Effective date: 8 September 2026
Live Translation & Subtitles is a Windows desktop application with two kinds of operation:
The built-in demonstration is explicitly labeled as a demonstration. It does not capture or recognize speech.
The built-in demonstration does not open a microphone or system-audio device. Its simulated level data and English/French caption text are bundled inside the application and remain on the device.
When a live provider is selected, the app captures only the audio source selected by the user: a chosen microphone, Windows system audio, or both. Audio is processed in memory and streamed directly to the selected provider for the duration of the session. System capture can use all audio on a selected output or only the selected application and its child processes. The latter includes that application’s notifications and may include several browser tabs. Application titles and process identities are used locally to select the source, not sent to the speech provider. The application does not write captured audio to disk.
Caption text is held in memory while the app runs, and the whole session is kept: the transcript is never shortened or discarded behind the user’s back. A transcript is written to disk only when the user explicitly chooses to save it, or through the optional recovery copy described below. The app does not automatically upload saved transcripts.
Closing the app with unsaved caption text asks whether to save or discard it first.
Recovery is off by default. When the user switches on Keep a local recovery copy while captioning, the app periodically writes the finalized caption lines of the current session to a single file in its own local application-data folder on the same PC:
%LOCALAPPDATA%\io.github.fmadore.live-translation\recovery\transcript.json
Deleting the file by hand at any time is safe and removes the data.
No API key is needed for the built-in demonstration. Optional provider keys are stored in Windows Credential Manager and read only by the native application core. A key is sent only to the provider that issued it to authenticate the live connection. The developer does not receive, copy, proxy, or store provider keys.
The app locally stores ordinary interface preferences, including the last selected mode, provider, audio source, language, overlay position, caption size, whether the optional recovery copy is enabled, and whether closing the window leaves the app running in the notification area. The app also remembers the folder of the last successful transcript export and whether system capture uses an output or an application. The selected process identity is not persisted; choose the application again after relaunch. These preferences contain no captured audio, caption text, or provider key.
The app does not start with Windows and does not run as a background service. It appears in the notification area only while it is running, and closing the window quits it unless the user turns on Keep running in the tray when I close this window. With that on, the first time the window is hidden the app says so explicitly, and quitting from the notification-area icon stops any active capture before it exits.
The developer operates no server, relay, account system, telemetry, advertising, analytics, or crash-reporting service for this app. The developer receives no audio, captions, transcripts, API keys, device identifiers, or usage data from the application.
Starting a live session sends audio directly to the chosen provider under the user’s relationship with that provider. Their terms and privacy policies apply:
The built-in demonstration contacts none of these services.
The app is not directed to children and the developer knowingly collects no personal information from children.
Material changes will be published with a new effective date. The policy applicable to a release is included with its Store listing and repository documentation.
For privacy questions, use the publisher support contact shown on the Microsoft Store listing for
Live Translation & Subtitles (Product ID 9PFB8LR3RR9X).