Privacy policy

The short version

We keep your email address, a hash of your password, and your study progress — scores, flashcard history, which lessons you have finished, and your exam date if you set one. Your speaking recordings never leave your device. When you choose to have a piece of work marked, or ask the tutor a question, that text is sent to us and on to Anthropic, who run the marker — and is not kept by either of us afterwards. Nothing is sent unless you press the button. We do not sell anything about you to anyone, and there are no tracking or advertising cookies on this site.

A correction, August 2026

An earlier version of this page said your scores never left your device. That was true when it was written, and it stopped being true when we added the feature that keeps your progress in step between your phone and your computer. The page had not been updated to match. It has been now, and the section below sets out exactly what is uploaded.

What we hold about you

• Your email address — so you can log in and so we can contact you about your account.
• Your name, if you choose to give it. It is optional and you can leave it blank.
• Your password, stored only as a salted scrypt hash. We cannot read it, and neither can anyone who obtains a copy of our database.
• Your subscription status and the customer and subscription identifiers Stripe gives us.
• A short activity log — signups, logins, password changes and subscription events, recorded against your email address. Only the most recent 500 entries across all members are kept; older ones are discarded automatically.

Your progress, which is stored on our server

So that your work follows you between devices, the course sends the following to your account. It is stored against your account until you ask us to delete it.

• Your practice scores — for each session: which exam, which module, your percentage, and when.
• Your flashcard schedule — which vocabulary items are due for review and when.
• Your study plan — including your exam date and target level, if you enter them.
• Which lessons you have completed, and which one you are part-way through.
• Your settings — which exam you are preparing for, and which practice paper you are on.

We have listed your exam date separately because it is more revealing than a score — it says something about your immigration timeline. We use it only to work out what your plan should tell you to do today.

The marker and the tutor

Writing and speaking can be marked for you, and there is a tutor you can ask questions. Those features are run by Anthropic, using their Claude models. They are the only third party that sees any of your work.

Nothing is sent unless you press a button. Practising, writing, recording and reading all happen on your device as before. Sending happens when you choose to be marked or ask a question, and only then.

What is sent when you do

• Marking a piece of writing sends the text you wrote, together with that task's marking criteria.
• Marking a spoken answer sends only the words — either typed out by you after listening back, or written down by your own browser on your own device if you have switched that on. The recording itself is never sent.
• Asking the tutor sends your question, the conversation so far, and a short summary of how you are doing: which exam, your weakest skill, and your last few scores.
• Practising a conversation sends the written transcript of what you say, turn by turn, so the other side can answer it — and again at the end, so it can be marked. No recording is made and nothing is sent from your microphone. Your browser turns your speech into words on your own device; only the words travel.

Your email address and your name are not sent with any of it.

What is kept

We do not store the text you send for marking, the transcript, or your tutor conversations. We keep the score that comes back, in the same way we have always kept your scores, and a count of how many tutor requests you have used this month so we can apply the monthly limit. Your tutor conversation lives in the page only and is gone when you close it.

Anthropic process the request in order to answer it. Their handling of API data is governed by their own published terms, which you can read at anthropic.com/legal. We are telling you who they are so you can decide for yourself; we are not in a position to make promises on their behalf.

If you would rather nothing was sent anywhere, mark your own work: every task keeps a self-marking option beside the marker, and it works with no connection at all.

What never leaves your device

• Your speaking recordings — these are not stored, and not uploaded. A recording is held in your browser's memory only, so you can play it straight back. It is never written to disk and never sent anywhere, and it is discarded the moment you close or reload the page. No copy of your voice exists afterwards. Only the written transcript is sent, and only when you ask for a mark.
• Your in-progress answers in listening, reading and drills, before a session is finished.
• Anything at all, if you never press a marking or tutor button.

Two consequences worth understanding. We cannot listen to your recordings even if you ask us to. And recordings do not survive leaving the page — if you want to keep one, download it before you move on. Your scores and lesson progress are safe either way, because those are on your account.

Payments

Card payments are handled by Stripe. Your card details go from your browser to Stripe directly and never touch our server — we never see or store a card number.

Because we are registered to collect GST/HST, Stripe also collects your billing address at checkout in order to work out the correct tax for your province. That address is held by Stripe, not by us.

Stripe processes this under its own privacy policy and may process it outside Canada.

Who else handles your data

Three companies, and no others. There are no advertising networks, analytics vendors or data brokers involved, and no third-party fonts or scripts load on this site.

• Stripe — payments, billing address, subscription status.
• Resend — sends your verification, password reset and welcome emails. It receives your email address and the contents of those messages.
• Railway — hosts the website and the file your account is stored in.

All three may store or process data outside Canada.

Cookies

One cookie, named s, which keeps you logged in. It contains a signed reference to your account ID and nothing else — no name, no email, no browsing history. It is HttpOnly, restricted to this site, sent only over HTTPS, and lasts 30 days.

There are no analytics, advertising or tracking cookies on this site, which is why you have not been asked to accept any.

How we protect it

We would rather tell you the specific measures we take than offer sweeping reassurance, because no one can honestly guarantee the latter.

• The whole site is served over HTTPS.
• Passwords are stored as salted scrypt hashes, never as text. A stolen copy of our database would not reveal anyone's password.
• Card numbers are never on our server, because Stripe's own checkout page handles them.
• Login sessions are cryptographically signed and can be invalidated everywhere by changing your password.
• Password reset links and verification codes are stored only as hashes, and expire in one hour and fifteen minutes respectively.
• Repeated failed logins are rate-limited to make password guessing impractical.

No system is immune to compromise. If your personal information is ever involved in a breach that creates a real risk of significant harm, we will tell you and report it as Canadian law requires.

Your rights under PIPEDA

Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act gives you the right to see the personal information we hold about you, to have mistakes corrected, and to withdraw consent. Email info@francaisexpress.ca and we will respond within 30 days.

To delete your account, go to Your account and use Delete your account at the bottom of the page. It asks for your password and for you to type the word DELETE, then removes your account record and all the progress stored against it, and cancels any subscription so your card is not charged again. It happens immediately and it cannot be undone — we cannot restore it for you afterwards.

If you would rather we did it, email info@francaisexpress.ca and ask. That route is done by hand, so allow a few days.

Deleting your account does not clear the data held in your own browser. Clear your browser's site data for this site to remove that.

If you are not satisfied with how we handle a request, you can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.

How long we keep things

• Your account and progress — until you ask us to delete them.
• The activity log — the most recent 500 entries only. Older entries are discarded automatically.
• Verification codes and reset tokens — fifteen minutes and one hour respectively, then erased.
• Payment and tax records — held by Stripe, and kept for as long as Canadian tax law requires us to be able to produce them.

Who we are

Français Express is operated by Gurdeep Singh, a sole proprietor based in Ontario, Canada. For any privacy question, or to exercise any of the rights above, email info@francaisexpress.ca.

Changes

If this policy changes in a way that materially affects you, we will email the address on your account. The date at the top of this page always reflects the current version.