a request that carries the word refuse alone — not which control was pressed: it starts nothing, and it is counted as a refused press, not as a round or as a press of a button. A press of "Start Learning Now" or "Continue to a short practice" is never counted as a refused press, because since 14 September 2026 it is the agreement itself, and since the evening of that day no press on the home screen is, because every button there is pressed under the line at the top of the screen that makes it the agreement; the count remains for a control reached by another route before the agreement. The press is counted as it is made, so a round that then fails to load, or a screen that then fails to open, counts all the same. Since 9 September 2026 the first answer to the home example after each page load also sends the word first_answer alone, whether the answer is right or wrong. It carries no answer text, choice, correctness, word identifier, language or session token. Since 19 September 2026 the first time the home screen is scrolled after each page load also sends the word scroll alone — before or after the terms are agreed to, like visit, because scrolling is not a press. It carries no position, distance, direction or speed, and no language, identifier or session token; further scrolling on that page load sends nothing, scrolling any other screen sends nothing, and the moves the app makes itself — returning to the top of a screen, bringing a panel into view — are not counted. Since 21 September 2026 the daily quiz sends the word daily_answer alone on the first answer given in it after each page load, and daily_finish alone when its result is reached, as the paragraph on the daily quiz above describes. The service adds one to the numbers kept for that day, and one to the same numbers kept for that hour — visits, page loads on which the home screen was scrolled, rounds started, the rounds started at each level, first home-example answers, page loads on which the daily quiz was answered and on which it was finished, the presses of each of those twelve buttons, the presses made before the agreement and, since 16 September 2026, two more: how many different browsers those events came from, and how many of those browsers pressed anything that is counted (a start, one of the twelve buttons, the home example, the daily quiz, or a control pressed before the agreement): a few numbers per day and the same few per hour, in the same small database as the request limits above. The numbers are all that is kept of the events — no address, no hash of one, no session number, nothing that links two visits together or a visit to a person — apart from the one short-lived record the next paragraph describes, which exists only so that the two "different browsers" numbers can be counted. Because the numbers cannot be traced to anyone they are treated here as anonymous rather than personal data, and the daily numbers are kept with no time limit, until the operator deletes them, while an hourly row is kept for fourteen days and no longer: rows past that age are deleted by a cleanup the service runs as new hours are counted and when the operator reads the numbers, so that the finer record does not outlast the reason for keeping it; only the operator can read them, on a page that opens with a private key and is linked from nowhere on the Site. The request itself is a web request like any other: it appears in the hosting logs of clause 3 and is counted by the request limits above, which is the record already described there and not a new one. Purpose and legal basis: knowing whether, when and how much the Site is used; the numbers themselves are anonymous, and receiving the request that carries your IP address rests, like the request limits above, on the operator's legitimate interests under Article 6(1)(f) GDPR. Anyone can keep a page load out of all of these numbers — the visit, the scroll, every round started, the first home-example answer, the daily quiz's two events, every button press and every refused press on that page — in either of two ways. Since 19 September 2026 a browser that is set to send the Global Privacy Control signal, or the older Do Not Track request, is not counted at all: the app reads that setting from the browser when the page loads and then sends no count request of any kind, and the service discards a count request that arrives with either signal, so an older copy of the app changes nothing; the setting is not stored, not passed on and used for nothing else. Or the Site can be opened with ?counter=0 after its address; nothing is written to your device for the count, and nothing is read from it but that browser setting, so the choice is not remembered, and the parameter has to be in the address each time. The parameter is one way the operator leaves their own visits uncounted. The other, since 13 September 2026, is a short list of the operator's own addresses or address ranges, kept on the server — on that same page, or in the private configuration: a count request that arrives from an address on the list is answered and discarded, whatever the page load says. To do that the service compares the address each count request arrives from — already received with the request, as clause 3 says — with that list, and writes nothing down about the comparison: no address, no match and no miss, so the numbers described above are what is kept, and nothing more. The list names the operator's own connections and holds nothing about visitors. The operator can also switch the count off on the server — from that same page, or in the private configuration — in which case the request is answered and discarded.

Counting a browser once. The two "different browsers" numbers cannot be kept without recognising, for a short while, a browser the count has already seen. For that, and for nothing else, the service keeps since 16 September 2026 one more row per browser seen in the UTC hour now running and one per browser seen in the UTC day: a keyed hash of the IP address and of the browser's identification string — the User-Agent header every request already carries, as clause 3 says — under a key that is derived from the date and the operator's private secret and so changes every day. Like the request-limit hash above, it is treated here as personal data. It cannot be turned back into the address; it is never compared with the request-limit rows, the hosting logs or any other record; two days' rows cannot be matched against each other, because the key differs; and a row is deleted when its hour or its day ends, by the same cleanup the hourly rows have — run as later count requests arrive and when the operator reads the numbers — so nothing of it survives but the two numbers. The rows are not shown on the operator's page and are not exported. Purpose and legal basis: the same as the count's — knowing how many different people the numbers stand for, and how many of them used the Site rather than only opening it — on the operator's legitimate interests under Article 6(1)(f) GDPR; you may object under Article 21 GDPR at the address in clause 7. Everything that keeps a page load out of the count — the browser's Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track signal, ?counter=0, the operator's address list and the two switches — keeps it out of these rows as well, because a request that is not counted writes nothing.

