Privacy Policy

Sotto is a brand of Cat-Radar V.O.F., which is responsible for your personal data on thesotto.app and in the phone app. David makes Sotto and reads every message. You can reach him at david@thesotto.app.

Cat-Radar V.O.F.’s registered address is Marius Bauerstraat 30D2, 1062 AR Amsterdam, and its Dutch Chamber of Commerce (KvK) number is 85677353.

You must be at least 16 to use Sotto, with or without an account.

Your microphone is used only while live subtitles run or while you hold to speak. Stop subtitles, or let go, and listening stops. Nothing listens in the background.

Live audio goes straight from your device to a speech-recognition company in the United States for subtitles and translations. It processes the audio only for that moment, without storing it or using it for training. When you’re signed in, it receives an account identifier to account for your stream, never your email address.

When you hold to speak, your phone records the message and sends it through Sotto’s server to the same company’s file service. Sotto’s server holds it only while the request runs and keeps nothing. The company stores the file encrypted until Sotto deletes it, within about a minute. When you have a line read aloud, its text passes through Sotto’s server to that company’s voice service. Sotto’s server never stores audio, subtitles or translations.

You can send David a note from the live screen, with or without signing in. If a conversation is on screen, you can attach its subtitles and then tick a box to include audio from the most recent stretch. Nothing is attached unless you choose it. Saved transcripts are never sent. Audio includes other people’s voices, so sending it is your responsibility, including getting any consent required where you are.

Each note includes a few technical details: website or app and version, device or browser, reading languages and whether a conversation was running. The note and any attachments are emailed to David and kept in his mailbox. Sotto’s server keeps none of them. Email david@thesotto.app to have a note and its attachments removed.

Saving is off by default. If you turn it on, conversations are saved as text in your phone’s app storage or browser. They never go to Sotto’s server. You can delete them in the app; Sotto cannot delete them for you.

Your device remembers your languages, theme and text size. It also remembers recently used languages as language codes only. A random device ID helps count your free minutes and record your activity before sign-in.

The website uses three cookies, all Sotto’s own: one keeps you signed in, one holds your device ID for 90 days from your last visit, and one remembers your website language for a year. The device cookie is set on your first visit and kept whatever your Cookies choice, because it is needed to count your free allowance and prevent abuse. It also links the website replay recordings in section 4 to your visits before sign-in. There are no measurement cookies or cookies from other companies. In the phone app, a token in app storage keeps you signed in.

Your Cookies choice controls the Google Ads and OpenAI reports in section 5, not these three cookies.

Without an account, you get two free minutes of subtitles per device each day, plus one short extension. Sign in to continue after that. Accounts are free, with no limit on subtitles while signed in.

To count the free allowance, Sotto keeps a daily record of your device ID, network address and seconds granted, then deletes it after two days. Signed in, your daily usage is recorded against your account without a network address and kept for 90 days to help shape future plans.

You only need to give your email address if you want an account. You sign in with an emailed code or link, without a password. Sotto also uses your email for occasional notices about changes to this policy or the terms. With your Emails consent, you receive occasional news and tips. With your Cookies consent, a hashed version is used for Google Ads and OpenAI reporting as described in section 5. Your email address is never sold.

Each sign-in records your network address and browser or device until that sign-in expires, at most 90 days. Sotto also keeps your connection’s country and browser language on your account to understand where and in which languages it is used.

To keep Sotto available and pay only for genuine use, a short block list holds email and network addresses that abused the service. Email blocks also cover aliases made by adding a plus suffix (name+anything@domain) on any provider, adding or removing dots before @ on Gmail (gmail.com and googlemail.com), or adding or removing dots, hyphens or underscores before @ on Proton Mail (proton.me, protonmail.com, protonmail.ch and pm.me), including switching between the listed domains for the same provider. Network addresses are removed after seven days. Email addresses stay until the block is lifted, even if an account is deleted and recreated. An admin decides each block. Email david@thesotto.app if you think a block is a mistake.

Sotto’s own server records actions such as opening a page, starting or stopping subtitles, signing in, sharing a transcript or changing languages. Records include the time, website or app, and small details such as the page or chosen languages. For the first page of a visit, they also include the referring site’s domain and campaign labels from the link, never the full referring page address or search terms.

These records help improve Sotto. They never contain audio, subtitles, translations, saved transcripts, typed titles, note text or email addresses. No analytics company receives them.

