Gloss displays synchronized subtitles over web video and optionally translates and explains dialogue for language learning. You can import your own subtitles and view them without configuring an AI service. Gloss has no publisher-operated backend, advertising or external analytics. The publisher does not automatically receive your subtitles, vocabulary, browsing activity or API keys.
Gloss stores the following in your Chrome profile:
Imported or downloaded subtitles, file names, title/language/season/episode metadata, cue timings and technical identifiers.
Saved AI translations and explanations, analysis progress, jobs and usage/cost accounting.
Your vocabulary, including independent copies of words, translations, source sentences and their source metadata.
Preferences, interface and translation languages, connected-service settings and API keys.
Page and video identifiers, normalized page URLs, subtitle associations, timing adjustments, selected-player information and sites you enable for automatic activation.
Bounded local operational diagnostics described below.
These records support subtitle playback, translation, vocabulary and restoring your choices. Data is stored using IndexedDB and extension-local/session Chrome storage. Temporary translation logs use the extension's private local file storage. Gloss does not use Chrome Sync or a publisher account to synchronize this data between devices.
With website access you grant, Gloss discovers videos and follows playback and navigation in accessible pages and embedded players. It does not maintain a complete browser-history log. Saved page addresses have login credentials and known tracking parameters removed; other address parameters and fragments can remain and may contain personal information. Website access is requested through your action. Automatic activation is enabled separately for the sites you choose.
Gloss sends requests directly from its extension worker to OpenAI over HTTPS, using your own OpenAI API key:
Subtitle analysis and cue translation: relevant original subtitle text, surrounding context, technical token/cue/timing information and the source and selected translation languages. Analysis can process successive portions of a track, including the full track if you request it. Saved results can be viewed without a new request.
Chat: your question, the relevant original and translated subtitle context, earlier messages and answers in the open conversation, context associated with those questions, selected-word focus and translation language, and any image you attach. Earlier attached images may be sent again as part of that history. Opening the chat alone does not send this context.
Images: a video frame you explicitly attach or an image you explicitly paste into the composer. If direct frame capture is unavailable, Gloss may temporarily capture the visible tab and crop it to the selected video inside the extension worker. Only the crop of the video area is returned for attachment; it may include visible items overlapping that area; the full-tab screenshot is not stored or sent to OpenAI. An attached image is sent with your question.
Dictation: microphone audio recorded after you start dictation and grant any required microphone access. Stopping the recording, including its automatic stop after five minutes, sends the recording for transcription before you send a chat question. The transcript appears in the composer; it is not automatically submitted as a chat question. Canceling dictation or closing the chat before submission discards the pending recording. Gloss does not continuously listen or transcribe the video's audio.
Chat messages, attached images and microphone recordings are temporary in Gloss and are not saved as a permanent chat archive. Closing the chat clears its extension-side conversation. This does not retract a request already sent or erase provider-side data.
The endpoints used are api.openai.com/v1/responses and api.openai.com/v1/audio/transcriptions. Responses requests set store: false. This does not guarantee zero retention by OpenAI: security monitoring, model caches, account settings and applicable exceptions can still affect processing and retention. OpenAI's current API data controls govern these matters. Gloss does not configure a special zero-retention account on your behalf.
Starting a subtitle search sends the search criteria to all subtitle services you have connected, potentially all three: SubSource (api.subsource.net), SubDL (api.subdl.com, dl.subdl.com) or OpenSubtitles(api.opensubtitles.com, www.opensubtitles.com, dl.opensubtitles.com). Depending on the service, it receives your search title, language, optional year/season/episode, result or file identifiers and its own API key. Downloading contacts the service providing the result you select. Gloss does not upload your imported subtitle file, chat, images, microphone recording or vocabulary to these subtitle-search services.
Importing YouTube captions uses the selected video's available caption information and contacts YouTube/Google (www.youtube.com) to retrieve the selected caption track. YouTube requests may include browser-managed authentication cookies. Gloss does not copy those cookies into its own stored data or OpenAI requests.
