SiteAnnotation is a Chrome extension that captures screenshots, page elements with their HTML and CSS, text and page metadata from the page you are viewing, and assembles them into a report that you export as a file.
In short: your reports stay on your device. SiteAnnotation has no server and no account. The extension sends nothing about you or your reports to its developer or to any third party, and contains no analytics, tracking or advertising code. It opens pages of its website in a tab, described under "Website" below.
What the extension stores, and where
| Data | Where | When it is created | How to remove it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reports: titles, text, comments; evidence: screenshots, captured HTML, CSS rules, text, metadata, the page address and title, capture time, window size, browser name | IndexedDB of the extension, on your device | Only when you press a capture button, a context-menu item or a shortcut, and then save | Delete the evidence or the report in the extension; uninstalling the extension deletes all of it |
| The active report, the interface language you chose | chrome.storage.local, on your device |
When you switch report or language | Uninstalling the extension |
| Whether the verbose diagnostics journal is on | chrome.storage.local, on your device |
When you switch it | Uninstalling the extension |
| Which tabs you allowed for capture in the current session | chrome.storage.session, in memory |
When you click the toolbar icon or allow a site | Cleared when the browser closes |
| Settings (masking of sensitive values) | IndexedDB of the extension | When you change them | Uninstalling the extension |
Diagnostics journal: names of the extension's own events (capture, export, access request, error), their duration and outcome, error messages, a site's origin (https://shop.example); never page content, titles, paths or query strings; at most the last 1000 entries |
IndexedDB of the extension, on your device | Always; with "Verbose journal" on, every step of a capture as well | "Clear journal" on the settings page; uninstalling the extension. "Download journal" saves it as a file you can attach to a bug report yourself |
The extension does not use chrome.storage.sync: nothing is synced through your Google account.
Sensitive values are masked before saving
With "Mask sensitive values" on (the default), captured HTML, attributes and page addresses have form
values, tokens, keys, session ids and secret URL parameters replaced with ••• before anything is saved.
Screenshots are images of what you saw and are not masked; the image editor lets you blur areas.
Exported reports carry the blurred picture only. A backup keeps the original under the blur, so the blur
can still be removed after restoring it: share a backup only with people who may see the whole screenshot.
Network requests
The extension makes one kind of network request. When you capture an element, it reads the CSS rules that
apply to it. If a stylesheet of the page comes from another origin and the browser hides its rules, the
extension downloads that stylesheet, from the address the page itself uses, to read its rules. The request
is sent without cookies (credentials: 'omit') and carries no data about you or your reports.
Nothing else runs in the background: no requests to the developer, no analytics, no remote code. Exports (Markdown, HTML, DOCX, PDF, backup) are files the browser saves to your computer; the extension uploads them nowhere. The website pages described below open in an ordinary tab, as if you followed a link.
Site access
Out of the box the extension can read a page only after you click its icon or use its shortcut or menu, and
only that tab (activeTab). If you choose "Always allow on <site>", Chrome asks you to grant access to
that one site; the list and a "Revoke" button are on the settings page. If a stylesheet sits on another
site and its server does not allow reading it, the element card offers "Allow access", and Chrome asks you
to grant access to that stylesheet's site; it is used only to download that stylesheet.
Website
The extension's website is siteannotation.com. The extension opens it in three cases:
- After installation it opens the page
siteannotation.com/welcome/once (/ru/welcome/when the interface is in Russian), with the extension version in the address (?v=0.1.0). An update does not open it. - When you uninstall the extension, Chrome opens the page
siteannotation.com/uninstall/(/ru/uninstall/for a Russian interface) with the version and the interface language in the address (?v=0.1.0&lang=en). - When you follow a link "Help" or "Privacy policy" in the settings or on the panel's first screen, the
page opens with
?utm_source=extension&utm_medium=panel(oroptions) in the address.
These addresses carry no identifier of you or of your installation, and nothing from your reports.
Visit statistics on the website. The website (not the extension) uses Yandex Metrica, a web analytics service of YANDEX LLC, to count visits and see how the pages are used. Metrica sets its own cookies and receives the page address, the referring page, your IP address, browser, screen and device data, and records clicks, scrolling and mouse movement on the page (Webvisor and click maps). Text typed into the uninstall form is excluded from these records. Yandex processes this data under its own policy: https://yandex.com/legal/confidential/. You can block Metrica with a content blocker or by disabling cookies in the browser; the website keeps working. The website has no ads. Like any web server, it also keeps a technical log of requests (IP address, page address, time and browser) to keep the website working and secure.
The uninstall form. Answering is optional. If you send it, the website stores the reason you chose, the text you typed (up to 500 characters), the extension version, the language and the time to the minute, in a file on the website's server. The form itself does not store your IP address and asks for no e-mail. Please do not type personal data into the text field. The answers are read by the developer to improve the extension.
Sharing
The developer receives no data from the extension, so there is nothing to share, sell or transfer. Answers to the uninstall form and the server log are not shared with anyone either. Visit statistics of the website are processed by Yandex Metrica, as described above. Files you export are yours to share as you decide.
Children
The extension and the website are not directed at children and are not meant to collect personal information from children.
Changes
A change to this policy is published at the same address with a new date. A change that sends any data off your device would require a new extension version and your consent first.
Contact
Questions: info@siteannotation.com.