Privacy Policy

The short version

• You sign in with an email address. Only the content you choose to check is sent, and only when you start a check.
• Content you check is sent to the LitmusAI service, which forwards it to the AI providers below to return the result. We do not sell it or use it for anything else.
• Your check history stays on your device and can be cleared at any time.

What is stored on your device?

Saved in your browser only, using local extension storage:

• A sign-in token that keeps you logged in.
• Settings such as model choice, sensitivity, and language.
• Check history, meaning the claims, verdicts, and uploaded files you have checked, so you can review them.

If you remove a file you have already checked, its content may be kept on your device (capped to a small number of files) so History can still answer follow-up questions about it later. It is never sent anywhere on its own, only when you ask a new question about that file.

You can clear history and remove files from inside the extension at any time. Uninstalling the extension removes all of this local data.

What is sent, and to whom?

On the Free plan, content is sent to the LitmusAI service, which forwards it to Google Gemini to produce the result. On Pro and Max, checks run on the API key you add in the extension, so your content is sent directly from your browser to the provider you chose, not through the LitmusAI service. Either way, this only happens when you start a check.

LitmusAI serviceRequired

• What is sent: Your email (at sign-in). On the Free plan only, also the content you check: text you select or scan, transcripts of tab audio, the contents of files you upload, and comments you paste for sentiment analysis.
• Why: To authenticate you, apply your plan's feature access, and, on Free, run the check by forwarding the content to Google Gemini. Content is used only to return your result, not sold, and not used to train models.
• Your IP address is recorded once, at the moment your account is created, purely for fraud/abuse prevention (spotting free-trial abuse). It is not used to track your activity, not linked to your checks, and not shared with anyone.
• At sign-up, we also check that your email's domain can receive mail (a DNS lookup on the domain only, e.g. "gmail.com", never your full address), to block throwaway addresses used to abuse the free plan.

Your chosen AI providerRequired

• What is sent: On Free, the content of your check, forwarded by the LitmusAI service to Google Gemini. On Pro or Max, the content of your check, sent directly from your browser to whichever provider you added a key for: Anthropic, OpenAI, Google Gemini, or Perplexity.
• Why: To check claims, verify them with web search, analyze sentiment, and assess AI origin.
• Governed by: That provider's own privacy policy: Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, or Perplexity.

Deepgram (speech to text)Live audio only

• What is sent: Audio captured from the browser tab you choose to listen to, on the Max plan.
• Why: To transcribe spoken audio so it can be checked.
• Endpoint: api.deepgram.com.
• Governed by: Deepgram's privacy policy.

Resend (email delivery)Required

• What is sent: Your email address.
• Why: To deliver your one-time sign-in code.
• Governed by: Resend's privacy policy.

Stripe (payments)Paid plans only

• What is sent: For Pro or Max, your payment details are handled by Stripe. We never see or store card numbers.
• Governed by: Stripe's privacy policy.

Your API keys

• Keys you add for Pro or Max are stored only in your browser's local extension storage, never sent to the LitmusAI service, and used only to call that provider's API directly from your browser.

What we don't do

• We do not sell your content, and we do not share it with anyone other than the providers above needed to run the service.

Permissions and why they are needed

• storage: Saves your signed-in session token, extension settings (model choice, sensitivity, language), and local check history, so your preferences and past results persist between browser sessions without re-entering them.
• tabs: Identifies which browser tab is currently active, so a check action (highlight, scan, or right-click) applies to the correct page you're viewing. No tab data is read or stored beyond what's needed to route the check.
• scripting: Injects the content script that reads your highlighted selection or scanned page text into the active tab, but only at the moment you explicitly trigger a check, scan, or right-click action. The extension has no standing access to any page's content.
• tabCapture: Captures the audio stream of a browser tab you explicitly choose, so spoken claims in that tab's video or audio can be transcribed and fact-checked in real time. This is limited to the Max plan's live audio feature and only runs when you start it.
• offscreen: Creates an offscreen document that processes the captured tab audio for transcription during live audio fact-checking, since Manifest V3 service workers can't handle audio processing directly.
• contextMenus: Adds a single right-click menu item, "Fact-check selection," so you have a quick way to check highlighted text without opening the extension popup.
• sidePanel: Displays the LitmusAI interface docked in Chrome's native side panel, so results stay visible alongside the page you're reading instead of in a separate popup window.
• Host access (requested only when needed): Not granted when you install the extension. Requested only the first time you click Scan or start live audio on a specific site, this lets that site's page content or tab audio be read for the check you just asked for, through Chrome's own permission prompt so you can approve or decline it per site. If you decline, Scan and Listen simply don't run, highlight-to-check still works everywhere without this permission.

Your choices

• Access: Your check history and settings are visible inside the extension at any time, in your local History.
• Delete: Clear individual checks or your full history from inside the extension, or uninstall the extension to remove all local data immediately.
• Delete your account: Email contact@thelitmusai.com to request deletion of your account and any data the LitmusAI service holds for it.
• Revoke site access: Remove LitmusAI's per-site permission at any time from Chrome's extension settings, without uninstalling the extension.

Data retention, children, and changes

Retention

• Your check history stays on your device until you clear it or uninstall.
• The LitmusAI service keeps your account (email and plan status) while your account exists.
• It does not retain the content of your checks beyond what is needed to return the result.
• Content sent to Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Perplexity, Deepgram, and Stripe is handled under their own policies.

Children

• The extension is not directed to children under 13.

Changes

• This policy may be updated, and the date at the top reflects the latest version.