Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 2026. This page explains, in plain language, what information ALSChat collects — on the website and in the ALSChat Android/iOS app — and how it's used.

The letter board itself

You can use the ALSChat letter board without creating an account. Everything the board remembers about how you use it is stored only in your browser's or app's local storage, on your own device:

• Your selected language, so the board opens in the same language next time.
• Your selection mode (tap/click or semi-automatic scan) and, if you use semi-automatic scan, your chosen scan speed.
• A history of phrases you've had the app speak aloud, so you can quickly reuse them. You can clear this at any time from the History panel, or clear it by clearing your browser's/app's site data.

Because this data lives in local storage, it stays on the specific device and browser/app you used — it is not sent to us or synced across devices. Uninstalling the app, clearing your browser data, or using a different browser or device will not carry it over.

The letter board uses your browser's or device's built-in text-to-speech engine to read text aloud. This happens entirely on your device; audio is not sent anywhere for processing.

Semi-automatic mode and the camera

Semi-automatic selection mode can use your device's front camera to detect blinks. This video is processed entirely on your device (in your browser or in the app) to figure out what's being selected — it is never uploaded, recorded, or sent to us or anyone else. You'll be asked for camera permission the first time you use this mode, and you can decline and use tap/click mode instead.

Accounts

Creating an account is optional and only needed for certain features (like removing the semi-automatic trial limit). Accounts are handled for us by Supabase, who stores this data on our behalf. Depending on how you sign up, we collect:

• Your email address and password (or, if you use "Sign in with Google," the email address Google shares with us — we never see your Google password).
• The name, nickname, and role (patient or guardian) you provide when completing your profile.
• If you sign up as a patient, your birthdate, if you choose to enter it.

We use this only to run the account system itself (logging you in, and showing your display name to the people in your conversations) — not for advertising or sold to third parties. What you type on the letter board is not linked to your account unless you send it to a conversation with the Send button; see "Messages (chat)" below.

You can permanently delete your account and all of the profile data above at any time from My Page in the app or website. This cannot be undone.

Messages (chat)

If you have an account, you can use ALSChat's chat to talk with the people in a patient's conversation, such as family members or caregivers. Each patient has a permanent ALSChat ID, shown with a QR code and an invitation link under "Contacts". Anyone who enters that ID, scans the QR code or taps the link joins the patient's conversation right away and can read the messages sent from then on, but not earlier ones. Everyone in the conversation is shown who joined and when. The patient can remove anyone at any time, and can get a new ID so that the old ID and links stop working. When you use chat, we store the following through Supabase:

• The messages you send, and when they were sent and read. Text you write on the letter board is only stored if you press "Send" to send it to the conversation.
• Photos and videos sent in the conversation (up to 20 MB each). They are kept in private storage and shown only to members of that conversation through links that expire after an hour.
• The list of people in each patient's conversation, with the display name each person had when they joined and the time they joined.
• The patient's ALSChat ID.

Only the patient and the people currently in the conversation can read it, and anyone the patient removes loses access immediately. Messages are protected in transit and access-controlled on the server, but they are not end-to-end encrypted. We do not use them for advertising, do not sell them, and do not look at them unless you ask us to help with a problem. Chat screens are masked in Microsoft Clarity session recordings, so message contents are not captured.

Messages stay in the conversation until an account is deleted. Deleting a patient account deletes that patient's entire conversation, including all of its photos and videos. Deleting any other account deletes the messages, photos, and videos that account sent. Leaving a conversation, or being removed from it, does not delete messages already sent.

The contact form

If you submit the Contact Us form, the name, organization, email address, and message you enter are sent to Formspree, a third-party form-processing service, which forwards it to us by email so we can reply. We only use this information to respond to your inquiry. See Formspree's privacy policy for how they handle submitted data.

Cookies, advertising, and analytics

The alschat.com website may show advertising served by Google AdSense on pages like About, Resources, My Page, and Contact. If ads are active on a page, Google and its advertising partners may use cookies or similar technology to serve ads based on your prior visits to this or other websites. You can learn more at Google's Ads and Data page, and opt out of personalized advertising via Google Ads Settings.

The ALSChat Android/iOS app does not show any AdSense advertising — ad code is disabled entirely when running inside the app, on every screen, including My Page.

Both the website and the app use Microsoft Clarity, a session-analytics tool, to see how pages are used (things like taps, clicks, and scrolling) so we can find and fix usability problems. Clarity does not have access to your camera. See Microsoft Clarity's FAQ for how it masks sensitive on-screen content.

Children's privacy

ALSChat is not intended for children. We do not knowingly allow accounts for children under 14 in Korea, under 16 in EU countries that require it, or under 13 elsewhere without the consent of a parent or legal guardian. If we learn that such an account was created without that consent, we will delete it.

Changes to this policy

When this policy changes, we will post the change on this page at least 7 days before it takes effect (at least 30 days for changes that significantly affect your rights) and update the "last updated" date above.

Contact

Questions about this policy can be sent through our contact form.