Privacy Policy for AI Overview Checker

1. Who we are and what this policy covers

AI Overview Checker is a browser extension for Google Chrome, published by an independent developer. This policy explains what the extension does with your data, what our website at aioverviewchecker.app does, and what rights you have. It applies to the extension itself and to the pages of aioverviewchecker.app that belong to it (the home page, the welcome page, the uninstall page, the report page and this policy).

The short version: the extension works inside your browser and does not send your data anywhere.

2. What data the extension handles

The extension does not send personal data to us or to anyone else, and we do not sell it. The data described below is handled only on your device.

• Google search result pages. The extension runs only on Google search result pages (addresses ending in /search). There it reads the address of the page (your search phrase, the language and country settings in the address and the Google domain), the AI Overview block if there is one, the links cited in it and the titles and links of the ordinary results. It does this to show the bar above the results, the list of cited sources and the colour of the icon. It does not read any other website, does not click anything on the page and makes no searches of its own.
• History of checks. Each new results page you open is saved as one row: the date, the search phrase, the language and country from the address, the Google domain, whether there was an AI Overview, the domains it cited and the positions of your own domains. The extension keeps the last 500 rows and deletes older ones automatically. They are stored with the browser's built-in chrome.storage.local API, stay in your browser profile and never leave your device. You can download them as a CSV file, which the browser creates on your computer, or delete them with the Clear button.
• Your domains and settings. The list of domains you add (up to 20) and your settings (whether the bar is shown and the label language for the history) are saved with chrome.storage.local in the same way.
• No accounts. The extension has no sign-up, no login and no user profiles.
• No tracking inside the extension. The extension contains no analytics, no advertising code and no remote code. It does not load site icons or anything else from the internet.

Chrome Web Store disclosure. Our Chrome Web Store listing declares Website content and Web history, because the extension reads the AI Overview block and the address of the Google search page you open and keeps them in the local history. That data stays on your device.

3. Cookies and analytics on our website

The home page, the welcome page and this policy on aioverviewchecker.app use Google Analytics 4 to count visits. This happens only on the website, not inside the extension. The uninstall page and the report page have no analytics. The welcome page also reports whether the extension's icon is pinned to your toolbar. We never send Google Analytics your search phrases, your domains or your history. Advertising features are off for everyone.

If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, analytics cookies are off. Google works out your country from your IP address. In those places Google Analytics sets no cookies and stores no identifier on your device. The Google script still loads and can send Google a basic signal without a cookie: the page you opened, the time, your browser and device type, and your approximate location.

Everywhere else, analytics cookies are on by default. Google Analytics sets cookies named _ga and _ga_*, which can last up to two years, and processes the same technical data.

Your browser connects to Google to load the script, so Google sees your IP address. Google says Google Analytics 4 uses it to estimate location and does not store it. Statistics are kept for 14 months (see section 8).

Your choice. This website does not ask for consent, so visitors from the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland stay without analytics cookies.

You can also block cookies in your browser settings, use a content-blocking extension or install Google's opt-out add-on (tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout). The website keeps working without them. Google's own privacy policy describes how Google processes this data.

Server logs. Like any web server, ours keeps a technical log of requests to these pages: IP address, the address requested, the time, the browser type and, if your browser reports it, the page you came from. The site is served through Cloudflare, which also sees this traffic and protects the site from abuse. We use the log to keep the site running and safe, and it is deleted automatically after a short time. The extension sends nothing to this log; only opening one of these pages does.

4. How we use data

The only data we receive is the aggregated website statistics and server logs described above and, if you choose to send them, your answer on the uninstall page and any email you write to us (for example a report about a results page the extension could not read). We use the statistics to see how many people reach the welcome page, the logs to keep the site running and safe, and your answers and emails to reply to you and to improve the extension. We do not build individual profiles and we do not combine this data with any other source.

When you remove the extension, Chrome opens a short page on our website that asks why. Answering is optional. Only if you press Send, the reason you picked and the text you typed (up to 500 characters) go to our server, which passes them to us as a message in Telegram with the name of the extension and does not store them. To stop spam, the server counts answers per day by a one-way hash of your IP address with a key that changes every day; the hash is kept for 2 days and is never part of the message. The uninstall page has no analytics and sets no cookies. Please do not put personal details in your answer.

The use of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Chrome Web Store User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

5. Who we share data with

We do not sell or rent data, and we share it only with the services named here. They process data for us: Google Analytics, as a service provider for the website statistics in section 3; Telegram, which delivers answers from the uninstall page to us (it receives the extension name, the reason and the text you send, but not your IP address or any install ID); Cloudflare, which delivers the website; and our hosting and email providers, which store the server logs and the emails you send us. Please do not put personal details in your answer on the uninstall page. We have no server that receives data from the extension.

6. Your rights, including under the GDPR

If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, you have the right to access, correct or delete personal data about you, to restrict or object to its processing, and to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority. Because the extension stores data only on your device, you can exercise these rights yourself at any time (see section 8). For website analytics, you can opt out as described in section 3. For anything else, write to [email protected] and we will answer within 30 days.

This website does not ask for consent, so it sets no analytics cookies in those places. The legal basis for the basic signal without cookies, for website analytics elsewhere and for server logs is our legitimate interest in understanding how the website is used and keeping it safe. The legal basis for emails and uninstall page answers you send us, and for counting those answers by the IP hash, is our legitimate interest in replying to you, improving the extension and preventing spam. The legal basis for keeping your history, domains and settings is that you asked the extension to remember them.

7. Children

The extension and the website are not directed at children under 13 (or under the age set by your country's law). We do not knowingly collect data from children. The extension sends nothing to us, so we hold no such data from it.

8. Data retention and deletion

The history of checks, your domains and your settings live in your browser only. The history keeps the last 500 checks; the Clear button in the extension deletes all of it at once, and removing the extension from Chrome deletes everything it stored. A CSV file you downloaded is yours and stays wherever you saved it. Website analytics data is kept by Google Analytics for the retention period set in our account (14 months) and then deleted automatically. Server logs are deleted automatically after a short time. We keep emails only as long as we need them to reply or to improve the extension, and you can ask us to delete them. Answers from the uninstall page stay in our private Telegram chat until we delete them; our server keeps only the daily counts and the IP hash described in section 4, for 2 days.

9. Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we will update the text on this page and the date at the top. If a future version of the extension sends anything to a server, this policy will describe it before that version is released. Please check this page from time to time if you want to stay informed.

10. Contact

Questions about this policy or about your data: [email protected].