Privacy policy.

Data controller

Information we collect

Personal information you provide

• Account information: email address, username, password (encrypted)
• Profile data: voice preferences, playback speed settings
• Content: text content you submit for podcast generation, and pages you ask us to read. When you send a link, we fetch the page and may send its images to Google (Gemini API) so the narration can describe them.
• Feed artwork: images you upload as a feed's cover. We remove their metadata, such as where a photo was taken, and store and publish them in that feed. Podcast apps fetch artwork without a password, so anyone who has an image's address can see it, though the address can't be guessed. Removing the artwork, or deleting the feed or your account, deletes the image. If we take an image down after a copyright or illegal-content notice, we stop publishing it but keep it, so that we can put it back after a valid counter-notice or a review that reverses the decision, until you delete the feed or your account.
• Payment information: processed securely by Stripe (we don't store card details)
• Private feed/audio tokens: bearer credentials used by podcast apps to fetch private feeds and audio

Information we collect automatically

• Usage data: episodes created, character counts, download statistics, and where you stopped listening in each episode, so you can resume on another device
• Technical data: IP address, browser type, device information
• Country: when you sign up or sign in, we guess your country from your browser's language and time zone. If it is one of the English-speaking countries whose voices we offer, we store it to choose default voices. We don't keep the language or time zone.
• Where you came from: when you sign up, the campaign tags, referral code, referring site and sign-up page in the link you followed, and whether you signed up with email or Google; later, the first AI app you connect. Nothing is stored for visitors who don't sign up.
• Podcast app: the app that fetches your feed, as it names itself, and when it first and last downloaded an episode.
• Cookies and browser storage: a sign-in cookie, and settings kept in your browser (see "Cookies and browser storage" below)
• Log data: error logs, performance metrics (anonymized where possible)

Legal basis for processing

How we use your information

• Service provision: generate podcasts, manage your account, process payments
• Communication: send service-related emails, respond to support requests
• Tips and reminders: a welcome email, an email when your first episode is ready, a few set-up tips in your first eight days, and emails when your free allowance or trial is running low or used up, which point to the paid plans. You can refuse them when you create your account, and turn them off at any time in Preferences or with the link in every one.
• Improvement: analyze usage patterns to improve the service
• Security: detect fraud, prevent abuse, maintain platform security
• Legal compliance: meet legal obligations, respond to legal requests

Data sharing and third parties

Third-party processors

AI processing

Readcast does not use your content to train AI models. Google and OpenAI process content sent through their paid APIs to provide the service and do not use it to train their models.

We do not sell your data

We never sell, rent, or trade your personal information to third parties for marketing purposes.

Data retention

• Active accounts: retained while your account is active
• Cancelled subscriptions: cancelling stops billing only; your account and episodes stay until you delete the account
• Deleted accounts: generated episodes, local/R2 audio, feed artwork, feed subscriptions, API keys, OAuth tokens, RSS tokens, and private audio tokens are deleted or revoked during account deletion, subject to limited legal, tax, billing, security, and backup retention
• Repeat free allowances: when an account is deleted, we keep a keyed hash of its verified email address and of its Google account ID for 12 months, so that deleting an account and signing up again does not bring a new free allowance. Nothing else about the account is kept for this purpose
• Download records: the IP address and app or browser details recorded when an episode is downloaded are removed after 90 days
• Sign-up network: the IP address an account signed up from is removed 12 months after sign-up
• Free-account limits: records of the networks that free accounts create episodes from are deleted within 3 months
• Feed-sharing checks: the IP addresses that fetched a private feed or audio link on a given day are deleted after two days
• Connected AI apps and the Chrome extension: an AI app, or the Readcast Chrome extension, gets new sign-in tokens as it uses Readcast; we delete spent ones 30 days after they expire or are revoked, and keep a record of when you first connected and last used each app until you delete your account. The record of each attempt to send an app's completion notice to the address it gave is deleted 30 days after delivery ends
• Episodes that weren't made: when an episode fails or is cancelled, we keep its text for 7 days so you can retry it, then delete it; when a retry replaces it, the retry keeps the text and the first copy is deleted within an hour. A draft not approved within 7 days expires, and its text is deleted 7 days after that. A finished episode, and a section you re-recorded in it, keep their text with the episode until you delete it
• Legal requirements: some data retained longer for tax/legal compliance (up to 7 years)
• Notices and takedowns: copyright and illegal-content notices, decisions, and the related account records are kept for up to 7 years to handle disputes and legal claims
• Publisher opt-outs: the domain, the requester's email address and note are kept while the opt-out is in place
• Logs and analytics: anonymized data may be retained for up to 2 years
• Backups: backups keep copies of deleted data until they expire, at most 90 days later

