For school technology administrators
ReadTune in a managed environment
ReadTune is a free reading-accessibility extension. Its core tools store settings locally on the device. Optional cloud voice and AI actions can send only the text needed for the action when a student explicitly chooses them; the network boundaries are disclosed below. This page is for the person deciding whether to add it to an allow-list.
The short version. No accounts, analytics, or telemetry. Reading profile, calibration history, and highlights stay on the device. Core reading tools work locally. PDF extraction is local and the PDF file itself is never uploaded. Ask AI, Premium voice, and reader-configured ElevenLabs are optional network routes used only when chosen. Installs with activeTab, scripting, and storage only. No cost, no licence, no renewal.
Student data
ReadTune requires no login, email, or account. 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 not sent to ReadTune.
Optional network features (see "Network behaviour" below) can send relevant article text or locally extracted PDF text and, for Ask, a typed question. They run only after a student explicitly invokes that action. Districts should evaluate those options under their own student-data and AI policies rather than treating this page as a COPPA or FERPA certification.
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 ReadTune's bundled article-extraction, page-restyle, or dictation script on a user action. |
storage | Save the reading profile and progress locally on the device. |
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 for that voice. If a student picks one of the optional on-device voices in the Reading Lab, that model file downloads once from Hugging Face and is cached on the device. Page reformatting, PDF file loading and text extraction, and the calibration test run in the browser using code bundled in the extension. The PDF file itself is never uploaded.
Ask AI (opt-in): Reader View and PDF mode have an Ask AI panel. Merely opening it sends nothing. If a student explicitly requests a Summary, Ask, Define, Explain, or Annotate action and a compatible on-device model is not used, the relevant article text — or relevant locally extracted PDF text — is sent to ReadTune's relay (readtune.tech/api/assist), which forwards it to a third-party AI model. A typed Ask question is sent with the context. Only article summaries are eligible for ReadTune's shared 30-day response cache; typed Ask answers, Define/Explain results, and annotations are not stored in that response cache. Treat these cloud-routed actions as AI tools under the district's policy.
Optional cloud voices: Premium voice sends the sentence being spoken to ReadTune's text-to-speech relay, which forwards it to a third-party provider and does not store the text or generated audio. A student can also paste their own ElevenLabs API key; that sends the passage being read and key directly to api.elevenlabs.io. Both options are off by default. Removing the ElevenLabs key also returns that optional host permission.
Talk to type: Chrome's built-in speech-recognition service sends microphone audio to Google for transcription. ReadTune does not record or store the audio or transcript, and dictation is disabled for password fields.
Support burden
- ~60 MB download, almost all of which is the bundled voice that lets default read-aloud work offline. Optional extra voices download once per reader and can be skipped entirely.
- Nothing to configure centrally. A student runs the short 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)
Install ReadTune from the Chrome Web Store ↗
ReadTune’s Chrome Web Store ID is hgppjhkjemchehbienigclgamffoakdk. Use this ID to allow the extension for a managed organization.
Cost
Free. There is no paid tier, no per-seat pricing, no quote, and no upsell inside the product.
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