This policy explains what personal information Influent Academy collects when you use our services, including Visual Vocabulary, why we collect it, and the choices you have. We have tried to write it in plain English rather than legal jargon.
1. About this Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy applies to the services provided by Influent Academy, including the Visual Vocabulary English-learning service at vocabcue.com and the Influent Academy website at influent.academy.
If a particular Influent Academy service publishes its own privacy notice in future, that notice will apply to that service, and this Policy will continue to apply to everything else.
2. Who we are
Influent Academy is a Bangladesh-based education startup. It is not currently incorporated as a company. Visual Vocabulary is a learning service provided by Influent Academy.
Influent Academy decides what personal information is collected through our services and why, and is responsible for it under applicable Bangladeshi law.
3. How to contact us
For anything relating to privacy, your account, data deletion requests or this Policy, email us at hello@influent.academy. Please tell us which email address or account your request relates to so we can find it.
4. Information we collect
We try to collect as little as we reasonably can. What we hold depends on how you use the service.
Account information
When you create or use a learner account we hold the information needed to run that account, such as your username, email address, display name and the date the account was created. Your account lives in WordPress, which is the system that runs our service.
Login and authentication information
We hold the information WordPress needs to sign you in and keep you signed in, including session records and login activity such as the time of a sign-in attempt and the network address it came from.
We do not store your password in readable or plain-text form. Password authentication is handled by WordPress, which stores a secure cryptographic hash of your password rather than the password itself. We cannot read your password, and we will never ask you for it by email or message.
To protect accounts against password-guessing, we temporarily record counts of failed sign-in attempts associated with a network address and the sign-in name that was used. These records are short-lived and are stored in a hashed form.
Google Sign-In information
If you choose to sign in with Google, Google carries out the sign-in and tells us only the basic information we need to identify your account: a Google account identifier, your email address and basic profile information such as your name. The permissions we request are limited to the standard email and profile scopes.
We do not ask for and do not receive access to your Gmail, Google Drive, Contacts, Calendar, documents or messages. Your Google password is entered with Google, never with us, and we never see it.
Google is a separate company and handles your information according to its own privacy policy. Signing in with Google is optional; you can use an ordinary email and password instead.
WhatsApp and contact-number information
Where we ask you to provide a WhatsApp number during registration or account setup, we hold that number as part of your account information.
We may use it to administer your account, to prevent and manage abuse of free access, to send you messages about your account or learning where appropriate, and to invite you to or add you to an Influent Academy or Visual Vocabulary learner WhatsApp group.
Please be aware that if you take part in a WhatsApp group, other participants in that group may be able to see your phone number, your WhatsApp profile name and photo, and similar profile information, depending on how WhatsApp works and on your own WhatsApp settings. If you would prefer not to be in a group, tell us and we will not add you, or you can leave the group at any time.
WhatsApp is operated by Meta, which is a separate company. We do not control WhatsApp’s own privacy practices, and its own terms and privacy policy apply to your use of it.
Learner preferences
We store the learning preferences you choose against your account, for example whether you would like to see the English definition or the Bengali meaning first, and whether you prefer UK or US pronunciation. These are personalisation settings for you; they are not published anywhere.
Messages you send us
If you email us for support or to make a request, we keep that correspondence so we can answer it and keep a record of what was agreed.
Technical and security information
Our hosting and security systems process ordinary technical information needed to deliver and protect a website, such as network addresses, browser and device information, dates and times of requests, and error and security logs.
Payment information
Paid plans are not yet available to purchase. When we introduce them, payment will be handled by a third-party payment provider, and we expect to hold only the information needed to recognise your purchase and provide support for it, such as the plan bought, the amount, the date and a reference from the payment provider. Any card, bank or mobile-wallet credentials you enter would be handled by that provider under its own terms, not stored by us, unless we later say otherwise in an updated version of this Policy.
5. What we do not currently do
To be clear about what exists today:
- we do not use advertising cookies or advertising pixels;
- we do not run third-party analytics, behavioural tracking or session-recording tools on our service;
- we do not sell personal information;
- we do not publish learner accounts, preferences or learning activity;
- we do not allow learners to post public content, so there is no public profile to worry about.
If we introduce analytics or similar technology in future, we will update this Policy first and describe what is collected.
6. How we use information
We use personal information to:
- create and run your learner account and keep you signed in;
- provide the learning service, including your saved preferences;
- keep accounts and the service secure, and prevent, detect and manage abuse, including abuse of free access;
- answer your questions and provide support;
- send you the account, security and service messages described below;
- send you optional learning and product emails, which you can stop at any time;
- process and support purchases when paid plans are available;
- understand which parts of the service work well, in aggregate, so we can improve them;
- meet our legal obligations and deal with disputes.
7. Communications and emails
After you register, you should expect two kinds of email from us.
Necessary account and service emails. These include password resets, sign-in and security notices, and important messages about your account or about changes to the service. These are part of running your account, so we cannot switch them off while you have an account with us.
Useful learning and product emails. These include learning tips, educational content, useful product updates, relevant Influent Academy and Visual Vocabulary news, and relevant offers. You can unsubscribe from these at any time by using the unsubscribe option in the email or by emailing hello@influent.academy.