4. Compliance — GDPR, Spain, Latin America and the United States

This policy is written to apply the principles of the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Spain's Organic Law 3/2018 (LOPDGDD) where they apply, together with applicable law in the operator's and user's jurisdictions. It is not a blanket claim that every legal question in every country has been determined. Personal information reaches the operator from three places and no others: the hosting provider's technical server logs, an email a person chooses to send, and the two short-lived records the Site's own word service keeps — the request-limit records and, since 16 September 2026, the hashed rows with which the visit count counts a browser once — which are described in clause 3a. A browser or operating-system speech provider may separately process spoken text and technical data; the operator does not receive that speech-service data.

Legal basis (GDPR). Server logs and ordinary correspondence rely on the legitimate interests described in clause 3, and the word service's request limits, the request that feeds its anonymous visit count and the short-lived hash with which that count counts a browser once, on the legitimate interests described in clause 3a; a legal request may also require processing under Article 6(1)(c). Persistent practice data relies on consent under Article 6(1)(a), requested separately from the terms and withdrawable at any time. The consent-choice record, the record of the agreement to the terms of use (terms-accept.v1), expressly requested language, level and display preferences and the record of the time an entry code was last typed are treated as necessary functional records. The current release does not create an offline Cache Storage copy. A service worker registered so a browser can offer a Home Screen icon intercepts no request — the browser makes each of them over the network itself — and stores no pages for offline use. Before any saved language choice exists, the page briefly reads the browser's declared language list under legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)) to present an initial readable screen. Reading a setting held by the browser is also within the exemption in Article 5(3) of the ePrivacy Directive, as implemented in Spain in Article 22.2 of Law 34/2002 (LSSI), for what is strictly necessary to provide the service the visitor asked for: without it the first screen cannot be put in a language the visitor can read. It is not retained or combined with other data. Since 19 September 2026 the page also reads the browser's Global Privacy Control and Do Not Track settings, for the one purpose of honouring them — a browser that sends either is left out of the visit count, as clause 3a describes — and they too are not retained, sent on or combined with other data. You may object to legitimate-interest processing under Article 21 GDPR at the address in clause 7.

Your rights (GDPR). If you are in the European Union you have the rights of access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability and objection, and the right to withdraw consent to saving at any time — withdrawing does not make what was lawfully done before it unlawful, and the app's own withdrawal button is described in clause 2. The data stored in your browser can be managed and deleted directly on your device, and for any request concerning the server logs, the request-limit records or any other question, you can contact us at the address in clause 7.

Two things the law asks to be stated even when the answer is nothing. There is no automated decision-making and no profiling within the meaning of Article 22 GDPR: nothing here evaluates, scores or classifies a person for the operator or for anyone else: the levels, the points, the words-to-improve list and, since 18 September 2026, the starting level the quick vocabulary check suggests (disclaimer clause 2c) and, since 21 September 2026, the score of the daily quiz (disclaimer clause 2d) and, since 24 September 2026, the count of days in a row on the results screen (terms clause 2) are worked out in your own browser from your own answers and are not sent to the operator. That suggestion decides nothing: it names one of the Site's three word lists to practise from, it takes effect only if you press the button that applies it, and you can change the level at any time. A round you then start carries the level it is played at, as every round does (clause 3a). And you are under no obligation to provide anything: there is nothing to sign up for, no field the Site requires, and no consequence of refusing to save — the quiz works either way. The little that does reach the operator is the unavoidable technical residue of asking a server for a page, described in clauses 3 and 3a.

Latin America. Users in Spanish-speaking countries of Latin America are covered by their own national data-protection law, among them Mexico's Ley Federal de Protección de Datos Personales en Posesión de los Particulares, Argentina's Ley 25.326, Colombia's Ley 1581 de 2012, Peru's Ley 29733 and Chile's Ley 19.628 (with the new framework under Ley 21.719 as it comes into force). Those laws grant rights broadly equivalent to access, rectification, cancellation or erasure, and objection — known in much of the region as derechos ARCO. The operator applies the standard described in this policy to every user regardless of country, and a request under any of those laws can be sent to the contact address in clause 7 and will be handled in the same way as a GDPR request. Note again that the practice data itself — the scores, the typed answers and the words a user added — never reaches the operator, and the identifiers a saved list sends are used only to return the text of those words: all of it can be inspected and deleted by the user directly, on their own device, at any moment and without asking anyone.

United States. The operator is an individual running a personal, non-commercial project and does not meet the ordinary for-profit business thresholds of the California Consumer Privacy Act as amended by the CPRA. Regardless, the operator does not sell or share personal information for cross-context behavioural advertising. California residents and residents of states with comparable laws may contact the address in clause 7 with a request. The operator treats the Site as a general-audience tool and does not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. COPPA status is assessed from the Site's content, presentation, audience and marketing as a whole; the minimum-age statement is not treated as decisive by itself.

Right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority: if you believe the processing described in this policy is unlawful, you have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, in addition to any other remedy and without being required to contact us first:

• In Spain — the Spanish Data Protection Agency, Agencia Española de Protección de Datos (www.aepd.es).
• Elsewhere in the European Union — the supervisory authority in your country of residence, your place of work or the place of the alleged infringement, under Article 77 GDPR. A list of authorities is published on the European Data Protection Board's website.
• In Latin America — the national data-protection authority of your country, such as Mexico's authority for access to information and data protection, Argentina's Agencia de Acceso a la Información Pública, Colombia's Superintendencia de Industria y Comercio, Peru's Autoridad Nacional de Protección de Datos Personales, or Chile's competent authority.

