Privacy policy

Who is responsible

Kotosay (kotosay.com) is operated under the law of the United Arab Emirates. The operating company is named in the terms of service, and it decides how the data described here is used.

Questions about your data go through the contact form. We answer within 24 hours.

Your recordings and transcripts

When you upload a file, your browser first takes out the audio track and compresses it, and only that audio is sent to us. If your browser cannot do this, the original file is sent instead. The video picture stays on your device whenever the extraction works.

We store the audio until 24 hours after the transcription is finished, or 24 hours after the last attempt if it did not finish, and then delete it automatically. The transcript, your edits in the editor, any translation, subtitles and word timings stay, so you can open, edit and export them in your account. After the 24 hours you keep working on the text in the editor. Each file belongs to the account that uploaded it. Without an account, it belongs to the browser that uploaded it.

When you paste a YouTube link, we process the link and the video's audio to make the transcript, the same way as an uploaded file. If the audio cannot be fetched, we use the captions YouTube publishes for that video. We store the transcript in your account.

A finished transcript made from a YouTube link that was not edited is given to the next person who pastes the same link, instead of processing the video again. Only the text of the video's own audio or captions is reused, never edited transcripts or anything else from an account, and deleting the file ends this reuse.

The MP4 to MP3 converter and the audio converter work inside your browser. Files you convert there stay on your device and never reach our servers.

Your account

For an account we keep your email address, your plan, the devices you signed in from (Unlimited allows 3) and your sign-in sessions. You sign in with a link we email to you, and the link works once within 30 minutes.

Free limits and abuse protection

The free plan has daily limits. To apply them fairly and to stop people from opening many free accounts, we record for each free file:

• your IP address
• a device cookie that our server sets
• a device marker: a short code calculated from browser settings such as language, screen size and time zone
• a fingerprint of the file, calculated from its content, so the same file counts once
• the length of the file and the time of the upload

Payments

Payments for Unlimited are handled by Stripe. You enter your card details with Stripe, and they stay there. We receive what we need to run your plan: the plan, the billing interval, the payment dates and amounts, and whether a payment went through.

Emails we send

We email you sign-in links, a receipt for each payment and answers to your support messages. These emails are part of the service. We send them through an email delivery service.

Analytics and cookies

Kotosay uses an analytics service on every page to count visits and see which pages and tools people use. It is on for every visitor. It records the pages you open, your browser and device type, and an approximate location derived from your IP address. We use these numbers to improve the site and keep them out of advertising.

The site sets these cookies:

• sid: keeps you signed in, 30 days
• did: the device cookie for the free limits, about 13 months
• _ga and _ga_<ID>: the analytics service, to count each visit once, up to 2 years
• The bot protection check on uploads and sign-in may store what it needs to tell people from automated traffic.

Why we use your data

We use your files, transcripts and account data to provide the service you asked for. We use the free-limit records to keep the free plan available to everyone and to stop abuse. We use payment records because we have to keep them for bookkeeping, and analytics to understand how the site is used. Kotosay sells no personal data.

Who processes data for us

These services process data on our behalf, each for its own part of the work:

• Speech recognition processing: turns the audio of your file into text.
• Translation processing: translates a transcript when you ask for a translation.
• Hosting and storage: runs the site and stores your files, transcripts and account data on servers in the USA.
• Email delivery: sends sign-in links, receipts and support answers.
• Bot protection: checks uploads and sign-ins for automated abuse.
• Analytics: counts visits and page use, as described above.
• Payments: Stripe.

Where data is processed

Your files, transcripts and account data are stored on servers in the USA. Processing, for example speech recognition, translation, email delivery or analytics, may also take place in other countries.

How long we keep it

We delete your audio file automatically 24 hours after transcribing it. Transcripts, edits, translations, subtitles and word timings stay in your account until you delete them or ask us to delete them, and deleting a file removes everything that belongs to it at once. Account data stays until you delete the account. Inactive accounts are not removed automatically.

Other data, such as free-limit records, support messages, payment records and analytics data, is kept as long as needed for abuse protection, support, bookkeeping or statistics, and then deleted or anonymised. When you delete your account, the free-limit records stay for that time without a link to the account, so the free limits keep working.

Your choices and rights

In your account you can delete any file and its transcript, or delete the whole account. Deleting the account removes your files, transcripts, sessions and email address at once.

You can also ask us for a copy of your data, a correction, or the deletion of a file or of everything. Write to Contact from the email address of your account. We answer within 24 hours and complete the request within the time the law allows.

You can complain to the data protection authority where you live.

Age

Kotosay is for people aged 18 and over. If we learn that someone under 18 has an account, we delete it.

Changes to this policy

When this policy changes, the date at the top changes with it.

This policy exists in several languages. If the versions differ, the English version applies.