Privacy policy

For the Notepad — Side Panel Notes extension for Chrome. Last updated 14 September 2026.

The short version

Your notes are stored on your own device. Notepad has no server of its own and never contacts one, so nothing you write is transmitted to the developer or to any third party — there is nothing to sell, and no one to sell it to.

The one exception is deliberate and described below: if you use Chrome’s own sync, a compact backup of your notes travels through Chrome’s sync service, which is Google’s, not ours.

The no-server part is enforced, not just intended. The extension’s content security policy forbids every outbound connection (connect-src 'none') and limits pictures to files shipped inside the extension plus data: images, which carry their own bytes and reach no network. The browser itself refuses any other request the code could make — including from content inside your own notes. A picture that points at another website is never loaded, because loading it would tell that website your address and that you had opened the note.

What the extension stores

Notepad stores the following using Chrome’s own extension storage:

Your notes — title, text, formatting, pictures, colour, tags, pin state, and the times a note was created and last edited.
Saved page references — when you use Save selection to Notepad, Save link to Notepad or Save this page to Notepad, the note keeps the address and title of the page you saved it from, so you can find your way back.
Deleted notes — kept in the trash for 30 days so you can recover them, then removed automatically.
Version history — up to 12 earlier drafts of each note, so an accidental deletion can be undone.
Your settings — theme, text size, sort order, and similar preferences.

Where that data lives

On your device. Chrome’s local extension storage holds the working copy. It never leaves your computer.
In your Chrome profile. Chrome’s sync storage holds a compact backup so your notes follow you to other computers where you are signed in to the same Chrome profile. Tags travel with the notes. Pictures do not: the whole sync area is about 100 KB, smaller than a single photo, so the backup carries the words and leaves a marker where each picture was. Pictures stay on the device they were added to, and the Download backup (.json) file is the way to move them.
This is Chrome’s own sync system, operated by Google under Google’s privacy policy. The extension developer has no access to it and no ability to read it. If you have Chrome sync turned off, this area behaves like ordinary local storage and nothing is transmitted at all.

Deleted notes and version history are stored only on your device and are never included in the sync backup.

What the extension does not do

No analytics, telemetry, crash reporting, or usage tracking.
No advertising, and no sale or transfer of data to anyone.
No user accounts, sign-in, or identifiers of any kind.
No reading of the pages you visit. The extension has no content scripts and no scripting permission, so it cannot run code in any page. It receives only what the right-click menu item you chose hands it: the text you selected, or — for Save this page and Save link — the address and title of the page or link, and no text at all. The activeTab permission is a narrow, temporary grant on a single tab, described in the table below, and is not a standing permission to read websites.
No remote code. Everything that runs is contained in the extension package.

Permissions and why each is needed

Permission	Why it is requested
`storage`	To save your notes and settings, as described above.
`sidePanel`	The notepad’s entire interface is a Chrome side panel.
`contextMenus`	To add the three Save to Notepad items to the right-click menu.
`activeTab`	To read the current tab’s title, and its address as a fallback, at the moment you choose a Save to Notepad menu item, so the note has a useful name and a working link back. Chrome grants this only for the tab you used the menu on, and the grant lapses when you navigate away or close that tab. It is never used to read page content, and the extension declares no scripting permission, so it cannot inject anything into any page.

Deleting your data

Delete individual notes from the note menu; empty the trash to remove them immediately and permanently.
Uninstalling the extension removes everything it stored on that device.
To clear the synced backup as well, uninstall the extension while signed in and synced, or clear synced extension data through Chrome’s settings.

You can take your notes with you at any time using Export all notes (.md) or Download backup (.json) in the ⋮ menu.

Incognito windows

Chrome disables extensions in incognito unless you turn them on. If you do enable Notepad there, be aware that Chrome shares extension storage between normal and incognito windows: a note written in an incognito window is saved to disk and included in the sync backup exactly like any other note, and it remains after the incognito window is closed. If you would rather that not happen, leave the extension disabled in incognito.

Children

Notepad is a general-purpose writing tool. It collects no personal information from anyone, including children.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the updated version will be published at this address and the date at the top of this page will be revised.

Contact

Questions about this policy can be sent to the developer contact address listed on the extension’s Chrome Web Store page.