What TextSurfer does
TextSurfer is a Chrome extension that extracts article content from webpages you visit — including titles, authors, publication dates, key quotes, significant passages, and read time estimates — and saves this information to a local reading history stored in your browser. Everything is accessible through a searchable sidebar so you can find articles and passages you've read before.
What data is stored and where
All data is stored exclusively in your browser using Chrome's IndexedDB API and chrome.storage. It never leaves your device. Specifically, TextSurfer stores:
- Article URL — the address of the page you were reading
- Article title and author — extracted from the page's metadata
- Publication date — where available in the page's markup
- Extracted text — key quotes and significant passages from the article body
- Article metadata — word count, estimated read time, paragraph count
- Thumbnail URL — the article's featured image URL, for display purposes
- Timestamp — when you visited the page, used for sorting your history
- Your settings — minimum word count threshold and history size limit
None of this data is transmitted to any external server, API, or third party at any point.
What data is NOT collected
- No personal information — no name, email address, age, or any identifier
- No account or authentication data of any kind
- No financial or payment information
- No health data
- No location data — not even approximate region or IP address
- No keystroke logging, mouse tracking, or behavioural analytics
- No browsing history beyond pages you visit with the TextSurfer panel open
- No cross-site tracking of any kind
When does TextSurfer read a page
TextSurfer only analyses a webpage when you have the TextSurfer side panel open in your browser. It does not run in the background, does not monitor pages you visit with the panel closed, and does not collect data passively. Extraction is triggered by your navigation while the panel is open.
Data sharing
We do not share any data with any third party under any circumstances. There are no analytics providers, advertising networks, data brokers, or partner services involved. TextSurfer has no network requests beyond loading resources from the page you are already visiting.
Data retention and deletion
Your reading history is stored until you choose to delete it. You can clear your entire history at any time from the Settings tab inside the extension by clicking "Clear all history." Uninstalling the extension removes all stored data immediately and permanently.
You can also configure a maximum history size (default: 500 pages). When this limit is reached, the oldest entries are automatically removed to make space for new ones.
Permissions explained
- sidePanel — to display the TextSurfer interface in Chrome's native sidebar
- storage — to save your settings and reading history locally in your browser
- activeTab — to analyse the page you are currently reading, only when the panel is open
- scripting — to inject the extraction script into the current page and to perform in-page navigation that preserves browser history correctly
- tabs — to detect when you navigate to a new page so the sidebar can update, and to avoid running on restricted browser pages
- host permissions (<all_urls>) — to enable extraction on any website you visit, since articles exist across all domains
Single-page application behaviour
TextSurfer intercepts the browser's History API (pushState and replaceState) to detect when single-page applications like Google Gemini navigate between views without a full page load. This interception is used solely to trigger re-extraction when the displayed content changes. No data from this interception is stored or transmitted beyond what is described in the "What data is stored" section above.
Children
TextSurfer does not knowingly collect any information from anyone, including children under the age of 13. The extension collects no personal information from any user.
Changes to this policy
If we make any meaningful changes to how data is handled we will update this page and the date at the top. Because all data stays local on your device, any such changes would only affect what is stored in your own browser.
Contact
If you have questions about this privacy policy please reach out via the support link on the Chrome Web Store listing page for TextSurfer.