Privacy
Last updated 5 November 2026
Magpiary keeps what you save on your own Mac. The app and the extension have no accounts, no servers that receive your data, no analytics and no ads. This page covers the Magpiary website, the Magpiary Chrome extension and the Magpiary app.
The Chrome extension
The extension has one purpose: to save the page or post you are looking at to your Magpiary library on your own computer.
| What it handles | The web address of the page or post you choose to save, and the board and note you type, if any. Tracking parameters (such as share IDs and utm_ values) are removed from the address first. Only when you tick “Save what I see” for a page: that page’s text and pictures as they appear on your screen, a screenshot of the visible part, and the browser’s own copy of the page (used only to recover pictures). |
|---|---|
| When | Only when you click the Magpiary button, press its keyboard shortcut, or use "Save to Magpiary" in the right-click menu. It does nothing in the background except retry a save that could not be delivered yet. |
| Where it goes | Only to the Magpiary app on the same computer, over the local address 127.0.0.1. It is never sent to the Magpiary developers or to any other server. |
| Saying hello | When the extension is installed or Chrome starts, or when you open its panel, it tells the Magpiary app on the same computer that it is installed, which version it is, and whether its button is pinned to the toolbar. The app uses this only to tick off its setup guide. It contains no page address and goes nowhere else. |
| What it never does | It does not read cookies, passwords or your browsing history, and reads a page’s text only when you tick “Save what I see” and save. It makes no requests to the websites you visit. It runs no code loaded from the internet. |
| What it stores | In your browser only: the pairing with your Mac, the local port, and any saves waiting to be delivered. Unpairing or removing the extension deletes them. |
Why each permission is needed
- activeTab and scripting: to read the address of the current tab, and to run the extension's own bundled scripts there, only after you ask: the "pick a post" script, and, when you tick “Save what I see”, the script that reads that page's text and pictures in reading order.
- pageCapture: only when you tick “Save what I see”, to keep the browser's own copy of that page, so the Magpiary app can use a picture you already see if it cannot download it itself. It goes only to the app on your computer.
- contextMenus: for the right-click "Save to Magpiary" item.
- storage and alarms: to remember the pairing and to retry a waiting save.
- Access to 127.0.0.1: to hand the save to the Magpiary app on your computer.
Chrome Web Store user data policy
The use of information received by the Magpiary extension adheres to the Chrome Web Store User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. The extension uses the web addresses you choose to save, and the page content you send with “Save what I see”, only to provide its one purpose, never sells or transfers them, and never uses them for advertising or for any other purpose.
The Magpiary app
The app stores your library in one folder on your Mac. Nothing is uploaded to us. If you choose Smart mode, the caption, transcript and a few frames of a saved post are sent to the AI service whose key you supply (for example Google, Anthropic or OpenAI), under that service's own terms. Videos never leave your Mac. In Private mode nothing is sent to any AI service. Your keys are kept on your Mac and never shown again.
This website
magpiary.com sets no cookies. It is hosted on GitHub Pages, which may keep ordinary server logs under GitHub's own privacy statement.
What we collect
Nothing from the extension or the app. The Magpiary developers receive no data from them, so we cannot see, sell or share your saves.
Questions
Write to contact@magpiary.com. If this policy changes, the date above changes with it. Magpiary is open source, so you can read exactly what the extension and the app do: github.com/magpiary/magpiary.