Privacy Policy

YouTube Translate & Speak · Last updated: April 7, 2026

Overview

YouTube Translate & Speak ("the Extension") is a Chrome extension that translates video subtitles and provides text-to-speech functionality on supported platforms including YouTube, TED, Udemy, and Coursera. This privacy policy describes what data is collected, how it is handled, how it is stored, and whether it is shared with any third parties.

1. Data Collection

The Extension collects and processes the following types of data locally on your device:

Subtitle and caption text — extracted from video players on supported platforms (YouTube, TED, Udemy, Coursera) for the purpose of translation.
User preferences and settings — such as your selected target language, translation provider, TTS provider, subtitle style preferences, and UI state.
API keys — if you optionally provide API keys for Google Cloud Translation, Google Cloud Text-to-Speech, OpenAI, or Soniox services.
Cached translations — translated subtitle text is cached per video to avoid repeated translation requests.
Tab audio data — only when you explicitly enable Soniox speech-to-text (STT) and provide a Soniox API key. Audio is captured from the active tab and streamed to the Soniox service for real-time transcription.

The Extension does not collect any of the following:

Personally identifiable information (name, email, address, etc.)
Browsing history or activity outside of supported video platforms
Authentication tokens or login credentials for any platform
Analytics, telemetry, or usage tracking data

2. Data Handling (Use of Data)

All data collected by the Extension is used solely to provide its core functionality:

Subtitle text is sent to a translation service (Google Translate, Google Cloud Translation API, or OpenAI API) to produce translated captions. The translated text is then displayed on the video player.
Translated text may be sent to a text-to-speech service (browser built-in TTS or Google Cloud TTS API) to read subtitles aloud, if you enable this feature.
Tab audio is sent to the Soniox STT service only when you explicitly activate speech-to-text and provide your own API key. This is used to generate captions for videos that have no existing subtitles.
API keys are used exclusively to authenticate requests to their respective services (Google Cloud, OpenAI, Soniox). They are never used for any other purpose.
User preferences are used to restore your settings between sessions.

The Extension does not use any collected data for advertising, marketing, analytics, profiling, or any purpose unrelated to its stated functionality.

3. Data Storage

All data is stored locally on your device using the Chrome browser's built-in storage APIs (chrome.storage.local). Specifically:

User preferences and settings — stored in chrome.storage.local and persist until you uninstall the Extension or clear the data manually.
Cached translations — stored in chrome.storage.local per video. You can clear the cache at any time using the 🗑 button in the Extension's control panel.
API keys — stored in chrome.storage.local. They remain on your device and are never transmitted to any server other than the official service endpoint they belong to.

No data is stored on any external server, database, or cloud storage controlled by us. We do not operate any servers that receive or store your data.

4. Data Sharing

The Extension does not sell, trade, transfer, or share your data with any third parties for any purpose.

When you use the Extension, data is transmitted directly from your browser to the following third-party services solely to provide the requested functionality:

Google Translate (translate.googleapis.com) — subtitle text is sent for translation. This is the default free translation provider and requires no API key.
Google Cloud Translation API (translation.googleapis.com) — subtitle text is sent for translation, only if you select this provider and provide your own API key.
Google Cloud Text-to-Speech API (texttospeech.googleapis.com) — translated text is sent for speech synthesis, only if you enable Google Cloud TTS and provide your own API key.
OpenAI API (api.openai.com) — subtitle text is sent for AI-powered translation, only if you select OpenAI as your translation provider and provide your own API key.
Soniox (stt-rt.soniox.com) — tab audio is streamed for speech-to-text transcription, only if you enable Soniox STT and provide your own API key.

All requests are sent directly from your browser to these services. No data passes through any intermediary server controlled by us. Each third-party service is governed by its own privacy policy and terms of service.

5. Permissions

The Extension requests the following browser permissions:

Site access (YouTube, TED, Udemy, Coursera) — required to read video captions and render the subtitle overlay on the video player.
Tab audio capture — used only when Soniox STT is explicitly activated by the user, to capture audio from the current tab for speech-to-text conversion.
Storage — to save your preferences, cached translations, and API keys locally on your device.
Active Tab / Scripting — to inject the Extension's content scripts into supported video pages.

6. User Control and Data Deletion

You have full control over your data at all times:

You can clear cached translations using the 🗑 button in the Extension's control panel.
You can remove or change your API keys at any time through the Extension's settings.
Uninstalling the Extension will remove all locally stored data, including settings, cached translations, and API keys.

7. Children's Privacy

The Extension is not directed at children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect any personal information from children.

8. Changes to This Policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. Any changes will be reflected on this page with an updated date at the top.

9. Contact

If you have questions or concerns about this privacy policy, please contact us at [email protected].