Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 3, 2026

Smart Filter is a Chrome extension that hides, blurs or dims items on web pages according to rules you write. This policy explains what data the extension, the service behind it and this website handle. It applies to users everywhere and takes the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) into account.

Who is responsible

Alexander Kagoshima
c/o IP-Management #10049
Ludwig-Erhard-Str. 18
20459 Hamburg
Germany
Email: info@smartfilter.net

This is the controller under the GDPR and the business under the CCPA.

In short

• Keyword rules run entirely in your browser. Nothing leaves your device for them.
• AI rules are off until you agree. When on, your rule, up to 400 characters of text from each checked item, a random install ID and the extension version are sent to our server for classification. On sites without a preset, and only where an AI rule is on, the site name, a few CSS selectors and short text samples are sent once to find the items. The page address, your name, your account and anything you type are not.
• AI rules and AI item detection never run on a built-in list of email, chat and banking sites. Keyword rules still work there.
• We do not sell personal information, we do not show ads and we do not build profiles.
• You do not need an account.

What stays on your device

The extension keeps the following in your browser's local extension storage:

• your rules, filter sets and per-site settings;
• the item selectors Smart Filter learned for the sites you visit;
• your settings, such as whether you agreed to AI rules;
• a cache of earlier AI results, stored as hashes with probabilities, not as text;
• a random install ID, your usage and credit numbers as last reported by our server.

Smart Filter reads the pages you visit in order to find and filter items. That reading happens on your device. Which items you chose to show anyway is kept only in the open page until you reload it. The licence key you enter is passed to our server and is not kept on your device. Uninstalling the extension deletes the data above; "Delete my data" in the extension's Account tab also deletes what our server keeps for your install (see below).

What is sent when you use AI rules

Only after you agree in the extension, and only for sites where an AI rule is active, the extension sends the following to our server, a Cloudflare Worker. Up to 3 AI rules run on one site, and each item is checked once for all of them.

• the text of your AI rule;
• the text of each item to check, at most 400 characters of the item's own content (for example title, snippet and author line);
• the random install ID and the extension version.

It does not send the page address, your name, an account, your cookies or text you type into a field. Timestamps that change on their own are left out of the item text. AI rules never run on a built-in list of email, chat and banking sites (such as Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo Mail, Proton Mail, WhatsApp Web, Messenger, Discord, Slack, Telegram Web, Microsoft Teams, Google Chat and iCloud) or on any address that starts with mail., webmail., bank. or banking., so no text from those pages is sent. A site can use at most 300 AI checks an hour; above that, AI rules pause on it for the rest of the hour (this counts items sent to our server, not cached ones). Your IP address reaches our server as part of any internet request. We use it only for rate limiting and abuse protection and do not store it with item text.

The Worker passes rule and item text to Cloudflare Workers AI, a model hosted by Cloudflare, which returns a probability per item. Processing is not limited to the EU and may take place in any region where Cloudflare operates. Cloudflare states that it does not use the content you send to Workers AI to train its models.

We do not store item text. To avoid paying twice for the same check, the Worker keeps for 30 days a hashed cache key together with the resulting probabilities. The hash cannot be turned back into the text, and no item text is in the cache.

To count your daily free checks and credits, the Worker keeps a usage counter and credit balance linked to your install ID.

You can turn AI rules off at any time in the extension. Items are then no longer sent. "Delete my data" in the extension's Account tab turns AI rules off and deletes your install, starter credits, daily counters and licence link on our server, and the install ID, usage numbers, learned item selectors and AI result cache on your device. Your rules stay.

Finding items on other sites

On sites without a built-in preset, the extension asks our server to pick which repeated element on the page is the list of items. For this it sends the site's host name (for example example.com, not the full address), CSS selectors of a few candidate groups and short text samples from them. It happens once per site and page layout (again after 24 hours if the stored choice no longer matches), only on sites where you have an AI rule turned on, is not charged against your checks and is used only for this decision. It never contains text you type.