We would be glad if you contacted us first at the address in clause 7 — we will do our best to look into it and put it right — but that is not a precondition for complaining.

5. Information security

The Site is intended to be served exclusively over HTTPS. Server rules redirect an HTTP request to HTTPS, redirect the former www host to the single canonical https://helium3words.com origin, preserve the requested path and query, and instruct supporting browsers to use HTTPS for future visits. Using one host prevents the browser from creating separate current storage and service-worker areas for otherwise identical pages. Keeping the browser and operating system up to date is recommended.

In addition, a restrictive Content Security Policy is applied twice over: the server sends it as a response header on every request, and each page carries its own copy, usually tighter still — this page of legal documents, for instance, permits scripts only from the Site and allows no script-initiated connect-src requests such as fetch, XHR or WebSocket, and a browser enforces whichever of the two is stricter. The only script it loads is the few lines that read the appearance you chose in the app, so that these documents open in the same colours as the screen you came from; it reads that one preference and writes nothing. Between them they block framing, confine scripts, styles, images and connections to the Site itself, forbid form submission, and switch off browser permissions the Site has no use for, among them camera, microphone and location. The public manifest, if a browser requests it, is restricted to the Site by that same policy. The service worker used so a browser can offer a Home Screen icon, leftover workers from earlier releases, and any cleanup of leftover Cache Storage, are likewise restricted to the Site; they cannot be loaded from anywhere else. On the app page, a same-origin request asks the Site for the current round of words — for the daily quiz, the words of the date on the device's clock — and, when Favourites, Words to improve or the hardest-words list is opened or practised, for the display text of the identifiers already stored for those bank words; another tells it, in a word or two, that the page opened, that the home screen was scrolled, that a round was started from the home screen and at which level, that the home example was answered for the first time on that page load, or that the daily quiz was answered or finished on that page load, for the anonymous count described in clause 3a; and a page left open on the home screen asks it every few seconds whether the operator has published a message, sending nothing else. Counted and refused button presses use that service too; no answer text or correctness is sent. Beyond those identifiers and the round's own settings listed in clause 3a — its length, exercise, number of answers and direction — nothing saved on the device is sent: not a score, not a statistic, not a typed answer, and not the text of a word you added. The policy does not govern internal traffic of browser or operating-system services such as the speech engine, which may process information as described in clause 3.

6. Minimum age, minors — and privacy in plain language

The Site is intended for ages 14 and over and is not intended for, directed at or marketed to children under 14. The app does not ask for a name, contact detail or age and has no account or user-submission server. Technical server logs are created for all visits, an email is processed if someone voluntarily writes to the operator, and the word service keeps a short-lived request-limit record and an anonymous count of how many times the page opened, on how many of those page loads the home screen was scrolled, how many rounds were started from the home screen, by level, how many times twelve of its buttons were pressed, how many page loads included an answer to the home example, on how many the daily quiz was answered and finished, and how many presses were made before the terms were agreed to — a few numbers a day, and the same few by the hour for a fortnight, which identify nobody — and, since 16 September 2026, for the hour and the day now running, a hashed form of the address and browser with which that count tells one browser from another, deleted when they end — as described in clauses 3 and 3a. Parents and guardians are welcome to read this policy and contact the operator with a question.

If a child under 14 has used the Site, local scores, preferences, the words-to-improve list and user-added words can be removed immediately using the app's deletion buttons or the browser's site-data controls. A parent or guardian may contact the operator about a server-log entry, a request-limit record or an email, although a log line and a hashed request-limit record hold too little to identify a particular child without additional information — and the visit count's numbers hold nothing about anyone at all, while its short-lived hashed rows are gone when their hour and day end — and the request-limit record stops being used after at most 48 hours and is deleted by the cleanup described in clause 3a.

For younger users, in plain words: the Site does not ask you for your name, your address or any other detail. Your score, your answers and the words you add are saved on your own computer or phone and are not sent to us. The words you practise do come from us, so your computer has to ask for them — and when you open your starred words or your words to improve, it asks us for those words too, so we can send back what they say. It also tells us that the page opened, that you scrolled the home screen — not how far — and that you started a round from the home screen, and which level you chose, as a plain count with no name on it. It also counts the first time you answer the home example each time the page loads, without sending your answer or whether it was right, and counts the button presses explained above. It does the same for the daily quiz: it counts that you answered it and that you finished it, never your answers or your score. Sometimes a page left open also asks us whether we have a short message for everyone, and if we do, it shows it to you once in a window. Closing it tells us nothing: your computer or phone only remembers which message you closed, so that you do not see it twice. That is all it asks for. If something is not clear, ask a parent or another adult for help.

7. The data controller and privacy enquiries

Website operator and data controller: First Name: Ronen, Last Name: Adler.

European Union contact and Article 27: people in the European Union can send requests directly to the contact address below. No EU representative is identified on this page. Because the Site is already public and supports people in EU markets, the operator must promptly document with appropriate legal advice whether the actual offering and processing bring it within Article 3(2) and, if so, whether the limited occasional-processing exemption in Article 27(2)(a) is available. If a representative is required, its identity and contact details must be published here without delay. This assessment remains unresolved; the direct contact route does not by itself replace a representative where Article 27 requires one.

