Terms of Service

Last updated: September 3, 2026

The short version: Tim Budong is a Mandarin-pronunciation practice tool. Be decent, do not try to break or exploit it, and do not treat an automated score as a professional certification. We will handle your information as described in our Privacy Policy.

Thanks for using Tim Budong. These Terms of Service (the “Terms”) are an agreement between you and the developer and operator of Tim Budong (“Tim Budong,” “we,” “us,” or “our”). They apply to the Tim Budong iOS app, timbudong.com, and the related services we provide together (the “Service”).

By using the Service, you agree to these Terms and our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, please do not use the Service.

Who may use the Service

You must be at least 13 years old to use the Service. If the law where you live requires a parent or guardian to approve your use, you represent that they have done so. You may use the Service only where doing so is lawful.

Your account

Tim Budong creates a pseudonymous account for your device. We do not ask you for a name, email address, or password to start practicing. Your device holds credentials that let it return to the same learning history.

You are responsible for keeping your device and account credentials secure and for activity performed through your account. You may not transfer credentials, impersonate someone else, or use automated methods to create or operate accounts.

What the Service does

Tim Budong lets you record yourself reading Mandarin, sends the recording to a pronunciation-assessment service, and returns automated scores and coaching. The scores are estimates. Accents, microphones, background noise, network conditions, and software errors can affect them.

The Service is for education and practice. It is not an accredited course, examination, accessibility service, medical service, or professional certification. We do not promise a particular learning result or that every transcription, tone label, score, translation, or explanation will be correct.

Your recordings and information

You keep any rights you have in recordings and other material you submit. You give us a worldwide, royalty-free license to host, copy, transmit, process, analyze, and use that material as reasonably necessary to operate, secure, support, and improve the Service, comply with law, enforce these Terms, and evaluate, develop, and train speech and pronunciation models that we own or operate.

For recordings and related information retained for model evaluation, development, or training, this license continues after you stop using the Service or delete your account. This continuing license is non-exclusive, which means you remain free to use your recordings elsewhere.

Our collection and use of information—including how recordings are sent to service providers—is explained in the Privacy Policy.

Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• break the law or violate another person’s rights using the Service;
• upload malicious code or content you do not have the right to use;
• probe, scan, bypass, disable, or interfere with security, authentication, rate limits, or the operation of the Service;
• scrape, crawl, reverse engineer, or access the Service by automated means except where applicable law expressly permits it;
• use the Service to develop or train a competing speech-assessment system without our written permission; or
• consume an unreasonable amount of storage, computing capacity, or third-party speech services, or otherwise disrupt use by others.

We may investigate suspected misuse and suspend or close access when reasonably necessary to protect the Service, its users, or others.

Our content and software

The Service—including its software, design, text, illustrations, exercises, audio, trademarks, and other materials—is owned by us or our licensors and is protected by intellectual-property laws. These Terms give you a personal, limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable right to use the Service. They do not transfer ownership to you.

You may not copy, sell, sublicense, publicly distribute, or commercially exploit the Service or its content unless we give written permission or an applicable open-source license expressly allows it.

Feedback

If you send us ideas or feedback, you allow us to use them without restriction or payment. We will not publicly identify you as the source without permission.

Fees and changes

The Service is currently offered without charge. We may add paid features later, but we will show you the price and any additional terms before charging you. We may change, suspend, or discontinue features. When practical, we will give reasonable notice of a change that materially reduces the Service.

Third-party services

The Service relies on third parties for hosting, speech assessment, generated audio, coaching, storage, and notifications. Their systems may occasionally be unavailable or return inaccurate results. Links to third-party websites are provided for convenience and do not make us responsible for those sites.

Ending your use

You may stop using the Service at any time. You can delete your account in Settings → Danger zone → Delete account. Account deletion immediately ends access from that account and stops reminders; our retention practices are described in the Privacy Policy.

We may suspend or terminate access if you materially violate these Terms, create risk or legal exposure, or threaten the availability or security of the Service. Where reasonable, we will try to give notice and an opportunity to fix the problem first.

Service provided as-is

We work hard to make Tim Budong useful and reliable, but software has bugs. To the fullest extent permitted by law, the Service is provided “as is” and “as available,” without warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, uninterrupted availability, or error-free operation.

Some places do not allow certain warranty exclusions, so those exclusions may not apply to you. Nothing in these Terms limits consumer rights that cannot lawfully be waived.

Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, we will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, learning progress, data, goodwill, or business opportunity arising from the Service.

Our total liability for all claims relating to the Service will not exceed the greater of US $100 or the amount you paid us for the Service during the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim. These limits do not apply where applicable law prohibits them.

Apple App Store

If you downloaded the app from Apple’s App Store, Apple’s Standard Licensed Application End User License Agreement governs your license to the app, while these Terms govern the Service. Apple has no obligation to provide maintenance or support for the Service. Your use must also comply with the App Store’s applicable rules.

Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms as the Service changes or the law requires. We will post the revised Terms here, update the date above, and provide additional notice when a change materially affects your rights. Continuing to use the Service after revised Terms take effect means you accept them. If you do not accept a change, you may stop using the Service and delete your account.

General terms

If a provision of these Terms is unenforceable, the remaining provisions stay in effect. A delay in enforcing a provision is not a waiver. You may not transfer these Terms without our consent; we may transfer them as part of a reorganization, merger, acquisition, or sale of the Service. These Terms and the Privacy Policy are the entire agreement about the Service unless we expressly agree otherwise.

Questions

Email questions about these Terms to maria@balloonapps.co.