Privacy Policy — Word Counter Chrome Extension

Short version: Word Counter does not collect, store, or transmit any personal data. Your text never leaves your browser.

Overview

Word Counter ("the extension") is a Chrome browser extension that counts words, estimates reading time, and displays text statistics for any webpage or selected text. This privacy policy explains what data the extension accesses, what it stores, and what it does not do.

This policy applies to the Word Counter Chrome extension, version 1.0 and later, published by Patrick Bushe.

Data Collected

Word Counter collects no personal data. The extension does not know who you are, does not track your browsing, and does not send any information to external servers.

Data Type	Collected?	Notes
Page text / content	No	Read in-memory only to compute statistics. Never stored or transmitted.
Browsing history	No	The extension does not record which pages you visit.
Personal information	No	No name, email, IP address, or any identifier is ever collected.
Usage analytics	No	No analytics library, telemetry, or event tracking of any kind.
User preferences	Yes — locally only	WPM setting and badge toggle stored in `chrome.storage.local` on your device.

Local Storage (chrome.storage.local)

The extension saves two preferences to your browser's local extension storage. This data exists only on your device and is never synced, shared, or transmitted anywhere.

wpm Your reading speed in words per minute (default: 200). Used to calculate estimated reading time. You can change this in the extension popup at any time.
showBadge Whether to show the word count number on the extension toolbar icon (default: true). Toggle this on or off in the extension popup.

Permissions Explained

Word Counter requests the minimum permissions needed to function:

Permission	Why It's Needed
storage	Saves your WPM and badge preferences locally in chrome.storage.local. No data leaves your device.
activeTab	Allows the extension to access the visible text of the tab you're viewing when you click the extension icon.
tabs	Used to identify the active tab so the word count badge can be shown on the correct tab's icon.
scripting	Injects the content script that reads page text to calculate statistics and listens for text selection events.
host_permissions (<all_urls>)	Allows the content script to run on any page you visit, so word count works on all websites.

No Third Parties

Word Counter does not integrate with, send data to, or load resources from any third-party service. There are no analytics SDKs, advertising networks, crash reporting tools, or data brokers involved in this extension.

The extension is entirely self-contained. All computation happens locally in your browser.

Children's Privacy

Word Counter does not collect any data from any users, including children. The extension is safe for use by users of all ages.

Changes to This Policy

If this privacy policy is updated, the "Last Updated" date below will be revised and the new policy will be published at this URL. Continued use of the extension after a policy update constitutes acceptance of the updated terms.

Contact

Questions about this privacy policy? Reach out:

Patrick Bushe
Email: hello@bushe.co
Website: bushe.co