TalkMe Reader — Privacy Policy

TalkMe Reader ("the extension", "we") is a privacy-focused Chrome extension that reads web pages and PDFs aloud. This policy explains what information the extension processes, when it leaves your device, and how you can control it.

Summary

TalkMe Reader is local-first. Reading a page never requires an account, and the default configuration sends no page content anywhere. Your audio, your extracted page text, and on-device AI normalization stay on your machine.

What the extension stores on your device

All data is stored in your browser's local extension storage (chrome.storage.local) and is never transmitted in the default setup:

• Your selected voice
• Your OpenRouter settings, if you configure them (see below)
• Your activity-log display preference
• A local history of pages you read or saved: page URL and title, the normalized text produced for reading, the mode (read/summarize), the normalization backend used, and the timestamp

You can remove this data at any time using the extension's Clear action, deleting individual history entries, removing the OpenRouter API key in Settings, or uninstalling the extension from Chrome.

When data leaves your device

Hugging Face model download (default, automatic)

The first time you use the extension, it downloads the open-source Kokoro TTS model and voice files from Hugging Face and caches them locally. This request does not include page content.

OpenRouter normalization (optional, opt-in)

If you enter your own OpenRouter API key in Settings, the text of the page you ask to read may be sent to OpenRouter's API to be cleaned up for speech, using your key and your chosen model. This is strictly opt-in: nothing is sent unless you configure a key. Your key is stored only in local extension storage and is used only for requests to OpenRouter.

Reading remote PDFs

To read a PDF, the extension may re-fetch the PDF bytes in the same browser session, so the source site's normal caching, cookies, and authorization apply.

What never leaves your device

• Speech synthesis runs entirely on-device using WebGPU.
• Default page normalization runs on-device with Chrome's built-in Gemini Nano.
• Page content extraction happens locally in your browser.

Third parties

No third-party analytics, advertising, or tracking SDKs are included. We do not sell or rent any information. The extension collects no information about children under 13.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the updated version will be posted at this URL.

Contact

Questions about this policy: mark@hayes.lol (Mark Hayes)