Trace — Privacy Policy
Last updated: July 22, 2026

Summary: Trace records which sites hold which type of your personal information (e.g. "example.com has your email address on file") — never the information itself. There is no account, no server, and no network request Trace ever makes on its own. Everything is stored on your device. The only way any of your data leaves your device is if you explicitly export it yourself.
What Trace is
Trace is a browser extension, with an optional companion desktop app, that passively keeps track of which websites hold which categories of your personal information — so that when you move, change your phone number, or need to clean up after a breach, you already have the list of where to go.

What Trace collects and stores
When you submit a form on a website, Trace's browser extension records:

The website's domain (e.g. example.com)
The category of field detected in that form — a fixed label like "email," "phone number," or "given name," aligned to the W3C/WHATWG autocomplete standard — not what you typed into it
The date you first and most recently submitted that category of field on that site
That's the entire record. Trace does not capture, transmit, or store the actual text you enter into any field — not encrypted, not in any form — only the classification above.

What Trace deliberately never collects
The values you type. Field contents never leave the page you're on. Trace's content script inspects a submitted form only to classify which fields are present; the classification is what gets recorded, nothing else.
Passwords and card security codes. These field types are detected only so Trace can skip them — they are never recorded, in any form.
Browsing history beyond the domains where a tracked field type was submitted. Trace does not log page visits, search queries, or general browsing activity.
Any account information. There is no sign-up, no login, and no identifier tying your data to you beyond what already lives only on your own device.
Analytics, telemetry, crash reports, or advertising identifiers of any kind.
Where your data lives
Everything Trace records is stored locally: in your browser's local storage for the extension, and — if you use the optional desktop companion app — in a local database on your own computer, protected by a passphrase you choose. Trace has no server and no backend of any kind. The extension and desktop app make no network requests to transmit your data anywhere, ever, as part of normal operation.

Data sharing
Trace does not sell, rent, or share your data with any third party, because it never leaves your device in the first place. The only exception is an action you explicitly take: exporting your own ledger to a file (either a plain-text file, which is clearly labeled as unencrypted, or an encrypted backup file) so that you can move it between your own devices or keep your own copy.

Permissions Trace requests, and why
Storage — to keep your local record persisted in the browser.
Running on all websites — Trace can't know in advance which site will hold a piece of your personal information, so its passive detection has to be able to run wherever you submit a form. This permission is used only to detect and classify form fields on submit; it is not used to read page content for any other purpose, and no page content is ever transmitted anywhere.
Your control over your data
You can review everything Trace has recorded at any time from the extension's popup. Since all data is stored only on your own device, uninstalling the extension (or clearing the browser's site data for it) removes it completely. There is nothing stored anywhere else to delete.

Children's privacy
Trace is not directed at children and is not knowingly used to collect information from children.

Changes to this policy
If Trace's data practices change, this page will be updated and the "Last updated" date above will change accordingly.

Contact
Questions about this policy can be sent to: [TODO: add a contact email address here before publishing]