Who we are

ConvertSpeech.com ("we") is a browser-based speech-to-text service: you upload audio or video, we produce transcripts, subtitles and summaries. This policy explains what personal data we process, why, and what rights you have. It applies to the website convertspeech.com including the logged-in area and the Live feature.

You can reach us any time via the contact form or the e-mail address shown on this page.

What we process

Your files and their results: uploaded audio/video files, the resulting transcripts, speaker labels, subtitles (SRT/VTT), AI summaries and translations.

Account data if you register: e-mail address, a hashed password (never the password itself), your interface language, your transcription history and credit balance, and your purchases (order ID and product — never payment details).

Fair-use data: a signed device cookie that remembers whether the free trial was used on your device, and your IP address for short-term abuse limits (registration and conversion caps) and standard server logs.

Statistics and advertising data: with your consent, Google Analytics measures how the site is used; if you arrive via an ad, we store the campaign parameters of your first visit (e.g. utm_source, click ID) with your account so we can tell which advertising works. Without consent, analytics runs in cookieless mode only.

How transcription works (our processors)

Depending on the engine you pick, your audio is processed by one of two providers on our behalf:

• Classic engine: Amazon Web Services (AWS Transcribe and S3 storage) in the Canada region. Uploaded audio is deleted from storage automatically after at most 30 days.
• AI engine, summaries and translations: OpenAI (USA). Under OpenAI's API terms, data submitted via the API is not used to train their models.
• Live: your microphone audio streams directly from your browser to OpenAI — it never touches our servers; we only store the finished transcript if you choose to save it.

We further use: FastSpring (payment processing — card data goes to FastSpring only, never to us), Twilio SendGrid (delivery of transactional e-mails such as activation and password reset), and Google reCAPTCHA v3 (invisible bot protection on our forms; Google receives connection data for scoring).

How long we keep your data

• Transcripts of visitors without an account: contents are deleted after 7 days.
• Transcripts of registered users: you control the retention yourself in "My account" (keep forever — the default — or auto-delete after 7, 30 or 90 days).
• Uploaded audio in our storage: at most 30 days (see above).
• Account data: for as long as your account exists. E-mail us to have your account and its data deleted.
• Server logs: rotated and deleted on a rolling basis.

Legal bases and international transfers

We process your data to perform the contract with you (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR — transcribing your files, running your account), on the basis of our legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f) — preventing abuse of the free tier, securing the service, keeping server logs), and with your consent where required (Art. 6(1)(a) — analytics cookies).

Some processors are located outside the EU: AWS processes audio in Canada (covered by an EU adequacy decision); OpenAI, Google, FastSpring and Twilio SendGrid are US companies — transfers rely on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and/or standard contractual clauses.

Cookies and local storage

• Session cookie: keeps you logged in during a visit (deleted when the session ends).
• csdevice: signed cookie remembering that the one-time free trial was used on this device.
• csconsent: stores your cookie-banner decision for 12 months.
• cs_live_prefs (localStorage): your language and voice settings on the Live page — stays on your device.
• Google cookies (_ga and similar): set only after you accept statistics in the banner.

You can delete cookies in your browser at any time; declining statistics in the banner keeps analytics cookieless.

Withdrawing your consent

If you agreed to analytics cookies, you can take that back at any time. Use the “Cookie settings” link in the footer of any page. Your choice is removed immediately, analytics storage is switched off in the same moment, and the consent banner opens again so you can decide anew.

Withdrawing is as easy as agreeing, and it costs you nothing: the service works exactly the same either way. We do not ask again on every visit — your decision is remembered in a single cookie named csconsent for one year.

Your rights

Under the GDPR you have the right to access, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, data portability and objection, and you may withdraw any consent at any time with effect for the future — all free of charge. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority.

The quickest way to exercise any of these rights is the contact form or the e-mail address on this page.

Changes

We update this policy when the service changes — for example when we add processors or features. The date above always reflects the latest revision.