Bookova Privacy Policy

The short version

Bookova stores everything on your device. We have no servers, collect no personal data, and send nothing anywhere — unless you choose to connect an AI provider, in which case page content you explicitly ask to analyse is sent to that provider under their own privacy policy.

1. What Bookova is

Bookova is a Chrome browser extension that lets you save, organise, search, and annotate bookmarks entirely on your own computer. There is no Bookova account, no Bookova cloud service, and no Bookova backend. All bookmark data, settings, highlights, and notes live in your browser's IndexedDB storage and are never transmitted to us.

2. Data we collect

We collect nothing. Bookova does not collect, transmit, or store any personal information on any server operated by us. There is no telemetry, no crash reporting, no analytics, and no advertising.

The only data that exists is the data you create yourself, stored locally on your device:

URLs, titles, and favicons of pages you choose to bookmark
Your notes, highlights, tags, and collections
AI-generated summaries of pages you choose to enrich (stored locally)
Your extension settings (AI provider configuration, theme, etc.)

Uninstalling the extension removes all of this data from your browser.

3. AI provider integration (optional)

Bookova supports optional AI features (page summarisation, highlight annotation, Ask My Library). These features require you to configure an AI provider of your choice in Settings. No AI provider is configured by default — these features are entirely opt-in.

When you enable an AI feature, the text content of the page you are currently viewing (or a highlighted passage) is sent to the AI provider you configured. This transmission happens directly from your browser to that provider — Bookova is not an intermediary and never sees that data.

Supported providers and their privacy policies:

Anthropic (Claude)
OpenAI (GPT)
Google (Gemini)
LM Studio — runs entirely locally on your machine; no data leaves your device
Ollama — runs entirely locally on your machine; no data leaves your device

We recommend using a local model (LM Studio or Ollama) if you prefer that no page content ever leaves your device.

4. Chrome permissions used

The following permissions are declared in Bookova's manifest and are required for the features described:

Permission

Why it is needed

tabs

Read the URL and title of the active tab so Bookova can pre-fill save details and keep the sidebar in sync as you navigate.

activeTab

Capture a screenshot of the active page for thumbnail generation when you explicitly save a bookmark.

scripting

Inject the content script to extract readable text from a page for AI summarisation (only when you trigger it).

contextMenus

Add a "Save to Bookova" option to the right-click menu so you can bookmark a page or highlighted text without opening the sidebar.

sidePanel

Display the Bookova sidebar panel in Chrome.

bookmarks

Import your existing Chrome bookmarks into Bookova on first run (one-time, user-initiated).

unlimitedStorage

Allow the local IndexedDB database to grow beyond Chrome's default 5 MB quota so large bookmark libraries with AI summaries can be stored.

alarms

Schedule periodic background tasks (e.g., AI enrichment queue processing) without requiring a persistent background page.

host_permissions: <all_urls>

Allow the content script to run on any page so you can save or highlight content from any website you visit.

5. Data sharing and third parties

We do not share, sell, rent, or trade any user data with any third party, because we do not receive any user data in the first place.

The only third-party data transmission that occurs is between your browser and the AI provider you optionally configure — a direct connection that Bookova does not participate in or log.

6. Children's privacy

Bookova does not knowingly collect any information from children under 13 (or the applicable age of digital consent in your jurisdiction). Because we collect no data from any user, Bookova poses no specific risk in this regard.

7. Data retention and deletion

All data is stored in your browser's local storage. You can delete your data at any time by:

Using the "Clear all data" option in Bookova Settings
Uninstalling the Bookova extension from Chrome
Clearing site data for the extension in Chrome's Settings → Privacy and Security

Once deleted locally, the data is gone — there is no cloud backup to restore from.

8. Changes to this policy

If we make material changes to this privacy policy, we will update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page and, where appropriate, provide a notice within the extension. Continued use of Bookova after changes are posted constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.