Privacy policy
Last updated: 20 October 2026 (Sift 0.1)
Sift is a Chrome extension that fades out what you don't want to see on the sites you give it a rule for. This page says what it handles and where that goes.
What it stores, on your computer only
In Chrome's extension storage on your computer (chrome.storage.local), readable only by the
extension's own pages and service worker:
- Your rules: each site you gave one, the rule in your words, whether it's on, and how the built-in model read it.
- The decisions made for each site, so it doesn't ask again: for each item, the first 16 hexadecimal characters of a SHA-256 hash of the item's link (or of its text when it has no link) with the rule, and whether it was kept or faded. Never the link or the text itself. Decisions not used for 30 days are deleted, and at most 5,000 are kept per site. Changing a site's rule starts over.
- Which engine decides, and for a decision model of your choice, its address, your API key and the model's name.
Network
With Chrome's built-in AI (the default), the decisions are made by Gemini Nano in Chrome, on your computer, and Sift makes no network requests at all. Chrome downloads the model from Google once, when you ask it to; that download contains nothing of yours.
With a decision model at an address you choose, Sift sends that address, for each item it asks about: the rule, where the item sits on the page and the item's text (its first 600 characters; where it sits is the page's title, the list's name and the names in the page's markup around it). Your API key goes with each request, to that address only. Nothing else is sent: not the page's address, not your browsing, not anything about you. What that service does with it is up to its own privacy policy.
No analytics, no account, no advertising, no remote code. Nothing is sold or shared.
Permissions
| Permission | Why |
|---|---|
| Access to a site | Asked for when you give a site a rule, so Sift can see its items and fade them. Given back when you remove the rule. |
| Access to a decision model's address | Asked for only if you choose a decision model and save its address, so Sift can ask it. |
storage | To keep the rules, decisions and settings above. |
scripting | To run its page script on the sites you gave a rule. |
activeTab | So the toolbar button knows which site you're on. |
Removing it
Removing a site's rule deletes its decisions. Removing the extension deletes everything it stored.
This website
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