Detox browser extension: Privacy Policy
Effective and last updated September 24, 2026
The short version
- The Detox browser extension does not send, sell or share any of your data, and collects no personal information about you.
- What it keeps to enforce your limits, your settings and today’s usage counters, is stored only in your browser. Nothing is sent to Detox or to anyone else.
- The extension has no account, no analytics, no advertising, no tracking and no remote code. It makes no network requests of its own.
- Removing the extension deletes everything it stored.
1. Who we are and what this policy covers
This policy explains how the Detox extension for Google Chrome and other Chromium browsers (“the extension”) handles information. The extension is published by Detox SARL (“Detox”, “we”, “us”).
It covers the browser extension only. The Detox iPhone app is a separate product with its own privacy policy. Installing the extension does not create a Detox account and does not connect it to the app.
2. What the extension handles, and where it stays
To remove distracting parts of websites and enforce the limits you set, the extension needs some information. All of it is processed on your device. None of it is sent to Detox, to our servers or to any third party.
Page content, read but not kept. On the sites Detox supports, and on any website you add yourself and allow it to access, the extension reads the structure of the page (its HTML elements) to find and hide sections such as Shorts, Reels, feeds and autoplay previews, and to recognise which video or post is on screen so it can be counted against your limit. It does not read or record what you type, your messages, your passwords or the content of your posts, and it does not store page content.
Tab addresses, used in the moment. The extension reads the web address of a tab to know which site it is on, so it can apply the right settings, count time against the right limit, and show the block page when that limit is reached. Addresses are not stored or logged. The only addresses the extension keeps are the website names you type into “Any website” yourself.
What is stored in your browser. The extension saves the following in Chrome’s local extension storage (chrome.storage.local), which stays on your device and is not synced to your Google account:
| What | Details | Kept |
|---|---|---|
| Your settings | Which sites and features you have switched on, the daily limits you set, and the websites you add yourself under “Any website”. | Until you change them or remove the extension. |
| Today’s usage counters | For each site you have limited: the minutes used today, the number of items used today (for example videos or Reels), and the IDs of the items already counted today so the same video is never counted twice. | Reset at your local midnight. |
| Streaks | For each site with a limit: how many days in a row you reached it, the last day you did, and any ten-minute extension you asked for from the block page. | Until you remove the extension. An extension lasts ten minutes. |
In the terms of the Chrome Web Store’s privacy disclosure, this is web history (which of your chosen sites you used today, for how long, and which videos or posts were counted) and user activity (noticing a post or video come into view so it can be counted). Both are handled on your device only, for the limits you set, and never leave it.
3. What the extension does not do
- It does not collect personal information such as your name, email address or location.
- It does not send your browsing history or the content of web pages anywhere, and it does not store page content at all.
- It has no analytics, telemetry, crash reporting, advertising, advertising identifiers, cookies or fingerprinting.
- It does not load or run code from the internet. Everything it runs is included in the package reviewed by the Chrome Web Store.
- It does not sell data, transfer it to third parties, or use it for advertising or to determine creditworthiness or lending eligibility.
4. Permissions, and why the extension asks for them
Each permission is used only for the feature described next to it. The extension does not ask for access to all websites.
- storage
- Saves your settings and today’s counters in your browser’s local extension storage.
- declarativeNetRequestWithHostAccess
- Sends a site you have blocked, or whose daily limit is used up, to the extension’s own block page. It only works on sites the extension already has access to, and its rules are built on your device from your settings.
- alarms
- Resets your daily limits at local midnight and ends a temporary limit extension on time.
- scripting
- Applies Detox to the websites you add yourself under “Any website”, and only to those.
- activeTab
- When you click the Detox button, lets the popup see which site the current tab is on, so it can offer to limit that site. It gives no lasting access and reads nothing in the background.
- Access to YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, X, Reddit, LinkedIn and supported streaming sites
- On these sites Detox reads the page layout to hide the sections you switched off, counts use against your limit, and shows the block page when the limit is reached.
- Access to other websites (optional)
- Not granted at install. When you add a website under “Any website”, Chrome asks you to allow access to that one site, so Detox can limit or block it. Removing the site gives the access back. You can review or revoke it at any time in chrome://extensions.
5. Sharing
Because the extension sends nothing off your device, we have no extension data to share, and we do not share any. Google distributes and updates the extension through the Chrome Web Store under its own privacy policy.
6. Keeping and deleting your data
Your data stays in your browser for as long as described in the table above. You can change or remove any setting from the extension’s settings page at any time. Removing the extension (in Chrome, open chrome://extensions and click Remove) permanently deletes everything it stored.
7. Your rights
Depending on where you live, laws such as the GDPR, the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection and the CCPA give you rights over your personal data, including access, correction and deletion. Because the extension keeps everything on your device and we receive none of it, you exercise these rights directly in your browser, as described above. If you have a question, we are happy to help.
8. Children
The extension is not directed at children under 13 and collects no personal information from anyone, including children.
9. Chrome Web Store User Data Policy
The use of information received by the extension adheres to the Chrome Web Store User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
10. Changes to this policy
If a future version of the extension ever needs to send any information off your device, for example an optional sync with the Detox iPhone app, we will update this policy and the extension’s Chrome Web Store privacy disclosures before that version is released, and the extension will ask for your permission before any data leaves your browser. The date at the top of this page shows when the policy last changed.
11. Contact
Questions about this policy or the extension’s data handling can be sent to Detox SARL through detox.so/support.