# Privacy Policy for IMDb Scout Mod
Last Updated: October 2026
IMDb Scout Mod ("the Extension", "we", "our") is dedicated to providing movie and television discovery and automation tools while strictly respecting and protecting user privacy.
This Privacy Policy explains our data practices, details why specific browser permissions are requested, and directly addresses whether each permission is strictly necessary.
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### 1. ZERO PERSONAL DATA COLLECTION
• **No Telemetry or Tracking:** The Extension does NOT collect, track, store, transmit, or sell any personal data, browsing history, search histories, IP addresses, or device identifiers.
• **No User Accounts:** The Extension does not require any account creation, login, or registration.
• **100% Client-Side Operation:** All site availability searches, score lookups, ad removals, and theme applications execute directly within your local browser environment.
• **No Developer Servers:** There are no centralized developer servers collecting analytics or telemetry.
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### 2. DETAILED BREAKDOWN OF REQUESTED PERMISSIONS
The Extension requests the following permissions in its `manifest.json`:
#### 1. `storage`
• **Purpose:** Allows the extension to store user configurations locally on your machine via `chrome.storage.local`.
• **What is stored:**
- Active site selections (which of the 500+ trackers, subtitle repositories, and streaming sites you have enabled).
- Visual preferences (icons vs. text labels, icon sizes, border widths, single-line vs. multi-line bar layouts).
- External ratings toggles (Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic, Letterboxd, Douban, Allocine, Anime).
- Optional user-configured local automation endpoints and API keys (e.g., Radarr, Sonarr, Plex, Jellyfin, Emby).
• **Security:** Stored exclusively within your private browser profile on your device. Never shared or uploaded.
#### 2. `notifications`
• **Purpose:** Enables standard browser notifications to alert you when background automation tasks finish or require attention.
• **Usage:** When you click the Radarr or Sonarr button to add a movie or TV series, or when Trakt watchlist sync runs, the notification confirms success or alerts you if your local media server failed to respond or timed out.
#### 3. Host Permissions: `*://*.imdb.com/*` (and localized IMDb domains: `.co.uk`, `.de`, `.es`, `.fr`, `.it`, `.pt`)
• **Purpose:** Allows the extension's content scripts (`content.js`, `content.css`, and supporting libraries) to run on IMDb movie, series, watchlist, search, and reference pages.
• **Usage:**
- Extracts title metadata (IMDb ID `tt...`, original title, release year, season/episode numbers).
- Injects the Scout link bars, icon buttons, and external critic rating badges into the page layout.
- Removes intrusive advertisements, sponsored carousel banners, and auto-playing video units.
- Applies high-density dark mode styling on IMDb Reference View pages.
#### 4. Host Permission: `<all_urls>`
• **Purpose:** Permits the background service worker to perform cross-origin network requests (`fetch`) to external search endpoints, rating APIs, and local media servers on your behalf.
• **Usage:** Used exclusively to verify title availability (e.g. on 1337x, TorrentGalaxy, OpenSubtitles, Rotten Tomatoes, Letterboxd) and to ping local automation servers (Radarr, Sonarr, Plex, Jellyfin).
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### 3. ARE ALL OF THESE PERMISSIONS STRICTLY NECESSARY?
**YES. Each requested permission is indispensable for the core functionality of IMDb Scout Mod.**
Here is an explicit, transparent breakdown of why each permission is essential and why no narrower alternative is viable:
#### • Is `storage` strictly necessary?
**YES.** Without local storage, your customized selection of active trackers (out of 500+ supported sites), your display preferences, your visual theme choices, and your Radarr/Sonarr API credentials would be completely erased every time you close a tab or restart your browser, forcing you to reconfigure the entire extension repeatedly.
#### • Is `notifications` strictly necessary?
**YES.** When you click to send a movie to Radarr or a TV show to Sonarr, the operation occurs asynchronously in the background. If your server is offline, down, or rejects the API key, the notification is the only non-intrusive mechanism to inform you of the error without disrupting your web page navigation.
#### • Are IMDb host permissions strictly necessary?
**YES.** Chrome's Manifest V3 architecture strictly prohibits extensions from reading DOM content or modifying the visual presentation of web pages unless explicit host permissions are granted for those domains. The extension requires access to IMDb domains to inspect the movie title, display the Scout buttons, and remove distracting ad banners.
#### • Is `<all_urls>` strictly necessary? (Why not list specific domains?)
**YES, `<all_urls>` is technically indispensable for three fundamental reasons:**
1. **500+ Dynamic and Evolving Domains:** IMDb Scout Mod supports over 500 different public and private tracker websites, streaming catalogs, usenet indexers, subtitle providers, and international rating databases across dozens of country-code top-level domains (ccTLDs). Trackers frequently change domains and mirror URLs to stay accessible.
2. **Local and Private Media Server Endpoints:** Media automation tools like Radarr, Sonarr, Plex, Jellyfin, and Emby run on user-defined local network IP addresses and ports (such as `http://localhost:7878`, `http://192.168.1.150:8989`, `http://127.0.0.1:32400`, or private custom reverse-proxy domains). It is impossible to declare a static list of private IP addresses and custom domains in `manifest.json`.
3. **Custom Search Sites Feature:** The extension allows users to define and import their own custom search sites and private tracker endpoints via JSON. These custom domains cannot be known in advance.
**Under Chrome's Manifest V3 security model, content scripts cannot make cross-origin network requests without being blocked by browser CORS restrictions.** The background service worker proxies these requests using host permissions.
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### 4. HOW YOUR PRIVACY IS PROTECTED WITH `<ALL_URLS>`
Although the extension holds broad network request permissions to communicate with external APIs and trackers, we implement strict internal security boundaries:
• **No Web Activity Monitoring:** The background script does NOT monitor your web traffic, listen to web navigation events, or inspect cookies from unrelated tabs.
• **Conditional Execution:** Network requests are only triggered when you actively open an IMDb title page or search list, and the requests target ONLY the specific search query for that title or your configured media server.
• **No Remote Code Execution:** The extension contains no dynamically evaluated external scripts (`eval` or external script tags) and complies fully with Chrome Web Store Manifest V3 security standards.
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### 5. CHANGES TO THIS POLICY