Last updated · September 5, 2026

Privacy Policy

ReadLouder is a Chrome extension that reads selected text aloud. This page explains, plainly, what it does and doesn't do with your data.

The short version: the text you read is processed on your own device for two of the three voices and never leaves it. The only case anything you're reading is transmitted anywhere is if you turn on the optional online voice — and then it goes straight from your browser to Microsoft, using your own key, not through us. We don't run ads, don't have analytics or trackers in the extension, and don't sell data.

What we never collect

ReadLouder has no user accounts, no analytics SDK, and no advertising code. We do not track which websites you visit, log your browsing history, or record clicks, scrolling, or keystrokes. We do not know what you selected or read unless you've explicitly enabled the online voice for that one sentence (see below).

The text you select to be read

Browser voice — synthesized entirely by your operating system / browser's built-in speech engine. The text never leaves your device.
Piper (offline neural voice) — synthesized entirely on your device by a neural model running in your browser. The text never leaves your device. The voice model itself (not your text) downloads once, the first time you pick that voice, from Hugging Face's public model hosting — that's a one-time file download, not a transmission of anything you've read.
Azure (online neural voice, optional) — if you turn this on and supply your own Microsoft Azure Speech key, the sentence currently being read is sent directly from your browser to Microsoft's Azure Speech API to be converted to audio. This goes straight from your browser to Microsoft using your own key; we do not see, receive, log, or store that text. Microsoft's handling of it is governed by Microsoft's own privacy policy.

Your settings

Your voice/engine choice, speech rate, pitch, volume, and — if you've entered one — your Azure key and region, are stored only in your browser's local extension storage on your own device (chrome.storage.local). None of this is transmitted to us or to anyone else. Uninstalling the extension or clearing its storage removes it.

Premium subscription & license check

If you subscribe to ReadLouder Premium, your license key is sent to our license-verification service (a small Cloudflare Worker) to confirm it's currently active. That service checks the key against our payment provider, Polar, and returns only a status (active / inactive / expired) plus the plan's renewal date — it does not receive the text you're reading, your Azure key, or any of your other settings, and it does not log your reading activity.

Payments

Payments are handled entirely by Polar, our merchant of record. We never receive or store your card number or full payment details. Polar collects what it needs to process your subscription (such as your email and billing address) under its own privacy policy.

Sharing & selling data

We do not sell your data. We do not share it with third parties beyond the two cases above: Microsoft Azure (only the sentence being read, only if you enable that voice) and Polar (only for billing, if you subscribe).

Children's privacy

ReadLouder is not directed at children and we do not knowingly collect data from children.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, we'll update the date at the top of this page.

Contact

Questions about this policy: support@readlouder.app