Privacy Policy
Last updated: 2026. This explains what RealTalk stores about you and why.
What we store
- Your email address, a salted hash of your password (never the password itself), your time zone.
- Your learning data: flashcards and media you import, review history, mistakes and corrections, the text of your conversations, settings and progress.
- Test results you add (your grade or score and the day), next to the estimates before them, to check and improve the estimates; only counts, never your name, are ever shown to anyone. A photo of a score report, if you send one, is seen only by the site's owner to check the result and is deleted right after.
- Short notes your conversation partner keeps of what you tell it about your life (plans, work, interests), so it can ask about them next time. You can read and delete each one, or turn this off, in Settings.
- Usage records: when voice sessions start and end, and their length, to count your minutes.
- Your subscription status from Paddle. We never see or store your card details; Paddle handles payment.
- If you sign in with Google: your email address and Google's account ID for you. Nothing else from your Google account.
- If you use "⟲ What was that?" in RealTalk Watch: the last 20 seconds of what was playing on your phone (or, if you choose "Listen through the microphone", what the microphone heard, which can include you), sent when you tap it to be written down, and not kept, except a line you save (its few seconds of sound, with its card). Until you tap, they stay on your phone.
- If you use the browser extension: when it can't read a video's subtitles, which site it was (YouTube or Netflix) and what failed, never what you were watching; and anything you write in its "Report a problem" box. Kept 90 days, so the site's owner can fix it.
- YouTube videos in "Watch and learn" play in YouTube's own player (youtube-nocookie.com), so YouTube's privacy policy applies to watching them. To show a video's lines, our server asks YouTube for its captions; nothing about you goes with that request.
- Free videos in "Watch and learn" come from Wikimedia Commons: your phone asks Commons for them and their subtitles directly, so Wikimedia sees that request (its own privacy policy applies). We keep only the subtitles you open, in your account, and the moments you save.
- If you connect Google Drive (to watch your own videos): access to only the files you pick in Google's picker, kept as an encrypted token so your other devices can play them. Your videos stream from Google to your device; we don't copy or store them. We keep the subtitles you use with them, the file's name and ID, and where you'd got to. Disconnect any time in Your own video, or in your Google account's settings.
- When you save a word or a line while watching your own video: that line's few seconds of sound, cut on your device and kept with its card, so the card can play the actor saying it.
- Your level, goal, daily goal and reminder time, if you set them, to tailor your practice.
- Phrases you save, with their sentence and where they came from: a video's ID, title and time, and a few subtitle lines around it, or a web page's title and address.
The browser extension
The extension works only on YouTube and Netflix watch pages, on our own website, and on a page where you choose "Save to RealTalk" from the right-click menu. On YouTube and Netflix it reads the English subtitles of the video you're watching (and, on Netflix, the subtitles you chose in your own language) to make them clickable and show them side by side. It sends us the words you look up or save with their sentence and the video's ID, title and time; subtitle lines of the video you're watching, to underline phrases worth learning and to translate lines the site has no subtitles in your language for (both can be turned off); and what you save from a page you right-click. It doesn't read or send your browsing history, and it doesn't sell or share data. It keeps a sign-in token for your account in the browser; disconnect it from its menu or from Account.
Emails
Account emails (confirming your address, resetting your password) and, only if you turn it on, one practice reminder a day. Every reminder has a one-click unsubscribe link, and you can change or stop it in Account. No marketing emails without asking you first.
Voice
During a voice session your microphone audio goes directly from your browser to OpenAI, which generates the replies. We don't record or store your audio. If you try RealTalk without an account, your voice goes to OpenAI the same way. We store only the call's length; your internet address is held in memory for a day to limit free tries, and an anonymous code made from it goes to OpenAI for abuse monitoring. Your browser keeps the try's result until you create an account or clear it. When you use "Say it" on a clip, that short recording goes through our server to OpenAI to be transcribed, and is not kept. Words you look up and subtitle lines you translate are sent to OpenAI to explain and translate them. OpenAI processes it under its API data policy (API data is not used to train their models by default). We send OpenAI an anonymous identifier, not your email.
Cookies
One cookie keeps you logged in. No advertising or tracking cookies. Paddle's checkout sets its own cookies when you pay.
Who we share with
Only the processors needed to run the service: our hosting provider, OpenAI (voice, look-ups, translations and transcription), Paddle (payments), our email provider (account emails) and Google (only if you sign in with Google or connect Google Drive). Encrypted backups of the service's data are kept in a private repository at GitHub, which can't read them. We don't sell your data.
Your rights
You can download all your data (Account, Download my data) and delete your account and data at any time (Account, Delete account); deletion is immediate and permanent, except backups, which expire within 7 days. You can also contact us to access, correct or delete your data, under the GDPR, Korea's PIPA or other laws that apply.
Security
Connections are encrypted (HTTPS); passwords are hashed with scrypt; each account's data is kept separately.
Contact
Pricing · Terms · Privacy · Refunds · Contact: support@example.com