Duolingo: Difference between revisions

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'''[[wikipedia:Duolingo|Duolingo]]''' is a publicly owned, American language-learning website founded in 2011 by Luis von Ahn and Severin Hacker.<ref>https://press.duolingo.com/#about</ref> On July 28, 2021, the company began trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market.<ref>https://investors.duolingo.com/news-releases/news-release-details/duolingo-announces-pricing-initial-public-offering</ref> As of Q3 2024, the app has over 37 million daily active users and 8.6 million paid subscribers, with a net income of $23.4 million.<ref>https://investors.duolingo.com/financials</ref>

==Consumer impact summary==

====User privacy====

According to the privacy policy, if a Duolingo Max user utilizes artificial-intelligence (AI) features, a copy of their text or audio data will be shared with vendors such as [[OpenAI]].<ref>https://www.duolingo.com/privacy</ref> This is also similar for non-AI features, as Duolingo "may also collect and analyze your speech to help [it] understand the effectiveness of [its] lessons and to improve the product," though the data is anonymized.

It is also mentioned that when completing a lesson, a video of a user's lesson "will be logged by a service called FullStory." This service records usage patterns, device specs, and learning activity, and is only disabled by default for child users. Opting out requires going to FullStory's website.

The policy states the app works with third-party advertising networks to personalize advertising, such as with [[Google]], [[Meta]], [[OAuth]], and [[Unity]]. Personalized advertising can be disabled in the app's settings.

The Exodus Privacy project lists as many as 13 tracking, advertising and analytics service libraries being present in the Android version of the app.<ref>https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/de/reports/com.duolingo/latest/</ref> The app does not work for more than about one lesson without internet access, hence turning off internet access is not an option to prevent data exfiltration. The [https://trackercontrol.org/ F-Droid version of Tracker Control] can help with blocking some of the traffic to these services without impacting the functionality of the app.

====Business model====

Duolingo relies on in-app advertising and paid memberships for revenue. The company also sells merchandise on their website.

====Market control====

Duolingo is the most popular language learning application, with it having 60% market control as of 2025.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.businessofapps.com/data/language-learning-app-market/|title=Language Learning App Revenue and Usage Statistics (2025)|first=David|last=Curry|date=2025-02-27|work=Business of Apps|access-date=2025-03-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250112232036/https://www.businessofapps.com/data/language-learning-app-market/|archive-date=2025-01-12|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Incidents==

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===Pay to win pattern===

Recently, some of the timed learning games inside the app are impossible to complete in the time allowed, even for a native speaker of the language. In order to win, the user needs to pay for a subscription to buy more time. This also means that the learning high scores can essentially be bought.

~~=== Privacy Policy ===~~

According to the privacy policy, if a Duolingo Max user utilizes artificial-intelligence (AI) features, a copy of their text or audio data will be shared with vendors such as [[OpenAI]].<ref>https://www.duolingo.com/privacy</ref> This is also similar for non-AI features, as Duolingo "may also collect and analyze your speech to help [it] understand the effectiveness of [its] lessons and to improve the product," though the data is anonymized.

It is also mentioned that when completing a lesson, a video of a user's lesson "will be logged by a service called FullStory." This service records usage patterns, device specs, and learning activity, and is only disabled by default for child users. Opting out requires going to FullStory's website.

The policy states the app works with third-party advertising networks to personalize advertising, such as with [[Google]], [[Meta]], [[OAuth]], and [[Unity]]. Personalized advertising can be disabled in the app's settings.

~~=== Tracking ===~~

The Exodus Privacy project lists as many as 13 tracking, advertising and analytics service libraries being present in the Android version of the app.<ref>https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/de/reports/com.duolingo/latest/</ref> The app does not work for more than about one lesson without internet access, hence turning off internet access is not an option to prevent data exfiltration. The [https://trackercontrol.org/ F-Droid version of Tracker Control] can help with blocking some of the traffic to these services without impacting the functionality of the app.