Contacting us: for any question or request concerning privacy — including exercising the rights set out in clause 4 — you can write to contact@helium3words.com. We will try to reply as soon as possible, and in any event within the period required by any law applicable to your request (one month under Article 12(3) GDPR, extendable as that Article permits). There is no charge for contacting us. If you are not satisfied with the response, you have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority as set out in clause 4.

Cookie policy

Last updated: 25 September 2026

1. The Site does not use cookies

The Site's code does not create, read or store cookies — no functional cookies, analytics cookies, advertising cookies or third-party cookies are integrated by the Site. Accordingly there is no cookie-consent banner for the Site's code.

This statement concerns the Site's own code, which is what the operator controls. If the hosting provider or an intermediate infrastructure sets a technical cookie of its own at the server level, that is outside the operator's control and is not done on its behalf; should the operator learn of such a cookie, this policy will be updated accordingly.

2. A similar technology: local storage (localStorage and sessionStorage)

For full transparency: the Site uses localStorage to save progress, preferences, words-to-improve, user-added words and an expressly selected language. The current release writes nothing to sessionStorage; a draft an earlier release's editor may have left there is deleted when consent is withdrawn or the tab's session ends, which is why privacy clause 2 still lists those keys. The Site does not attach the contents of those storage databases to ordinary network requests: no score, no typed answer and no word you added is sent with one. One part is an exception — when Favourites, Words to improve or the hardest-words list is opened, the identifiers already stored for the bank words on all three of those lists are sent, and when one of them is practised or listened to, that list's are, so that the Site's own word service can return their text in the two languages of the pair, and they can show which bank words those lists hold. Displaying the home example, choosing a language, starting a round or a listening set, taking the quick vocabulary check, playing any of the five games or opening the daily quiz asks the same service for words — the daily quiz sending the date shown by your device's clock as well — and opening the page, scrolling the home screen, starting a round from the home screen, pressing one of the twelve counted buttons or pressing a control before the terms are agreed to tells it so, in a word or two — the level for a round, the button's name for a press — for the anonymous visit count described in privacy clause 3a. The first answer to the home example after each page load also tells the count only first_answer, without sending the answer or its correctness, and the first answer given in the daily quiz and reaching its result tell it only daily_answer and daily_finish, without the answers or the score. A page left open on the home screen also asks the service every few seconds whether the operator has published a message, sending nothing but the request itself. None of these requests saves a browser record, and a browser that sends the Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track signal is not counted at all. Such requests may appear in technical server logs, and the service counts them against a keyed hash of the IP address so that no one visitor can exhaust it; that request-limit record is described in privacy clause 3a, holds no word text, and expires after at most 48 hours, when the cleanup described there deletes it. The visit count itself is a few anonymous numbers a day, and the same few by the hour for the last fourteen days; the daily ones are kept with no time limit, and since 16 September 2026 a keyed hash of the address and browser is kept beside them for the hour and the day now running, so that a browser is counted once in each, and deleted when they end, as that clause also says. Another exception applies when the user presses a control that produces speech: the text being read may be processed by a remote browser or operating-system speech service — one word for a speak button, or the words of a whole round, each in both languages, for Play on the Advanced Learning screen — as explained in privacy clause 3. None of this is used for tracking, identification or advertising.

The choice is yours — prior consent (opt-in): progress, favourites, words-to-improve, app settings, user-added words and editor drafts are not stored persistently without express consent. The request appears only when you ask for a feature that needs persistent saving. "Agree and save" and "Don't save" are presented together; refusing does not restrict the content, stop an active quiz or erase its in-memory score. Six functional records may exist without consent: (1) the consent choice, date and policy version; (2) after the terms of use are agreed to — by pressing "Start Learning Now", "Continue to a short practice" or "Agree and continue" — the agreement, its date and the terms version; (3) after an explicit language choice, only the practised pair, date and an internal explicit-choice marker; (4) after a non-default appearance choice, or after a message from the operator is closed, the colours, the text weight, whether the tips, the home screen's example question and its vocabulary-check band are shown, the identifier of the last message from the operator that was closed, and the date; (5) after a level other than Level 1 is chosen on the Customize or Advanced Learning screen, or set by the "Start learning at your level" button at the end of the quick vocabulary check, that level and the date; and (6) when the operator has switched on the entry code described in terms clause 1 and you have typed it, the time you typed it. While saving consent is valid, the language record may additionally contain up to five recent language codes; without it, that earlier-choice history is not retained. A simple refusal does not erase the current interface choice. "Delete all app data and withdraw consent" deletes all app keys, including the language, display, level and entry-code records and the record of the agreement to the terms, and then leaves only the minimal refusal record so the Site does not ask again immediately. Full field and deletion details are in privacy clause 2.

3. No offline copy — a Home Screen icon is not a stored copy of the Site

The current release does not create an offline copy of the Site and does not offer "Enable offline use". The Site is used over the network, including when opened from a Home Screen icon. A public manifest and icons remain available if a browser requests them. A small service worker may be registered so a supporting browser can offer that icon; it intercepts no request — the browser makes each of them over the network itself — and does not write pages into Cache Storage for offline use.

