ElementHider
Last updated: 14 July 2026
ElementHider is developed and maintained by Valtteri Hietala (Finland).
Contact for privacy matters: valtteri.t.hietala@gmail.com
This policy applies to the ElementHider browser extension and its optional Supporter Pack verification service.
All your keywords, display preferences, and extension settings are stored only in your browser using the standard browser storage API (chrome.storage). If you have Chrome Sync enabled, these settings may also be synced to your Google account by Chrome — this is governed by Google's own privacy policy, not ours.
We never transmit your keywords or browsing activity to any server.
If you're a Supporter and enable Smart Learning, the extension builds a small local word-association table from the pages your own keywords actually match — e.g. noting that "leaked" and "ending revealed" tend to appear near your "spoiler" keyword's hits. This data is derived entirely on your device, from your own confirmed keyword matches, and is stored only in your browser's local extension storage. It is never transmitted anywhere, never leaves your device, and is not synced across browsers like your keyword list is.
Learned associations are only ever surfaced back to you as optional one-click suggestions — nothing is ever automatically added to your keyword list or hidden on your behalf without you clicking "Add". You can turn Smart Learning off, or permanently delete everything it has learned, at any time from Settings.
The automated Keyword Map visualizes the relationships between your keywords, groups, and the words learned by Smart Learning. This interactive diagram is generated and rendered entirely on-device within the settings interface. The layout, nodes, and connections are computed dynamically using local data and are never uploaded, shared, or sent to any external server.
If you choose to verify a Ko-fi contribution to unlock the Supporter Pack, you provide your email address. We store, keyed to that email:
• Your email address (normalised to lowercase) and the date the record was last updated
• Whether it currently qualifies for Supporter Pack access
• For qualifying purchases: the Ko-fi transaction ID, donation amount, currency, and donation type
This data is submitted by Ko-fi to our server when you make a donation and share your email. You are not required to verify — the free features work without providing any data.
Once verified, the extension automatically re-checks your supporter status with our server at most once every 24 hours by re-sending your stored email, so that access is correctly revoked if a donation is later refunded or charged back. This happens silently in the background while you use the extension — no further action is needed from you after the initial verification.
Each verification request also briefly processes your IP address to prevent abuse (rate-limiting). This IP address is held only in server memory for up to 60 seconds and is never written to our database or linked to your email.
Separately, we keep an aggregate daily counter of verification attempts and their success/failure outcome (e.g. "12 attempts, 10 successes" for a given day) to monitor that the verification service itself is working. This counter is not linked to your email or identity in any way.
The extension requests the storage, tabs, and broad host (*://*/*) permissions from your browser. storage holds your keywords and settings; tabs lets it detect when you navigate within a single-page app so your rules re-apply without a full reload, and lets the popup read the current tab's domain to auto-fill a site filter. The broad host permission is what lets the extension run its hide/blur/highlight logic on any website you visit — it does not grant us, the developer, any access to that browsing activity, which stays local to your browser as described above.
The email address and transaction record are used solely to verify that you made a Ko-fi contribution, so we can grant you access to Supporter Pack features.
Legal basis under GDPR: Consent (Article 6(1)(a)) — you actively choose to donate and then choose to provide your email in the verification form.
We do not use your supporter email or transaction record for marketing, profiling, or any purpose beyond verification. This website (not the extension itself) separately uses Google Analytics for anonymised pageview statistics — see "Website Analytics" below.
This website (elementhider.web.app) uses Google Analytics 4 (GA4) to understand aggregate visitor traffic — pages viewed, general location by country, and the "Unlock on Ko-fi" click-through rate. GA4 uses cookies and may collect your IP address (Google's IP-anonymisation setting applies to EU/EEA visitors). This applies only to this website, not to the browser extension itself, which contains no analytics of any kind (the extension's Manifest V3 content-security policy blocks loading any remote analytics script). See Google's Privacy Policy for how Google processes this data.
GA4 is not loaded, and no analytics cookies are set, until you click "Accept" on the cookie banner shown on your first visit. If you click "Reject" (or take no action), GA4 never loads for you at all. You can change your mind at any time by clearing this site's data in your browser settings, which will show the banner again on your next visit.
Supporter records are stored in Google Firebase / Cloud Firestore, and processed via Firebase Cloud Functions, both hosted in the europe-west1 region (Belgium, European Union). Your data does not leave the EU.
Google LLC acts as a data processor under a Data Processing Agreement that complies with GDPR. For Google's data processing terms, see cloud.google.com/terms/data-processing-addendum.
We retain your supporter record for as long as it is needed to provide Supporter Pack access. If you stop using the extension or request deletion, we will erase your record within 30 days of your request. Records with no corresponding active supporter access are deleted within 12 months of the last verification attempt.
To request deletion, email valtteri.t.hietala@gmail.com with the subject line Data Deletion Request.
If you are in the EU/EEA you have the following rights regarding your personal data:
Access — request a copy of the data we hold about you.
Rectification — ask us to correct inaccurate data.
Erasure — ask us to delete your data ("right to be forgotten").
Restriction — ask us to limit processing while a dispute is resolved.
Portability — receive your data in a machine-readable format.
Objection — object to processing based on legitimate interests.
To exercise any of these rights, contact valtteri.t.hietala@gmail.com. We will respond within 30 days.
You have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority. In Finland, this is the Office of the Data Protection Ombudsman (tietosuoja.fi). You may also contact the authority in your country of residence.
Ko-fi is an independent platform that processes your donation payment. Their privacy policy governs how they handle your payment and personal information. We only receive from Ko-fi what they forward via webhook — your email (if you opted to share it with creators) and basic transaction metadata.
This website uses Google Analytics 4, operated by Google LLC, for aggregate visitor statistics as described under "Website Analytics" above. This applies to elementhider.web.app only, not the extension.
We do not sell, rent, or share your personal data with any other third party for any purpose.
If we make material changes to this policy, we will update the date at the top of this page. Material changes that affect how we collect or use personal data will be communicated via the extension's update notes. Continued use after non-material clarifications constitutes acknowledgement of those updates.
Questions? Contact us at valtteri.t.hietala@gmail.com