Privacy Policy

Who we are (the operator)

Yona Learning ("Yona", "we") is an educational app for children ages 6–12 that personalizes learning around each child's interests. Yona is operated by BECON Industries, the sole operator that collects and maintains personal information through the app.

BECON Industries
4290 Bells Ferry Road, STE 134-2282
Kennesaw, GA 30144, United States
Phone: (404) 910-6583
Email: [email protected]

What we collect, and how

From parents and teachers (entered directly)

Name, email address, phone number, relationship to the child, and optionally a birthday, home address, emergency contact, hobbies, and a profile photo. Home address and emergency contact are optional and used only for emergencies.

From and about children (entered directly or generated by play)

First and last name, age and grade level, a username (children's accounts do not require an email address), chosen interests ("passions"), chosen helper character, and learning activity — questions answered, accuracy, experience points, levels, streaks, badges, in-app rewards, and free-text writing responses. A child may optionally add a profile photo using their device's image picker. Yona does not collect audio recordings, video, precise location, or government identifiers, and has no public posting, chat rooms, or open messaging — children cannot make their personal information publicly available through Yona.

Collected automatically

Sign-in dates, crash reports and error logs, and app analytics tied to a device identifier. These persistent identifiers are used only to support Yona's internal operations — keeping the app working, secure, and improving — never for advertising, profiling across other apps, or contacting anyone.

Children's privacy & parental consent (COPPA)

Yona is designed for children under 13 and is built to follow the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

How consent works: children's accounts are created either by a parent from their own verified account (our recommended path — the parent sets the child's username and password) or by a child with a parent's involvement, after which the parent links to the child's account to supervise it. By creating or linking to a child's account, the parent consents to the collection and use of the child's information as described in this policy.

What we don't do: we do not disclose children's personal information to third parties for their own purposes — no marketing, no advertising, no sale, no third-party AI training. Because we make no such disclosures, there is nothing extra for a parent to opt out of: the only processing that occurs is what is integral to providing Yona itself (described below).

Who can see a child's information: only the child's linked parents, a teacher the family connects with via class code, and Yona's administrators. Children cannot be contacted by strangers through Yona.

How AI is used

Yona generates personalized questions, hints, and learning guidance using artificial intelligence. All AI requests run on our servers — never directly from your child's device — and include only the learning context needed to create good content: things like grade level, age, chosen interests, learning progress, and the child's first name for friendly phrasing. AI-generated content for children is constrained by our prompts to be age-appropriate and educational.

Our AI provider (Anthropic) processes these requests solely to generate content for Yona and does not use them to train its models under its commercial terms. This processing is integral to providing Yona's core service.

Service providers we rely on

We share information only with service providers that process it on our behalf to run Yona. They are not permitted to use it for their own purposes:

• Google Firebase (authentication, database, file storage, hosting, cloud functions, crash reporting, and analytics) — securely stores account and learning data and provides app diagnostics.
• Anthropic — generates personalized learning content, as described above.
• OpenStreetMap (Nominatim) — if a parent chooses to type a home address, address suggestions are fetched from this free service; only the text the parent is typing is sent, never the child's information.
• Google Fonts — provides the app's typeface.

We do not disclose personal information to any other third parties, except if required by law or to protect the safety of a child.

Parents' rights, and how to use them

• Review: see your child's profile, progress, and activity any time from the parent dashboard, or email us for a copy of the information we hold.
• Delete: every account has a "Delete account" option in its profile that permanently erases the account, all learning data, and family connections. You can also email us to delete your child's account and data.
• Refuse further collection: you may withdraw consent and stop any further collection or use of your child's information at any time — delete the account in-app, or email us and we will do it for you. (Because Yona can't work without learning data, withdrawing consent means closing the child's account.)
• Exercise any right: email [email protected]. To protect children, we verify that requests come from the child's linked parent before acting on them.

Data retention & security

Retention: we keep personal information only as long as it is needed to provide Yona — that is, while the account is active. When an account is deleted, all of its personal information and learning data is permanently removed from our systems. Diagnostic records (crash reports, error logs, and AI usage logs) are kept no longer than 12 months before being deleted or de-identified. We never retain children's personal information indefinitely.

Security: we maintain a written information security program appropriate to our size and the sensitivity of children's data: encryption in transit, server-side security rules so each family can only access its own information, secrets kept in managed secret storage rather than in the app, least-privilege access for administrators, and periodic review of these safeguards and of our service providers.

Changes to this policy

If we make meaningful changes — for example, when new features launch after our beta period — we'll update this page and the date above, notify parents in the app, and obtain fresh parental consent where the changes materially affect how children's information is collected, used, or disclosed.