Older builds could register a worker automatically or after an in-app opt-in and could store public Site files in Cache Storage. This release deletes leftover caches in that prefix when the browser allows it. If the browser blocks that cleanup, clear the Site's data in browser settings. A leftover copy, while it lasts, contains public Site files rather than scores, added words or an identifier.

4. Third parties

The Site uses only the default fonts of the browser and operating system, and loads no font files from the Site or from third-party servers. There are no embedded components (videos, maps or social-network buttons) and the Site's code integrates no third-party service that sets cookies. The hosting provider (hosting.com) serves the files and keeps the technical server logs described in the privacy policy; hosting or intermediate infrastructure may set a technical cookie outside the Site's code, as section 1 explains, so production responses must be reverified after deployment. If a browser requests the public manifest or icons for a Home Screen shortcut, ordinary request data may be processed as described in privacy clause 3. The Site's code sets no cookie in that process, and no saved progress is included.

5. Managing and deleting

You can manage local-storage data through the scoped deletion and reset controls described in privacy clause 2 or through the browser's site-data controls. Only "Delete all app data and withdraw consent" withdraws consent. It deletes every app key, including the language, display and level preferences, the time an entry code was last typed and the record of the agreement to the terms, then stores only a minimal refusal record so the Site does not immediately ask again. It does not clear unrelated sites' storage. Leftover Cache Storage from an earlier release is removed on load when the browser allows it, or by clearing this Site's data in browser settings. Blocking local storage does not prevent quizzes, but progress will not persist between visits.

6. Future changes

If cookies or tracking technologies are added to the Site in future, this policy will be updated in advance, and where the law requires it a suitable consent request will be presented before they are activated.

Disclaimer

Last updated: 25 September 2026

1. Scope of this disclaimer

The content on the Site is for learning only. The words themselves and their translations may be inaccurate and, to the extent permitted by applicable law, no liability is accepted for loss arising from reliance on them.

Every exclusion or limitation of liability in this disclaimer applies only to the extent permitted by applicable law. Nothing here excludes or limits a mandatory consumer right or liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited.

The Site and all its content — including the word bank, the translations, the spoken pronunciation and the statistics — are intended for general learning and enrichment only. They do not constitute professional advice of any kind (linguistic, educational, business, legal or other) and must not be relied on as such.

2. Accuracy of the content

The Site's English headwords were put together by the operator, most of them the operator's own words: the operator set the themes, how many words were wanted and which letters they were to begin with, wrote the greater part of the list, and used AI tools only to suggest further candidates against those instructions. Artificial intelligence then sorted the finished list into the three levels and generated every translation of it into the other supported languages, and neither the level assignments nor the translations have been linguistically proofread, edited or reviewed by a person. No native speaker or professional translator has linguistically reviewed any supported language, in whole or in part. Choosing which English word to teach is not a check of what that word was translated into, and it is not a review of any language on this Site. Since 25 September 2026 the operator may also move an individual word to another level, pause it or withdraw it (terms clause 2); that is likewise a choice of what to teach, and not a review of the other level assignments or of any translation. Automated checking by AI tools is not independent or human review and does not make the content reliable. Translation is context-dependent: many words have several meanings, and a translation shown usually reflects only one common sense. Each supported language can vary by region, register, script, spelling, context and level of formality; any written standard or spoken variety used by the Site does not represent every form of that language. Where a translation has two common equivalents, both are given, separated by a slash, and either is accepted when the answer is typed. Reports may be assessed by the operator, but the operator does not manually determine or rewrite the linguistically correct wording; affected AI content may be regenerated or replaced using AI, or removed. That process is not human linguistic proofreading, editing or review. The operator does not warrant that the content is free of errors, accurate, complete or up to date and, to the extent permitted by applicable law, accepts no liability for any use made of it, including in examinations, at work or in any other context. Found a mistake? We would be glad to hear about it by email: contact@helium3words.com.

2a. Not for professional, official or critical use

The Site is a vocabulary study aid. It is not a translation service, it is not a dictionary, and it is not a substitute for a qualified human translator or interpreter. To the extent permitted by applicable law, the content must not be relied on, and no liability is accepted for any reliance on it, in any of the following:

• Professional or commercial language work — translation, interpreting, localisation, subtitling, proofreading or language teaching supplied to another person for reward or as part of paid work.
• A certified, sworn, official or notarised translation. Nothing produced here is such a translation, none of it carries a translator's certification, and it must not be presented as one to a court, a public authority, a notary, a registry, an educational institution or an employer. In Spain, only a traductor-intérprete jurado appointed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs may certify a translation, and comparable rules apply in most other countries.
• Medical, health, pharmaceutical, dietary or emergency contexts, including anything a person's safety, diagnosis or treatment could turn on.
• Legal, contractual, financial, tax or insurance matters, including the drafting, signing or understanding of an agreement, a term, a notice or a demand.
• Immigration, visa, asylum, citizenship, customs and other official applications, and the documents that accompany them.
• Safety-critical settings — industrial, aviation, maritime, transport, engineering, chemical, construction or military — and any instruction, warning, label, dosage or item of signage.
• Examinations, coursework, academic submissions and admission or qualification processes, where the institution's own rules and prescribed sources govern.
• Any other situation in which an error in a single word could cause harm to a person, financial loss, legal disadvantage or the failure of a document.

Anyone who needs one of these should use a qualified professional or a source published for that purpose. Using the Site in such a context is a decision taken by the user alone and at the user's own risk.

