Privacy
What we see.
What we keep.
Looking a word up happens on your computer and needs no account. Press M or K and the word goes into your Backpack with a link back to where you found it. Here is exactly what reaches us, what we keep, and how to take it back.
One lookupnews.example.cn
来都来了lái dōu lái le
Stays on your computer
- The word you point at
- The sentence around it
- The meaning that fits
Reaches us
The word alone
to find its recording
01If you read nothing else
Four things to know.
Lookups stay on your computer.
The dictionary, and the reading that picks the meaning, are built into the extension. To find a word’s recording it sends us that one word, never the sentence or the page.
Nothing is kept until you choose.
No account is needed to look things up. Press M or K and the word goes to your Backpack with its sentence and a link back.
No list of the sites you visit.
The extension talks only to mandarinthewild.com. No ads, analytics or tracking scripts, and we don’t sell your data.
Take it with you, or delete it.
Download every word you’ve kept, or delete your account and everything in it, at any time.
02It sounds bigger than it is
The scary sentence, explained.
Why the words are so big
Chrome and Edge use this sentence for any extension that works on every site.
What it actually does
Finds the Mandarin on the page and draws the card beside the word you point at. It never rewrites what a page says. On YouTube it shows the video’s own Mandarin captions as its line in the player, in place of YouTube’s caption display.
site accessReads the page you’re on- So it can find Mandarin wherever you read.
scriptingTells the app a word was kept- Only in mandarinthewild.com tabs you already have open, so they show the word as kept.
storageRemembers your choices- In this browser only.
Prefer to limit it? In your browser’s extension settings, set Site access to On specific sites. It then works only there.
03Follow one lookup
What travels, and what doesn’t.
When you point at a word
When you point at a word
Sent
The word, its pinyin and the voice you chose, so the card can find the word’s recording. No sign-in goes with it.
Never sent
The sentence, the page’s address, your browsing history, or anything about who you are.
When you press the speaker
Sent
Nothing new. The recording comes from mandarinthewild.com, asked for by the word alone. A word without one has no sound; the extension never uses your computer’s own voice.
Never sent
The sentence or the page.
When you press M or K
Sent
The paragraph or line the word came from (up to 4,096 characters) and where the word sits in it, the meaning you picked, Mine or Know, the page’s address (without the part after #) and its title, your script choice, and your time zone’s name, so your Review days line up. From YouTube, the caption line, the video’s title, its channel’s name and a link to that moment instead. From Explain text, that text, labelled “Pasted text”, with no address.
Never sent
Words you only pointed at, other pages, or your keystrokes, clicks and pointer positions. Signed out? The word waits 30 minutes for you to sign in, then it’s deleted.
When you report a problem with a word
Sent
The word, its sentence, the card as you saw it, and your note.
Never sent
The page’s address.
When a video has no Mandarin captions
Sent
The video’s address, to find captions already made for it, with no sign-in. Only if you’re signed in and press Make captions: the sound YouTube’s player has already downloaded. The captions are kept with the video for everyone who watches it. To stop abuse we note which account sent each part; deleting your account removes that note, and the captions stay.
Never sent
The picture.
On a video
The extension reads the video’s Mandarin captions and the transcript YouTube shows, and sends no captions anywhere unless you keep a word. On a video with no Mandarin captions, it asks mandarinthewild.com whether captions were already made for it, sending only the video’s ID.
Explain text
Chinese you paste into the toolbar menu is read the same way, on your computer.
When you’re signed in
On the first lookup on each page, and when you open the toolbar menu, the extension asks whether you’re signed in and fetches your settings and word counts. No page text or address goes with it.
On mandarinthewild.com
In the app, the text you look up goes to our server to work out its meaning. The server doesn’t keep it unless you keep the word.
The reader in ChatGPT
When you open a Mandarin passage or inspect a word through our plugin, ChatGPT sends our server that passage, its supplied title and the selected word position. Our server reads it with the same parser as the app; no remote language model is called for the lookup. Anonymous reading needs no MTW account and does not store the passage in our database. For repeat lookups, the open reader can reuse successful word cards from memory for up to one minute; it writes no persistent reader cache. ChatGPT retains its conversation and tool results under OpenAI’s own settings and policies. Connecting an account lets ChatGPT receive your MTW name and email and, only when you choose Save, keep the selected word with its passage and title in your Backpack. Reading or hovering alone never saves a word. Signing out of the MTW browser session that approved the connection ends its access; you can also disconnect the plugin in ChatGPT. Deleting your MTW account removes its connection records and saved words. Hosting request diagnostics are covered below.
04Only what you choose to keep
Your Backpack, and what it needs.
