catchroll

Privacy & Data Use

Last updated: 6 August 2026 · Describes build 1.0.49

The short version

catchroll runs on your device. Your captures, the page text saved with them, and the files you save are held in your own browser storage and on your own disk. No servers. No accounts. No telemetry, no analytics, no tracking identifier. Everything stays on your machine unless you move it yourself. There are no cookies and no analytics — in the extension or on this site.

What catchroll stores, and where

  • Your capture roll is kept in local browser extension storage (chrome.storage.local) on your device. It is never uploaded.
  • Saved canvases are written as portable .catchroll files to your own Downloads folder — files you control, on your own disk.
  • Page text is captured with an image so an AI can read the capture — and it is bounded by the frame you drew: text from inside your rectangle, not the whole page. It’s stored the same way: locally, with the capture. If you redact a capture, its saved text is destroyed and the link back to its source is withheld in every file you save or export — see the security position and how we built it.
  • catchroll remembers, at most, a pointer to the one folder you choose as your save location, so it doesn’t have to ask every time. That pointer is an access handle, not your data.

Connecting a folder for your library

catchroll can connect to a folder you choose so it can save your captures there and browse your saved .catchroll library — this is the “connect folder” feature.

Why it exists, before what it is: your saved canvases are how you remember what you’ve built. Filenames don’t do that — recognizing your own boards does. Connect your library folder and you can load your way through your saved canvases — load, load, load — until you see the one you’re after, then keep building on it. It’s the same reason a pinboard works: you find what you made by looking at it.

It’s worth being clear about what that access is and isn’t:

  • You pick the folder through your browser’s own file picker. catchroll gets access to only that one folder — not your whole computer, not your other files, not any folder you didn’t choose.
  • The access is granted by you and mediated by your browser, and you can revoke it at any time in your browser’s site settings.
  • catchroll remembers your chosen save folder so it doesn’t have to ask every time you save; the browse access (for listing your library) is held only for the current session and is re-requested next time.
  • Everything stays on your device. catchroll reads and writes your library in that folder locally — nothing in it is uploaded, copied off your machine, or sent anywhere.

In short: connecting a folder is you granting catchroll a scoped, local, revocable key to one folder for your own library — not the extension reaching into your files.

Permissions, and why each one exists

Chrome requires an extension to declare every capability it uses. Here is the complete list catchroll requests, and the honest reason for each:

  • activeTab — catchroll runs only when you invoke it: the toolbar button or one of its keyboard shortcuts. This grants temporary access to that one tab, under that gesture, so catchroll can capture the page you asked it to capture. It is catchroll’s only host access: it cannot capture or read pages you haven’t invoked it on.
  • scripting — to run the capture and overlay code on the page you’re capturing, and to complete the post-capture clipboard copy. Without it, no capture mode can run.
  • storage — to hold your capture roll (your ten most recent captures) and settings locally on your device. Nothing is synced or uploaded.
  • unlimitedStorage — so long scrolling captures aren’t dropped by the default storage limit. A local-disk allowance, not a network one — everything still stays on your device.
  • downloads — to save .catchroll, PNG, and Markdown files to your Downloads folder.
  • clipboardWrite — to copy: when a capture completes, catchroll automatically copies the image to your clipboard, and the canvas has a COPY PNG button. Write-only: catchroll never reads your clipboard. That automatic copy is a convenience worth knowing about — like anything you copy, it’s briefly available to other applications on your computer.

And one thing the list does not contain: host permissions — none requested. catchroll has no standing access to any website. The only site access that exists is the single tab you invoke it on, granted at the moment you act. It does not read pages in the background and does not watch your browsing.

What catchroll does not do

  • It does not create an account or ask you to sign in.
  • It does not set cookies or use analytics — on this website or in the extension.
  • It does not phone home, check in, or report usage.
  • It does not upload, sync, or back up your captures to any server.

Third parties

There are none. catchroll uses no third-party services, no external fonts or CDNs, and no trackers — including on this website, which loads nothing from anyone else.

Changes

If this policy changes, the updated version will be posted here at this same address (catchroll.com/privacy), which is a permanent link.

Contact

Questions about privacy or data use: privacy@catchroll.com.