# Privacy Policy — Sidebar Forum

Last updated: 13 August 2026

Sidebar Forum has no servers. There is no company account, no analytics service,
no advertising network, and no database belonging to the developer. Nothing in
this policy is a promise about a backend, because there is no backend.

## What is collected

**Nothing is collected by the developer.** No data of any kind is transmitted to
the developer, sold, rented, or shared with third parties.

## What is stored on your own machine

All of the following lives in your browser's local extension storage, on your
device only:

- **Your identity key.** A Nostr private key, generated on first use. It never
  leaves your machine except as signatures on posts you choose to publish.
- **Your settings.** Relay list, display name, spam-resistance level, and which
  sites you have allowed or blocked.
- **Per-site rules.** Which sites the panel loads on automatically, which it is
  turned off for, and which are pinned to their root page's thread.
- **Muted authors.** A local list of keys whose posts you have chosen to hide.
- **"Most liked" history.** Vote counts for sites you have visited, capped at 50
  entries, used only to draw the "Most liked" bar in the panel. This is a list of
  sites you have been to. It is never published or transmitted. You can erase it
  at any time with **Settings → Privacy → Clear most-liked history**.
- **Wallet credential (optional).** If you connect a Lightning wallet via Nostr
  Wallet Connect, that connection string is stored locally. It is used only to
  pay invoices you initiate.
- **Earning address (optional).** If you set a Lightning address to receive tips,
  it is stored locally and published alongside comments you post, so people can
  pay you. Leaving it blank disables this entirely.

Uninstalling the extension deletes all of it.

## What is sent over the network, and to whom

**To the Nostr relays you have configured:** when you open a thread, the
extension sends a SHA-256 hash of the page address — not the address itself —
and receives posts matching it. When you publish a post, reaction, or vote, that
signed event is sent to those same relays. Relays are third-party services you
choose; the developer does not operate them. The default relay list is editable
in settings.

Hashing the address limits casual logging of your browsing, but it is not
anonymity: a relay that already suspects a specific URL can hash that URL and
check for a match. Relays also see your IP address, which the extension cannot
hide. If this matters to you, use "Ask first" mode so nothing is requested until
you click, and consider a VPN or Tor at the system level.

**To a Lightning payment provider:** only when you choose to send or receive a
paid "super vote." This requires an explicit action and an explicit permission
grant for that provider's domain.

**Nowhere else.** The extension makes no other network requests.

## Why the extension asks for its permissions

- **`storage`** — to save the settings and identity described above, locally.
- **`tabs`** — to read the address of the tab you are looking at, so the panel
  can show that page's thread and follow along as you navigate. Addresses are
  used to compute the topic hash and are not transmitted in plain form.
- **`sidePanel`** — to render the forum in the browser's side panel.
- **Optional host permissions** — requested only at the moment you make a
  Lightning payment, and only for the payment provider's domain.

The extension has **no content scripts**. It cannot read, modify, or interact
with the contents of any web page you visit — only the address of the tab.

## Your controls

- Turn the extension off for any site, or require a click before anything loads.
- Generate a new identity, erasing your link to past posts.
- Clear the most-liked history.
- Edit or empty the relay list.
- Uninstall, which removes all stored data.

## A limit worth stating plainly

Posts published to relays cannot be reliably deleted. A deletion request asks
relays to remove a post, and well-behaved relays honour it, but any relay or
reader that already has a copy may keep it. Treat anything you post as
permanent.

## Contact

Questions about this policy can be raised through the project's public
repository.