Privacy policy
Your hands stay on your device.
The short version
- No account needed. The free app works without signing in, and we keep no profile about you.
- We never receive your voice. Your browser's own speech recognition turns what you say into text. Some browsers do that on your device and some on the browser maker's servers, under that browser's privacy policy. SignMog never receives or records audio.
- Camera frames never leave your device. Sign to Speech and camera lessons read your hands on your phone or computer. Nothing is uploaded and nothing is saved.
- What you type stays on your device, unless you turn on the optional Cloud grammar.
- The Chrome extension reads captions, and nothing else. On YouTube, Google Meet, Zoom and Teams it picks up the captions on the page; anywhere else, only after you click Read this page. Caption lines go only to the side panel on your device.
- No ads, no analytics, no tracking cookies today. If that ever changes, this policy changes first.
1. Who we are
SignMog is made by Octag AI LLC ("we"), the makers of DubMog, MogDrive, AttorneyMog and BuildMog. This policy covers the website signmog.com, the web app at signmog.com/app/, and the SignMog extension for Chrome. SignMog turns speech, typed text and captions into American Sign Language signed by a 3D signer, reads signing back through the camera, and teaches ASL. It is an aid, not a certified interpreter; the terms say more.
SignMog is built to work on your device. Most of what it does never reaches us at all, and this policy says exactly where the exceptions are.
2. The microphone
Live speech to sign uses your microphone to hear what is said, so Sig or Sia can sign it.
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Who turns speech into text | Your browser, with its built-in speech recognition. SignMog asks the browser for the words and signs them. We never receive the audio. |
| Where that happens | It depends on the browser. Some recognize speech on your device. Others send the audio to the browser maker's speech service, for example Google for Chrome, Microsoft for Edge and Apple for Safari, under that company's privacy policy. We do not control that service and cannot see what it receives. |
| When | Only after you start listening, until you stop it or leave the page. Your browser shows that the microphone is in use the whole time. |
| What we keep | Nothing. No audio and no transcript reach our servers. The words show on your screen while the twin signs them and are gone when you close the page, unless you turn on Cloud grammar (section 4). |
Other people. If you use SignMog in a conversation, the microphone hears everyone nearby. Tell the people you are talking with that SignMog is listening.
Permissions. Your browser asks before SignMog can use the microphone. You can withdraw that permission in the browser's site settings at any time; typing, the dictionary and Learn keep working without it.
3. The camera
Sign to Speech and camera lessons use your camera to see your hands.
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Where the video goes | Nowhere. A hand-tracking model runs in your browser, on your phone or computer, and finds the points of your hands in each frame. Camera frames never leave your device. |
| What we keep | Nothing. Frames and hand points are not saved and not uploaded. The words SignMog reads from your signing are shown and spoken on your device. |
| What is downloaded | The first time you open the camera, your browser downloads the hand-tracking code and model, from jsDelivr and from Google's servers. Those requests carry your IP address, like any download, and carry no images. |
| Speaking for you | Sign to Speech uses your browser's built-in voice to say the words. Depending on the browser and the voice you pick, the text to be spoken may be processed by the browser maker's service. |
Permissions. Your browser asks before SignMog can use the camera, and shows when it is on. Point it at your own hands, and do not use it to film people who have not agreed to it.
4. Typed text and Cloud grammar
When you type a sentence, SignMog turns it into ASL gloss and signs it on your device. The text stays there.
Cloud grammar is optional and off unless you turn it on in Settings. It is part of Pro, which is coming soon. When it is on, each sentence you type or speak, or each caption line the extension reads, is sent to our server (a Google Cloud Function in our Firebase project), which asks Anthropic's Claude API to put it into natural ASL order and returns the gloss to your device. We do not store those sentences. Anthropic, PBC processes them as our service provider under its commercial terms, which do not allow it to train its models on them; like most AI services, it may keep request data for a limited time to detect abuse, as its terms describe. Turn Cloud grammar off and nothing more is sent.
5. The Chrome extension
- Captions on four sites. On YouTube, Google Meet, Zoom and Microsoft Teams on the web, a small caption reader in the page looks for the caption text shown on screen and passes each finished line to the SignMog side panel. When the panel is closed, nothing uses those lines and nothing keeps them.
- Anywhere else, only when you ask. On any other site the extension reads nothing until you click Read this page in the panel, and then only on that tab.
