Privacy Policy

LanguageTool is a proofreading software. It works by sending the text to be checked to our servers over an encrypted connection. This policy describes what kind of data we store.

The processing of personal data on this website is carried out in accordance with the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the German Federal Data Protection Act, Bundesdatenschutzgesetz (BDSG 2018).

Here's how you can contact us.

Note: If you don't want any information to be transferred, download the desktop version from our homepage. It works locally without internet access and thus doesn't transfer any data.

Have you given us permission to use your data, e.g. by subscribing to the newsletter? You can revoke this permission at any time as described below.

• We don't store the text that you submit for style and grammar checking on languagetool.org, with the following exceptions:
  • If you explicitly submit feedback, for example about false alarms or undetected errors, we store that feedback.
  • If you accept correction suggestions or disable/ignore rules, we save the internal ID of this rule
  • If you accept or explicitly ignore corrections, we log the internal rule id of that error (this is something like ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_RULE for word repetition errors) and the text fragment marked as incorrect (i.e. the small part of the sentence that was underlined as an error) and 7 characters to the left and to the right. This enables us to analyze and avoid false alarms.
  • If you accept a correction of a spelling error, we log the original word and the correction you selected.
  • In case of an internal software error (which is extremely rare), we log the sentence that caused the error so we can reproduce and fix the error.
  • Only transferred when you have an account on languagetoolplus.com and when you're logged in with that account in the add-on: the add-on regularly (about once a day) contacts our servers to let us know that you're an active user. This includes your browser (Firefox/Chrome/...) and your email address (which we already know because you already have an account on our system), but not any text you have written.
  In any case, we don't store the data with your IP address or any other meta information that would allow us to identify you. To turn off tracking in the browser add-on, activate "Do Not Track" in your browser. As your data is stored anonymously, it's not possible to delete this part of your data.
• All of our servers are hosted at Hetzner Online GmbH in Germany.
• To improve our proofreading service, we keep a log of the following information:
  • date and time, length of submitted text, text language, processing time on server, number of detected errors (but not the actual errors unless you have agreed to that),
  • the page on which you submitted the request (referrer, e.g. languagetool.org),
  • internal errors that occur (e.g. the browser add-on not being able to access the text to be checked),
  • only for the browser add-on: add-on version; date of installation; random id of the text field that is being checked
  • only transferred when you uninstall the browser add-on: the number of times you used the add-on and the URL of the page where the add-on was last used
  None of this information can be used to identify you.
• If you send feedback directly via the "feedback" function integrated in the browser add-on, the following information will be transferred so we can better analyze the problem: customer status (Premium or Basic), premium account (if set), Add-on version, languages accepted by the browser and language of the browser interface, the user's country as determined by the IP address, the currently visited website, HTML of the current text field without its text content, number of CPU cores, date of first use, rating of the add-on (thumbs up/down), activation status of the synonym feature, duration of add-on usage, address of the LanguageTool API server used (e.g. api.languagetool.org), status of the "Do not track" setting, internet connection speed, rules deactivated by the user
• In our web server log files, your IP address is stored in an abbreviated form (like 192.168.xxx.xxx) so it cannot be used to identify you. Error messages like for exceeding the query limit are stored with the full IP for up to 48 hours so we can prevent misuse of the service.
• If you subscribe to our newsletter, your email address will be stored at our newsletter provider (newsletter2go.com, Newsletter2Go GmbH, Köpenicker Straße 126, 10179 Berlin, Germany, Privacy Policy). Newsletter2Go is prohibited from selling your data and from using it for purposes other than sending newsletters. Newsletter2Go is a certified German newsletter software provider, working in accordance with the European General Data Protection Regulation, as well as the German Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG). Your email will be deleted when you unsubscribe using the unsubscribe link that is included in every newsletter we send. You can also contact us to unsubscribe from the newsletter. More information: https://www.newsletter2go.com/information-for-newsletter-recipients/
• Our forum is run by discoursehosting.com. You can find details about how your data is stored in discoursehosting.com's privacy policy.

• Our website uses Piwik/Matomo. This is a so-called web analysis service. Piwik uses "cookies", which are text files placed on your computer, to help us analyze your use of the website. For this purpose, the usage information generated by the cookie (including your shortened IP address) is transmitted to our server and stored for usage analysis purposes, which in turn serves to optimize our website. Your IP address will be immediately made anonymous during this process, so that you as a user remain anonymous to us. You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser, however, if you do this you may not be able to use the full functionality of this website.

  If you do not agree to the storage and evaluation of this data from your visit, you can use the storage and use at any time at the click of a mouse. In this case, your browser will display a so-called Opt-Out cookie, which means that Piwik does not collect any session data. Beware: If you set your cookies the result is that the opt-out cookie is also deleted and you may have to activate it again.

• In case you order a premium subscription, your order will be processed by our reseller fastspring (Bright Market, LLC d/b/a FastSpring. 801 Garden St., Santa Barbara, CA 93101). The data at fastspring is protected under the EU-US Privacy Shield, additionally fastspring has committed to follow all EU privacy laws starting 2018-05-28. Your data will be kept at fastspring after you cancel a subscription for tax reasons. See their privacy policy for details. Your credit card information - if you use a credit card to purchase the premium product - is transmitted to fastspring, we do not know your credit card data.
• You have the right, upon request and free of charge, to receive information about your personal data we store.
• If you believe that the processing of your personal data is unlawful, you have the right to complain to a regulatory agency.