Privacy Policy

1. Personal Data We Collect

We collect the following categories of information that alone or in combination with other information in our possession could be used to identify you ("Personal Data"):

Account Data: If you create an account, we will collect the information needed to authenticate your access to the Service, including your name and email address.

Learning Data: We collect vocabulary learning progress data, including words you have looked up, favorites, mastery status, and review counts to provide personalized learning experience.

Website Content: When you use our browser extension, it reads text on the web pages you visit only as needed for the features you use. When you select a word, the word is sent to our servers to look up its definition. When you select a sentence, open the side panel, hold the modifier key to translate a paragraph, or turn on immersive (bilingual) translation, the text to be translated is sent directly from your browser to third-party machine translation services; it does not pass through our servers. If sentences are set to show an icon first (the default), the extension starts translating a selected sentence as soon as the icon appears, so that the translation is ready when you click it; the sentence is therefore sent even if you never open the card. When you are signed in and ask for an AI explanation of a word or an AI translation and explanation of a sentence, the selected text and the sentence around it are sent to our servers and then to our AI provider. See Section 3 for who receives this text.

Clipboard (Quick Lookup): The Quick Lookup window opens when you press its keyboard shortcut. If you have allowed the extension to read the clipboard (an optional permission that you grant inside the window) and no text is selected on the current page (for example, when Chrome is not in the foreground), the extension reads the text currently on your clipboard and, if it looks like English, looks it up right away in the same way as selected text: a word is sent to our servers for its definition, a sentence is sent directly from your browser to the machine translation services, and, when you are signed in, the lookup is recorded in your learning data like any other lookup (without a source page). The clipboard is read only when you press the shortcut, never in the background. If you do not grant this permission, the window only looks up selected text or text you type.

Video Subtitles: When you are signed in and ask for a video summary on a video site such as YouTube or Bilibili, the extension sends the video's identifier (platform, video ID and part), title, duration and subtitle text to our servers, which then send it to our AI provider to generate the summary. When generating a summary, our servers look up the video's title from the video site by its video ID instead of using the title sent by the extension. Summaries are cached per video and shared across all users: anyone who asks for a summary of the same video (with the same subtitle content) sees the cached result. Cached summaries contain no information about you, and other users cannot tell who asked for a summary first.

When you are signed in and ask for an AI translation and explanation of a sentence in video subtitles, the extension also sends the video's identifier (platform, video ID and part), the sentence's position in the subtitles and a fingerprint of the subtitle content together with the sentence. The result is cached per video sentence and shared across all users in the same way: anyone who asks about the same sentence of the same video (with the same subtitles, text and explanation language) sees the cached result, which contains no information about you. Sentences selected on ordinary web pages are never cached.

AI Refined Subtitles: When you are signed in and choose “AI refined” on Bilibili, the extension sends the video's identifier (platform, video ID and part), title and duration to our servers, together with the English subtitles you can see for that video (uploader subtitles or Bilibili AI subtitles), if any, as a proofreading reference. Our servers then download the video's audio from Bilibili by its video ID and send it to our speech recognition provider, Groq, to be transcribed; when reference subtitles are available, the transcript and the reference subtitles are sent to DeepSeek to be proofread. The audio is only held in our servers' memory while it is being processed and is discarded afterwards; it is never stored. The reference subtitles you upload are deleted once processing finishes. Transcripts are cached per video and shared across all users: anyone who chooses “AI refined” for the same video uses the cached result. Transcripts contain no information about you, and other users cannot tell who submitted a video first. We record which videos you have used refined subtitles for, to count your weekly limit.

Vocabulary Context and Source Pages: When you are signed in and look up a word, after you acknowledge an in-extension notice we save the sentence in which you looked up the word, the address (URL) and title of the web page, and the time of the lookup, so that your vocabulary list can show where you met each word and link back to the original page. Before a page address is saved, we remove tracking parameters and, if the address contains parameters that look sensitive (such as tokens, codes, session identifiers, passwords or email addresses), we keep only the site address and path. We record only the names (never the values) of removed parameters so the vocabulary list can tell you that a link was simplified. We do not save addresses of local or private-network pages, sign-in or password-reset pages, or anything in incognito windows. You can turn off saving page addresses, exclude specific websites, and delete any saved sentence or source at any time.

