Terms of Use
Last updated October 15, 2026
Phonology.tech (the “Site”) is operated by ArtMap Inc. dba HackerNoon (“HackerNoon,” “we,” “us”), PO Box 2206, Edwards, Colorado 81632, USA. By using the Site you agree to these Terms and our Privacy Policy. Where these Terms don’t address something, the HackerNoon Terms of Service apply. If the two conflict, these Terms control for the Site.
1. What the Site does
You read a short passage aloud. The Site measures your vowels and runs an open-source accent model, then shows an estimate of your North American dialect region and the English accent your speech sounds closest to. Results are for fun, curiosity and education only.
2. Results are estimates, not facts about you
Accent and dialect models are imperfect. They can be wrong, and they can reflect biases in their training data. The accent model recognizes 16 English accents and was trained mostly on native speakers, so if English isn’t your first language it will still pick the closest of those 16, which can be misleading. A result says nothing reliable about your nationality, ethnicity, ancestry, immigration status, intelligence or ability. Do not rely on results for any decision about yourself or anyone else.
3. Who may use the Site
You must be at least 18 years old. You may record only your own voice, or the voice of an adult who has given you permission.
4. Prohibited uses
You agree not to use the Site or its results:
- to identify, track, profile or surveil any person;
- to make or support decisions about employment, housing, credit, insurance, education, immigration, law enforcement or access to services;
- for clinical, diagnostic or speech-therapy purposes;
- to discriminate against, harass or stereotype anyone based on how they speak;
- with recordings of other people made without their consent; or
- to scrape, overload, reverse-engineer or interfere with the Site.
5. Third-party models and tools
The Site uses open-source components, each under its own license: CommonAccent (MIT), sherpa-onnx (Apache 2.0), Silero VAD (MIT) and Praat (GPL). Their authors are not affiliated with HackerNoon and do not endorse the Site.
6. Sharing your results
You can share your results through a link, a pre-written post or a downloadable image. You decide whether and where to share. Once you post on another site (such as X, LinkedIn or Facebook), that site’s terms apply. You may share your own results for personal, non-commercial purposes.
7. Intellectual property
The Site’s design, text and code belong to HackerNoon or its licensors, apart from the open-source components above.
8. No warranty
The Site is provided “as is” and “as available.” To the fullest extent the law allows, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including accuracy, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement.
9. Limitation of liability
To the fullest extent the law allows, HackerNoon is not liable for any indirect, incidental, consequential or punitive damages arising from your use of the Site. The Site is free. Our total liability for any claim relating to it is limited to US $100.
10. Indemnity
You agree to defend and indemnify HackerNoon against claims arising from your breach of these Terms, including recording someone without their consent.
11. Changes and termination
We may change, suspend or discontinue the Site, or update these Terms, at any time. The date above shows the latest version. If you keep using the Site after a change, you accept the updated Terms.
12. Governing law
These Terms follow the governing-law and venue provisions of the HackerNoon Terms of Service.