Privacy Policy
1. What the App does
Bilu is a live voice translator. You wear one earbud; what the other person says is translated into your language and played in your earbud; what you say is translated and spoken aloud from your phone's speaker. The App only listens while you have pressed Start, and it shows that it is running the whole time.
2. What we process, and why
| Data | Where it comes from | Why | Kept? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your voice and the voices around you while a session runs | the phone microphone and the earbud microphone | to recognise speech and produce the translation. This is the service itself | No. Audio is streamed for real-time translation and is not recorded or stored by us. |
| Transcripts and translations (the text on your screen) | produced during a session | so you can read what was said | No. Kept in the App's memory while the session runs and discarded when it ends; never stored on our servers. |
| An anonymous account identifier | created by the App on first launch (a random ID; no name, e-mail or phone number) | to keep your minutes and settings | Yes, until you delete it (Settings → Delete my data). |
| Sign in with Apple (optional) | you, if you choose "Keep my minutes on a new phone" | so your minutes survive a new or reset phone | Yes: Apple's anonymous identifier for you is attached to your account. We do not ask for your e-mail. |
| Your settings and My Trip words (the languages you chose, names you add such as a hotel or a station) | you | so the App remembers them and the translation keeps your names exactly | Yes, with your account, until you remove them or delete your data. |
| A session record for each session: start and end time, the two languages, the minutes charged, the number of turns, response times, the noise level, the server region, your time zone, network round-trip, which translation engine ran | our servers | to charge minutes correctly and keep the service working | Yes, with your account, until you delete your data. Never audio, never words. |
| Technical session reports (timings, error codes, signal levels and an estimate of how far apart the two people are, as numbers only) | our servers | to find and fix faults | Yes, 30 days, then deleted automatically. Never audio or words. |
| Product usage events (for example: onboarding finished, a purchase made, minutes ran out; identifiers and numbers only) | the App | to see where people get stuck | Yes, 30 days, then deleted automatically. |
| Purchases and minutes (which pack you bought, minutes used, free minutes and when they end) | Apple's App Store or Google Play, through RevenueCat; our servers | to give you what you paid for | Yes, with your account, and as the law requires for billing records. Minutes you buy never expire. We never see your card details. |
| A device mark for free minutes (Apple's DeviceCheck on iPhone; on Android a one-way code made from the phone's Android ID, which itself never leaves the phone) | the App and our servers | so the 10 free minutes are given once per phone, not once per reinstall | The mark is kept after you delete your data, without any link to you or your account, so that free minutes are not given twice. |
| Crash reports (device model, OS and App version, the steps before a crash; never audio or text) | the App and our servers | to fix crashes | Yes, up to 90 days. Only your anonymous account identifier is attached. |
| Feedback you choose to send (a voice note of up to a minute about the App, and its transcript) | you, when you tap the mic under "Tell us how it went" and then Send; you see the transcript first | to understand what worked | Yes, 90 days, then deleted automatically; read only by the Bilu team; never used to train anything. "Delete my data" removes it at once. |
| A recording of a conversation, only for beta testers and only if both people agree on screen | if you switch on "Bilu beta tester", the App asks before each Talk session; both people see the question in their own language and must both tap "We both agree", and the screen shows the recording for as long as it runs | to improve the translation and how Bilu tells two voices apart; you receive 2 minutes for every recorded minute | Kept 30 days, then deleted automatically; read only by the Bilu team; never sold or shared. "Delete my data" removes it at once. Without both people's agreement nothing is recorded. |
We do not collect your location, contacts or photos, and we use no advertising identifiers. The App contains no advertising or tracking SDKs and we do not sell data. We do not identify the people you talk to or build voice profiles.
3. Who helps us process it
Audio is processed in real time by the speech and translation services the App runs on. They receive the audio stream and return text or a synthesised voice, under business terms that do not permit training on it:
- Google (Gemini API and Cloud Text-to-Speech): speech recognition, translation, speech-to-speech translation and the synthesised voices
- OpenAI: speech-to-speech translation, for some language pairs
- Deepgram: speech recognition for some languages
- Supabase: your anonymous account, settings, My Trip words, minutes, session records and reports (servers in Frankfurt, Germany)
- Fly.io: our relay servers (Frankfurt, Germany and Singapore)
- RevenueCat: purchases and minute packs; Apple and Google Play: payment, and on iPhone, if you choose it, Sign in with Apple
- Sentry: crash reports
Your data may therefore be processed outside your country, including in the European Union, Singapore and the United States, under the safeguards those providers offer.
4. Your responsibilities when listening to others
Talk mode plays the translation aloud, so the person you talk to always knows an interpreter is at work. Listen mode (a lecture, a meeting, the TV) has no such structure: the App tells you on first use that you are responsible for lawful use where you are. In many places people must know when they are being listened to. The App does not offer, and will not accept requests for, any feature that conceals the fact that it is running.
5. Your rights, and deleting your data
You can see and change your settings and My Trip words in the App at any time. Settings → Delete my data deletes your account and everything attached to it on our servers within minutes: settings, My Trip words, minutes, session records, reports, feedback and any recording. The App then starts fresh. Unused minutes are lost when you delete your data. Purchases stay in your Apple or Google purchase history, which we cannot delete.
For anything else (a copy of your data, a correction, an objection, a complaint) write to hello@bilutalk.com. If you are in the EU/EEA or the UK you may also complain to your data-protection authority; in the UAE, to the UAE Data Office. Refunds are handled by Apple or Google under their own policies.
6. Children
The App is not directed at children under 13 and we do not knowingly process their data.
7. Changes
We will post changes here with a new effective date; material changes are announced in the App.