Unsubscribing from optional emails does not stop the necessary account, security and service messages described above.
Where we have your WhatsApp number, we may also contact you about your account, or through a learner group, as described in section 4.
8. Legal grounds for using your information
Bangladesh’s data-protection framework was reformed recently, and parts of it are being introduced in stages. We aim to follow the principles that framework is built on, together with other applicable law.
In practice, we use your information because:
- you asked us to provide the service — running your account and delivering the learning service you signed up for, including any purchase you make;
- you gave your consent — for example when you choose to sign in with Google, give us a WhatsApp number, agree to join a learner group, or receive optional learning and product emails. You can withdraw consent for these at any time;
- we have a legitimate interest in keeping the service secure and working, preventing abuse, supporting learners and improving what we offer, in a way that we do not consider harmful to your privacy;
- we have a legal obligation — for example keeping records we are required to keep, or responding to a lawful request.
9. When we share information
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for other companies’ marketing.
We share information only in these situations:
- Service providers. Companies that provide the infrastructure we run on, such as our hosting provider, process information on our behalf so the service can work.
- Google. Only if you choose Google Sign-In. Google receives your sign-in interaction with it; we receive the limited information described in section 4.
- WhatsApp and Meta. Only where you give us a WhatsApp number or take part in a learner group. Other group participants may see your number and profile information, as described in section 4.
- Payment providers. When paid plans launch, to take and support payments.
- Professional advisers, where we need advice about a specific issue.
- Legal reasons. Where we reasonably believe we are required to share information by law, or need to in order to protect the rights, safety or property of learners, the public or Influent Academy.
- Business transfer. See section 15.
Hosting and infrastructure
Our service is hosted on infrastructure provided by Hostinger, and is delivered through its content-delivery and security systems.
International processing
Some of the providers described above operate outside Bangladesh, so your information may be processed in other countries. Where that happens, we take reasonable steps to ensure the information continues to be protected appropriately.
10. Cookies and session technology
We use only the cookies and similar technologies that are necessary for the service to work. These are used to:
- sign you in and keep you signed in;
- protect your session and the security of the service;
- remember essential settings needed to show you the right page.
We do not currently use advertising, analytics or tracking cookies on our service. Because the technologies we use are necessary for a service you have asked for, we do not show a cookie consent banner. If that changes, we will update this Policy and handle consent appropriately.
11. How long we keep information
We keep personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this Policy, including providing the service, keeping account and security records, supporting you, resolving disputes and meeting applicable legal obligations.
In practice that means account information is kept while your account exists; security and technical logs are kept for a short period and then removed or overwritten in the ordinary course; and records connected with a purchase are kept for as long as we may need them for support, accounting or legal reasons. When information is no longer needed, we delete it or remove the details that identify you.
12. Your privacy rights
Subject to applicable law, you can ask us to:
- tell you what personal information we hold about you and give you a copy;
- correct information that is wrong or out of date;
- delete your account and the personal information connected with it;
- stop sending you optional emails;
- withdraw a consent you previously gave, such as Google Sign-In or WhatsApp group participation;
- explain how we use your information, if something here is unclear.
Email hello@influent.academy and we will respond as soon as we reasonably can. We may need to confirm that the request really comes from you, for example by asking you to write from the email address on the account.
If you are not satisfied with how we have handled your request, you can raise it with the relevant authority in Bangladesh.
13. Account and data deletion
There is currently no self-service delete button in the product. To close your account and have the personal information connected with it deleted, email hello@influent.academy from the address on the account and ask us to delete it.
We may need to keep limited information after deletion where that is reasonably necessary or legally required — for example records of a payment, or information needed to prevent repeated abuse of free access, or to deal with a dispute. We keep no more than we need for those purposes.
14. Security
We take reasonable steps to protect personal information. These include serving the site over an encrypted connection, storing passwords only as secure hashes, limiting repeated failed sign-in attempts, restricting administrative access, and keeping our software up to date.
No online service can promise perfect security, and we do not. If something goes wrong that affects your information, we will act on it and tell you where it is appropriate or required.
15. Business transfers
If Influent Academy or the Visual Vocabulary service is sold, acquired, merged, reorganised or transferred to another operator, account and related information may be transferred as part of that change, subject to applicable law. We would expect any successor to continue to protect your information in a way consistent with this Policy, and we will tell you if the change affects how your information is handled.
16. Younger learners
Our service is educational and contains no adult content, but it is designed for learners who are able to agree to our Terms of Service themselves. In Bangladesh, a person reaches the age of majority at 18.
If you are under 18, please use Visual Vocabulary with the knowledge and permission of a parent or guardian, and ask them to set up or approve the account where that is appropriate. A parent or guardian who has a question about a younger learner’s account, or who wants it removed, can email hello@influent.academy.
17. Third-party services
Our service links to and works with services provided by others — for example Google, if you use Google Sign-In, and WhatsApp, if you join a learner group. Those services are controlled by their own operators and have their own terms and privacy policies. We are not responsible for how they handle your information.
18. Changes to this Policy
We may update this Policy as the service develops or the law changes. When we do, we will change the date below, and where a change is significant we will tell you through the service or by email.
19. Contact
Questions, requests or complaints about privacy: hello@influent.academy.
Last updated: 16 September 2026