Effective Date: September 5, 2026
Without a Trace ("the extension") is committed to protecting your privacy. This policy explains what the extension does, what data it does (and does not) handle, and how it works.
Summary
Without a Trace does not collect, transmit, or sell any personal information or browsing data. Every part of the extension — ad blocking, tracker-link cleaning, and fingerprint protection — runs entirely on your own device. Nothing about your browsing activity is sent to us or to any third party.
What the Extension Does
Without a Trace combines three privacy tools in one:
Ad blocking — blocks known ad and tracking-server domains using well-established public filter lists (including EasyList, Peter Lowe's Ad and Tracking Server List, and HaGeZi's DNS blocklists), and hides leftover ad containers on the page.
Tracker link cleaning — removes known tracking parameters (such as utm_source, fbclid, and similar) from links before you click them, and unwraps common tracking redirects (such as Facebook's link shim or Google's search redirect) so you land on the real destination without the tracking wrapper.
Fingerprint protection — adjusts certain browser signals (such as browser version details, screen size, or client hints) to more common values, making your browser harder to individually identify across sites.
All of this filtering, cleaning, and masking happens locally, using logic built into the extension. The extension does not send your browsing history, the pages you visit, or the links you click to any server operated by us.
Information We Collect
We do not collect any personal data. Specifically:
We do not collect, log, or have access to your browsing history.
We do not collect the content of pages you visit or links you click.
We do not use analytics, tracking pixels, or any third-party data collection tools within the extension.
We do not sell or rent any data, because we do not collect any in the first place.
Information Stored on Your Device
Your settings and activity statistics are stored locally in your browser's own storage (chrome.storage.local), using Chrome's standard extension storage APIs. This data never leaves your device and is not transmitted to us or anyone else. It includes things like:
Which protection features are turned on or off, and any custom settings you've chosen.
A list of domains you've chosen to allow (exempt from one or more protections).
Approximate, on-device statistics about blocked ads, cleaned tracking links, and fingerprint signals adjusted — used only to populate the extension's own Stats screen for you.
This local data can be cleared at any time by removing the extension or clearing its storage through your browser's extension settings.
Network Requests the Extension Makes
To keep its ad- and tracker-blocking filter lists current, the extension periodically downloads public, third-party-maintained filter lists (for example, from EasyList, Peter Lowe's list, HaGeZi, and AdGuard's public filter repositories). These are one-way downloads: the extension fetches the list text so it can update its own local blocking rules. No information about you, your browsing, or your device is included in these requests beyond what any standard web request contains (such as your IP address, which is an unavoidable part of how the internet works, and is not logged, stored, or used by us in any way).
Permissions the Extension Uses
Chrome requires extensions to declare the permissions they need. Here's what Without a Trace uses and why:
storage / unlimitedStorage — to save your settings and local statistics on your device.
tabs / activeTab — to determine the current site's domain, so protections and allow-lists can be applied per-site.
scripting — to run the extension's protective logic (link cleaning, fingerprint adjustments) on pages you visit.
alarms — to periodically refresh ad-block filter lists on a schedule.
declarativeNetRequest / declarativeNetRequestFeedback — to block ad and tracker requests at the network level, and to measure blocking activity for the extension's own Stats screen.
Host permissions (all sites) — required for the extension's protections (ad blocking, tracker-link cleaning, fingerprint adjustments) to function on any website you visit, since these features work at the level of individual pages and requests, not just a fixed list of sites.
None of these permissions are used to collect or transmit personal data — they exist solely to let the extension's on-device protections function.
Third-Party Access
We do not share, sell, or transmit any data to third parties. The extension does not include any third-party analytics, advertising, or tracking SDKs. The only outbound network activity is the one-way filter-list downloads described above.
Children's Privacy
Without a Trace is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect any information from children, consistent with the rest of this policy: the extension does not collect personal information from anyone, regardless of age.
Changes to This Policy
We may update this privacy policy from time to time to reflect changes to the extension or applicable requirements. Any changes will be posted on this page with an updated effective date.
Contact
If you have any questions about this privacy policy, please contact the developer at [email protected].