Quick Summary
| Do we collect personal data? | No |
| Do we track your browsing? | No |
| Is your data sold to anyone? | No |
| Is your API key sent to our servers? | No — stored only on your device |
| Is page content sent anywhere? | Only to the AI provider you choose, only when you click "AI Summary" |
| Do we use analytics or tracking? | No |
1 Data We Do Not Collect
WebGist has no backend server, no account system, and no remote database. The extension author has no access to anything on your device.
We do not collect:
- Your identity or personal information
- Your browsing history or visited URLs
- Your API keys or credentials
- The content of pages you visit
- Usage statistics, click events, or any telemetry
- Crash reports or error logs
2 Data Stored Locally on Your Device
WebGist stores the following data only on your device using Chrome's built-in storage APIs.
Settings — chrome.storage.sync
Your chosen AI provider, model, and API keys. Synced across devices via Chrome Sync (subject to Google's privacy policy). Cleared when you remove the extension.
History — chrome.storage.local
Page titles, URLs, summaries, and translations you explicitly save. Never uploaded. Cleared any time from the History tab.
Session Cache — chrome.storage.session
A temporary per-tab summary cache so results survive the popup closing and reopening. Automatically deleted when the browser closes.
Floating Button Position — localStorage
The screen position of the draggable button, stored per-website.
3 Data Sent to Third-Party Services
WebGist contacts external services only when you explicitly trigger an action. Nothing is sent automatically in the background.
AI Provider — when you click "AI Summary"
The extracted page text (up to ~15,000 characters), page title, URL, and your summary instructions are sent directly to the AI provider you configured. Your API key is sent as an authentication header. The request goes from your browser straight to the provider — it does not pass through any WebGist server.
| Provider | Privacy Policy |
|---|---|
| Google Gemini | policies.google.com/privacy |
| Groq | groq.com/privacy-policy |
| Mistral | mistral.ai/privacy |
| Cohere | cohere.com/privacy |
| OpenRouter | openrouter.ai/privacy |
| Anthropic | anthropic.com/privacy |
| Cerebras | cerebras.ai/privacy |
Jina AI Reader — when you click "Full Page"
If the optional local extraction server is not running, the current page URL is sent to Jina AI Reader (r.jina.ai) to fetch clean article text. Only the URL is sent — no identity or personal data.
Google Translate — when you click "Translate"
The summary text is sent to Google's Translate API. No personal information is included. See Google's Privacy Policy.
Google Translate TTS — when you use Read Aloud
If no system TTS engine is available, text chunks are sent to Google Translate TTS. No personal information is included.
Trafilatura Local Server — optional
If you run webgist_server.py, page HTML is sent to
127.0.0.1:7777 — a server on your own machine.
This data never leaves your device.
4 Permissions Used
5 Children's Privacy
WebGist does not knowingly collect any information from children under 13 years of age and does not include features directed at children.
6 Changes to This Policy
If this policy is updated, the "Last updated" date at the top will change. Significant changes will be noted in the GitHub release notes.
7 Contact
Questions about this privacy policy? Open an issue on GitHub: github.com/wadekarg/WebGist/issues