TranslationTone
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Privacy policy

This policy describes what personal information TranslationTone collects, why we collect it, who we share it with, and what controls you have over it. It is meant to be readable — not a wall of legalese.

Who we are

TranslationTone is operated by an independent team building a real-time voice translation and messaging platform. This policy covers the TranslationTone mobile app (Android), the web client (translationtone.com), and the backend API they both talk to.

For privacy questions of any kind, email wade@translationtone.com.

What we collect

We only collect what we need to run the service and improve it over time.

Account information

  • When you sign in with Google: your name, email address, and optionally the URL of your profile photo (handled by Firebase Authentication).
  • Your phone number, which you enter during onboarding so contacts can find you.
  • Your native language and voice preferences.

Message + media content

  • Text messages you send or receive, along with their translations.
  • Voice messages you record — stored as audio and, optionally, as translated transcripts.
  • Photos and videos you send, plus any caption text or text we detect inside an image via OCR.
  • For "view-once" messages, the bytes are deleted from the server the moment the recipient opens them.

Voice profile (optional)

  • If you record a voice profile so translations sound like you, we store the audio recordings you explicitly made. You can delete them at any time from app settings.

Technical + usage data

  • Device information (model, OS version, app identifiers) needed to deliver push notifications.
  • Server logs (IP addresses, timestamps, response codes) used for diagnostics and security.
  • Basic website usage metrics (analytics) that help us understand which pages are visited.
  • Translation telemetry (which engine ran, latency) — anonymized, with no message content attached.

Anti-fraud

  • The IP address your account was created from, and the IP addresses your account connects from, so we can detect one person running many accounts to farm free trial minutes.
  • Whether the IP address you signed up from belongs to a VPN, proxy, or Tor exit. We check this against publicly published network lists that we download and match locally — your address is never sent to a third-party lookup service. We record only the yes/no answer, and only at the moment you create your account.
  • If the answer is yes, we tell you before your account is created and you choose whether to continue without the free trial. Using a VPN at any other time is completely fine — we never check again, and it never affects the app.

Payments

  • When you buy minutes or a subscription, the payment processor (Stripe or Google Play Billing) handles your card details directly. We only receive a transaction identifier and the subscription status.

How we use it

We do not sell your data to advertisers. We do not use the content of your messages to train models unless you explicitly opt in to corpus contribution from settings (it is off by default). The third-party translation provider we send message text to does not train on it either — see “Who we share with” below.

  • To deliver the features you asked for: translation, voice synthesis, messaging, calls, notifications.
  • To let your contacts find you by phone number when you allow it.
  • To operate and improve the service: debug failures, scale infrastructure, tune model quality.
  • To process payments and apply your minutes or subscription.
  • To meet legal obligations and protect against abuse, fraud, or misuse.

Who we share with

We only share personal data with the providers we need to run the service, and only to the extent required:

  • Google (Firebase Authentication, Cloud Messaging, Play Billing) — authentication, push notifications, Android payments.
  • Cloudflare — website hosting and object storage (R2) for media files.
  • Stripe — payment processing on the web.
  • Groq — third-party AI inference, used to translate your messages. When a message is translated we send its text, along with the source and target language, to Groq, which runs an open-weight language model and returns the translation. We do not send your name, email address, phone number, contacts, or payment details with it. Groq does not use this text to train models, and we have enabled zero data retention on our account so inputs and outputs are not stored.
  • Cloud-compute providers (RunPod and similar) — they host servers that we operate, which run speech recognition and voice synthesis. Those models run on machines under our control, so your audio and your voice profile are not handed to a third-party AI service.

If Groq is unavailable, translation falls back to LibreTranslate, an open-source translation engine that we host on our own servers. When that fallback is used, the text of your message does not leave our infrastructure at all.

Where the law requires it, we may disclose information in response to valid legal process. In all cases we require providers to handle data under reasonable security standards and only for the agreed purposes.

How long we keep it

When you delete your account, we remove your profile, messages, and media from our primary systems. Backup copies and logs may take up to 90 additional days to purge.

  • Text messages, photos, and voice messages: indefinitely, until you delete them or close your account.
  • Videos: up to 30 days on the server; your device cache is indefinite.
  • "View once" messages: deleted from the server as soon as the recipient opens them, or after 24 hours unopened.
  • Voice profile: until you delete it or close your account.
  • Server logs: typically 30 days.
  • The IP address your account was created from, and the VPN/proxy yes/no answer recorded at that moment: kept for as long as the account exists — they are the anchor for detecting trial-farming rings.
  • The most recent IP address your account connected from: 90 days. Your wider IP connection history: 12 months.

Your rights + choices

You can view, correct, or delete most of your data directly inside the app: your profile, your contacts, your voice profile, and individual messages all have visible controls. For full account deletion, email wade@translationtone.com and we will process the request within 30 days.

If you live in the EU/EEA, UK, California, or another jurisdiction with specific personal-data rights (access, portability, objection), send your request to the same email and we will honor it within the timelines required by applicable law.

Children

TranslationTone is not directed at children under 13 (or 16 in jurisdictions that apply that floor). We do not knowingly collect information from children. If you believe a child has submitted personal data to the app, email us and we will delete the account.

International data transfers

Our servers are located primarily in the United States. If you use us from outside the US, your data will be transferred to, stored, and processed in jurisdictions whose privacy laws may differ from your own. We take reasonable measures to protect data during those transfers.

Security

We use encryption in transit (HTTPS/TLS) for all communication between your device and our servers. Media is stored in object backends with access controls. No online system is fully impenetrable — if you discover a vulnerability, email wade@translationtone.com and we will work with you.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the product evolves. When we make material changes, we will update the "Last updated" date at the top and, where appropriate, notify you inside the app or by email before the change takes effect.

Contact

For questions or requests related to this policy, email us:

wade@translationtone.com