When you enable real-time dubbing on a video, the audio has to leave your machine — that's how it gets translated. The question is: where does it go, how long is it kept, and who can see it? Most tools are vague about this. We try not to be.
What we collect (SyncDub)
- Audio frames: streamed to our translation cluster, processed, discarded. We do not log audio, do not write it to disk, and do not retain it after the dub is delivered.
- User preferences (target language, voice, hotkeys): stored in chrome.storage.local on your device.
- Aggregate, anonymised usage (e.g. 'X minutes dubbed in Japanese → English today'): stored for billing and capacity planning.
What we don't collect
- We never record video. We capture audio from the tab, not from your microphone.
- We never store anything you watch. We don't keep a history of videos you've dubbed.
- We never sell or share data with third parties.
How other tools compare
- ElevenLabs Dubbing Studio — uploads your full audio file to their servers. Files are kept until you delete them.
- Captions — uses server-side processing, retains audio for up to 30 days for quality review.
- Rask.ai — uploads full files, retained for as long as your account is active.
- YouTube Auto-Dub — Google's terms apply. Google's data retention policies are well-documented elsewhere.
- Heenok (free) — free tier is funded by ad targeting, which means anonymous usage data is shared with ad partners.
What to look for in any AI dubbing tool
- Audio retention policy — how long is the audio kept, and can you delete it?
- Model training opt-out — does your audio contribute to training the next model?
- Data residency — is audio processed in the EU, US, or another region?
- Third-party sharing — does the tool share anything with advertisers or other companies?