2b. No promise of a learning result

The Site does not undertake that using it will improve anyone's vocabulary, produce fluency, prepare anyone for a particular examination or lead to any qualification. The three levels and the Mix are an informal grouping of the word bank made for practice: they are not a proficiency assessment, they are not aligned to the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) or to any other scale, and a score, a statistic, a run of correct answers or a completed round is not evidence of a language level. Nothing on the Site is a certificate, a diploma or a record that can be presented to a school, a university, an authority or an employer.

2c. The quick vocabulary check

The home screen offers a quick vocabulary check: twenty-one multiple-choice questions, seven drawn at random from each of the Site's three levels, asked in rising order and with no time limit, with an "I don't know" button that counts as a wrong answer. At the end it shows how many of the seven were answered correctly at each level and in all, and suggests which of the three levels to begin practising at, with one sentence saying what the suggestion rests on. That result and that suggestion are an informal, automated estimate and nothing more. They rest on twenty-one words out of a word bank that artificial intelligence sorted into levels and translated and that no person has reviewed (clause 2); they look only at whether a single written word is recognised among four choices — the check tests no grammar, reading, writing, listening or speaking; chance and guessing affect them, and they can differ from one run to the next. They are not a proficiency assessment, they are not aligned to the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) or to any other scale, they are not evidence of a language level, and they are not a certificate or a record that can be presented to anyone (clause 2b). The check is not an educational, psychological or professional assessment of anyone. It is offered free of charge and without any commitment: the operator does not undertake, promise or warrant that the result or the suggestion reflects the user's actual vocabulary or knowledge of any language, or that either is accurate, complete or suitable for any purpose. They must not be relied on for placement, admission, employment, immigration, an examination or any other decision (clause 2a); their only purpose is to suggest which of the Site's three practice levels to start at, and the level can be changed at any time on the Customize screen. To the extent permitted by applicable law, the operator accepts no liability for any decision taken, or any loss suffered, in reliance on the result or the suggestion (see also terms clause 8). The check is worked out in your browser; its answers and its result are not saved and are not sent to the operator, as privacy clause 3a describes.

2d. The daily quiz

The daily quiz is a practice exercise of words the operator chose from the Site's word bank for a date, offered for learning only. Its words come from the Site's word bank, whose levels and translations were produced by artificial intelligence and have not been reviewed by a person (clause 2), and the operator's choice of words is not a check of their translations. Its score counts the answers given in it and nothing else: it is not a test, a grade or an assessment of anyone, it is not aligned to the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) or to any other scale, it is not evidence of a language level, it is not kept, and it decides nothing (clause 2b). The dates it follows are those of the clock on your own device, which the Site does not check. It is offered free of charge, as is and without any commitment: it may not be offered on a given day or in a given pair of languages, and it may change or stop at any time; it must not be relied on for placement, admission, employment, an examination or any other decision (clause 2a). To the extent permitted by applicable law, the operator accepts no liability for any decision taken, or any loss suffered, in reliance on the quiz or its score (see also terms clause 8). The quiz is worked out in your browser; its answers and its score are not saved and are not sent to the operator, as privacy clause 3a describes.

2e. Messages from the operator

A message the operator publishes on the Site (terms clause 2) is information about the Site written by the operator, offered for convenience only. It may be incomplete, may fall out of date between its publication and the moment it is read, and may be changed, replaced or deleted at any time; a page already open may show it some seconds after it is published, or not at all where the browser cannot reach the Site. It is shown in the language it was written in and is not translated, so it may be in a language the reader does not read. The operator may set it to close by itself after some seconds, so it may be gone before it has been read in full; the "Keep open" button in the window stops that. It is not professional, legal, educational or any other advice, it is not an offer or a promise, and it does not change the Legal Documents, which are changed only as terms clause 9 describes. It is offered free of charge, as is and without any commitment: it must not be relied on for any decision, and to the extent permitted by applicable law, the operator accepts no liability for any decision taken, or any loss suffered, in reliance on it (see also terms clause 8). A message never asks for a password, a payment or personal information. Reading or closing it sends nothing to the operator and is not counted; the one thing your device keeps is described in privacy clause 2.

3. Service as is

The service is provided "AS IS" and "AS AVAILABLE", without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including any implied warranty of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose or non-infringement. The operator does not warrant that the Site will operate without interruption or fault, in every browser or on every device. Nor does it warrant that the Site or its files are free of errors or harmful components and, to the extent permitted by applicable law, it accepts no liability for damage caused to the user's device, its software or its data as a result of using the Site.

4. Local data

A user's progress — the statistics, the favourites, the words-to-improve list and the words they added themselves — is stored in the browser only. Clearing browser data, changing device, private browsing mode, a browser fault, and equally a fault, error, update or change in the Site itself, may cause the loss of that data; this list is not exhaustive. Browser storage is limited in size, and when it fills up saving may fail and progress may be kept for the browsing session only; the Site shows a message when that happens. The operator is not responsible for such loss and cannot restore that data — it is backed up on no server, and the operator holds no copy of it. Asking the Site for the text of a saved word does not give the operator that word's place on your list: the identifier is answered and not kept.

Updating the word bank: statistics, favourite marks and the words-to-improve list are stored per word identifier. A word removed from the bank, paused or withdrawn by the operator, or whose identifier changes in a Site update, therefore drops out of rounds and off those lists without notice, although what was gathered on it stays on the device; it returns with that record only if the same word is served again under the same identifier, which the operator does not undertake. See clause 2 of the terms of use. The words you added yourself are not affected.

