Privacy Policy

Last updated: May 11, 2026

This Privacy Policy describes how the ELI5 Chrome extension (also distributed as "MicroTTS") and the supporting service at sr.microq.org, operated by the MicroTTS team ("we", "us"), collect, use, and protect your information.

1. Information the extension collects

• Authentication information. Your email address and an API key derived from it. Used only to identify your account and bill character credits. Stored hashed; never sold.
• Website content (transient). The text you explicitly select and send to the extension for narration or "explain like I'm 5". The text is forwarded to our TTS / explanation provider, processed in memory, and discarded as soon as the audio or explanation is returned. It is not logged, stored, or used to train any model.
• Usage statistics. Per-request character count, voice, and timestamp — used solely for billing, capacity planning, and abuse prevention.
• Payment metadata. Stripe event ID, amount, currency, and credits granted. Card details are processed by Stripe and never reach our servers.

2. Information the extension does NOT collect

• Browsing history, tabs, bookmarks, downloads, form data, IP-based location, device identifiers, or contacts.
• Personal communications, health, financial (other than the Stripe metadata above), or authentication data of third-party services.
• Page content other than the text you explicitly select and submit.
• We do not run third-party analytics, advertising trackers, or fingerprinting in the extension or on the dashboard.

3. How we use information

Collected data is used exclusively to (a) authenticate you, (b) deliver the requested text-to-speech / explanation result, (c) bill credits, and (d) communicate transactional messages (sign-in codes, receipts, account notices). It is not used for advertising, profiling, or sold to any third party.

4. Limited Use disclosure

The use and transfer of information received from Google APIs (and any data obtained through this extension) adheres to the Chrome Web Store User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. We certify that we:

• Do not sell user data to any third party.
• Do not use or transfer user data for purposes unrelated to the extension's single purpose (text-to-speech and "explain like I'm 5" narration of selected text).
• Do not use or transfer user data to determine creditworthiness or for lending purposes.
• Do not allow humans to read user data, except (i) with your explicit consent, (ii) where necessary for security, abuse prevention, or legal compliance, or (iii) where the data has been anonymised and aggregated.

5. Sub-processors

We share the minimum data necessary with the following sub-processors:

• OpenAI — text-to-speech and explanation generation (selected text only; not retained for training per OpenAI API terms).
• Stripe — payment processing.
• Resend — transactional email delivery.
• MongoDB Atlas — database hosting (EU region).
• Cloudflare — edge delivery, TLS termination, and DDoS protection.

6. Data retention

• Account data (email, hashed API key, balance): until you request deletion.
• Per-request usage records (no text content): 24 months for tax / audit, then aggregated.
• One-time sign-in codes: deleted automatically 15 minutes after issue.
• Generated audio files: held in temporary storage for up to 1 hour, then deleted.
• Submitted text: not retained beyond the in-memory processing of a single request.

7. Cookies

The dashboard at sr.microq.org sets a single first-party cookie (microtts_session) to keep you signed in. The extension itself does not set any cookies. No advertising or analytics cookies are used.

8. Your rights

You may request access, correction, export, or deletion of your data at any time by emailing [email protected]. We respond within 30 days. EU/UK users have the rights granted by the GDPR / UK GDPR; California users have the rights granted by the CCPA / CPRA.

9. Children

The extension is not directed to children under 13 (or under 16 in the EEA) and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them.

10. Changes to this policy

We will post any material change to this page and update the "Last updated" date above. Continued use of the extension after a change constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.

11. Contact

Questions or requests: [email protected].