I'm Learning / An app without ads
For parentsA learning app with no ads and no tracking
Most apps aimed at small children are free because someone else is paying. Here is what that usually means, and what to look for before you hand over the phone.
Free is rarely free
An app with no price still has costs. When there is no purchase, the money usually comes from advertising, and advertising for children means an advertising identifier, a profile, and a network of third parties your child has never heard of. The ads themselves are the visible part. The part you cannot see is the data going out the back.
There is a second pattern that is easy to miss: an app with no banners at all, but with analytics that follow your child from app to app. No advertisement ever appears, and a profile is built anyway.
How to check an app in two minutes
You do not have to take anyone's word for it.
- On the App Store, scroll to App Privacy. "Data Not Collected" is the only label that means what it says.
- On Google Play, open Data safety. Look for "No data collected" and "No data shared with third parties".
- Put the device in airplane mode and use the app. If it still works, nothing was being fetched from a server while your child played.
- Read the privacy policy. If it is long and lists advertising partners, that answers the question.
Where I'm Learning stands
No third-party advertising. No advertising identifier. No analytics that follow your child between apps or websites. No account, no sign-in, no name, no email address. Your child's progress and your settings stay on the device and are never sent to us.
Two things do leave the device, and it is fair that you know them. If the app crashes it sends an anonymous diagnostic report to Firebase Crashlytics, containing the device model, the operating system version and technical details, but no personal information. And if you make the one optional purchase, Apple or Google handles the payment and RevenueCat confirms the unlock is active. We never see your payment details.