Privacy Policy
Effective date: July 10, 2026 · Contact: stephenmarcus123@gmail.com · Hosted over HTTPS · No login or account required, ever
What ReallyFree never does
- Never collects or transmits your browsing history.
- Never uses third-party trackers or analytics scripts.
- Never fingerprints your device or browser.
- Never sells, rents, or trades your data to anyone, under any circumstance.
- Never requires an account, a login, or a password to use any feature.
- Never reads page content on sites other than the one you're currently viewing, and only when the extension is actively judging that page (see permissions below).
What ReallyFree collects, and why
Everything below is either off by default or is the minimum needed to deliver a feature you explicitly asked for.
1. Opt-in anonymous verdict reports
ReallyFree judges pages locally, on your device, using a rules bundle it downloads from our server. If — and only if — you turn on "Report verdicts to help the database" in the popup (off by default), each report contains exactly four fields:
- URL pattern — the domain and path that was judged (no query string, no personal parameters).
- Rule hits — which detection rules fired (e.g., "signup wall detected").
- Verdict — really free / free with strings / trap.
- Timestamp — when the check happened.
Nothing else is in that payload — no name, no email, no account ID, no device identifier, no IP-based profile we build on our end. Turn the toggle off at any time and reporting stops immediately.
2. "Email me results" and saved searches
If you ask ReallyFree to email you search results — an entirely optional, one-field action — we store the email address you typed and the search you saved, solely so we can deliver those results to you (including later, if a match turns up after your search). We do not use that address for marketing you didn't ask for, and we do not attach it to your browsing activity elsewhere.
3. Anonymized search logs
Searches run through ReallyFree (and the free-intent terms they contain) are logged without any account or persistent personal identifier. This log is how we decide what to verify next — it drives our data-collection priorities, not advertising or profiling of individuals.
Where your data lives
Reports, saved searches, and search logs are stored on Cloudflare (Workers + D1, a standard SQLite database we fully control and can export at any time — no vendor lock-in). Nothing is handed to a third-party data broker or ad network.
Browser permissions, explained
Every permission ReallyFree requests maps to a specific, narrow job. Nothing here is asked for "just in case."
| Permission | What it's for | What it does NOT do |
|---|---|---|
storage |
Saves your settings and a local cache of verdicts on your own device. | Nothing here leaves your device unless you've opted in to reporting (see above). |
alarms |
Schedules a daily check for an updated detection-rules bundle from our server. | Sends no personal or browsing data — it's a "do you have anything newer?" request. |
activeTab |
Lets the extension read the page you're on, only for the moment you click its toolbar icon. | Grants no standing access to other tabs, other times, or pages you haven't actively asked it to check. |
scripting |
Runs the on-page paywall/trap check after a click, using the temporary access activeTab just granted. |
Cannot inject into pages you haven't triggered a check on. |
| Narrow content scripts (Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo results pages only) | Reads only the destination link (href) of each search result to draw a small verdict dot next to ones we've already checked. |
Never reads or alters the search-engine's own page layout, ranking, or ads; never runs on any other site. |
optional_host_permissions: <all_urls> |
Off by default. Only requested — via Chrome's own runtime permission dialog, at the moment you ask for it — if you turn on "Always check pages automatically" in the popup, so the paywall-warning ribbon can appear without you clicking the icon first. | Not granted at install. You can revoke it at any time from the same toggle, or from Chrome's own site-access settings. |
Your rights
Because there's no account or login, there's no profile tied to your identity to "log into" and manage. If you've used "email me results" or the opt-in reporting toggle and want any data associated with your email address deleted, email stephenmarcus123@gmail.com and we will locate and delete it. Anonymous verdict reports and search logs contain no identifier that ties them back to a person, so there's nothing in them to look up by name or email in the first place.
Changes to this policy
If this policy changes, the effective date at the top of this page will change with it. Material changes affecting what's collected will be called out plainly, not buried.
Questions
Email stephenmarcus123@gmail.com — a person reads it, not a ticket queue.