Privacy Policy

Kotiq Translate is a browser extension that translates text you select on a web page and lets you save translations into a personal vocabulary to review later. This policy explains what data the extension handles and why. Kotiq Translate is an independent project.

What we process

Text you select. When you translate a selection — from the icon that appears at the selection or from the right-click menu — the selected text is translated using the browser's built-in, on-device translation model. The text is processed locally and is not sent to us or to any third party.

Your saved vocabulary. When you choose to save a translation, the original text, its translation, and the language pair are stored locally in your browser (IndexedDB). This exists only on your device so you can browse and review your words in the side panel. We never receive it.

Preferences. A few settings — such as your target language and voice choice — are stored locally using Chrome extension storage. They stay on your device.

How translation works

In Chrome 138 and newer, translation and language detection run entirely on your device through Chrome's built-in Translator and Language Detector APIs. The first time you use a given language, Chrome may download that language's translation model to your device. That download is performed by Chrome itself (from Google), not by this extension, and is governed by Google's Privacy Policy. Once the model is on your device, translation works without a network connection.

Offline translation engine

Available from version 0.2.0. Earlier versions have no offline engine and make no network requests at all.

In Chromium browsers that do not provide the built-in translator, Kotiq Translate offers its own offline engine instead. The engine itself (open-source Bergamot / Marian machine translation, compiled to WebAssembly) ships inside the extension package. The translation models are the open-source Mozilla Firefox Translations (Bergamot project) models; the first time you translate a given language pair — and only after you explicitly agree in the extension — the model files for that pair (roughly 20–40 MB) are downloaded from a fixed public model host.

These downloads contain model data only, never code. Every file is verified against a checksum that ships inside the extension before it is used, and is then cached locally in your browser, so later translations work fully offline. The download request carries no user data, no identifiers, and no cookies — like any web request, the model host technically sees your IP address, and nothing more. Your selected text is never part of any request: with the offline engine too, translation happens entirely on your device.

Read-aloud (text-to-speech)

When you ask Kotiq Translate to read text aloud, it uses your browser's built-in speech voices. The extension deliberately uses on-device voices only and skips network-backed voices, so the text being spoken is not sent to a server.

Page access

Kotiq Translate runs on the web pages you visit so it can detect and read the text you select and show the translation right on the page. To do this, its content script is present on the pages you open, watching for a text selection you make. It reads only the text you actively select — it does not read, collect, or transmit the rest of the page, your browsing history, or your activity on other sites.

Chrome extension data usage

Kotiq Translate collects and uses data solely to provide its translation and vocabulary functionality. Kotiq Translate does not:

• send your data off your device;
• sell user data;
• use user data for advertising;
• use user data to determine creditworthiness or for lending purposes;
• transfer user data to data brokers;
• use user data for purposes unrelated to the extension's core functionality.

Permissions

• Access to the pages you visit — the extension's content script runs on the web pages you open so it can detect and read the text you select and render the translation on the page. Only your active selection is read.
• contextMenus — add the "Translate selection" and "Open Kotiq vocabulary" items to the right-click menu.
• activeTab / scripting — act on the tab you are using to run a translation you asked for.
• storage — save your preferences and vocabulary locally on your device.
• sidePanel — show your saved vocabulary and flashcard review in the side panel.
• offscreen — run the offline translation engine in an extension-private page, isolated from the websites you visit.
• Access to the model host (storage.googleapis.com/bergamot-models-sandbox) — download the offline engine's translation model files, as described above. This is the only host the extension can reach, and it is contacted only after your explicit consent.

Data retention & deletion

Your vocabulary and preferences remain on your device until you delete them. You can remove saved words from the side panel, and removing the extension clears its stored data from your browser. Because we never receive your data, there is nothing for us to retain or delete on our side.

Third-party services

Kotiq Translate does not integrate any third-party analytics, advertising, or backend services. Two external parties are involved, in narrow roles only: Google, as the maker of Chrome — Chrome supplies the built-in translation models and the speech voices, under Google's Privacy Policy — and the Mozilla Firefox Translations (Bergamot) project, whose open-source models the offline engine downloads as described above. Neither receives any of your data from this extension.

Children

Kotiq Translate is a general-purpose reading aid. It is not directed specifically at children and does not knowingly collect any personal information from anyone.

Contact

Questions or data requests: kotiq.dev@gmail.com

Changes

We may update this policy; the “last updated” date will change accordingly.