==Products==

@@ Line 9: / Line 9: @@
 '''[[wikipedia:Duolingo|Duolingo]]''' is a publicly owned, American language-learning website founded in 2011 by Luis von Ahn and Severin Hacker.<ref>https://press.duolingo.com/#about</ref> On July 28, 2021, the company began trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market.<ref>https://investors.duolingo.com/news-releases/news-release-details/duolingo-announces-pricing-initial-public-offering</ref> As of Q3 2024, the app has over 37 million daily active users and 8.6 million paid subscribers, with a net income of $23.4 million.<ref>https://investors.duolingo.com/financials</ref>
 ==Consumer impact summary==
+====User privacy====
+According to the privacy policy, if a Duolingo Max user utilizes artificial-intelligence (AI) features, a copy of their text or audio data will be shared with vendors such as [[OpenAI]].<ref>https://www.duolingo.com/privacy</ref> This is also similar for non-AI features, as Duolingo "may also collect and analyze your speech to help [it] understand the effectiveness of [its] lessons and to improve the product," though the data is anonymized.
+It is also mentioned that when completing a lesson, a video of a user's lesson "will be logged by a service called FullStory." This service records usage patterns, device specs, and learning activity, and is only disabled by default for child users. Opting out requires going to FullStory's website.
+The policy states the app works with third-party advertising networks to personalize advertising, such as with [[Google]], [[Meta]], [[OAuth]], and [[Unity]]. Personalized advertising can be disabled in the app's settings.
+The Exodus Privacy project lists as many as 13 tracking, advertising and analytics service libraries being present in the Android version of the app.<ref>https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/de/reports/com.duolingo/latest/</ref> The app does not work for more than about one lesson without internet access, hence turning off internet access is not an option to prevent data exfiltration. The [https://trackercontrol.org/ F-Droid version of Tracker Control] can help with blocking some of the traffic to these services without impacting the functionality of the app.
+====Business model====
+Duolingo relies on in-app advertising and paid memberships for revenue. The company also sells merchandise on their website.
+====Market control====
+Duolingo is the most popular language learning application, with it having 60% market control as of 2025.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.businessofapps.com/data/language-learning-app-market/|title=Language Learning App Revenue and Usage Statistics (2025)|first=David|last=Curry|date=2025-02-27|work=Business of Apps|access-date=2025-03-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250112232036/https://www.businessofapps.com/data/language-learning-app-market/|archive-date=2025-01-12|url-status=live}}</ref>
 ==Incidents==
@@ Line 27: / Line 42: @@
 ===Pay to win pattern===
 Recently, some of the timed learning games inside the app are impossible to complete in the time allowed, even for a native speaker of the language. In order to win, the user needs to pay for a subscription to buy more time. This also means that the learning high scores can essentially be bought.
-=== Privacy Policy ===
-According to the privacy policy, if a Duolingo Max user utilizes artificial-intelligence (AI) features, a copy of their text or audio data will be shared with vendors such as [[OpenAI]].<ref>https://www.duolingo.com/privacy</ref> This is also similar for non-AI features, as Duolingo "may also collect and analyze your speech to help [it] understand the effectiveness of [its] lessons and to improve the product," though the data is anonymized.
-It is also mentioned that when completing a lesson, a video of a user's lesson "will be logged by a service called FullStory." This service records usage patterns, device specs, and learning activity, and is only disabled by default for child users. Opting out requires going to FullStory's website.
-The policy states the app works with third-party advertising networks to personalize advertising, such as with [[Google]], [[Meta]], [[OAuth]], and [[Unity]]. Personalized advertising can be disabled in the app's settings.
-=== Tracking ===
-The Exodus Privacy project lists as many as 13 tracking, advertising and analytics service libraries being present in the Android version of the app.<ref>https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/de/reports/com.duolingo/latest/</ref> The app does not work for more than about one lesson without internet access, hence turning off internet access is not an option to prevent data exfiltration. The [https://trackercontrol.org/ F-Droid version of Tracker Control] can help with blocking some of the traffic to these services without impacting the functionality of the app.
 ==Products==