Budou Privacy Policy

Budou does not run its own servers, does not collect analytics or telemetry, and does not have user accounts. The developer never receives your images, your text, or any usage data. Everything below describes where data goes when you use each feature — always to a service you've enabled, never to the developer.

Default image translation (Google Lens + Google Translate)
When you translate an image with default settings, the image is sent to Google's Lens API (lensfrontend-pa.googleapis.com) to detect and read text, and the recognized text is sent to Google's public Translate endpoint (translate.googleapis.com) to be translated. This is the same data flow as using Google Lens or Google Translate directly in a browser tab — Budou is a client for these Google services, not an intermediary that stores or forwards the data anywhere else. Google's own privacy policy governs how they handle this data.

Selected-text translation
Text you highlight and translate is sent only to whichever translation engine is active — Google Translate by default, or your own local AI server if you've configured one (see below).

Manga OCR (offline mode)
When Manga OCR is turned on in Settings, image text detection and recognition run entirely inside your browser using models bundled with the extension. No image data is sent anywhere for this step — it works with no internet connection at all. The translation step still uses whichever translation engine is active (Google Translate or local AI).

Local AI (optional)
If you configure a local or self-hosted AI server (e.g. Ollama, LM Studio) in Settings, translation text is sent only to the URL you specify — typically localhost or a server on your own network. Budou has no involvement in that connection beyond making the request to the address you configured; nothing is routed through any server operated by the developer.

ComfyUI inpainting (optional)
If you enable ComfyUI-based inpainting, the image and mask data are sent to the ComfyUI server URL you configure — again, a server you run and control, not the developer's.

Built-in inpainting
The built-in (non-ComfyUI) inpainting option runs entirely locally in your browser, using the same offline approach as Manga OCR. No data leaves your device for this feature.

Local storage
Your settings, translation cache, and glossary are stored locally in your browser via the standard WebExtension storage API. This data stays on your device and is never transmitted to the developer. Uninstalling the extension removes it.

Fonts
If you use a custom export font, it's downloaded from Google Fonts on first use and cached by your browser, the same as any website using a Google Fonts stylesheet.