Privacy Policy

Effective September 18, 2026

ciphertext does not collect, transmit, sell, or share your data. All encryption and decryption happens locally in your browser using the Web Crypto API. Your private keys and contacts never leave your device.

1. Information we collect

ciphertext collects no personal information. There are no accounts, no analytics, no telemetry, no advertising, and no tracking of any kind.

2. What ciphertext stores on your device

To work, the extension saves the following locally in your browser's extension storage (chrome.storage.local). This data is not accessible to us and is never uploaded anywhere:

Your identity keypair (a public key and a private key generated on your device)
Contacts you add, including their public keys
Your preferences (for example, whether to auto-decrypt messages)

3. How messages are handled

When you send a message, ciphertext encrypts it locally and places the ciphertext into the web page's message input. Only the encrypted text reaches the platform you are chatting on. When you receive a ciphertext message, it is decrypted locally in your browser. ciphertext never sends your plaintext or your private key to us or to any third party.

4. Data sharing

We do not share, sell, rent, or transfer any data to third parties. ciphertext contains no remote code and makes no requests to developer-operated servers.

5. Permissions and why they are used

storage — to save your keys, contacts, and preferences locally.
clipboardWrite — to copy your public key or encrypted text when you ask.
Host permissions for the supported chat sites — to run the encryption composer on those pages only.

The Firefox/LibreWolf build additionally offers an optional “enable on all sites” permission, which is requested only if you turn it on.

6. Data retention and deletion

All data stays on your device. You can delete it at any time from the extension: remove individual contacts, or use Revoke & regenerate to destroy your keypair. Uninstalling the extension removes its locally stored data.

7. Children's privacy

ciphertext does not collect any data and is not directed at children.

8. Open source

ciphertext is free software released under the GNU AGPL-3.0. You can review exactly what the code does.

9. Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the revised version will be posted on this page with a new effective date.

10. Contact

Questions about this policy? Open an issue at github.com/retiredroca/ciphertext/issues.