A Home Screen shortcut. The Site offers a control to add an icon. The shortcut stores data on the device just as a tab does, and the same limits apply. After consent, saved progress continues to use localStorage; the icon does not send that data to the operator. On iPhone and iPad a Home Screen shortcut can get a storage area of its own, separate from the browser's: statistics, favourites, the words-to-improve list, words you added and the choice about saving do not necessarily carry over. Removing the shortcut may delete everything it stored — on iOS that separate area generally goes with it. That deletion is performed by the operating system, is outside the operator's control, cannot be undone and cannot be restored by the operator. Downloading a copy of any words that matter to you beforehand is recommended.

Network use: the current release does not offer offline use. Opening from the icon still requires a network connection. The authoritative version of any page is the current one published at helium3words.com.

Scope of the backup: the "My words" page has a button to download the words you added as a text file to your device. That button exports the words you added only: the statistics, the round history, the favourite marks and the words-to-improve list cannot be exported and have no restore path of any kind — once deleted, they are gone. Keeping an offline copy of words that matter to you is recommended.

5. Browser-dependent features

The spoken pronunciation is an illustrative aid and is not an authoritative pronunciation guide. The sound itself is neither recorded nor produced by the operator; it is generated in real time by the speech engine built into your browser or device. Such engines may err in pronunciation, stress or intonation, may read a word according to the language configured for them rather than the context, and may sound different across browsers, voices and devices. Regional accent is a particular limitation: all 73 supported languages can have regional varieties, accents, registers or pronunciation differences outside the Site's control. The app first requests a voice matching the language being practised and, for some languages, also tries regional variants; the browser or device may still choose another available voice. The accent you hear therefore depends on what your device provides. Verifying pronunciation against an additional linguistic source is recommended. Availability of speech depends on your device's capabilities.

A Home Screen shortcut is a feature carried out by the browser and operating system. The Site offers a control that asks for that action; whether the browser presents its own dialog, what the icon is called, and what happens to its data when it is removed are decided by the browser and the operating system. When opened from the icon, some browser chrome (including the address bar) may be hidden. The Site is fully usable in an ordinary browser tab without the icon.

6. External links and services

To the extent the Site refers to external services, the operator is not responsible for their content, their availability or their policies.

7. Overall limitation of liability

The operator's liability in connection with the Site is limited to the maximum extent permitted by law, bearing in mind that this is a free service provided without consideration. Nothing in this section derogates from rights that cannot be contracted out of under applicable law, or from liability that cannot be limited or excluded under applicable law — including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, and liability for fraud, intentional misconduct or gross negligence, where the law so provides. Where any part of this section is unenforceable, the rest of it stands.

Aggregate cap. Where liability cannot be excluded but can lawfully be limited, and where this cap is enforceable under applicable law, the operator's total aggregate liability for all claims connected with the Site is limited to fifty euros (€50). The Site is supplied free of charge and the user pays nothing for it; the stated cap reflects that context and is not a measure of any loss.

Use at your own risk. Use of the Site, and any decision taken on the strength of what it shows, is at the user's own risk.

Survival. This disclaimer and the limitations in it continue to apply after a user stops using the Site and after any discontinuation of the service.

No waiver. A delay or a failure by the operator in enforcing a provision of the Legal Documents is not a waiver of that provision or of any other.

Accessibility statement

Last updated: 25 September 2026

The Site was built with the intention that it be usable by everyone, including people with disabilities. The target set for it is WCAG 2.1 Level AA, the standard referenced by EN 301 549 in the European Union and the most widely used international benchmark for web accessibility.

WCAG 2.1 AA is the operator's stated design target, not a certification or warranty of conformance. Which accessibility laws apply depends on the operator, the service, the user's location and any statutory exemption; this statement does not claim that no accessibility law can apply. Appropriate local advice should be obtained before relying on an exemption.

How the Site was built. It supports keyboard operation, a visible focus indicator and a skip link. Its structure uses semantic HTML, ARIA labels and polite status announcements; practice words carry language attributes. Quiz feedback includes visible words for correct, wrong and timed-out results and a live announcement for assistive technology, so colour is not the only cue. Text and control-boundary colours have been adjusted toward the AA contrast thresholds in both dark and light themes. A dark theme and heavier text can be chosen and remembered without consent as requested accessibility preferences. Reduced motion is honoured; sound follows a deliberate press, the Advanced Learning screen included — it speaks nothing until Play is pressed, and Pause stops it; automatic advance can be slowed or disabled, and the two pauses that pace the reading aloud are adjustable on that screen; the optional answer timer is off by default; dialogs close with Escape; and the layout is responsive. The optional "Install app on this device" control on the home screen is a button among the controls under "More options" and can be reached by keyboard. The same install, offered on the results screen after a good round, is an ordinary button there, and its answer is announced politely like the home screen's. When the Site is opened from an installed icon, the browser or operating system may hide some of its own chrome, including the address bar; the Site's own content, structure and controls are unchanged. The Site remains fully usable in an ordinary tab.

