Overview
Short version: i18n Detective is a debugging tool that runs entirely inside your browser. What it captures on a page stays in that page's tab and disappears when the tab closes. There are no servers, no accounts, and no analytics, so there is nowhere for your data to go.
What we collect
Nothing. i18n Detective has no backend and sends nothing to us or to any third party. It does not track which sites you visit, keeps no history, sets no cookies, and contains no analytics or telemetry of any kind.
What the extension observes on a page
To trace a translation to its source, i18n Detective watches the page's own traffic and state on sites where it is active:
- JSON responses the page loads over fetch, XHR, and WebSocket, to spot translation dictionaries and API data
- Live data of i18n libraries after the page renders: vue-i18n, i18next, react-intl, next-intl and similar
- Translation strings embedded in the page's server-rendered state
All of this analysis happens locally, inside the tab. The extension reads what the page already loaded for itself; it adds no listeners to your keyboard and does not read forms, passwords, or anything you type.
Where captured data lives
Captured dictionaries and API responses are held in the tab's memory and in the tab's sessionStorage, so they survive a page reload while you are debugging. They never leave the tab: closing it discards everything, and the popup has a Clear captured data button that wipes the tab's data on demand.
Network requests the extension makes
Almost all of the time, i18n Detective only listens. It makes requests of its own in one case: when you click Check language coverage, it downloads the same dictionary files the site already uses, with a different locale substituted in the URL, to see which languages are missing keys. These requests go to the site you are inspecting, are sent without cookies or credentials, and happen only when you press the button.
Nothing is ever requested from our infrastructure, because there is none.
Settings
Your preferences, meaning the on/off switch, the site mode, and the site lists, are stored with chrome.storage.sync. If you signed into Chrome, the browser may sync them across your devices through your Google account. That sync is handled by Chrome itself; we have no access to it.
Permissions
i18n Detective asks for two things:
storagekeeps your settings- Host access to the sites you open lets it observe dictionaries and show its panels on whatever site you happen to be debugging, since staging and production domains cannot be known in advance
If broad access bothers you, switch the extension to whitelist mode in the popup. It will then stay dormant everywhere except the sites you listed, and on inactive sites it skips response capture entirely.
Children's privacy
i18n Detective is a developer tool and is not directed at children under 13. Since it collects and transmits no data, no additional compliance procedures apply.
Changes to this policy
If this policy changes, the updated version will be published at this URL with a new "Last updated" date.
Contact
Questions about privacy or the extension? Reach out at lobovlabs@proton.me.