Privacy Policy

1. Who We Are

Uutter is an independent service for searching, listening to and discussing talks, lectures and podcasts. This policy covers the website at uutter.com and the Uutter mobile app for iOS and Android. It explains what personal data we collect, why we collect it, who we share it with, and the choices you have. "We" and "us" mean Uutter.

If you have a question about this policy or your data, email us at support@uutter.com.

2. Information We Collect

What we collect depends on how you use Uutter.

Account: Your email address and, if you use one, your password. Supabase, our sign-in provider, stores passwords only in hashed (scrambled) form. Your username, and anything you add to your profile, such as a picture, a bio, a website link and a cover image. If you sign in with Google, GitHub, Facebook or Apple, that service shares your email address with us and, if it has them, your name and profile picture. If you start signing up on the website with your email address, we keep that address even if you don't finish, and we may use it to email you a reminder to finish signing up. We may also email you a reminder if you sign up but don't confirm your email address. If you were a member of AskTMK, the site that came before Uutter, we already hold your AskTMK member record, and when you sign up with the same email address, we link that record to your new account.

Your content: What you post and upload, such as audio, video, documents and images, together with the transcripts, summaries, tags and topics we make from them. Also your collections and groups, the people and topics you follow, your comments, reactions and stars, quotes and quote lists, playlists, group posts and poll votes, direct messages, and your conversations with the AI chat. We also keep the reports you send and the list of people you block.

Listening history and progress: What you play, how far you get, which talks you finish, how long you listen each day, and what you've looked at recently. We use this so you can pick up where you left off on any device, to show your progress, and for badges and leaderboards. Offline saves in the mobile app are stored on your device. We record each save, because saves use your free allowance or your credits.

Device and app data: When notifications are allowed for the mobile app, we store a push token for your device, whether it runs iOS or Android, an ID for your device that is specific to our app, and the app version. On Android, Google's Firebase messaging service, which delivers push notifications, creates an ID for your installation of the app and sends it to Google when the app starts, even if notifications aren't allowed. Each time the app starts, it checks for updates, and our update service, Expo, receives an ID for your installation of the app. Rarely, after a launch where the app's update database failed, the next update check also sends Expo the error message, up to about 1,000 characters. If you turn on browser notifications on the website, we store your browser's push subscription and its user agent (the name and version of your browser and system).

Purchases: Your credit balance and its history: what you bought, earned and spent. On the website you pay through Stripe, which gives us your email address and a customer ID. If you buy credits before you have an account, we keep your email address with the purchase so we can add the credits when you sign up. In the mobile app you pay with an in-app purchase through Apple or Google, and we receive a record of the purchase from the store, including its transaction ID and which pack you bought. Card details go to Stripe, Apple or Google and never reach us.

Searches: What you search for. When you search while signed out, we store a hashed form of your IP address with the search instead of an account ID.

Diagnostics and usage logs: Our servers log each request, including your IP address, the user agent of your browser or of the app, what was requested and when. When you're signed in, we also log the pages and API requests you make with your account ID, and we record when and how you sign in, which days you visit, and which AI features you use. For signed-out visitors, we use a cookie and a hashed form of the IP address to apply daily limits on listening and searching.

Cookies on the website: We use cookies and similar browser storage to keep you signed in, to remember settings such as whether the sidebar is open, to avoid counting the same person's views twice, and to apply the limits for signed-out visitors. The website also runs Google Analytics, which sets its own cookies to count visits and see how the site is used, including what you search for and actions such as sign-ups, comments and downloads. Vercel Web Analytics and Speed Insights measure visits and page speed without cookies. When you're signed out, the website also loads Google's sign-in prompt. These analytics tools run only on the website, not in the mobile app. You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings, but you won't be able to stay signed in without them.

3. How We Use Your Information

• To run Uutter: your account, posting and playing, keeping your place in sync across devices, offline saves, and credits.
• To process what you upload: we transcribe audio and video, read the text in documents, and use AI to write summaries, suggest tags and topics, create images for posts, power search, and answer questions in the AI chat.
• To send you notifications and emails: push and browser notifications you allow, activity digests you turn on, announcements and new posts from collections you've starred, the emails your account needs, such as sign-up confirmations and password resets, and reminders to finish signing up.
• To keep you up to date on Uutter: every new account starts with our feedback collection starred, with notifications on. You can unstar it on the website or in the app, or turn off its notifications in Settings, under Notifications, on the website.
• To welcome members of AskTMK: when you sign up, we check your email address against its member list. If it matches, we mark your member record as joined, which stops our invitations to join, and we add free credits to your account.
• To run the public parts of Uutter: profiles, posts, comments, view counts, badges and leaderboards.
• To keep Uutter safe: limiting request rates, blocking bots and scrapers, and handling reports, blocks and bans. When we need to investigate a report, stop abuse or fix a problem, we may look at any content, including private content and messages.
• To understand and improve Uutter: usage statistics, costs, and the terms people search for, which help us improve search and the AI chat.

Uutter shows no ads.

4. Who We Share It With

We share personal data only with the service providers that run parts of Uutter for us, and each one gets only what it needs. We never sell personal data.