You need an account only to keep words and use the app across devices. This is everything it holds.
| What | Why | Kept until |
|---|---|---|
| Each word you keep | With its paragraph, the page’s address and title, the meaning you picked, and any notes and collections you add, so Back to the moment opens the original right where you found it. | You remove it, or delete your account |
| Your Review history | Your Review settings and the days you studied, so Review knows when to bring each word back. | You delete your account |
| What you bring into Immersion | Text you paste, files and article links you add, audio and video you upload, and their transcripts, so you can read and watch on any device. | You remove it, or delete your account |
| Your Library progress | Where you are in each story and the series you follow, so you pick up where you left off. | You delete your account |
| Problem reports and ideas | A report about a word has the word, its sentence and the card as you saw it, never the page’s address, so we can fix it. | You delete your account |
| Your settings | Script, theme and email choices, and which first moves you’ve tried, such as pointing or pressing M. No keystrokes, clicks or pointer positions. | You delete your account |
| How you sign in | Your email address. A passkey’s public key, if you add one; your fingerprint, face or PIN never leaves your device. With Google: your email, name, picture and Google account ID, never Google’s access tokens. | You delete your account |
| Where you’re signed in | Which browser each session is, so you can see them in Account. Not your network address. | Within 7 days of your last visit, or when you sign out |
| A connected ChatGPT account | The application you approved, its permissions, and your approval. Connection credentials are stored as hashes and checked against your current sign-in. | Approval: until account deletion. Access credentials: up to 10 minutes; refresh credentials: up to 7 days |
| A word pressed while signed out | It waits so it can be kept the moment you sign in. | 30 minutes, then it’s deleted |
| Sign-in and email-change links | So the link in your email works. | 10 minutes |
| Request counts | Per network address, in a scrambled (hashed) form, to slow down abuse. | Up to an hour |
Like any website
Cloudflare keeps a log of requests to the service, which we use to find faults. When you add an article by its link, our server fetches that page for you, so the site sees us, not you. On a Library story, until your browser’s reader has loaded, our server explains the words you point at in that public story and keeps nothing.
Cookies
This page, the home page and the extension page set none. The app uses two, both needed: one keeps you signed in, and one is a random ID for this browser, so a sign-in link or a waiting word returns to the browser that started it. Both last up to 7 days. No advertising or analytics cookies.
The email we send
Sign-in links and their codes, email-change confirmations and the desktop setup link. Review reminders and Library emails come only if you turn them on, and every one has a link to stop them.
Who handles it for us
- Cloudflare runs the site and stores your account: the app on Workers, captions from a video’s sound with Workers AI when you ask, your data in a D1 database, and uploaded audio, video and backups in R2 storage.
- Resend sends our email. It receives your email address and the message.
- Google, only if you choose to sign in with Google.
OpenAI handles your ChatGPT conversation and receives our plugin’s reading results and, if you connect an account, its account details and save confirmations. Your ChatGPT data controls are separate from your MTW account controls.
We don’t sell your data or use it for advertising.
05It never reaches us
Kept close, on your side.
The dictionary
Built into the extension. Every lookup runs here.
Your extension choices
The sites you’ve paused, your practice-page progress, examples you keep on this device, and whether you’re signed in.
Words waiting to be kept
Kept while you were offline or signed out, until they can be saved.
The app, for speed and offline
Your theme, words waiting to be saved, copies of what you’re reading, and what you try on the home page before you have an account.
06Nothing more without asking
What it asks for.
- Browsing historyDoesn’t ask
- CameraDoesn’t ask
- MicrophoneDoesn’t ask
- DownloadsDoesn’t ask
- ClipboardDoesn’t ask
It asks for the three things in section 02, and nothing else.
07Take it back any time
You’re holding the keys.
Pause on a site
One switch in the toolbar menu, naming the site. Try it.
Take your words with you
Every word you’ve kept, as a spreadsheet or for Anki, from Account.
Download your wordsSign out anywhere
Account lists every browser you’re signed in on, and you can end any of them.
Stop the email
Review reminders and Library emails are off until you turn them on, and every one has a link to stop them.
Delete your account
From Account. For your safety it needs a sign-in from the last 10 minutes.
Delete account- Every word in your Backpack
- Your Review history
- Your Immersion sources and Library progress
- Your reports, settings, sign-in and sessions
All of it leaves our database straight away, and uploaded audio and video leave storage shortly after. We back the database up once a day to private Cloudflare storage and delete each backup after 30 days, so it’s gone from the backups within 30 days too.
Removing the extension doesn’t touch words you kept with an account. What it kept only in this browser goes with it.
Questions about your data?
Write to us from Help, or email support@mandarinthewild.com to ask us to show, correct or delete it. When this page changes, its date changes too.