The five games. The home screen's game tile opens a screen carrying five of them, chosen between by five radio buttons at the top of it; what follows is true of all five. Each is drawn on a canvas, and what moves on it — the ship and the enemies in the first, the targets and the sights in the second, the bat, the ball and the wall of bricks in the third, the snake and the fruit in the fourth, the board and the pieces in the fifth, the computer's moves included — is a picture: it is not conveyed to a screen reader, and that is a known limitation of the games rather than of the rest of the Site. What is text is text: the score, the wave, the ships or lives left and the countdown to the next question, and a polite status line names each wave, a ship or life lost, a board of checkers won, lost or drawn, and the end of a game. The rail beside the score — the weapons, the shells in the magazine, the wall still standing, the fruit of the wave, the computer's pieces still on the board and whose move it is — is drawn to be looked at and is marked decorative, because the status line already carries what a player needs told. The questions a game stops for are ordinary buttons, have no time limit, receive focus when they appear, and say in words and not only in colour whether the answer was right. Each of the five can be played entirely from the keyboard: the arrow keys steer the ship, move the sights, move the bat, turn the snake or move a square over the checkers board, the ship fires by itself, while at the range the space bar fires, in the brick game it serves the ball and in checkers it picks up the piece on that square and puts it down on another, and Pause and Sound are buttons on the play area as well as the letter keys P and M; the letter keys — W A S D, R at the range, and A and D at the bricks — obey the same switch on the Customize screen as the rest of the app's single-key shortcuts. A game pauses when the tab is hidden. Reduced motion is honoured — the screen shake and the brightening on a hit are not drawn — and when it is not, the brightening of the play area is limited to three times in any second. A game sounds only after its Launch press and is silenced by the Sound button or M.

The quick vocabulary check. Its twenty-one questions are ordinary buttons and have no time limit; the word asked and each answer carry their own language attributes; whether an answer was right is said in words and marked with a tick or a cross, not by colour alone, and is announced politely to assistive technology, as are the question's level and number and the result; the bar that fills as the questions are answered, and the marks beside each level's score, repeat numbers that are given in words and are hidden from assistive technology. Moving on after an answer follows the same setting as the quiz: after the waiting time chosen on the Customize screen, or, with "On click" chosen there, only when "Next word" is pressed. "I don't know" is always available, the screen can be left at any time with Back or Escape, and nothing on it speaks.

The daily quiz. Since 21 September 2026 the daily quiz asks its words with the same question as the quick vocabulary check: ordinary buttons with no time limit, the word asked and each answer carrying their own language attributes, and whether an answer was right said in words and marked with a tick or a cross, not by colour alone, and announced politely to assistive technology, as are the question's number and the score; the list of words at the end says right or wrong in words for a screen reader. It opens in a window when its button on the home screen is pressed, and never by itself; that window is a modal dialog: it opens with the focus on its heading, keeps the keyboard inside it until it is closed, closes with Escape, with its own button or with a press outside it, and gives the focus back to the button that opened it. The move to the next question follows the choice made on the Customize screen, "On click" included.

Messages from the operator. Since 22 September 2026 a message from the operator (terms clause 2) opens by itself, in a window over the home screen — the one window on the Site that does, and only there, never over a question, a game or a list. It is a modal dialog: it opens with the focus on its heading, and its text is announced with it; it keeps the keyboard inside it until it is closed, closes with Escape, with its "Close" button or with a press outside it, and then gives the focus back to where it was. Unless the operator sets one, it has no time limit and does not move on by itself. Since 25 September 2026 the operator may set a number of seconds after which it closes by itself: the time left is then shown in words and as a bar, and the words are part of the window's description, announced with it; a "Keep open" button, the first control the Tab key reaches in the window, turns the countdown off for that window and moves the focus to "Close"; a mouse pointer resting on the window pauses it, and it stands still while the tab is hidden. With reduced motion requested, the bar is not drawn and the words still count down. The shortest time the operator can set is one second, and a countdown that short can end before the message has been read, or before "Keep open" can be reached with the keyboard or a screen reader; that is a known limit of this option. The operator may also choose one of three colours, each with its own icon, whose meaning never rests on the colour alone, and a larger or bold text. The message is the operator's own text, in the language the operator wrote it in: it is not translated, and its language is not marked for assistive technology, although its reading direction follows its own script; the window's heading and button are in the reader's language.

What has not been assessed. The checks carried out were automated ones, run against the pages and the main screens of the app, together with a reading of the code. Automated tools reach only part of what the standard requires — by common estimate a minority of it — and no amount of them substitutes for testing with real assistive technology and real users. No professional external accessibility audit has been carried out, and the Site has not been tested with screen readers by people who depend on them. The Site is also updated from time to time, and a description written today can fall behind the code. This is therefore a statement of intent and not a statement of conformance: gaps that have not been identified may exist, and the paragraph above should be read as what was aimed at rather than as a guarantee of the result. A known limitation: spoken pronunciation depends on the voices installed on the device, and will not work where none are present.

The record of what was checked. There is no separate audit report, and this statement does not promise one. What was done is what the paragraph above describes: the pages and the main screens of the app were put through automated checking, and the markup was read through by hand against the WCAG 2.1 AA success criteria. No external audit was commissioned, no testing was carried out with people who use assistive technology, and no conformance report exists to send. A question about a particular success criterion is welcome at the contact address below, and will be answered from the code as it stands.

Run into a difficulty? We would like to know and to fix it — contact@helium3words.com. Please describe the nature of the problem, the browser and the assistive technology you are using.