External services receive ordinary connection information, such as your IP address, and can associate authenticated requests with your service account. Their processing and retention follow their own policies and account settings. See SubSource, SubDL, OpenSubtitles and Google/YouTube. These providers may process data outside your country. Imported text, questions, images and recordings may contain personal or sensitive information you choose to include; send only material you intend to share with the selected service.
Saved API keys are encrypted locally using AES-GCM-256 in a separate IndexedDB database. The non-extractable encryption key remains in the same Chrome profile, without an additional password. Other local subtitle and vocabulary data is not encrypted by this key vault.
Keys are available only to trusted extension contexts. Each API key is sent to its own service to authenticate requests, not to other providers or web-page scripts. A saved key can be shown in Gloss settings through your explicit action. Saved-key confirmation checks local readability; it is not a promise that a provider will accept that key.
This encryption reduces some accidental disclosures and simple plaintext searches. It does not guarantee protection against malware, a compromised browser or theft of the whole Chrome profile. Logical deletion does not guarantee physical erasure of disk or memory traces. Protect your device and browser profile; revoke or rotate a compromised key with its provider.
Subtitle retention normally limits stored tracks to five per page and thirty overall, with protection for active work. Eviction of a track does not delete independent vocabulary snapshots. Page/video associations, preferences, saved keys and some operational records can remain until you remove them or perform a full reset; they do not all expire after seven days.
Local temporary translation traces contain operational measurements, cue/package numbers and timing ranges. They exclude subtitle and translation text, file names, page URLs, API keys, prompts and model output. Recording is enabled by default and can be disabled in the extension's Options page. Up to twenty files of at most 512 KiB each are retained. Files older than seven days are pruned at the next analysis launch with recording enabled; this is not a daily deletion timer. These logs are not automatically sent to the publisher.
You can:
Delete vocabulary entries in the dictionary and export selected entries to files you control.
Remove or replace saved API keys in Gloss, and revoke them with the relevant provider.
Pause or cancel AI work. Requests already delivered may still have been processed by the provider.
Revoke optional website access through Chrome's extension controls and disable automatic activation for selected sites.
Use Reset settings to restore preferences and onboarding. It retains saved API keys, subtitles, translations, vocabulary, page/video associations, broad website grants, pinned player selection and logs.
Use Reset everything at the bottom of Gloss Settings to stop pending work and delete stored subtitles, translations, vocabulary, keys, settings, page/video associations and temporary translation logs, and revoke optional website access. A minimal coordination marker without user content may remain to prevent old operations from restoring deleted data.
Exported files, browser/device backups, and data already sent to external services are not deleted by a Gloss reset. Delete exported files yourself. For data held by a provider, use that provider's account controls or contact it directly. Removing the extension also removes its browser-managed extension storage.
Gloss uses data only to provide the subtitle, translation, chat, dictionary and related operational features described here. It does not sell user data, use or transfer it for advertising, or use it to determine creditworthiness or for lending. Its use of user data follows the Chrome Web Store User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
The publisher has no remote access to your local Gloss database. If you email support, the publisher receives the email address and the information you voluntarily send, and uses it to answer your request and handle the reported issue. Support correspondence passes through your email provider and the publisher’s iCloud Mail service (Apple privacy information). The publisher keeps it for as long as needed to resolve your request and meet applicable legal obligations. Do not send API keys or private media. To ask about privacy or exercise rights available under applicable law, contact bulkier_gingery.6a@icloud.com. Local records are controlled through the extension; the publisher cannot remotely retrieve or erase them.
This policy covers the extension. If you read it on Google Sites, Google processes visits to the hosted page under its Privacy Policy; hosting the policy does not give the publisher access to your local extension data.
The publisher will update this page when practices change and disclose material changes before they take effect. The date above identifies the latest revision.