Payments

Plans are sold by Polar Software Inc. as merchant of record. Polar collects and processes your payment details, name, email and billing address, and handles invoices and sales tax. We never see your card number. You enter the licence key you receive from Polar in the extension. Our server sends it to Polar to check it and to activate it, with your random install ID as the activation label, and keeps the key (in our database, not on your device) to check it again once a day. We receive from Polar a customer ID, the plan and the payment status, and we keep the credit balance for that customer ID. Bought credits belong to the Polar customer and stay when you delete your install data. See Polar's privacy policy for how Polar handles its data.

Usage statistics

The server counts requests (installs, checks, activations, orders) with the browser family, without install ID or content. The extension sends one anonymous event today: that you accepted AI rules, together with the extension version. This website sends none. Events come from a fixed allowlist and contain no install ID, rule text, item text, page addresses or personal data. They are stored in Cloudflare Workers Analytics Engine.

This website

This website sets no cookies, uses no analytics or tracking and loads no third-party fonts, scripts or images. It is hosted on Cloudflare Pages, which, like any host, processes your IP address and request details in technical server logs to deliver the site and protect it from attacks. If you email us, we use your message and address to reply.

Who receives data, and transfers abroad

• Cloudflare, Inc. (hosting, Worker, Workers AI, analytics storage), United States and worldwide.
• Polar Software Inc. (payments), United States.

They act as our service providers. Where personal data of people in the EU, the UK or Switzerland is transferred to the United States, we rely on the providers' participation in the EU-US Data Privacy Framework or on standard contractual clauses. We do not sell or share personal information for advertising.

Legal bases (GDPR)

• AI rules: your consent, Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR. You can withdraw it at any time; this does not affect earlier processing.
• Providing the service, licence, credits and payment: performance of a contract, Art. 6(1)(b).
• Rate limiting, abuse protection, security, server logs, anonymous usage statistics and answering your emails: our legitimate interest in running a secure, working product, Art. 6(1)(f), and for emails about a contract also Art. 6(1)(b).
• Tax and accounting records: legal obligation, Art. 6(1)(c). Polar keeps these for its invoices.

How long we keep data

Hashed AI cache entries expire after 30 days. Daily usage counters are deleted after 7 days. Your install, starter credits and licence link stay until you delete them with "Delete my data" in the extension's Account tab (or ask us by email). The credit balance of a Polar customer stays with that customer. Emails are kept as long as needed to answer them. Data held by Polar follows Polar's own retention and legal retention periods.

Your rights under the GDPR

You can ask for access to your data, correction, deletion, restriction of processing and a copy in a portable format. You can object to processing based on legitimate interests and withdraw consent at any time. To exercise a right, write to the address above. Because the install ID is random, we may ask for your licence key or the purchase email to find your data. You also have the right to complain to a data protection authority. Ours is the Hamburg Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (Der Hamburgische Beauftragte für Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit), or the authority where you live or work.

Your rights under the CCPA (California)

California residents can ask what personal information we collect, use and disclose, ask us to delete or correct it, and are protected from discrimination for using these rights. In the last 12 months we collected identifiers (install ID, licence key, IP address handled for rate limiting), commercial information (plan and credit balance) and, for AI rules only, the text you chose to have classified. We collected them from you and from Polar and disclosed them only to the service providers named above for business purposes. We do not sell or share personal information, so there is nothing to opt out of. We do not use or disclose sensitive personal information, and we do not sell or share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising. To make a request, write to the address above; you can also use an authorized agent. We verify requests by asking for your licence key or purchase email, and respond within 45 days.

Chrome Web Store Limited Use

The use of data received by Smart Filter adheres to the Chrome Web Store User Data Policy, including its Limited Use requirements. We use website content only to provide the filtering feature that you see in the extension. We do not sell user data and do not transfer it to third parties except to our service providers as needed to provide that feature, to comply with law or as part of a merger or sale. We do not use or transfer it for advertising, for purposes unrelated to the extension's single purpose, or to determine creditworthiness or for lending. Humans do not read the data unless you ask for support and give permission, it is needed for security or abuse investigation, or the law requires it.

Children

Smart Filter is not directed at children under 16 and we do not knowingly collect their personal information.

We do not take decisions based solely on automated processing that have legal or similarly significant effects on you. The AI only decides whether an item on a page is hidden on your screen.

Changes

If we change this policy in a way that matters to you, we will update the date above and, for new kinds of data sent from the extension, ask for your consent again.

Contact

Questions about this policy: info@smartfilter.net.