On thesotto.app, Sotto also records taps, clicks, scrolling, pointer movement and page structure so visits can be replayed to improve the website. Recording starts without asking first. It runs for visitors and signed-in members, whatever your Cookies choice. It does not run in the phone app. Before anything leaves your browser, subtitles, translations, saved transcripts and their names, notes, feedback text and your email address wherever it appears on the page are replaced with asterisks. Form fields and their placeholders are always masked, including while you type. The rest of the page, including Sotto’s menus, language names, buttons and page text, is recorded as written. Video, audio and canvases are not recorded, and link addresses are kept without their query strings. Recordings go only to Sotto’s own server; no replay company receives them. Like activity records, they use your device ID before sign-in and join your account when you sign in. Recordings are kept for at most 90 days, including members, and deleted sooner if your visitor device records are deleted.

Before sign-in, activity records use your device ID. When you sign in, they join your account’s history. Visitor records are deleted 90 days after the device’s last activity. Account records, including country and language, stay until you delete the account.

Cookies is your choice about Google Ads and OpenAI reporting. Emails is your choice about occasional news and tips. You can change either any time in Your account, opened from the menu. Sign-in codes and links always arrive, whatever you choose.

In the European Economic Area and the UK, or when your country is unknown, the “You’re in” step asks once after sign-up. Both choices start on; Customise lets you turn either off. Elsewhere, both are on by default.

Sotto advertises on Google Search and in ChatGPT, the OpenAI assistant. If you arrive from an ad link, it carries a click ID from that platform. Sotto keeps the ID on its own server against your device’s record for up to 90 days and links it to your account at sign-up. It sends the ID to nobody before sign-up.

With Cookies on, Sotto reports to Google Ads and OpenAI when you sign up and when you reach two usage milestones in your first days of use. These reports are based on your Cookies consent. Each includes when it happened, the click ID if Sotto kept one from that platform, and a hashed version of your sign-in email. This lets each platform match the step to an ad click, even from another device. Reports include no amounts or other account details.

Nothing is reported to Google or OpenAI before sign-up. Turn Cookies off and reports stop at once. Reports already sent stay with the platform that received them. The consent signals sent to Google follow your Cookies choice. OpenAI does not accept consent signals, so Sotto sends it no reports when Cookies are off.

Alongside the speech company in section 2 and Google Ads and OpenAI in section 5, a hosting company in Germany runs Sotto’s server and database. A network and security provider in the United States, with European locations, relays every request to thesotto.app and stores database backups. It sees your network address and requests; live audio does not pass through it.

An email delivery service handles Sotto’s mail in Europe, including sign-in emails and notes to David with their attachments. An error-reporting service receives crash reports from the website, app and server: what went wrong, app version and device type. Sign-in links are removed, and reports never include your conversation. Server logs briefly keep request details for security. Sotto uses no other providers for this data and does not sell it.

Where a provider is in the United States, your data travels under EU-approved safeguards. Google, the network provider, the email service and the error-reporting service are certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, with the European Commission’s standard contractual clauses as a fallback in their terms.

OpenAI is not certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. Its transfers rely on the European Commission’s standard contractual clauses, as do the speech-recognition company’s.

Email david@thesotto.app for a copy of these safeguards.

Sotto may use data to provide what you ask for under its agreement with you: subtitles, translations, spoken lines, held messages, the free allowance, sign-in, accounts and emails about changes. This legal basis is called contract.

Your consent is the basis for reports to Google Ads and OpenAI, news emails and attaching subtitles or audio to a note. You can withdraw consent at any time: change Cookies or Emails in Your account, or email David about attachments. Withdrawing consent does not make earlier processing unlawful.

Sotto also has a legitimate interest in running, protecting and improving the service. This is the basis for activity records, website replay recordings, blocks, country and language at sign-in, server logs, error reports, backups and keeping a click ID before sign-up. You can object to these uses. Sotto makes no automated decisions about you with legal or similarly significant effects.

In the Sotto app or on thesotto.app, open the menu, choose Your account and tap Delete your account. Your email and the data tied to your account are removed at once.

Without the app, email david@thesotto.app from your sign-in address and ask for your account to be deleted. David deletes it and confirms by email within a month.

After either path, a backup copy lasts about a day. An email block remains until lifted, as explained in section 4. Saved transcripts stay on your device for you to delete in the app. Email David to remove notes and attachments from his mailbox.

You can ask to see your personal data, correct it, limit or object to its use, or receive a copy to take elsewhere. Email david@thesotto.app from your sign-in address if you have an account. David will answer within a month.

You can complain to the Dutch data protection authority, the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens at autoriteitpersoonsgegevens.nl, or the authority where you live.

When this policy changes, the date at the top changes too. Account holders receive an email about material changes. Continuing to use Sotto means accepting the updated policy.

If a translation differs from the English version, the English version takes precedence.