For school technology administrators
ReadTune in a managed environment
ReadTune is a free reading-accessibility extension. It collects no student information, transmits nothing to a server, and stores its settings locally on the device. This page is for the person deciding whether to add it to an allow-list.
The short version. No accounts. The extension runs no analytics or telemetry. No server that receives student data — there is nothing to receive. Installs with activeTab, scripting, and storage only. No cost, no licence, no renewal. Works offline.
Student data
ReadTune does not collect, store, or transmit any personally identifiable information. It requires no login, no email, and no account of any kind. A student's reading profile, calibration history, reading position, and highlights are written to the browser's local extension storage (chrome.storage.local) on that device and are never sent anywhere.
Because no student data is collected or shared, COPPA and FERPA have nothing to attach to. If your review process needs that stated in writing on letterhead, contact us and we will provide it.
Permissions, and why each is needed
| Permission | Why |
|---|---|
activeTab | Read the current tab's article text — but only the moment the student clicks the ReadTune button or presses the keyboard shortcut. No standing access to any site. |
scripting | Inject the one-off script that reads the article for Reader View, or the "restyle this page" script, on that same user action. |
storage | Save the reading profile and progress locally on the device. |
| Optional, per-site (not requested at install) | Only if a student turns on "automatically open Reader View" or "automatically restyle" for one specific site, Chrome asks them to grant that one site. Revoked when they turn it off. |
Network behaviour
Read-aloud uses Piper, a neural voice that runs entirely on the device. The default voice ships inside the extension, so it works offline with nothing to download and the reading text is never uploaded. If a student picks one of the optional voices in the Reading Lab, that one model file downloads once from Hugging Face and is then cached on the device. Page reformatting, PDF text extraction, and the calibration test all run entirely in the browser using code bundled in the extension (no CDN, no remote scripts — Manifest V3 forbids them and ReadTune loads none).
One opt-in exception: a student can paste their own ElevenLabs API key to use higher-quality read-aloud voices. If they do, the passage being read and their key are sent to api.elevenlabs.io to generate audio. This requires a personal ElevenLabs account and API key, which students on a school account will not have, and it can be disregarded for your evaluation. The feature is off by default and there is no ElevenLabs integration unless a key is entered.
Support burden
- ~60 MB download, almost all of which is the bundled public-domain voice that lets read-aloud work offline. The extension code itself is a couple of MB. Optional extra voices download once per reader and can be skipped entirely.
- Nothing to configure centrally. A student runs the 4-minute calibration once; everything else is a preference.
- Open source — the full code is on GitHub for your security team to inspect before approval.
- The extension is inert on
chrome://pages and the Chrome Web Store, like all extensions.
How to allow ReadTune (Google Admin console)
→ select the organizational unit
→ "＋" → Add Chrome app or extension by ID
→ paste the ReadTune extension ID
→ set to "Allow install" (or "Force install" for a class set)
Extension ID and Web Store link: published soon — check back, or email us for the ID. Until then, ReadTune can be evaluated by loading it unpacked from the GitHub source on a non-managed device.
Cost
Free. There is no paid tier, no per-seat pricing, no quote, and no upsell inside the product. Every feature — including the text-to-speech and the calibration test — is available to every student at no cost to the district.
Contact
For a compliance statement, the extension ID, a pilot, or a security question, open an issue on GitHub or reach the project through the homepage.
Last updated: September 2026