Privacy Policy

What the extension does

Asciify Unicode Palette is a command palette for looking up Unicode characters. Press the keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+Shift+K, ⌘⇧K on macOS) or click the toolbar icon, and a search panel opens over the current tab; select a character and it is copied to your clipboard. The palette is added to a tab only at the moment you invoke it there. It does not run on pages where you have not summoned it, and it never reads the address or content of the page.

What leaves your browser

Search queries.Text you type in the palette’s search box is sent over HTTPS to the Asciify search API (asciify.dev) so matching characters can be returned. Requests go out while you type, so partial queries reach the API too — typing “arrow” may send “arr” along the way. Each request also carries technical parameters such as the result limit and any category filter you have applied. It does not include the address or content of the page you are on.

Character images. Most results are drawn with the fonts already on your device. A few rare characters have no font coverage, and for those the palette loads an image of the glyph from asciify.dev. Like any image request on any website, this tells our server which glyph was displayed.

Opening a character page. Choosing “Details” for a character, or opening a category’s browse page, opens asciify.dev in a new browser tab. From that point on you are visiting the website normally, like any other site.

Standard request metadata. Like any web request, an API call exposes your IP address and browser version (user agent) to our server infrastructure. We use these transiently for security, rate limiting, and abuse prevention. Requests carry no account, cookie, or per-user identifier: the access token included with each request is identical for every installation and identifies the extension, not you.

Search processing. The API uses Cloudflare to host and secure the service. When a query is eligible for semantic search, its text may also be sent to Voyage AI to create a search embedding and to Cerebras to rank candidate results. Queries that look like passwords, access tokens, email addresses, URLs, or other high-entropy secrets are excluded from those services. These providers process the data on our behalf to return and improve search results; they do not receive an Asciify account or installation identifier because the extension has neither.

What stays on your device

• Favorite characters.Up to 100 characters you mark as favorites, so they remain available at the top of the palette. They stay in the extension’s local browser storage and are never uploaded.
• Recent characters. The last 20 characters you copied, so the palette can show a Recent row. This is one list for the whole browser — it is not tied to any website, and it is never uploaded.
• Skin tone preference.The emoji skin tone you pick, and a flag remembering that you have seen the one-time hint about it. This is saved in your browser’s extension-settings storage: if you have browser sync turned on, your browser copies it to your other devices through your own browser account. It does not pass through our servers.
• Copy-action usage.Counts of which copy actions you use (for example “copy HTML entity”), so the action menu can list your frequent ones first. Stored the same way as the skin tone preference.
• Palette bookkeeping. A temporary note of which tabs you have opened the palette in, kept so the extension only answers search requests that come from those tabs. It contains tab numbers only — never page addresses — and your browser erases it when you close it.

Removing the extension deletes all of this from your browser.

What the extension does not collect

• Your browsing history, or the addresses of pages you visit.
• Which websites you use the palette on. Search requests do not include the page’s address, and the tab note described above never leaves your browser.
• The content of web pages.
• Keystrokes outside the palette’s own search field. The palette runs in an isolated frame; what you type elsewhere on a page never reaches the extension.
• Clipboard contents. Copying a character is performed locally by your browser and is not reported back to us.
• Form data, passwords, or any other page input.
• Cookies, advertising identifiers, or device fingerprints.
• Account or identity information. The extension has no accounts and no sign-in.

How we use the information

Search queries are used to answer the search you made. Queries and their returned results may be cached for up to 31 days so repeated searches can be answered faster. Extension searches are not written to our search analytics or event tables and are not linked to an account, installation identifier, or page address. We do not build profiles of individual users. People do not review cached extension queries except when necessary to investigate security or abuse, or to comply with applicable law.

Retention

Operational logs that may include IP addresses are kept only as long as needed for security, rate limiting, and abuse prevention and are routinely deleted. Cached searches expire after 30 days and are removed by a daily retention sweep, so they are kept for no more than 31 days. The extension does not create search analytics or event records.

Sharing

We do not sell, rent, or trade any information, and we do not share information with advertisers, data brokers, or analytics companies. Cloudflare, Inc. hosts and secures the API; Voyage AI, Inc. provides search embeddings; and Cerebras Systems, Inc. provides result reranking. These service providers process search data on our behalf only to operate the extension. We may also disclose information if required by law.

Permissions the extension requests

activeTab

Lets the extension act on the current tab only after you press the shortcut or click the toolbar icon. This is the narrow alternative to requesting access to all websites: access is granted by the browser tab-by-tab, gesture-by-gesture.

scripting

Used to add the palette to the tab you invoked it on. Nothing is injected into any other tab.

storage

Holds your skin tone preference and copy-action ordering, plus the per-session note of which tabs have the palette. None of it is transmitted to us.

host access to the asciify.dev API origin

Allows the extension’s background service worker to call our own search API. It grants no access to any other site.

Chrome Web Store Limited Use disclosure

Our use of information received from the extension adheres to the Chrome Web Store User Data Policy, including its Limited Use requirements. Specifically: the information is used only to provide and improve the extension’s single, user-facing purpose (character search); it is not transferred to third parties except as necessary to provide that purpose, to comply with applicable law, or as part of a merger or acquisition after obtaining explicit prior consent; and it is never used or transferred to serve advertisements, to determine creditworthiness, or for lending purposes.

Children

The extension is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.

Changes to this policy

If we change what the extension collects or how we use it, we will update this page and revise the effective date above. Material changes will also be reflected in the extension’s Chrome Web Store listing.

Contact

Questions about this policy or the extension can be sent to legal@asciify.dev.