Privacy Policy

1Who we are

Readabler is a product of PE Merkulov ("Readabler", "we", "us"). We are the controller of the personal data described in this policy. You can reach us at any time at [email protected].

This policy explains what the Readabler browser extension does with your data, and applies from the effective date shown above. By installing or using the extension you agree to the practices described here.

2What this policy covers

This page covers the Readabler browser extension and the website at chrome.readabler.com. Other parts of Readabler have their own policies:

• Your Readabler account — signing up, signing in, billing and the account dashboard.
• The Readabler widget that website owners install on their own sites for their visitors.
• Readabler Assistant, covered by the Assistant privacy policy.

The extension and the website plan are separate products, billed separately. Buying one does not include the other.

3What stays on your device

Almost everything the extension does happens locally. The adjustment engine ships inside the extension — Chrome's Manifest V3 rules forbid loading executable code from a server — so applying a profile, changing a font, dimming a page or turning on a reading mask involves no network request at all.

The extension keeps the following in your browser's own extension storage (chrome.storage.local), on the device where you set it:

• Your adjustments — text size, spacing, fonts, colours, contrast, orientation aids and distraction controls, plus the profile you selected.
• Per-site settings — where you switched a site to "Only this site", the hostname of that site and the settings you chose for it.
• Panel preferences — the panel's language and light/dark choice.
• The result of the last subscription check and the time it was made, so the extension keeps working when your connection drops.

This data is not transmitted to us and is not synchronised between your devices. Removing the extension removes it; the panel's Reset control clears it on demand.

4What reaches your Readabler account

To know whether your subscription is active, the extension's background service worker makes a request to your Readabler account, using the session cookie your browser already holds for that domain. It reads back one thing: whether your extension subscription is active.

That request carries nothing about the pages you are on. It contains no URL, no page content and no list of sites. It is repeated periodically and when your account sign-in state changes. If your account cannot be reached, the last confirmed answer keeps the extension working for a short grace period — so a dropped connection does not take away the tools you rely on to read.

The extension also fetches the panel's translation files from the same account domain, which involves nothing but the language code.

5The AI features

The AI features are the only part of the extension that sends content off your device, and each one runs only when you start it. Nothing is captured in the background, and nothing is sent while the AI card is idle.

Along with these requests the extension sends the address of the page you are on, which we use to attribute usage against your plan's allowance and to show you the usage meter in the panel.

These requests go to your Readabler account, which passes them to the AI providers we use — currently OpenAI for text generation and Microsoft Azure for speech. They process the content to produce your answer, summary, transcript or audio, and are contractually bound to use it for nothing else. We do not use your content to train models, and we do not build advertising or marketing profiles from it.

Microphone access is requested by your browser at the moment you start a voice conversation, and can be withdrawn at any time in your browser's site and extension settings. If you never use the AI features, the extension sends no page content anywhere.

6Permissions, explained

Chrome shows a list of permissions when you install an extension. Here is what each one is for in Readabler, and what it is not used for.

7This website

chrome.readabler.com is a static site. It sets no advertising or tracking cookies and runs no third-party analytics. Your language choice is stored in your browser's own local storage so the site remembers it on your next visit; you can clear it through your browser at any time.

The site loads the Roboto typeface from Google Fonts, which means your browser contacts Google's font servers and Google receives your IP address as part of that request. Everything else the page needs is served from our own domain.

Like any web server, ours records standard request logs (IP address, timestamp, requested page, browser user agent) for security and troubleshooting. These are kept for a limited period and are not used to profile you.

8Payments

Subscriptions are sold and processed by Paddle, which acts as the merchant of record. Paddle collects the payment details and billing information needed to take payment and issue an invoice, under its own privacy policy. We never see or store your full card number. We receive the subscription status, the plan, and the billing details shown on your invoice.

9Who else sees your data

We do not sell or rent personal data, and we do not share it for advertising. We share it only with the providers that make the service work, and only as far as each needs:

• AI providers (OpenAI, Microsoft Azure) — the content you send to an AI feature, in order to answer it.
• Paddle — payment and subscription processing.
• Hosting and infrastructure providers — who store the data on our behalf.

We may also disclose data where the law requires it, to respond to a lawful request, or to protect the rights and safety of PE Merkulov and others. If Readabler is ever involved in a merger, acquisition or sale of assets, data may transfer as part of that transaction, on the condition that the recipient continues to protect it in line with this policy.

10How long we keep it

Data stored on your device stays until you clear it or uninstall the extension. Account and billing records are kept for as long as your account exists and for as long afterwards as tax and accounting law requires. AI request records are kept only as long as needed to produce the answer, meter your usage and prevent abuse, after which they are deleted or anonymised. Server logs are kept for a short period.

11Your rights

Depending on where you live, you have some or all of the following rights over the personal data we hold about you:

• Access — a copy of the data we hold about you.
• Correction — to have inaccurate or incomplete data put right.
• Deletion — to have your data erased, subject to legal exceptions.
• Portability — a copy in a structured, machine-readable format.
• Objection and restriction — to object to, or limit, certain processing.
• Withdrawing consent — where processing rests on your consent, at any time, without affecting what came before.

Write to [email protected] to exercise any of them; we will respond within the period the applicable law allows. Under the GDPR you also have the right to complain to your local supervisory authority. If you are a California resident, we confirm that we do not sell or share personal information as those terms are used in the CCPA/CPRA, and we will not discriminate against you for exercising your rights.

12International transfers

Readabler is operated from Ukraine and our providers operate in the European Union, the United Kingdom and the United States. Your data may therefore be processed outside the country you live in. Where data leaves the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, we rely on the appropriate safeguards permitted by law — most often the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses in our agreements with those providers.

13Security

Traffic between the extension, our servers and our providers is encrypted in transit. Access to account data is restricted to those who need it to operate the service, and the extension is designed so that the least possible data leaves your device in the first place. No method of transmission or storage is perfectly secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security — but if a breach ever affects your data, we will notify you and the relevant authority as the law requires.

14Children

Readabler is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from them. In the European Economic Area, that age is 16 where local law sets it there. If you believe a child has provided us with personal data, write to us and we will delete it.

15Chrome Web Store Limited Use

Readabler's use of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Chrome Web Store User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. Specifically, we use the data described in this policy only to provide and improve the user-facing features of the extension; we do not transfer it to third parties except as set out in section 9, do not use it for advertising, and do not allow humans to read it except with your consent, for security purposes, to comply with the law, or where the data has been aggregated and anonymised.

16Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the extension changes. The effective date at the top always reflects the current version. If a change materially affects how your data is handled, we will tell you by email or in the extension before it takes effect.

17Contact us

Questions about this policy, or about anything the extension does with your data, are welcome — including the awkward ones.