- Nothing else on the page. It reads caption text only. It does not read your browsing history, form fields, passwords or what you type.
- Signed on your device. The signer in the panel is the SignMog app from signmog.com/app/, shown in a frame, so everything in this policy applies to it. Caption lines are turned into signs there and are not saved or sent to us, unless you turn on Cloud grammar.
- The panel's microphone. The panel can also listen through your browser's speech recognition, as section 2 describes.
- Settings. Your choice of twin and the app address are kept in Chrome's extension storage.
6. Reports and email
Every sign has a Report button. A report holds the sign it is about, the note you write, the time and the app version. SignMog saves it on your device and copies it to your clipboard. Nothing is sent to us until you paste it into an email yourself. A report carries no audio, no video and no camera frames.
When you email us, a report or anything else, we receive your email address and what you write. We use them to answer you and to fix signs, and the fluent signers who review signs for us may read the report, without your email address.
7. What stays on your device
SignMog keeps a few things in your browser's storage so the app remembers you between visits. They never leave your device:
- your settings (the twin you chose, your dominant hand, speed, voice and the like), your Learn progress, your recent signs and the reports you saved, in one entry called sm.state;
- your theme, in sm.theme, which the website reads too;
- files your browser caches, such as the hand-tracking model, so the app opens faster next time.
Clear this site's data in your browser and they are gone. We set no advertising or analytics cookies.
8. Accounts and payments
There are no accounts and no payments today. Pro will need an account. Before Pro opens, this policy will say what an account stores, who handles sign-in and payments, and how to delete it.
9. Service providers
| Provider | What it does for SignMog | What it receives |
|---|---|---|
| Your browser maker | Speech recognition for speech to sign, and the voice for Sign to Speech. Not chosen or controlled by us. | Depending on the browser: microphone audio, and text to be spoken, under the browser's own policy. |
| Our web host | Serves the website and the app files. | Your IP address and the pages you request, in standard server logs. |
| jsDelivr | Serves open-source code the app runs on: Preact, htm, three.js and the MediaPipe hand tracker. | Your IP address, like any server your browser fetches files from. |
| Google LLC: Google Fonts and Google Cloud Storage | The fonts on these pages, and the hand-tracking model file. | Your IP address when the fonts or the model load. No images. |
| Google LLC: Chrome Web Store | Distributes the extension, once the listing is live. | What Google collects when you install an extension, under Google's policy. |
| Google LLC: Firebase and Cloud Functions | Runs the Cloud grammar server, only when you turn Cloud grammar on. | The sentence being signed, while it is processed. Not stored. |
| Anthropic, PBC | The Claude API puts sentences into ASL order for Cloud grammar. | The sentence being signed, only when Cloud grammar is on. |
We do not sell personal data and we do not share it for advertising.
10. Your rights and choices
- You hold the switches. The microphone and camera work only with your browser's permission, and you can withdraw it any time. Clearing the site's data removes everything SignMog stored on your device.
- Copy, correct, delete. If you sent us a report or an email, write to privacy@signmog.com and we send you what we hold, correct it, or delete it.
- Where you live matters. In the EEA, the UK and Switzerland you have the rights in the GDPR, including to object and to complain to your supervisory authority. Our legal bases are our legitimate interest in fixing signs and answering you (reports and email), our contract with you (Pro, when it opens), and your consent (the camera and microphone, through your browser's permission). In California you have the rights in the CCPA; we do not sell or share personal information as that law defines those words.
11. Retention and security
- Audio, video, camera frames and typed text: never received, so never kept.
- Reports: kept until the sign is reviewed and fixed, then stripped of anything that could identify you.
- Email: kept as long as we need it to help you, and no longer than two years.
- Server logs that contain IP addresses: kept by our web host for up to 30 days.
All connections use HTTPS. Browsers allow the microphone and camera only on secure pages, and SignMog is served only over HTTPS.
12. Age
Anyone can use the free app, at any age, without an account, and it collects no personal data from anyone. Reports and email do reach us, so if you are under 13, ask a parent, guardian or teacher to send them for you. If you think a child under 13 has sent us personal information, write to privacy@signmog.com and we will delete it.
13. Changes
When this policy changes we update the date at the top. If a change affects what reaches us, such as Cloud grammar, Pro accounts, analytics or ads, we update this page before the change takes effect and say so on the home page. Earlier versions are available on request.
14. Contact
Octag AI LLC · privacy@signmog.com · everything else: hello@signmog.com