Privacy Policy

Last updated: May 2025

Overview

Blankie is a Chrome browser extension designed to help you build healthier browsing habits by gently intercepting visits to distracting or emotionally taxing websites. Your privacy is central to how Blankie works — all data stays on your device and is never transmitted anywhere.

Data We Collect

Blankie stores the following information locally on your device using Chrome's storage APIs:

Settings & Configuration

  • Whether the extension is enabled or disabled

  • Your list of blocked websites and blocked topics

  • Your 'happy list' of preferred alternative websites

  • Your list of custom activities (for nudges)

  • Timer duration preference

  • Your hourly rate (if set, used only for local cost calculations)

Usage & Behavioral Data

  • Mood selections made at the interstitial screen (e.g. 'good', 'anxious', 'down', 'meh')

  • Timestamps and day/hour of interception events

  • Count of total interceptions, pauses, and 'go ahead' decisions

  • Doom-scroll timer sessions (start time, duration in minutes)

  • Running scroll session totals

Session Data

  • A temporary session allowlist (sites you approved during the current browser session) — this is stored in chrome.storage.session and is automatically cleared when the browser closes

What We Do Not Collect

Blankie does not collect, transmit, or share any of the following:

  • Your full browsing history

  • The content of any web pages you visit

  • Any personally identifiable information (name, email, IP address, etc.)

  • Payment or financial information

  • Any data from third-party services

Blankie has no servers, no analytics pipeline, and no network calls of any kind. It operates entirely offline.

How Your Data Is Used

All data collected by Blankie is used exclusively to provide the extension's features:

  • Blocked sites and topics lists are used to determine when to show an interstitial

  • Mood event data is used to display usage insights within the extension popup

  • Scroll timer data is used to calculate and display time spent and estimated cost

  • The session allowlist ensures you're not interrupted twice for the same site in one session

None of this data is ever used for advertising, profiling, or any purpose beyond the core functionality described above.

Data Storage & Retention

All data is stored locally on your device using the Chrome Extension Storage API (chrome.storage.local and chrome.storage.session). You have full control over this data:

  • You can clear all Blankie data by uninstalling the extension

  • You can reset individual settings from within the extension popup

  • Session data (temporary allowlist) is automatically cleared when your browser closes

Blankie does not create backups of your data and does not sync data across devices (Chrome sync is not used).

Permissions Explained

Blankie requests the following Chrome permissions:

  • storage: storage — 

  • Required to save your settings, blocked lists, and usage data locally on your device

  • tabs: tabs — 

  • Required to send messages to the active tab (e.g. to show the in-page overlay or nudge notification)

  • webNavigation: webNavigation — 

  • Required to detect when you navigate to a blocked site so Blankie can show the interstitial

  • alarms: alarms — 

  • Required to schedule periodic doom-scroll nudge notifications

  • host_permissions: host_permissions (https://*/*, http://*/*) — 

  • Required to inject the content script on all pages so link-click interceptions work correctly

No permission is used for any purpose beyond what is described here.

Younger Users & Families

Blankie is designed to help anyone build healthier browsing habits — including teenagers and younger users who are particularly affected by doom scrolling and anxiety-driven browsing. The extension is equally suitable for use by children, teens, and adults.

Because Blankie is often installed by parents or guardians to support younger family members, we want to be clear:

  • All data (mood check-ins, blocked site lists, scroll sessions) is stored locally on the device and never leaves it

  • No account, login, or personal information is required to use Blankie

  • Parents and guardians can review and clear all stored data at any time via the extension popup or by uninstalling the extension

  • Blankie does not include ads, in-app purchases, or any features that connect to the internet

If you are setting up Blankie for a child, we recommend reviewing the blocked sites list and timer settings together so the experience feels supportive rather than restrictive.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will update the version number and effective date at the top of this document. Continued use of Blankie after any changes constitutes your acceptance of the updated policy. We encourage you to review this policy periodically.

Questions? Reach out at hello@cookietin.app