Frequently Asked Questions

AI Privacy Guard is a Chrome extension that scans your text in real-time before you share it with AI services. It detects 13 categories of sensitive information including emails, phone numbers, credit cards, API keys, and more.

All PII detection happens entirely on your local device - no user content or detected sensitive data is ever transmitted to our servers.

AI Privacy Guard detects 13 categories of personally identifiable information (PII):

• Email addresses (excluding obvious examples like test@example.com)
• Phone numbers (US and international formats)
• Social Security Numbers (XXX-XX-XXXX patterns)
• Credit card numbers (all major brands, validated with Luhn algorithm)
• API keys and tokens (api_key=, bearer tokens, etc.)
• IP addresses (public IPv4, excluding private ranges)
• Personal names (when found with other PII)
• Financial account numbers
• Passwords and secrets
• Internal URLs and database connections
• Employee/Customer IDs
• Government IDs (driver's license, passport patterns)
• Other structured sensitive data patterns

AI Privacy Guard is designed for speed with sub-100ms scanning times. The detection happens as you type with a 300ms debounce to avoid excessive scanning. You won't notice any delay in your typing experience.

AI Privacy Guard currently supports 5 major AI platforms:

• Claude
• ChatGPT
• Gemini
• Perplexity
• Microsoft Copilot

The same 13 PII detection categories work identically across all supported platforms with consistent accuracy and performance.

Your sensitive data stays private. AI Privacy Guard operates with a privacy-first design:

• All PII detection happens locally on your device
• No user content or detected sensitive data ever leaves your browser
• No external API calls for detection processing
• No cloud storage of your conversations or detected information
• Anonymous usage analytics may be collected to improve the product

No, we cannot see anything you type. The extension processes your text entirely within your browser using local JavaScript. There are no network requests for detection processing, no uploads of your content, and no transmission of your conversations or detected sensitive information.

AI Privacy Guard requests minimal permissions:

• Active Tab: To analyze content on supported AI platforms
• Storage: To save your preferences locally on your device

These permissions are used solely for privacy protection functionality and never for data collection.

AI Privacy Guard is currently available for Google Chrome and Chromium-based browsers including:

• Google Chrome (version 88+)
• Microsoft Edge
• Brave Browser
• Opera
• Vivaldi

Firefox support is planned for future releases.

AI Privacy Guard has minimal system requirements:

• Chrome 88+ or compatible Chromium browser
• Any operating system (Windows, macOS, Linux)
• Minimal memory usage (<50MB)
• No additional software installation required

Currently, AI Privacy Guard is designed for desktop browsers. Mobile browser extension support is limited by browser capabilities, but we're exploring mobile solutions for the future.

If detection isn't working, try these steps:

1. Refresh the AI platform page
2. Check that the extension is enabled in your browser
3. Verify you're on a supported platform
4. Try typing in the main chat input area
5. Check browser console for any error messages

If the privacy badge isn't showing:

1. Ensure you're on a supported platform
2. Refresh the page completely
3. Check that the extension is enabled
4. Wait a moment for the page to fully load
5. Try clicking in the text input area

The badge appears automatically on all 5 supported AI platforms when the input area is detected.

Our detection is designed to minimize false positives by ignoring obvious test patterns (like example@example.com). Currently, sensitivity adjustment isn't available, but this feature is planned for future updates based on user feedback.

AI Privacy Guard is optimized for performance with <100ms scan times and minimal memory usage. If you're experiencing slowdowns:

1. Check if other extensions might be causing conflicts
2. Restart your browser
3. Update to the latest version of the extension
4. Contact us with your browser version and system details

1. Visit the Chrome Web Store
2. Click "Add to Chrome" button
3. Confirm the installation when prompted
4. The extension will appear in your browser toolbar
5. Navigate to any supported AI platform to start using the protection

No! AI Privacy Guard works immediately after installation with no signup, registration, or account creation required. Just install and start using it right away.

You'll know AI Privacy Guard is working when:

• A green monitoring badge appears on supported AI platforms (Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot)
• The badge turns amber/red when sensitive information is detected
• You can click the badge to see detected issues
• A number appears on the badge showing the count of detected items
• The extension icon shows platform-aware status when clicked

To remove AI Privacy Guard:

1. Right-click the extension icon in your browser toolbar
2. Select "Remove from Chrome"
3. Confirm the removal

Alternatively, go to chrome://extensions/, find AI Privacy Guard, and click "Remove".