Privacy
Privacy Policy, in plain language.
What stays on your device, what leaves it, and the choices you control.
Last updated August 12, 2026
Hover lookup stays local.
The In The Wild extension reads the Mandarin you point at and parses it on your device. Data leaves the extension only when you choose an action that needs it: connect an account, save a word, request a translation, activate supported subtitles, or send a saved item to Anki.
On your browser
Extension data
How the current In The Wild: Mandarin Chinese extension interacts with a webpage and Chrome.
Local webpage lookup
The extension uses page text to show user-facing Mandarin lookup. Its signed parser pack and packaged dictionary possibilities run locally. It does not send full page content, hovered sentences, source URLs, or browsing history to In The Wild or to analytics just because you hover.
YouTube captions
When you activate In The Wild subtitles on a supported YouTube watch page, the extension fetches one authored Mandarin caption track directly from YouTube. It keeps a bounded transcript for the current video in memory and discards it when that video session ends. The full caption track and its timed-text URL are not sent to In The Wild or written to extension or webpage storage. Only context for a word occurrence you explicitly save, including its playback timestamp, leaves the page.
Chrome extension storage and permissions
The extension includes packaged read-only dictionary data. Chrome extension storage may hold the last verified parser policy, bounded parser caches, per-site hover choices, a verified account session, short-lived account-connection save intents, and owner-bound pending save, audio-repair, or optional Anki delivery work. The extension uses alarms for bounded refresh and retry, and an offscreen document to run its extension-owned parser host. Localhost AnkiConnect permission is requested only after you choose Anki.
Account connection
Connecting an account transfers a web session through the trusted In The Wild HTTPS session bridge. The extension verifies that account before storing Supabase Auth access or refresh tokens in Chrome extension storage. Tokens are not placed in page content, popup diagnostics, logs, or analytics.
Saving a word
Saving sends the parser-selected target or dictionary possibility you chose, its definition and pinyin, source sentence snippets, source URLs, page titles, and related context to your private In The Wild account. The save enters Collection and Practice, remembers where the word appeared, and may request pronunciation audio. Owner-bound pending saves can remain in extension storage long enough to survive a browser or network interruption.
Immersion And Extension Selection Translation
When an Immersion or extension user explicitly chooses Translate or presses T for selected Mandarin, only that selection is sent to the In The Wild translation endpoint and then sent to Google Translate to produce English. An account is not required. The selected text is transient: it is not written to extension storage or sent to analytics, and In The Wild does not place it in application logs.
Anki delivery
When you choose Anki, In The Wild saves the item first and the extension then writes or updates a card in your local Anki Desktop through AnkiConnect. The word, definition, pinyin, source sentence, URL, and page title also remain in your private In The Wild account. Those deliveries retry independently. An Anki save is treated as learning or recognized coverage, not proof that the word is known.
Chrome Extension Limited Use
Our use and transfer of data received from Chrome APIs is limited to providing the extension's single purpose, security, support, legal compliance, or another use allowed by Chrome's applicable limited-use requirements. The extension does not capture tab audio, microphone input, keystrokes, or browsing history; execute remotely hosted code; or expose parser packs, auth tokens, or full parser graphs to webpages.
In your account
Account and learning data
The information used to keep your saved Mandarin and learning progress connected.
Who We Are
In The Wild is a Mandarin learning product operated from the United States. Contact us at support@mandarinthewild.com for privacy questions, access requests, deletion requests, or Chrome extension data questions.
What We Collect
We collect only the information needed to run the learning loop:
- Account data, such as your email address, authentication identifiers, and sign-in state.
- Saved vocabulary, selected or saved Mandarin text, definitions, pinyin, source sentence snippets, source URLs, page titles, Collection membership, and related source context you choose to mine.
- Reading progress, known-word percentages, Practice answers, review history, preferences, and settings.
- Chrome extension state described above, including site controls, verified session state, and owner-bound pending work.
- Privacy-safe validation analytics, such as event names, route paths, booleans, counts, content slugs, and stable IDs. Analytics must not store selected text, full sentences, private source URLs, source titles, email addresses, tokens, secrets, or passwords.
- Support messages and privacy requests you send to us.
How We Use It
We use this data to provide lookup, save useful dictionary entries, remember where words appeared, sync Collection and Practice, personalize Reading pages, troubleshoot accounts, protect the service, and improve dictionary, parser, content, and product quality.
How contributions work
Only eligible Mandarin saves are considered. Your personal save always remains yours. Source URLs, titles, account identity, and browsing metadata are never published. Text is privacy-checked and quality-checked before shared use. Source rights determine each permitted use. Native source audio is not shared. Turning the setting off stops future and pending contributions. Account deletion removes private evidence and operational links. Approved de-identified source-neutral linguistic artifacts may remain. Contact support@mandarinthewild.com to ask a privacy question or report an issue.
Sharing And Service Providers
We do not sell personal information. We do not share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising. We use service providers to host, authenticate, store, secure, analyze, translate an explicit selection, and operate the product. They may process data only as needed to provide those services or meet legal and security requirements.
Under your control
Choices, rights, and retention
Ways to control the extension, your account, and your personal data.
Your Choices And Rights
You can use lookup and selected-text translation without an account, turn the extension off for a site, disconnect your account, stop saving source context, change Improve In The Wild in Settings, or disable the extension in Chrome. Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, export, delete, or restrict processing of your personal data.
California privacy rights
California users may also have rights to opt out of sale or sharing, limit certain sensitive personal information uses, and avoid discrimination for exercising privacy rights. We do not currently sell or share personal information; if that changes, we will add a Do Not Sell or Share mechanism before doing so.
International And Processor Terms
If GDPR, UK GDPR, or similar privacy laws apply, In The Wild determines the purposes and means for account learning data and uses processors under appropriate contracts where required. If data is transferred across borders, we will use appropriate transfer safeguards where required.
Security And Retention
We use HTTPS, account authentication, browser extension storage controls, and application access controls to protect data. We keep account and learning data while your account is active or as needed to operate the product, comply with law, resolve disputes, enforce terms, and maintain backups. Deletion requests can be sent to support@mandarinthewild.com. Signed-in users can also request deletion from Settings.
Public Reading Pages And Children
Public Library pages are available without an account. Personal state such as known percentage, saved words, and progress is loaded only after sign-in. In The Wild is not directed to children under 13.
Changes
We may update this policy as the product, extension, analytics, service providers, business entity, or legal requirements change. Material changes should be reflected here and in any applicable distribution disclosure before a future release.