PRIVACY POLICY FOR STEAM BAN RADAR
Last updated: October 2026
Steam Ban Radar ("the Extension", "we", "us", or "our") is dedicated to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy transparently explains what data the extension accesses, how that data is processed, and why each permission is utilized.
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1. SUMMARY: ZERO PERSONAL DATA COLLECTION
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- We do NOT collect, sell, rent, monetize, or transmit your personal data.
- We do NOT collect your browsing history, keystrokes, personal identity, or Steam account credentials.
- The extension does NOT require you to log into Steam through the extension, and it never has access to your passwords, payment methods, or Steam Guard codes.
- No analytics trackers, behavioral telemetry, or third-party advertising scripts are embedded in the extension.
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2. WHAT DATA IS ACCESSED AND HOW IT IS USED
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The extension only processes publicly available gaming account identifiers:
- Public Steam IDs: When you visit supported Steam Community pages (such as your friends list, CS2 match history, or a community profile), the extension extracts the 64-bit numerical Steam IDs displayed in the public webpage markup.
- Valve Public Ban Records: The extension queries Valve Corporation's official Steam Web API (ISteamUser/GetPlayerBans) to retrieve public ban records (number of VAC bans, game bans, community ban flag, economy ban flag, and days since last ban).
- Temporary Local Cache: Ban records and user preferences are stored entirely locally on your device within your browser's isolated local storage (`chrome.storage.local` and `chrome.storage.sync`). This data never leaves your device.
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3. EXPLANATION OF REQUESTED PERMISSIONS & LEAST-PRIVILEGE AUDIT
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Users frequently ask: "Are all these permissions strictly necessary?"
Below is a transparent breakdown of every requested permission and an audit proving that no excessive permissions are requested:
✓ Permission: "storage"
- Why it is needed:
1) Saves your personal configuration toggles (e.g., whether to show green clean badges or highlight banned rows).
2) Stores your optional custom Steam Web API key locally.
3) Maintains a local client-side cache of ban lookups to prevent redundant network requests and avoid hitting Valve's API rate limits.
- Is it necessary? YES. Without storage, your preferences would reset every time you close your browser, and every webpage refresh would re-query hundreds of players, resulting in rapid rate-limiting by Steam.
✓ Permission: "contextMenus"
- Why it is needed: Adds convenient right-click shortcuts to the extension icon, allowing users to jump directly to Steam Friends, CS2 Premier Match History, or extension documentation.
- Is it necessary? YES. It provides fast navigation without needing to open full tabs manually.
✓ Host Permission: "*://steamcommunity.com/*"
- Why it is needed: Allows the extension's content scripts to read publicly displayed SteamIDs on Steam Community pages (friends lists, CS2 match histories, group member lists, and profile headers) and inject visual verdict badges into the page DOM.
- Is it necessary? YES. This is the core operational environment of the extension. It is strictly scoped to Steam Community pages and has zero access to any other website you visit.
✓ Host Permission: "https://api.steampowered.com/*"
- Why it is needed: Allows the background service worker to send secure HTTPS queries to Valve's official Steam Web API (`ISteamUser/GetPlayerBans` and `ISteamUser/ResolveVanityURL`) to fetch ban verdicts.
- Is it necessary? YES. Without this permission, the extension cannot query Valve's official ban database.
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WHAT PERMISSIONS ARE NOT REQUESTED (AUDIT FOR SAFETY):
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To maximize your privacy, Steam Ban Radar intentionally OMITS permissions commonly abused by other extensions:
✗ NO "<all_urls>" or broad web access: The extension cannot see or interact with any website other than Steam.
✗ NO "cookies" permission: The extension cannot access your authentication cookies or session tokens.
✗ NO "webRequest" permission: The extension cannot monitor, intercept, or modify your network traffic.
✗ NO "tabs" permission: The extension cannot read your open tabs, page titles, or URLs.
✗ NO "alarms" or background persistent polling: Reduces battery and CPU usage to zero when inactive.
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4. THIRD-PARTY SERVICES
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The only external service queried by this extension is Valve Corporation's official Steam Web API (`https://api.steampowered.com/`). Queries sent to Valve contain only public 64-bit Steam IDs and your optional API key. Please refer to Valve's Privacy Policy regarding their processing of public API requests.
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5. DATA RETENTION & CONTROLS
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You have complete control over all data stored locally by the extension:
- You can clear your local ban cache at any time using the "Clear Cache" button located in the extension popup and options page.
- Uninstalling the extension automatically purges all locally stored preferences, cache, and configuration from your browser.
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6. CONTACT & QUESTIONS
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If you have any questions or feedback regarding this Privacy Policy or the security of Steam Ban Radar, please reach out via our GitHub repository or Chrome Web Store support page.