Privacy Policy

Last updated 9 October 2026

CaptionKit (ABN 78 787 654 349) provides live captions, translations and translated audio for churches and other live events. This policy explains what we collect, why, who processes it for us, where it is stored, how long we keep it and what choices you have. It applies to captionkit.com, the CaptionKit dashboard and desktop app, the caption pages attendees open, and the CaptionKit mobile app.

We are based in Australia and handle personal information under the Australian Privacy Principles in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). Where the EU or UK GDPR applies, we follow it as well.

Who is responsible

There are two groups of people whose information we handle, and our role is different for each:

• Churches and organisations that use CaptionKit (“customers”). For your account, billing and use of our website, we decide how your information is used.
• People who speak in or watch a captioned service (speakers and attendees). The customer decides to caption its services, so it is responsible for telling its people about it. We process that audio, those transcripts and attendee statistics on the customer's behalf and only to provide the service to them.

Audio

When a customer starts a broadcast, the dashboard or desktop app sends microphone audio to our servers, which stream it to a speech-recognition provider to produce captions.

• We do not record or store the original audio. It is held in memory only while it is being transcribed (at most around 30 seconds during a network interruption) and then discarded.
• Custom vocabulary the customer adds (for example names and place names) is sent with the audio to improve accuracy.
• The mobile app and caption pages never use the microphone.

Transcripts, translations and translated audio

• Transcripts. The text of each broadcast is saved to the customer's account so it can be viewed, downloaded and shared from the dashboard.
• Translations. Caption text, along with a few preceding sentences for context and any translation instructions the customer has set, is sent to our translation provider. The translated text is saved alongside the transcript.
• Translated audio. If a customer turns on audio translation, translated text (never the original audio) is sent to a text-to-speech provider. The resulting audio clips are stored so attendees can listen live and catch up. They are served from a public web address that is hard to guess but doesn't require a login.
• Live caption feeds are cached briefly so late joiners can catch up. These caches expire within 30 minutes of the last caption.

Services are often religious in nature, so a transcript can reveal the religious beliefs of the people speaking. We treat transcripts as the customer's content. We don't read them except to provide support the customer asks for or to fix a fault, and we don't use them for advertising or to build profiles of anyone.

Attendee analytics

Attendees don't need an account. To show customers how many people are following along, and in which languages, the caption pages and mobile app record:

• a random viewer ID created on the device (in browser storage, or app storage on mobile), plus a cookie on api.captionkit.com, so a person who reconnects isn't counted twice;
• when they join and leave, and which language they chose;
• whether they used the web page or the mobile app;
• their approximate location (city, region and country), worked out from their IP address when they connect. We don't store the IP address itself.

None of this is linked to a name, email address or account. The customer sees totals, peaks, language and platform breakdowns and locations for each service, and the data is kept with that service's transcript. The caption pages also use page analytics (PostHog and DataFast) to count visits. They carry no advertising or social-media trackers.

Mobile app

The CaptionKit mobile app is for attendees. It:

• has no accounts, logins, purchases or advertising;
• collects only the attendee analytics described above (random viewer ID, join/leave and language, approximate location derived from IP), which is not linked to your identity and not used to track you across other apps or websites;
• uses the camera only to scan a church's QR code. Images are processed on your device and never sent to us;
• keeps your settings (text size, theme, voice, recently viewed churches) on your device only;
• sends the church name you type into search to our servers to find matches. We don't store your searches;
• checks for app updates through our update provider, Expo, which receives a random installation ID to deliver them.

Uninstalling the app removes everything it stored on your device.

Customer accounts

When you sign up and use the dashboard, we collect:

• your name, email address, organisation name, logo, website and any team members you invite;
• billing details, handled by Stripe. We see the card type and last four digits, never the full number;
• how you use the dashboard and error reports, through PostHog, to fix bugs and improve the product. This is linked to your account;
• support conversations through Intercom and email, and product emails you can unsubscribe from at any time through Loops;
• the name of the microphone you broadcast with, to help diagnose audio problems.

Our website and advertising

captionkit.com (not the caption pages) uses Google Analytics, Google Ads, the Meta Pixel, DataFast and PostHog to understand visits and measure our advertising. We set first-party cookies for up to 90 days that remember which ad or link brought you here. If you sign up or subscribe, we tell Google and Meta about that conversion using your ad click ID and a one-way hashed (SHA-256) copy of your email address, so they can match it without receiving the email itself. Meta also receives your browser's IP address and user agent for matching. We don't sell personal information, and we don't share transcripts, audio or attendee data with advertisers.

You can block these cookies in your browser, or opt out through Google Ad Settings and Meta Ad Preferences.

Who processes data for us

We use service providers for captioning, translation and translated audio, hosting and storage, payments, email and support, and product analytics. Each receives only what it needs for its job and handles it under its own data-processing terms. Some may keep data for a limited time for security, abuse monitoring or service improvement, as their terms allow. Our sub-processors page lists each one, what it does and where it processes data. Churches and organisations that need a data processing agreement can contact us at help@captionkit.com.

We also use Google and Meta to measure our advertising (see above), and Expo to deliver mobile app updates.

We may also disclose information where the law requires it, or to a buyer if CaptionKit is sold, under the same protections as this policy.

Where data is stored

Our databases, processing servers and stored audio are in the United States, mainly on the US east coast. Live connections may pass through Cloudflare's network near you. This means personal information is disclosed overseas, mainly to the United States. Where GDPR applies, we rely on our providers' standard contractual clauses or equivalent safeguards for these transfers.

How long we keep it

• Original audio: not stored.
• Transcripts, translations, translated audio and attendee analytics: kept for as long as the customer's account is open, so they can look back over past services. When a customer deletes a service from their history, we delete its transcript, translations, attendee analytics and translated audio. We keep only basic details (date, length and languages) for usage and billing. Copies of translated audio cached by browsers or our content network expire within a day.
• Live caption caches: expire within 30 minutes.
• Closed accounts: ask us at help@captionkit.com and we will delete the account and its content within 30 days.
• Invoices and payment records: kept for 7 years, as Australian tax law requires.
• Advertising cookies: up to 90 days.

Security

All connections are encrypted in transit, data is encrypted at rest by our hosting providers, and access to customer content is limited to the account's own members and to us when we need it to provide support. No system is perfectly secure. If a breach is likely to cause serious harm, we will notify affected people and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner as the law requires.

Your choices and rights

• Customers can view, download and delete transcripts in the dashboard, update account details at any time, and ask us to delete their account.
• Attendees are not identified by name, so there's usually nothing to look up. You can clear your viewer ID by clearing your browser storage or uninstalling the app. For questions about a particular service, contact the church that ran it. We will help them answer.
• Everyone can ask us for access to, correction of or deletion of personal information we hold about them. If you are in the EU or UK, you can also object to or restrict processing and ask for your data in a portable format. We don't charge for requests and will respond within 30 days. We may need to confirm your identity first.

Children

Dashboard accounts are for organisations, not children. Attendees of any age may use the caption pages and app, which don't ask for names or contact details.

Changes to this policy

We will update this page when our practices change, and email customers about significant changes before they take effect.

Contact and complaints

Email help@captionkit.com with any question, request or complaint. If you aren't satisfied with our response, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, or to your local data protection authority if you are in the EU or UK.