Privacy Policy.
What Manhwave collects, what it never sees, and what you can ask us to do with your data. Written to be read, not skimmed.
01Overview
This Privacy Policy explains what personal data Manhwave („we”, „us”) collects when you use the Manhwave browser extension, the website at manhwave.com and your Manhwave account (together, the „Service”), why we collect it and what your rights are. Manhwave is the data controller for this processing. You can reach us at contact@manhwave.com.
Pages stay on your device
Bubble detection, text recognition and artwork cleanup run in your browser. We never receive the comic images you read.
Only text is sent
The extracted dialogue and your target language go to our servers and translation providers. That is what a translation needs, nothing more.
No ads, no profiling
We do not sell data, run advertising or build profiles of what you read. Subscriptions pay for the Service.
02What we collect
| Category | Examples | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Account data | Email address, account identifier, confirmation status, plan, language preference, date created | You, when you sign up or confirm your email |
| Billing data | Subscription status, invoices, payment history, country for tax purposes, the last four digits and brand of your card | Stripe, our payment provider. We never receive your full card number. |
| Usage data | Credits granted and used, number of translations, target languages, timestamps, extension version, error reports you choose to send | Generated when you use the extension |
| Translation data | Text extracted from speech bubbles, the resulting translations and the settings used (language, font) | Generated by the extension on your device |
| Technical data | IP address, browser type and version, operating system, request logs, security logs | Automatically, when your browser talks to our servers |
| Contact data | Name, email address and the content of messages you send us via the contact form or email | You |
We do not collect your name for the account itself, your address, your phone number or any special categories of personal data. We do not ask for or store your passwords: signing in works through your email address.
03How the extension handles your reading
The extension only acts on a page when you turn it on. It then does the following, in this order:
- Detects and reads locally. Machine-learning models bundled with the extension find the speech bubbles and captions in the comic images shown on the page and recognise the text in them. This happens entirely in your browser. The images are not uploaded.
- Sends the text. The extracted text lines, your chosen target language, your account token and basic technical metadata (such as the extension version) are sent to our servers, which forward the text to a translation provider.
- Draws the translation. The translated lines come back and are drawn over the original bubbles in your browser. Artwork cleanup under the original lettering is also done on your device.
- Saves the result. The translation is stored in your account, linked to a fingerprint of the page content, so that you can re-open it later without using credits again.
We do not record a browsing history of the sites or series you read, and we do not use translation data to build a profile of you. Extracted text is used to produce your translation and, in aggregated and de-identified form, to improve translation quality. We do not use it to train models that are shared with third parties.
04Why we use your data and on what basis
Under the GDPR we need a legal basis for each purpose. These are ours:
| Purpose | Data | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|
| Providing translations, your account and saved translations | Account, usage, translation data | Performance of our contract with you |
| Processing payments, invoices and taxes | Account, billing data | Contract and legal obligation |
| Keeping the Service secure, preventing abuse and enforcing fair use | Technical, usage data | Legitimate interest in a reliable, fairly used Service |
| Answering your messages | Contact data | Legitimate interest, or contract when the message concerns your account |
| Product emails about your account, renewals and changes to terms | Account data | Contract and legal obligation |
| Optional news about new features | Email address | Consent, which you can withdraw at any time via the unsubscribe link |
| Improving translation quality and fixing bugs | Aggregated usage and de-identified translation data, error reports you send | Legitimate interest in improving the Service |
05Who we share data with
We share personal data only with providers who help us run the Service, under contracts that limit what they may do with it:
- Stripe processes payments and stores your payment details. Stripe acts as an independent controller for the payment transaction; see Stripe’s own privacy policy for details.
- Translation providers receive the extracted text and target language to produce translations. They receive no account details, no page images and no information about the site you are on.
- Hosting and infrastructure providers store our servers, databases and backups.
- Email delivery providers send sign-in links, receipts and service notices on our behalf.
- Form and website tools used on manhwave.com store the messages you submit through the contact form.
We may also disclose data if required by law, to protect our rights or the safety of users, or as part of a merger or sale of the Service, in which case the acquirer takes over this policy. We never sell personal data.
06International transfers
Some of our providers, in particular translation and hosting providers, operate outside the European Economic Area, including in the United States. Where that is the case we rely on the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses, an adequacy decision or another safeguard recognised under the GDPR, and we send them only the data described above.
07How long we keep data
| Data | Retention |
|---|---|
| Account and saved translations | For as long as your account exists, then deleted within 30 days of an account deletion request |
| Free trial without account | An anonymous device identifier used to count welcome credits is kept for 12 months from last use |
| Extracted text sent for translation | Processed to generate the translation and not stored beyond that, except as part of the saved translation in your account |
| Billing records and invoices | For the period required by tax and accounting law after the transaction |
| Server and security logs | Up to 90 days, longer only if needed to investigate an incident |
| Contact form messages and emails | Up to 12 months after the conversation ends |
08Cookies
manhwave.com uses only cookies that are needed for the website to function, such as remembering your session when you sign in. Stripe sets its own cookies on the checkout page for fraud prevention. We do not use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies. If we add analytics in the future, they will be aggregated and will not identify you, and we will update this section first.
The extension stores your settings, cached translations and your sign-in token locally in your browser’s extension storage. Uninstalling the extension removes this data from your device.
09Your rights
Under the GDPR and similar laws you have the right to:
- access the personal data we hold about you and receive a copy;
- correct inaccurate data, for example your email address;
- delete your data, including your whole account, subject to records we must keep by law;
- restrict or object to processing based on legitimate interest;
- receive your data in a portable, machine-readable format;
- withdraw consent at any time where processing is based on consent, without affecting earlier processing;
- complain to a data protection authority, in particular the one in the country where you live.
To exercise any of these rights, email us from the address linked to your account. We answer within one month. We do not charge for these requests unless they are clearly unfounded or excessive.
10Security
All traffic between the extension, the website and our servers is encrypted with TLS. Sign-in uses one-time links sent to your email, so there is no password to leak. Access to production systems is limited to the people who need it, and payment details never touch our servers. No system is perfectly secure; if we learn of a breach that affects your data, we will inform you and the relevant authority as required by law.
11Children
The Service is not directed at children under 16 and we do not knowingly collect their personal data. If you believe a child under 16 has created an account, contact us and we will delete it.
12Changes to this policy
We may update this policy as the Service evolves. The current version, with its effective date, is always available at manhwave.com/privacy. For material changes we will notify you by email or inside the extension before they take effect.
13Contact
Privacy questions and requests: contact@manhwave.com.