AI Usage Data: When you use AI features, we record how much each request used (such as the number of AI tokens and the resulting cost) to calculate your weekly AI usage. These records note which feature was used and, for an AI explanation, the word; they do not contain the sentences or page text you selected.

Local Preferences: We store user interface preferences (such as UI position and display settings) locally on your device using browser storage. This data is not uploaded to our servers, except that the interface language you choose is also saved as a cookie on our website so that the Site opens in the same language.

Communication Data: We may collect information when you contact us with questions or concerns and when you voluntarily respond to questionnaires, surveys or requests for feedback.

2. How We Use Personal Data

Under data protection law, we can only use personal data if we have a proper reason for doing so, for example:

• to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations;
• for the performance of our Terms of Service with you;
• for our legitimate interests or those of a third party; or
• where you have given consent.

We use Personal Data for the following purposes:

• To provide word definitions, translations, and learning features
• To track and display your vocabulary learning progress
• To show, in your own vocabulary list, the sentences and web pages where you looked up each word (this data is used only for this feature)
• To respond to your inquiries, comments, feedback, or questions
• To send administrative information to you, such as information regarding the Service and changes to our terms, conditions, and policies
• To analyze how you interact with our Service to improve functionality
• To prevent fraud, criminal activity, or misuses of our Service, and to ensure the security of our systems

Chrome Web Store Limited Use

The use of information received from the LingoHey browser extension, including web browsing activity and website content, adheres to the Chrome Web Store User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. We use this data only to provide and improve the user-facing features described in this policy; we do not sell it, use it for advertising, or transfer it except as necessary to provide those features, to comply with applicable law, or as part of a merger or acquisition.

About AI Model Data Usage

We will not use your personal information in our artificial intelligence (AI) training. We are simply using the capabilities of AI to provide contextual explanations and translations, without doing any training on your data.

3. Sharing and Disclosure of Personal Data

In certain circumstances we may share your Personal Data with third parties without further notice to you, unless required by the law, as set forth below:

Vendors and Service Providers: To assist us in meeting business operations needs and to perform certain services and functions, we may share Personal Data with vendors and service providers, including providers of hosting services, cloud services, authentication services, translation services, and AI services. Pursuant to our instructions, these parties will access, process, or store Personal Data in the course of performing their duties to us.

Third-Party Services We Use

• Machine translation (Google Translate, Microsoft Translator and Tencent TranSmart): when you select a sentence, open the side panel, hold the modifier key to translate a paragraph, or turn on immersive translation, the extension sends the text to be translated directly from your browser to one of these services. When it is not yet known which service is reachable from your network, the same text may be sent to all three at once and the fastest answer is used; this also applies to the translation that starts when the sentence icon appears. The request contains only the text to be translated (and, for availability checks, a fixed short test phrase); it does not pass through our servers and does not include your LingoHey account information, although, as with any web request, these services can see your IP address and browser information. Nothing is sent to them unless you use one of these features.
• DeepSeek (AI provider): when you are signed in and ask for an AI explanation of a word or an AI translation and explanation of a sentence, the selected text and the sentence around it are sent from our servers to DeepSeek to generate the answer (for a sentence in video subtitles that has already been answered for another user, the cached answer is returned and nothing is sent to DeepSeek); when you ask for a video summary, the video's title and subtitle text are sent from our servers to DeepSeek to generate the summary; when you choose AI refined subtitles, the video's transcript, title and reference subtitles are sent from our servers to DeepSeek to be proofread. We do not send your name, email address or account identifier. Our servers also send DeepSeek words that are missing from the dictionary so it can generate a dictionary entry; such requests contain only the word.
• Groq (speech recognition provider): when you choose AI refined subtitles, the audio our servers download from the video site is sent to Groq to be transcribed. Requests contain only the audio and no information about your account.
• Bilibili: to generate AI refined subtitles, our servers request Bilibili's public endpoints and the video's audio by its video ID; to generate a video summary, they request the video's title the same way. These requests do not use your Bilibili account and contain no information about your LingoHey account.
• YouTube: to generate a video summary, our servers request the video's title from YouTube's public oEmbed endpoint by its video ID. The request contains no information about your account.
• Microsoft Bing Dictionary: to provide definitions, our servers look up words in Bing Dictionary. These requests contain only the word and are not linked to you.
• Youdao Dictionary (pronunciation): when you click to hear a word, the extension requests the audio for that word directly from Youdao. The request contains only the word.
• Clerk (authentication): manages sign-in and stores your account data, such as your name and email address.
• Vercel (hosting) and Neon (database): host our website and servers and store your learning data and vocabulary list. Vercel processes request information such as IP addresses to deliver the Service and protect it against abuse.

