When you install the Hypothesis Chrome extension, you will receive a notification from the Chrome browser asking for the following set of permissions:
Chrome overstates what Hypothesis needs permission to do. We ask for these permissions because the extension needs them in order to work with your browser and the websites you visit. However, our intention is only to access the minimum permissions we need to in order to do these things on your behalf, and nothing more. We don’t monitor, track or collect any of your personal data beyond what is necessary for creating, saving and reading your annotations. Hypothesis does not generate revenue from advertising or from selling metrics to third parties.
The language and definition of these permissions are set by the Chrome browser, and they are meant to tell users what the kinds of data the extension will be able to access. (To read more about Chrome extensions permissions here’s a great article about it in Lifehacker, and there’s much more technical documentation at the Chrome website). Some permissions change during updates, and you may occasionally be asked to approve a new one.
This is how we currently use each of the requested permissions in the Hypothesis extension:
- Read and change all your data on all websites you visit: we ask this so that we can inject the annotator code into the page when you activate the extension, allowing you to add and read annotations. We don’t read or modify any other data.
Your privacy is very important to us and we ask you for as little information as we can. Please read our Privacy Policy for more details on how we handle user information. If you have any questions or would like some more details, please write to support@hypothes.is or create a ticket here.