Privacy Policy — Voice Reader: Text to Speech

Effective date: November 7, 2026 Last updated: November 7, 2026

Voice Reader — Text to Speech is a Chrome extension that reads web pages aloud. This policy explains exactly what the extension accesses, where that information goes, and what control you have. It describes the behaviour of the published extension, not a plan for the future.

1. Who we are

Voice Reader is developed and maintained by an independent developer (the "developer", "we", "us"). There is no company, no advertising business, and no analytics vendor behind this extension. You can reach us at the address in the Contact section below.

2. What the extension reads and stores

The extension reads the content of the web page you are currently viewing only after you explicitly start playback — by clicking the Play button in the popup, the on-page player, or by pressing the keyboard shortcut. Nothing is read in the background before that action, and nothing is read from tabs where playback was never started.

When playback starts, the extension extracts the visible text of the page: headings, paragraphs, list items, captions and similar readable blocks. It does not read passwords, form fields, cookies, browsing history, bookmarks, or files on your computer. It does not build a profile of the sites you visit.

The extension also stores your own preferences locally: the selected voice, speed, pitch, volume, player mode, highlighting options, saved profiles, and pronunciation rules. These settings are small text values saved through the browser's local storage.

If you choose to download an offline neural voice, the voice model files are stored in the browser's private storage for this extension on your device. They are used only to synthesise speech and are never uploaded anywhere.

3. Why this information is used

Page text is processed for one purpose only: to convert it into audible speech and to highlight the sentence being read. Saved settings exist so the extension behaves the same way the next time you open it. Downloaded voices exist so that speech can be generated without an internet connection.

The extension has a single purpose — reading page text aloud. All data handling described here serves that purpose.

4. Where the data is stored

All settings, profiles, pronunciation rules and downloaded voice models are stored locally on your device, inside the browser profile that hosts the extension. The extension has no backend, no database, and no user accounts. We do not store your page content on any server, and we cannot see your browsing activity.

You can remove locally stored data at any time: delete individual voices on the Voices page, clear the extension's data in the browser, or uninstall the extension. Uninstalling removes all data the extension kept on your device.

5. What leaves your device

Two optional network requests exist, and both happen only as a direct result of your actions:

• Cloud speech (Google Translate TTS). If you pick a streaming voice, the sentence being read is sent to https://translate.googleapis.com so that Google can return an audio clip. This is the standard public text-to-speech endpoint used by many read-aloud tools. Only the current sentence is sent — not the whole page, not the URL, not your identity. If you use an offline neural voice or a built-in system voice, this request never happens.
• Voice model downloads (Hugging Face). If you click "Download" next to an offline voice, the extension fetches the model file from https://huggingface.co (the public Piper voice repository). The request contains only the model file name. No page text and nothing that identifies you are included.

There are no other network destinations. There is no analytics service, no crash reporting, no advertising network, no telemetry, and no remote configuration. We do not sell or transfer your data to third parties, and we do not use it for advertising, profiling, creditworthiness, or any purpose unrelated to reading text aloud.

6. Retention and deletion

Locally stored settings and voices remain on your device until you delete them or uninstall the extension. Sentences sent to the cloud speech endpoint are processed in transit to produce audio; we do not receive or retain them, and we keep no copies. Voice model files remain in your browser storage until you press "Delete" on the Voices page or uninstall the extension.

7. Your rights

You control all data the extension touches, because it lives on your device. You can inspect it, export your settings by copying them from the settings page, delete individual items, or remove everything by uninstalling. If you believe the extension holds data about you and want it removed, contact us and we will explain where the local files are and how to delete them. Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights under the GDPR, CCPA, or similar laws; because we operate no servers and keep nothing about you ourselves, these rights are exercised directly on your device and we will help where we can.

8. Permissions and host access, explained

Chrome asks you to approve permissions, so here is what each one is for:

• Access to all websites (host access). The extension must be able to read the text of whatever page you decide to listen to. Restricting this to a fixed list of domains would make the extension useless on the rest of the web. Access is used only to extract readable text and to display the on-page player on the current tab.
• activeTab / scripting. These let the extension act on the current tab after you click Play, injecting the reading script into that page. They avoid permanent access to tabs you never use.
• storage. Saves your voice, speed, volume, profiles and pronunciation rules in the browser's local storage.
• offscreen. Creates a hidden background document that plays audio, so speech continues while the popup is closed.
• sidePanel. Lets the reader open in Chrome's side panel if you prefer that layout.
• contextMenus. Adds the "Read aloud" item to the right-click menu.
• Host access to translate.googleapis.com. Needed only for the optional cloud voice described above.

The extension does not request permissions for your history, bookmarks, downloads, clipboard contents, cookies, camera, microphone, or location.

9. Children

The extension is a general-purpose reading tool and is not directed at children under 13. It does not knowingly process personal information from children, because it does not process personal information from anyone. Parents and guardians can remove the extension at any time.

10. Chrome Web Store User Data Policy and Limited Use

Our use of information received from Chrome APIs adheres to the Chrome Web Store User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. Data accessed through the extension is used only to provide and improve the single user-facing purpose described above — reading page text aloud. It is not transferred to third parties except as technically required to synthesise speech (the Google Translate TTS endpoint) or to download a voice you requested (Hugging Face). It is never used for advertising, and it is never sold.

11. Changes to this policy

If the extension's behaviour changes in a way that affects privacy, this page will be updated before the new version is published. The effective date at the top always reflects the current text. Continued use of the extension after an update means you accept the revised policy.

12. Contact

Questions about this policy, data handling, or deletion requests can be sent to:

voicereader.support@gmail.com

We aim to answer within a few business days. Please include the extension version shown at the bottom of the popup if your question is about a specific behaviour.

Voice Reader does not require an account, does not show ads, and does not track you. If any future version changes that, this policy will say so in plain language before you update.