Alavo
Privacy Policy
Last updated: 5 August 2026 · Applies to the Alavo browser extension and the Alavo mobile app.
The short version
Alavo has no user accounts, no servers of its own, no analytics, no advertising and no trackers. Your vocabulary, your study history and your settings are stored on your own device. We never receive them, so we cannot sell, share or lose them.
What is stored on your device
- The words you save, their definitions, your example sentences and your sets.
- Your review schedule and study statistics.
- Your settings, including any API key you choose to add.
This data lives in your browser's own local storage for the extension, or in the app's private storage on mobile. Uninstalling removes it. Nothing is uploaded anywhere unless you turn on backup yourself.
Google Drive backup — only if you ask for it
Backup is off until you sign in. When you do:
- We request the single scope
drive.file, which grants access only to files the app itself creates. Alavo cannot see, read or touch anything else in your Drive. - Alavo creates a normal, visible folder named “Alavo Backup” in your My Drive and keeps your backup file there — not in a hidden application folder — so you can open, copy or delete it yourself at any time.
- The backup goes from your device straight to your Google account. It does not pass through any server of ours.
- Signing out, or revoking access at Google Account → Third-party access, stops it immediately.
What leaves your device while you use Alavo
To look a word up, the word — and sometimes the sentence around it — has to be sent to a dictionary or translation service. That is the only content that ever leaves your device.
| Service | What is sent | When |
|---|---|---|
| Google Translate API | The word or phrase you looked up | On each lookup that needs a translation |
| dictionaryapi.dev | The word you looked up | On each English dictionary lookup |
| YouTube | The ID of the video you chose to import | Only when you import that video's subtitles |
| Groq, Google Gemini or DeepSeek | The word and its context | Only if you added your own API key, and only for your lookups |
| Google Drive | Your backup file | Only after you sign in to backup |
Each of those services handles the request under its own privacy policy. Alavo sends no identifier of you along with it — no account, no device ID, no advertising ID.
Any API key you add
If you provide a Groq, Gemini or DeepSeek key, it is stored on your device only and used only to make your own lookups. It is never transmitted to us and is not included in Drive backups shared with anyone else.
Why the extension asks for its permissions
| Permission | Reason |
|---|---|
Read the page you are on (activeTab, scripting) |
To show the lookup card for the word you selected. Nothing is read until you select or double-click a word. |
| Tabs and side panel | To open the practice panel beside the YouTube video you are watching. |
Network requests (webRequest, declarativeNetRequest) |
To fetch the subtitle track of the video you asked to import. |
Storage (storage, unlimitedStorage) |
To keep your vocabulary on your device and work offline. A real vocabulary library outgrows the default quota. |
Sign-in (identity) |
To let you sign in to your own Google Drive for backup. |
| Offscreen documents | To play pronunciation audio and run the local database outside the visible UI. |
Children
Alavo is a study tool suitable for general audiences. It does not knowingly collect personal information from anyone, of any age — because it does not collect personal information at all.
Changes to this policy
If a future version of Alavo changes how data is handled, this page is updated with a new date above before that version ships. Material changes are also noted in the extension's release notes on the Chrome Web Store.
Contact
Questions, or a data request: hoangcaophi11061999@gmail.com.