read-it-aloud

Privacy Policy — Read It Aloud

Last updated: June 27, 2026 Effective: When you install or update to v1.3.0 or later

Summary in plain English

• The extension has no backend for its core features. The text you select is sent to ElevenLabs to generate audio — that’s the only data that leaves your browser while you use it.
• Your ElevenLabs API key is stored locally in your browser (browser.storage.local / chrome.storage.local) and is sent only to ElevenLabs’ servers (https://api.elevenlabs.io).
• We don’t run analytics, telemetry, or crash reporting, and we hold no identifiers about you.
• The one time anything reaches us is if you choose to submit the optional, anonymous uninstall survey — see “Uninstall feedback” below. It contains no personal information.
• We never sell or share your data.

What data the extension handles

Data	Where it lives	Where it’s sent	Why
Your ElevenLabs API key	storage.local on your device only	api.elevenlabs.io as the xi-api-key HTTP header	Required to authenticate TTS requests
Selected text on a web page	RAM (transient) and the extension’s offscreen audio document	api.elevenlabs.io in the TTS request body	Required to generate the audio you asked for
Your voice & playback settings (voice ID, model, speed, stability, etc.)	storage.local on your device only	api.elevenlabs.io as part of TTS request body	Required so generation matches your preferences
Generated audio bytes	RAM and the offscreen audio document; discarded when you stop or close the tab	Stays on your device	Played back to you, optionally downloadable

While the extension is running, it makes no network calls to any host except api.elevenlabs.io.

Uninstall feedback (optional & anonymous)

When you remove the extension, your browser opens a short feedback page asking why you uninstalled. This is completely optional — closing the page sends nothing.

If you choose to submit it, the following is sent and recorded as anonymous feedback to help us improve the extension:

• the reason you select (from a fixed list),
• an optional free-text comment, if you write one,
• the extension version you were on.

That’s all. The submission is anonymous — we do not ask for or store your name, email, IP address, API key, browsing data, or any other identifier, and there is no way for us to tie a response back to you. The feedback page is a separate web page opened by your browser (not the extension), passed through a small write-only endpoint (a Cloudflare Worker) and recorded as an anonymous note on GitHub. It is used only to prioritize fixes and features.

What we do NOT collect

• No analytics or telemetry
• No browsing history, page content, or URLs (beyond what you select to read)
• No personally identifiable information
• No advertising identifiers
• No cookies, fingerprints, or device IDs
• No identifying data is ever sent to the extension author — the only thing we can receive is the anonymous, optional uninstall feedback described above

Third-party services

• ElevenLabs — the TTS provider. Your selected text and voice settings are sent here to generate audio. ElevenLabs is governed by its own privacy policy: https://elevenlabs.io/privacy. You hold an account directly with ElevenLabs (this extension uses your API key); that relationship is between you and them.
• Cloudflare & GitHub — used only to carry and store the anonymous uninstall feedback described above, and only if you choose to submit it. They never receive your reading content, API key, or any identifier.

Permissions and what they’re for

• storage — to save your API key and preferences locally on your device
• activeTab / scripting — to read the text you select on the active tab when you ask the extension to read it
• contextMenus — to add the “Read It Aloud” right-click menu item
• offscreen (Chromium browsers) — to play audio in an extension-owned offscreen document (technical requirement on strict-CSP sites; never accesses page content)
• host_permissions: https://api.elevenlabs.io/* — to call the ElevenLabs TTS API. The extension cannot make requests to any other domain.

The exact set of permissions may vary slightly by browser due to platform differences (Chrome / Edge / Firefox / Safari implement extension APIs slightly differently). The underlying data practices above are identical across all versions.

Your rights

• Stop using the extension at any time. Removing it from your browser deletes the locally stored API key and settings.
• Reset your data at any time from the extension settings.
• Revoke your ElevenLabs API key in your ElevenLabs dashboard at any time. The extension will stop working immediately.
• Skip the uninstall survey simply by closing the page — nothing is sent.

Changes to this policy

We’ll update this document if the data practices change. The “Last updated” date at the top reflects the current version. Material changes will be noted in CHANGELOG.md.

Contact

For questions about this policy, open an issue at https://github.com/JPF1111/read-it-aloud/issues.

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