Privacy policy
ChabuLab is a small independent studio in Vietnam. We collect as little as we can: most of our tools and games work entirely on your device, with no account. This page says exactly what is collected, where, and what you can do about it.
Last updated:
Who we are and what this covers
This policy covers chabulab.com and every address under it: the studio site and blog, tools.chabulab.com, games.chabulab.com, stash.chabulab.com, ribbon.chabulab.com and lexiloop.chabulab.com, plus the Ribbon app for Mac and the LexiLoop apps. ChabuLab decides how this data is used. You can reach us at hello@chabulab.com.
The short version
- Files you open in our tools are processed in your browser and never uploaded to us.
- Games and tools keep your progress and settings in your own browser's storage, not on our servers.
- Our own visit counting uses no cookies and never stores your IP address.
- Some pages show ads from Google. Google may use cookies or device identifiers for that; the advertising section below explains your choices.
- We only hold personal data when you give it to us: an email for a LexiLoop account, a Ribbon licence, or a message you send us.
- We never sell your personal data.
Data that stays on your device
The ChabuLab Tools (for example the File Converter) read and convert your files inside your browser. The files, and anything made from them, stay on your device.
Games and tools save progress, streaks, settings and saved projects in your browser's local storage. Clearing your browser data removes them. We can't see or recover them.
When you choose a language, one small cookie, cl_lang, remembers it (it holds only “en” or “vi”), so every ChabuLab site opens in that language. It lasts a year and is used for nothing else. Without it, each page simply shows the language its address is in.
Counting visits
To know which pages are useful, our servers may count page views without cookies. A visit is counted with a one-way hash of your IP address and browser name mixed with a random value that changes every day and is deleted after two days, so nobody, including us, can link a count back to you or follow you from one day to the next. We record the page, the referring site, the country and the device type. The raw IP address is never stored.
Our sites run on Cloudflare, which processes your IP address to deliver pages and protect them from attacks, as any web host does. See Cloudflare's privacy policy.
Advertising
Our free tools, games and apps are paid for by ads. On the web we use Google AdSense, and in the mobile apps Google AdMob. Ads appear only in marked spaces labelled “Advertisement”.
Google and its partners use cookies, or in apps the device's advertising identifier, to show ads, limit how often you see the same one, measure them and fight fraud. Google may show personalised ads based on your visits to this and other sites. Google's own policy explains this in detail: How Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services.
Your choices:
- If you visit from the European Economic Area, the UK or Switzerland, you are asked for consent through a Google-certified consent message before any ad cookies are used, and you can change your choice at any time from the privacy and cookie settings link on the page.
- Anywhere, you can turn off personalised ads from Google at My Ad Center, and from many other networks at aboutads.info or Your Online Choices.
- In the mobile apps, you can reset or limit your advertising identifier in your phone's privacy settings; on iOS the app asks before any tracking.
- Blocking cookies or using an ad blocker doesn't stop any tool or game from working.
Accounts and purchases
LexiLoop: signing in is optional. We store your email address and a sign-in session. The one-time sign-in code is sent by email through our email provider, Resend. Your learning progress stays in your browser on that device; if we add syncing progress to your account later, this page will say so first.
Ribbon for Mac: payments are handled by Lemon Squeezy, the merchant of record, which collects your payment details; we never see your card. We receive your name, email address and order number to issue your licence key. To manage device seats and trials, the app sends a random device identifier, the Mac model, macOS version, app version and processor type. Ribbon doesn't send what you do on your Mac.
The Stash: digital products are sold through Gumroad, which handles payment and delivery under its own privacy policy.
Email: when you write to us, we keep the message and your address to answer you.
Why we use it
- to run the product you asked for (an account, a licence, an answer to your message);
- to keep our services secure and working;
- to understand which pages and features help people, using counts that don't identify you;
- to show ads that pay for the free products, as described above, with consent where the law requires it.
How long we keep it
Account and licence data is kept while you use the product and deleted when you ask us to delete it. Messages are kept as long as needed to help you. Daily visit hashes are unlinkable after two days. Payment records kept by Lemon Squeezy and Gumroad follow their own rules and the tax law that applies to them.
Your rights
You can ask to see the personal data we hold about you, correct it, get a copy, or have it deleted, and you can withdraw consent at any time. Write to hello@chabulab.com from the address in question. We answer every request, and we won't ask for more information than we need to confirm it's you.
Children
Our products are made for a general audience and are not directed at children under 13. We don't knowingly collect personal data from children under 13. If you believe a child has given us personal data, tell us and we'll delete it.
Changes to this policy
When what we collect changes, we update this page in the same release and change the date at the top.