Short version: CiteLens analyzes the content of web pages you visit and sends that content to our servers for scoring. We do not collect personal information, do not track you across sites, and do not sell any data.
What data we collect
CiteLens collects the minimum data necessary to function:
Page URL and HTML content — sent to our Worker only when you click "Analyze." This content is used solely to generate the GEO score and recommendations. It is not stored after processing.
Anonymous session token — a short-lived authentication token is issued by our Cloudflare Worker when the extension loads. It is stored in Chrome's session storage (never written to disk), expires after 60 minutes, and contains no personal information. It is used solely to authenticate requests to our Worker.
We do not collect:
Your name, email address, or any account information
Browsing history outside of pages you explicitly analyze
Cookies, passwords, or form data
Location data
How data is used
Page content sent to our Worker is used only to:
Compute the AI citation readiness score and generate action plan recommendations
Content is processed in memory and is not written to any database or persistent storage. Our Cloudflare Worker communicates with the Anthropic Claude API server-side to support analysis features. The Claude API key is held exclusively on our server — it is never sent to or stored in the extension.
Third-party services
CiteLens uses the following third-party services:
Cloudflare Workers — our server-side proxy and authentication layer. Page URLs and HTML content are sent to our Worker for processing. The Claude API key is stored exclusively within this Worker and is never exposed to the extension or the user. See Cloudflare's Privacy Policy.
Anthropic Claude API — used server-side by our Cloudflare Worker to support page analysis. Page content is forwarded to Anthropic for processing. This communication happens entirely on our server — no API key or Anthropic credentials are present in the extension. See Anthropic's Privacy Policy.
Permissions used
CiteLens requests the following Chrome permissions and why:
activeTab — to read the HTML of the tab you are currently viewing, only when you trigger an analysis
scripting — to capture the rendered DOM of the active tab when needed
storage — to save the session authentication token locally so you do not need to re-authenticate on every use
sidePanel — to display the CiteLens interface in Chrome's built-in side panel
tabs — to detect tab changes and update the extension UI accordingly
downloads — to allow you to download the analysis report as an HTML file
Data retention
CiteLens does not maintain a database of analyzed pages or users. Page content sent to our Worker is processed and discarded. The session token stored locally in Chrome expires after 60 minutes and is cleared when Chrome is closed.
Children's privacy
CiteLens is designed for marketing professionals and content strategists. It is not directed at children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect data from children.
Changes to this policy
We may update this Privacy Policy as the extension evolves. Any significant changes will be noted in the extension's release notes. Continued use of CiteLens after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.
Contact
If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or how CiteLens handles data, please reach out via the Chrome Web Store support page for this extension.