Privacy Policy

Last updated: 2026-08-24

Open Book Reader is designed to be completely private.

What we collect

Nothing. The extension does not collect, store, or transmit any personal data, browsing history, or page content to us or any third party. The only data that ever leaves your device is a message you deliberately choose to send us — see Reporting a problem below.

Network activity

Core reading is fully local: article extraction and pagination (and the image-gallery layout) happen entirely in your browser, and the Mozilla Readability library is bundled inside the extension — nothing is fetched from external servers for reading.

The extension makes network requests in one case only: when you explicitly download images from the image-gallery mode. To save an image, or to bundle several into a ZIP, your browser fetches those image URLs (the same images the page already shows). This happens only on your action (clicking a download / ZIP button), the bytes go only to your device, and nothing is ever sent to the developer or any third party.

Reporting a problem

The reader and image-gallery toolbars have a ⚠ Report button. It opens a small report page (part of the extension) where you describe the problem and choose how to send it — both entirely up to you:

• By email — opens your own email client with a pre-filled message. The extension only prepares the draft; you review and send it from your own account.
• By web form — submits your message to a Google Form (so reporting still works if you have no email client set up). This goes to Google as the form provider, sends only what you typed plus the diagnostics shown on the page, and only when you click Send.

Either way, the message includes the address of the page you were on (path only — any ?query string is stripped), the mode you were using, and the extension version, so the bug can be reproduced. Your email address is included only if you choose to add it for a reply. The extension never transmits anything on its own — nothing leaves your device until you submit.

Uninstall survey

When you remove the extension, your browser may open a short one-question page asking why you left. Answering is optional and works exactly like reporting a problem (a Google Form, or your own email — only what you choose to send). You may add your email if you'd like us to let you know when we fix what made you leave, but it is never required — leave it blank and the feedback stays anonymous.

Data stored on your device

Everything below is written by your own browser and is never sent to the developer. Removing the extension clears all of it.

Synced across your signed-in Chrome devices (Chrome's storage.sync, through your own Google account — never through us):

• Reading preferences — font size, theme, book width, spine width, line height, and your gallery layout choices.
• Per-site choices you made deliberately — a saved content pick, images you hid as repeated noise, per-site gallery settings, and the sites you turned auto-open on for. These are keyed by site name, so the list of sites you set something up on syncs along with them.

Kept on this device only (Chrome's storage.local, never synced):

• Reading positions — where you stopped in an article and how long you spent on it, so the reader can offer to resume. An entry records the site and the page path (any ?query string is dropped), which makes it a record of the articles you opened the reader on. It stays on this device.
• Your own counters — articles finished and total reading time, used only to show your stats on the back-cover page and to decide whether to ask you for a rating.

Incognito windows leave no reading record. Reading in one saves no position, no reading time and no counters — nothing about it outlives the session. Changes you make deliberately there, such as switching the theme, still save as preferences.

Permissions

Requested at install (the minimal set):

• activeTab / scripting — used only to render the reading view (text or image gallery) on the page you explicitly activate it on.
• storage — used only to remember your preferences and the reading data described above.
• contextMenus — used only to add the extension's own right-click menu items.

Optional — requested only the first time you download an image, never at install:

• downloads — used only to save images you explicitly download from the image gallery.
• host access (<all_urls>) — used only to fetch image bytes when you ask to download a ZIP of selected images. It is never used to read, monitor, or transmit page content.
• per-site host access — granted only if you turn on auto-open for a site (right-click → Auto-open on this site). It lets the extension check that one site's pages as they load — entirely inside your browser — to open reading mode on content pages. Nothing is read for any other purpose and nothing is transmitted; you can revoke it any time in the site's rules or in chrome://extensions.

The extension only runs when you click its icon or press its keyboard shortcut — or on sites where you explicitly turned auto-open on. It does not run in the background or on any other page.

Contact

For questions about this policy, open an issue at the project's repository or email the developer.