Art Blocker Privacy Policy

Art Blocker replaces advertising slots on web pages with generative artwork from Art Blocks. This policy describes every piece of data the extension touches.

Art Blocker is an independent side project. It is not made by, affiliated with, or endorsed by Art Blocks Inc. Art Blocks is a third party here, and its own privacy policy governs the requests your browser makes to it.

There is no Art Blocker server. There is no backend, no analytics service, and no log. Nothing you do in this extension is sent to me, because there is nowhere to send it.

What it stores

source -- whether art comes from the built-in pool or from a wallet. Default: the pool
wallet -- an Ethereum address you optionally paste in. Default: empty
collapseUnfillable -- whether to collapse ad slots that cannot be filled. Default: on
enabled -- the global on/off switch. Default: on
disabledSites -- hostnames you have individually switched off. Default: empty

These are stored with Chrome's storage.sync, which means Chrome copies them to your Google account and to your other signed-in Chrome profiles. That is Chrome's sync, not mine, and Google's privacy policy governs it. If you would rather your wallet address and your list of switched-off sites did not leave the device, turn off extension sync in Chrome settings, or do not enter a wallet address.

Artwork metadata is cached separately in storage.local, which does not sync. That cache holds artwork records only. It contains nothing about you.

What it reads

The content script reads the structure of pages you visit in order to find ad slots. That is Chrome's "website content" disclosure category, and it is declared on the listing.

This happens entirely inside your browser and is never transmitted, stored, or logged. The extension looks at the current page, decides which elements are ad slots, replaces them, and forgets. It keeps no history of pages you have visited.

It does not collect browsing history, location, financial information, health information, personal communications, authentication information, keystrokes, or form contents.

What leaves your browser

When it replaces an ad slot, your browser makes requests to:

data.artblocks.io -- artwork metadata, and in wallet mode the token list for the address you entered
media-proxy.artblocks.io -- artwork images
generator.artblocks.io -- live generative artwork, in a sandboxed frame
www.artblocks.io -- only if you click through to an artwork's page

These carry your IP address, as any web request does. They are sent with no-referrer, so Art Blocks is not told which page you were on when the artwork loaded. That is deliberate, and it is enforced on every element that loads: the image, the frame, and the links.

Wallet mode

Wallet mode is off by default. It does nothing unless you paste an Ethereum address into the options page. If you turn it on, your address is sent to data.artblocks.io to look up which Art Blocks tokens it holds, and it is stored in your synced settings as described above. It is not sent anywhere else. The extension never connects to a wallet and never asks you to sign anything.

A known limitation, stated plainly. In wallet mode the artwork placed on a page carries the specific token IDs you own, in ordinary page markup. A hostile website could read those and look them up against a public blockchain index to learn which wallet is viewing the page. Blockchain ownership is already public, so this is a linking risk rather than exposure of anything private, but it is real, and it is why wallet mode is opt-in. If you do not want a site to be able to link your browsing to your wallet, leave it off.

Permissions

storage -- to save the five settings above
data.artblocks.io -- to fetch artwork metadata
Access to all websites -- ad slots exist on every site, so the extension has to be able to run on every site to replace them. It runs locally, transmits nothing about the page, and can be switched off globally or per-site from the toolbar

The ad-detection filter lists are compiled into the extension at build time. It does not download filter lists, configuration, or code while running.

What it does not do

No analytics, telemetry, crash reporting, or usage measurement
No advertising, and no selling or transferring of data to anyone
No data brokers
No use of your data to train models
No remote code. Everything that runs is in the package Google reviewed

Chrome Web Store Limited Use

Art Blocker's use of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Chrome Web Store User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. Because the extension collects no user data and operates no server, the handling, transfer, and secondary-use restrictions are satisfied by there being nothing to handle, transfer, or reuse.

Changes, removal, and contact

If the extension's data practices change, this page is updated before the change ships, and the update is surfaced inside the extension rather than only posted here.

Uninstalling Art Blocker deletes its stored settings from the device. To also remove the synced copy, clear synced extension data from your Google account.

Questions: jordan.lyall@gmail.com