Business Transfers: If we are involved in a merger, acquisition, financing due diligence, reorganization, bankruptcy, or transition of service to another provider, your Personal Data may be shared in the diligence process and transferred to a successor or affiliate as part of that transaction.

Legal Requirements: If required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with a legal obligation, protect and defend our rights or property, prevent fraud, or protect the personal safety of users.

We only allow our service providers to handle your personal data if we are satisfied they take appropriate measures to protect your personal data. LingoHey does not sell your personal data to third parties.

4. Data Retention

We will not retain your personal data for longer than necessary for the purposes set out in this policy. Generally, we store data until it is no longer necessary to provide our services or until your account is deleted – whichever comes first.

For your vocabulary list we keep at most the 50 most recent sentences and source pages for each word. You can delete individual entries at any time from the vocabulary page, and they are deleted together with your account.

Video summaries are cached per video and are not tied to your account; each one is deleted automatically 30 days after it was last accessed. We do not store the full subtitles you upload, only the summary (which quotes a few subtitle sentences), a fingerprint of the subtitle content, and a record of whether you have already received a given summary (so that the same summary counts toward your weekly AI usage only once; deleted together with that summary).

AI translations and explanations of video subtitle sentences are cached per video sentence and are not tied to your account; each one is deleted automatically 60 days after it was last accessed. We store the result (the translation and explanation, which quote parts of the sentence), a hash of the sentence text, and a record of whether you have already received a given result (so that it counts toward your weekly AI usage only once; deleted together with that result).

AI refined subtitles are cached per video and are not tied to your account; each transcript is deleted automatically 365 days after it was last used (records of failed processing after 30 days). We never store video audio or the reference subtitles you upload (they are deleted once processing finishes); we only store the transcript and a record of which videos you have used it for (used to count your weekly limit, and deleted together with that transcript). Copyright holders and creators can contact us to have the transcript of a video removed.

When it is no longer necessary to retain your personal data, we will delete or anonymise it.

5. Your Rights

You have the following rights, which you can exercise free of charge:

• Access: The right to be provided with a copy of your personal data
• Rectification: The right to require us to correct any mistakes in your personal data
• To be forgotten: The right to require us to delete your personal data—in certain situations
• Restriction of processing: The right to require us to restrict processing of your personal data—in certain circumstances
• To object: The right to object at any time to your personal data being processed for direct marketing

If you would like to exercise any of those rights, please contact us with enough information to identify you and let us know what right you want to exercise.

6. Security

You use the Service at your own risk. We have appropriate security measures to prevent personal data from being accidentally lost, or used or accessed unlawfully. We limit access to your personal data to those who have a genuine business need to access it. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We also have procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.

7. Links to Other Websites

The Service may contain links to other websites not operated or controlled by LingoHey ("Third Party Sites"). The information that you share with Third Party Sites will be governed by the specific privacy policies and terms of service of the Third Party Sites and not by this Privacy Policy. By providing these links we do not imply that we endorse or have reviewed these sites.

8. Changes to Privacy Policy

The Service and our business may change from time to time. As a result we may change this Privacy Policy at any time. When we do we will post an updated version on this page, unless another type of notice is required by the applicable law. By continuing to use our Service or providing us with Personal Data after we have posted an updated Privacy Policy, you consent to the revised Privacy Policy and practices described in it.

9. Contact Us

If you have any questions about our Privacy Policy or information practices, please feel free to contact us at: nicepkg@qq.com