• Supabase: our database, file storage and sign-in. It holds most of the data described above and sends account emails, such as sign-up confirmations and password resets.
• Vercel: hosts the website and our API, measures visits and page speed, and blocks bots. It sees each request, including your IP address.
• OpenAI: transcribes audio and video, and powers the AI features: summaries, tags and topics, search and the AI chat. It receives the content it works on, such as uploaded audio, transcripts, posts, comments, search terms and chat messages.
• Microsoft Azure: runs our media processing, such as preparing audio for transcription, making streaming copies and reading the text in documents.
• Bunny.net: stores, encodes and streams videos. It sees the IP address of anyone who watches one.
• Upstash: handles rate limiting and caching. It holds IP addresses, account IDs and cached data such as your Continue listening list.
• Kantos: sends our activity digests, our announcement emails and our invitations to AskTMK members. It keeps a contact record for each account, with your email address, username and account ID, and it holds the AskTMK member list that we check new sign-ups against.
• SendGrid: delivers the emails Kantos sends, and the reminders we send to people who haven't finished signing up.
• Modal: draws the images we make for posts, from a short description that our AI writes from the post's content. It receives that description and nothing about your account.
• Stripe: handles payments on the website. It receives your payment details, your email address and your account ID.
• Apple and Google: handle in-app purchases in the mobile app, which we link to your account ID, and deliver push notifications to your phone. On Android, Google's Firebase messaging service also receives an ID for your installation of the app when the app starts.
• Expo: sends push notifications to the mobile app through Apple and Google, and delivers app updates. It receives your push token, the text of each notification, and, each time the app checks for updates, an ID for your installation of the app, rarely with an error message from the previous launch.
• Google, on the website: Google Analytics measures visits and how the site is used, including what you search for. Google's sign-in prompt appears when you're signed out. Google Maps looks up places you add to posts, and YouTube plays videos you start in group posts.
• Browser push services: your browser's push service, such as Google's for Chrome or Mozilla's for Firefox, delivers browser notifications.

Some of these providers process data in the United States and other countries.

Beyond these providers, your data is shared only:

• With other people on Uutter. Your profile, your comments on public posts and your posts in public collections can be seen by anyone, including search engines. Who can see a post depends on its collection's settings.
• With apps you connect. If you create an API key or connect an app to your account, it can read and change your data within the access you give it.
• When the law requires it, or to protect people or Uutter from harm.

5. Push Notifications

In the mobile app, when notifications are allowed for Uutter, we register a push token for your device and send push notifications about activity, such as comments on your posts, new messages, and new posts in collections you've starred, which for a new account includes our feedback collection. A notification says who did what, for example that someone sent you a message, and it reaches your phone through Expo and Apple or Google.

To turn push notifications off, open your phone's settings and turn off notifications for Uutter. Signing out of the app also stops them on that device.

On the website, browser notifications stay off until you turn them on in Settings, under Notifications. There you can choose which kinds you get or turn them off, and you can also block notifications for uutter.com in your browser settings. Signing out removes that browser's subscription.

6. How Long We Keep Data

Most of your data stays for as long as you have an account, unless you remove it sooner.

When you delete your account, we delete it straight away, along with your profile, posts, comments, quotes, playlists, collections, listening history, search history and settings. We also delete the videos and other files you uploaded, the copies we made of them, such as streaming versions, transcripts and smaller images, and the images we generated for your posts. The record made when you started signing up with your email address goes too. Rarely, a file that was still being processed at that moment can be left behind.

These things stay:

• Stripe, Apple and Google keep payment records, and we keep our records of credits bought before an account existed, which include the buyer's email address. Both are kept to meet legal and financial obligations.
• We keep our record of each in-app purchase, so that a purchase can never be credited twice. It is no longer linked to your account.
• We keep the change history of collections, their members and requests to join them, for security. It is no longer linked to your account, but its copies of those records can still include your account ID.
• Messages you sent in other people's conversations stay there, and so do images you added to other people's collections, playlists or groups while they still use them. They belong to those conversations and collections, and they are no longer linked to your account.
• The words you searched for can stay in our list of search terms, which is shared by everyone who searched the same words. That list has no link to you.
• We keep records of what our AI features cost to run, such as transcription and the AI chat. They are no longer linked to your account.
• If you changed your email address after signing up, the sign-up record under your old address stays, because we can't reliably tell that it was yours.
• Our email provider, Kantos, keeps its contact record for you: your email address, username and account ID. If you were an AskTMK member, it also keeps that member record.
• We keep security logs to protect Uutter. The next paragraph says for how long.
• Copies in backups remain for a limited time.

Some records are deleted on a schedule. Logs of the pages and API requests you make while signed in are deleted after 7 days, and the hashed IP addresses behind the listening limit for signed-out visitors after 90 days. Other security logs, which include IP addresses, are kept for as long as we need them to protect Uutter.

7. Your Choices and Rights

• See and change your data: edit your profile and username in Settings on the website. If you signed up with an email address and password, you can change both in Settings on the website or from the account menu in the app.
• Clear your history: remove talks from Continue listening on the website or in the app, and remove recent searches in the app.
• Choose your emails: activity digests are off until you turn them on, and every announcement email has a link to stop them. Change both in Settings, under Notifications, on the website, or under Email notifications in the app.
• Leaderboards: your listening time can appear on public leaderboards. You can hide it in your profile settings on the website.
• Delete your account: to delete your account, open the account menu in the app and choose Delete account, or go to Settings, then Delete Account, on the website. Our account deletion page explains both. If you can no longer sign in, email support@uutter.com from the address on your account, and we'll delete it within 30 days.
• Ask us: to get a copy of your data, or to correct or delete something you can't change yourself, email support@uutter.com.

If you're unhappy with how we handle your data, you can also complain to your local data protection authority.

8. Children

Uutter is not directed at children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect personal data from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has given us personal data, email support@uutter.com and we'll delete it.

9. Data Security

We use encrypted connections (HTTPS), database access rules that limit who can read what, and private file storage that we share only through time-limited links. Passwords and API keys are stored only in hashed form. In the mobile app, your sign-in session is stored encrypted on your device, with its key in your phone's secure storage. No system is perfectly secure, so we can't guarantee that your data will never be accessed without permission.

10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. When we do, we'll change the "Last Updated" date at the top of this page, and if a change is significant, we'll let you know on the website or in the app.