Privacy Policy

Substack Read Aloud — Chrome Extension

Last updated: August 3, 2026

✅ Substack Read Aloud does NOT collect, store, or transmit any personal data.

1. Introduction

Substack Read Aloud ("the Extension") is a Chrome browser extension that reads Substack newsletter articles aloud and optionally translates them into other languages. This Privacy Policy explains how the Extension handles user data.

We are committed to protecting your privacy. The Extension is designed to function entirely within your browser without collecting or transmitting any personal information.

2. Information We Collect

We do not collect any personal information. Period.

The Extension does not collect, store, or transmit:

3. How the Extension Works

The Extension performs the following operations, all of which occur locally in your browser:

  1. Article extraction: When you click "Read Aloud" or "Translate & Read," the Extension reads the text content of the currently open Substack article page.
  2. Text-to-Speech: The extracted text is passed to Chrome's built-in Text-to-Speech (TTS) engine to be read aloud. This processing happens entirely within your browser.
  3. Translation (optional): If you choose "Translate & Read," the article text is sent to Google Translate (translate.googleapis.com) to be translated into your selected language. See Section 5 for details.
  4. Preferences: Your settings (selected language, voice, speed) are stored locally on your device using chrome.storage.local and are never transmitted externally.

4. Permissions Explained

The Extension requests the following browser permissions, each for a specific and necessary purpose:

Permission Purpose
tts Read article text aloud using Chrome's built-in text-to-speech engine
activeTab Access the content of the current Substack tab when you trigger the read-aloud action
scripting Inject a content script to extract article text from Substack pages
storage Save your preferences (language, speed, voice) locally on your device
contextMenus Add a "Read Selected Text" option to the right-click menu on Substack pages
translate.googleapis.com Send article text to Google Translate for translation (only when you use the "Translate & Read" feature)

5. Third-Party Services

Google Translate

When you use the "Translate & Read" feature, the article text is sent to Google Translate (translate.googleapis.com) for translation. This is a Google-operated service. Only the article text content is sent — no personal data, cookies, or identifiers are included in these requests.

Google's privacy policy applies to data processed by Google Translate: https://policies.google.com/privacy

Chrome Text-to-Speech

The Extension uses Chrome's built-in TTS engine to convert text to speech. This processing occurs locally within your browser and no data is sent to external servers for TTS.

Google Fonts

The Extension's popup interface loads the "Inter" font from Google Fonts (fonts.googleapis.com). This is a standard CSS resource request. Google's privacy policy applies: https://policies.google.com/privacy

6. Data Storage

The Extension stores the following data locally on your device only:

This data is stored using Chrome's chrome.storage.local API and never leaves your device. You can clear this data at any time by uninstalling the Extension.

7. Data Sharing

We do not sell, trade, rent, or transfer any user data to third parties for any purpose.

8. Data Security

Since we do not collect or store any personal data on external servers, there is no risk of data breach from our end. All user preferences are stored locally within Chrome's secure storage system.

9. Children's Privacy

The Extension does not knowingly collect any personal information from anyone, including children under 13. Since no personal data is collected, the Extension is safe for users of all ages.

10. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Any changes will be reflected on this page with an updated "Last updated" date. We encourage you to review this page periodically.

11. Contact

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or the Extension, please contact us: