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What a Chrome extension can see when you type

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A browser extension can technically read anything on the page if it is granted that permission. Docognito requests only storage permission and does not log keystrokes: it relays what you type into the real composer and keeps no record of it. Check any extension's permissions in Chrome before trusting it near a page full of typing.

What a permission actually grants

Every Chrome extension declares, in a file called its manifest, exactly what it is allowed to touch. Some permissions are narrow, such as storage, which lets an extension remember a small amount of settings between sessions and nothing more. Others are broad, such as being granted access to read and change data on every website you visit, which is close to the maximum access an extension can hold.

Chrome shows you the relevant part of that list before you click install, so the warning you see at install time is not marketing copy written by the developer. It is generated from the manifest itself, which is why comparing two extensions' install warnings tells you something real about how they differ.

The permission that decides page access

The permission that matters most for a question like "can it see what I type" is not storage, and it is not any single named capability. It is whichever entry in the manifest gives the extension a content script on the page you are looking at. An extension with that kind of access can, in principle, read the page's text, watch its keystrokes and change anything rendered on it, because that is what running code on a page means.

That is also true of extensions that behave well. The distinction between an extension that could log your typing and one that actually does is not visible from the permission alone. It comes down to what the code does with the access it was given, which is not something a permissions screen can show you directly.

What Docognito's manifest actually requests

Docognito's own manifest requests one browser permission, storage. That entry controls a small settings object: whether the disguise is on, whether dark mode is chosen, and the document title you typed into the fake title bar. None of that is your conversation.

Its content scripts run on claude.ai, chatgpt.com and chat.openai.com, and no other website, declared by name in the same manifest and shown in the same install prompt, rather than on every site you visit. That scoping is why the extension can redraw the visible page, redrawn as a document editor and rewrite the browser tab title and the tab icon on those three sites specifically, and cannot touch anything running on any other tab.

Why touching your typing is not the same as logging it

Here is the part worth being precise about, because glossing over it would be dishonest in the other direction. The disguise does need to see each key you press. It has to, because the page you are looking at is not the real composer, and every character has to be routed from the surface you are typing into across to the one Claude or ChatGPT actually reads, or sending would not work at all.

What it does not do is keep any of that. Nothing about the words you type is written to storage, held in a log, or sent anywhere beyond the one page already reading it. Close the tab and nothing about what you typed persists inside the extension, because there was never anywhere for it to persist to.

This covers Docognito specifically, not every extension in your browser

Docognito requesting only the storage permission is true of this extension and says nothing about any other extension installed in the same browser. A different extension can request, and be granted, far broader access, including the ability to read every page you visit.

How to check any extension for yourself

  1. Open chrome://extensions

    Chrome's own extensions page lists everything installed, active or not, with no need to trust a marketing page to find out.

  2. Click Details on the one you want to check

    Chrome shows the exact sites it can run on and the exact permissions it holds, generated straight from its manifest rather than written by the developer.

  3. Compare that list against what the extension claims to do

    An extension asking for far more than its stated purpose needs is the clearest warning sign available, and it costs nothing but a minute to look.

Checking what an extension actually asked for

An extension can see what you type whenever it is granted access to the page, and no single tool changes that fact about how browsers work. What you can check, in seconds, is exactly what each extension actually asked for. one browser permission, storage, scoped to claude.ai, chatgpt.com and chat.openai.com, and no other website, is what Docognito asked for, and it is worth confirming that for anything else running in the same browser rather than assuming it.

Common questions

Where do I check what permissions an extension actually has?

Open chrome://extensions, click Details on any extension, and Chrome lists the exact sites and capabilities it was granted. The same list appeared as a warning before you clicked install, so nothing there should be a surprise.

Does removing an extension delete anything it already collected?

Uninstalling stops the extension from running, but it does not reach into whatever server that extension may have already sent data to. Whether anything was collected at all depends entirely on what the extension chose to do with the access it had.

Is a free extension more likely to read what I type?

Price tells you nothing on its own. The permissions list and the privacy practices disclosed on its Chrome Web Store listing are what determine access, and plenty of free extensions request very little.

Why does Docognito need to touch my typing at all?

It has to route each keystroke into the real composer so sending still works while the page looks like a document. Routing a keystroke through and keeping a record of it are two different things, and only the second one is logging.

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