Your privacy rights

To exercise these rights, contact privacy@readcast.io. We aim to respond promptly and within timeframes required by applicable law.

Data security

• Encryption: HTTPS/TLS in transit and provider-managed storage protections where applicable
• Access control: account authentication, CSRF protection, private feed tokens, private audio tokens, and owner checks
• Password security: passwords are stored only as salted scrypt hashes
• Security reviews: code and configuration are reviewed for security issues
• Data minimization: we only collect and store necessary data
• Incident response: we assess suspected breaches and notify the regulator and affected users when the law requires

Private RSS and audio links

Podcast apps need direct links to fetch episodes. Readcast uses unguessable RSS and audio tokens for that purpose. These links work like passwords: anyone with the exact URL may be able to fetch the private feed or audio until you rotate or revoke the relevant token. We record the IP addresses that fetch them, for security and to spot links that have been shared.

Copyright and content notices

If you send us a notice, we keep your name, email address, the notice and, for the web form, the IP address it was sent from, to handle it and any dispute. We tell the account owner that we acted on a notice but do not give them your name or email unless the law requires it. If the account owner sends a copyright counter-notice, we forward it to the person who sent the original notice, as copyright law requires.

If you use the publisher opt-out form, we don't store your request until you confirm the link we email you: the link itself carries it. The form's log entries note the domain of each request and confirmation, but not your email address or IP address, and the form counts requests from each IP address only in the server's memory, to limit misuse. Once you confirm, we keep the domain, your email address and your note with the opt-out for as long as it is in place, to show who asked for it. If you also ask us to remove episodes, we keep that request as a notice, with your email address, your note and the IP address you confirmed it from, for as long as we keep notices. Cloudflare Turnstile may check the form for bots.

Cookies and browser storage

We use only the cookies and browser storage the service needs to work, so we do not ask for consent to them. We use no analytics, advertising or tracking cookies.

Cookies

• Session cookie: keeps you signed in and protects forms against cross-site request forgery
• Remember-me cookie: keeps you signed in for up to 30 days when you choose to stay signed in

Browser storage

Your browser keeps these on your device, and they are not sent to us:

• your playback speed and whether the next episode plays automatically
• where you stopped listening, as a fallback to the position saved to your account
• the progress of an episode being made, so it survives a page reload
• a draft of the create form, until you close the tab
• whether you dismissed the library's suggestion to connect ChatGPT or Claude

The Chrome extension

If you use the Readcast Chrome extension, Chrome keeps its sign-in (sign-in tokens, with your email address and private feed address) and your last ten conversions on this device only. It keeps the Readcast server the extension uses and the feed you publish to with your Chrome settings, which Chrome sync can copy to your other browsers. The sign-in tokens are sent only to Readcast, for the extension's own requests. Signing out of the extension, or removing it, deletes them.

You can clear cookies and browser storage in your browser's settings. Clearing the session cookie signs you out.

International data transfers

Some service providers are located outside the UK and the EU, mainly in the United States. We protect those transfers through:

• Adequacy: UK adequacy regulations and EU adequacy decisions, including the UK-US data bridge and the EU-US Data Privacy Framework where the provider is certified
• Contractual safeguards: the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, and the EU Standard Contractual Clauses
• Data processing agreements: contractual commitments to UK GDPR and EU GDPR compliance

Children's privacy

Readcast is for adults: you must be 18 or older to use it. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If we learn that we have, we delete it and close the account.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy to reflect changes in our practices or legal requirements. We will notify you of material changes by email or through the service. The updated policy is effective immediately upon posting.