Privacy Policy

Within the protected participant area and the Institut+ app, we provide a pronunciation trainer. If you actively use this feature, a short voice recording is created using the microphone of your device.

The voice recording is used exclusively to technically analyze your pronunciation of the displayed practice sentence and to provide you with an immediate pronunciation assessment. This may include, in particular, pronunciation accuracy, fluency, completeness, and assessments of individual words and sounds.

For technical analysis, the voice recording and the associated practice sentence are transmitted to Microsoft Azure Speech – Pronunciation Assessment. The Azure Speech resource used by Institut+ is hosted in the Microsoft Azure region Germany West Central (Frankfurt, Germany).

Processing takes place on the server side. The Azure access key required for the service is not transmitted to the participant’s device or browser.

According to Microsoft, audio and input data provided for real-time speech recognition and Pronunciation Assessment are not stored or permanently retained by Microsoft after the respective request has been completed. Institut+ likewise does not permanently store the audio file created for pronunciation assessment. Temporarily created audio files are used solely for the respective assessment and are then discarded.

Only results required for learning progress are stored permanently, for example the language and language level used, exercise progress and achieved pronunciation scores. The actual voice recording does not become part of the participant’s permanent profile.

The voice recording is not used to identify or authenticate a person and is not used to create a voice profile.

Purpose of processing: Providing pronunciation assessment and storing and displaying personal learning progress.

Legal basis: Article 6(1)(b) GDPR, insofar as use of the pronunciation trainer forms part of the Institut+ services used by you and the processing is necessary to provide the pronunciation assessment actively requested by you.

Granting microphone access on your device is a technical requirement for using the recording function. It does not constitute a separate consent under data protection law. Without microphone access, the pronunciation trainer cannot be used for voice assessment.

Recipient / processor: Microsoft in connection with Microsoft Azure. The processing of customer data in Azure is governed in particular by the Microsoft Products and Services Data Protection Addendum (DPA) and the applicable Microsoft privacy and security terms.

Microsoft has established an EU Data Boundary for its enterprise online services, including Azure. Regional Azure services that, like the Institut+ service, are provided in an EU region generally fall within this EU Data Boundary. Microsoft notes that, in limited cases, processing or transfers outside this boundary may nevertheless occur. Where personal data is transferred to countries outside the European Union or the European Economic Area, such transfers are carried out on the basis of the applicable safeguards required under data protection law.

Use of the pronunciation trainer is voluntary. A voice recording is started only when you actively start the recording function yourself.