Read Aloud in British English: privacy policy

In short

The extension does not collect your data, does not store it on any server and does not send it anywhere. It has no server of its own, no analytics and no ads.

What happens to the text

• The extension uses only the text you select, and only when you ask for it: the “Read aloud in British English” menu item, the keyboard shortcut or the buttons in the extension popup. It never reads the whole page.
• The selected text is passed to the browser’s text-to-speech engine (chrome.tts).
• If you use a network voice — for example Google UK English in Chrome or the Microsoft natural voices in Edge — the browser sends the text to Google’s or Microsoft’s servers to synthesise the speech. This is done by the browser, not by the extension, under Google’s or Microsoft’s privacy policy. Windows voices work offline on your computer.

What the extension stores

• Your voice and speed settings, in chrome.storage.sync. If browser sync is on, the browser copies these settings to your other devices.
• The last spoken text, in chrome.storage.session — in browser memory only, until the browser is closed. The Again and Slower buttons need it.

Permissions

• contextMenus — the “Read aloud in British English” item in the menu for selected text.
• tts — to speak the text with the browser’s voices.
• storage — to keep the voice and speed settings and remember the last text.
• scripting and activeTab — to read the selection in the tab where you pressed the keyboard shortcut, and only in that tab. The extension asks for no access to other websites.

What the extension does not do

• It does not sell or share any data with third parties.
• It does not use the text for anything except reading it aloud.
• It does not download or run code from the internet.
• The “Support the author” link in the popup simply opens the author’s Ko-fi page in a new tab; the extension sends nothing there.