Privacy Policy

The short version

We do not ask you to create an account. We do not ask for your name, email address or immigration status. Your study progress stays on your device. The app shows ads, and the advertising and analytics services we use collect some technical data of their own, which is described below.

This website sets no cookies of its own and runs no analytics scripts.

Who we are

The app is published by LockTheories, the developer of Life in the UK Test on the App Store and Google Play. For anything relating to this policy or your data, contact us at [email protected].

Because the app holds no account and no identifiable record about you, email is the only route we have to you, and the only one we need.

What stays on your device

All of your study data is stored locally, in the app's own storage on your phone or tablet. It is never uploaded to us and we cannot see it. This includes:

• Which questions you have answered, and whether you got them right
• Your per-question history, such as Seen 3× or Missed 1×
• Bookmarks and weak-spot lists
• Mock exam results and exam history
• Your chosen language and theme

Deleting it

If you delete the app, this data is deleted with it. There is no backup on our side and no way for us to restore it. There is nothing for you to ask us to erase, because we never had it.

Advertising

The app is free and is supported by advertising. It uses Google AdMob and Meta Audience Network. Both partners are declared publicly in the app-ads.txt file published at the root of this domain, which is the file the advertising industry uses to verify that we are who we say we are.

AdMob is provided by Google Ireland Limited for users in the UK and the European Economic Area. To serve and measure ads, these partners may process your device's advertising identifier, approximate location derived from your IP address, device and operating system information, and information about the ads you were shown and interacted with.

Personalised and non-personalised ads. Personalised ads use the advertising identifier to select ads based on prior activity. Non-personalised ads are chosen from context, such as the app you are using and your general location, and still rely on limited data for frequency capping, reporting and fraud prevention.

Your consent choice in the UK and the EEA. On first launch the app shows a consent prompt built with Google's User Messaging Platform (UMP). You choose whether to allow personalised ads. If you decline, the app continues to work in full and you will see non-personalised ads instead. You can reopen the prompt at any time from Settings, and change or withdraw your choice.

Read Google's privacy policy at policies.google.com/privacy, how Google uses data from apps that use its services at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites, and Meta's privacy policy at facebook.com/privacy/policy.

Analytics and configuration — Firebase

We use Google Firebase Analytics to understand how the app is used in aggregate — for example, how many mock exams are started and which study modes are opened. These reports are statistical. They do not tell us who you are and we do not try to identify you from them. Firebase Analytics may process a randomly generated app instance identifier, device model, operating system version, language, and country.

We also use Firebase Remote Config to change settings such as ad placement or a feature flag without publishing a new version of the app. Remote Config reads a configuration file from Google's servers; it does not send us your study data.

Those two are the only Firebase products the app uses. It does not use Crashlytics, and it has no Firebase sign-in, database or cloud storage — there is no server-side account for it to write to.

App Tracking Transparency on iOS

On iPhone and iPad, Apple requires apps to ask permission before tracking you across other companies' apps and websites. If the app requests this permission, iOS shows the standard App Tracking Transparency prompt. If you choose "Ask App Not to Track", the advertising identifier is not made available and you will see non-personalised ads. You can change this at any time in Settings, under Privacy & Security, then Tracking.

Apple's privacy policy is at apple.com/legal/privacy.

The advertising identifier

The advertising identifier is a resettable number provided by your device (IDFA on iOS, Advertising ID on Android). It is not your name and it is not tied to an account. You can reset it, or turn off personalised advertising entirely, in your device settings: on iOS under Privacy & Security, and on Android under Settings, Google, Ads.

What we do not do

• We do not require an account and we do not collect names, email addresses or documents
• We do not collect information about your immigration status, your application or your test booking
• We do not sell personal data
• We do not upload your study progress or your results
• The website at uktest.uk sets no cookies and runs no analytics scripts

Children

The app is made for adults preparing for a statutory test and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you believe a child has provided personal data through the app, contact us and we will look into it.

Legal bases and your rights under UK GDPR

Where we or our providers process personal data, the legal bases are your consent for personalised advertising, and our legitimate interest in keeping the app working, secure and financially sustainable through non-personalised advertising and aggregate analytics.

Under the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 you have the right to be informed, the right of access, the right to rectification, the right to erasure, the right to restrict processing, the right to object, and the right to data portability.

Because we hold no account and no identifiable records about you, we will usually not be able to find data relating to you. If you ask, we will tell you so plainly rather than pretend otherwise, and point you to the device controls above and to Google's and Apple's own tools, which are where that data actually sits.

You can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.

Data retention and international transfers

We hold no personal data on our own servers, so there is nothing for us to retain or to delete. Google, Apple and Meta process the data described above under their own published retention policies, and may transfer it outside the UK and the EEA using their standard contractual clauses. Their policies, linked above, are the authority on how long they keep it.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, we will update the date at the top and, where the change is significant, note it in the app's release notes.

Contact

Email [email protected]. We aim to reply within a few working days. You can write in your own language.