What this extension does
Search Your Screen is a Chrome extension that lets you search any image visually using Google Lens. You can capture your entire screen, select a specific area, upload a local image, right-click any image on a webpage, or search frames in YouTube and product images on Amazon — all without leaving your browser tab.
The extension acts as a bridge between your browser and Google Lens. It captures an image at your request and submits it to Google Lens on your behalf.
Data we collect
The extension never collects:
- Your name, or any account information, unless you buy Search Your Screen Pro (see below)
- The full URL, path, or query string of any page — only the hostname, and only as described below
- The content or data of any screenshot or image you search
What it does collect, tied to a randomly-generated install id rather than to your name or account:
- The hostname of the page a search is run on — for example
example.com, never the full page address — together with a category we derive from it, such as education, shopping, or work tool. This is what our free daily search limits are measured against for certain categories, and what keeps that category classifier accurate. It is kept for up to 180 days and then deleted. - Anonymous, aggregated usage events — for example how many times a search was triggered, and which result categories Google Lens returns (Shopping, Translation, Visual matches). These are a separate thing from the site categories above: this is about what Lens found, not what page you were on.
- The kind of page a search starts from — web page, PDF, image, video or document — worked out from the file ending of the address only, never the address itself.
- The country a request originates from, via Cloudflare's edge network.
- If you uninstall: the goodbye page offers an optional, anonymous survey. If you answer it, we store your chosen reason and any comment you type, together with the same random install id. Please don't include personal details in the comment.
None of the above contains images, page content, or your name — it is used solely to enforce free-tier limits fairly and to understand how the extension is used.
Images and Google Lens
When you perform a search, the extension captures an image from your screen or the page you are on and sends it to Google Lens (lens.google.com) to perform the search. This transmission is made directly to Google's servers using the same mechanism as Google Lens itself.
The extension does not store, log, or transmit your images to any server we operate. Images go to Google Lens only, at your explicit request, each time you trigger a search.
Google's handling of your image data is governed by Google's Privacy Policy.
Permissions explained
The extension requests the following browser permissions. Each is required for a specific feature:
| Permission | Why it is needed |
|---|---|
| tabs | To capture the visible content of the current tab when you trigger a search |
| activeTab | To access the current tab temporarily when you click the extension icon or use a shortcut |
| scripting | To inject the area-selection overlay when you use the "Search specific area" feature |
| storage | To remember your settings (e.g. whether to open results in a new tab or floating window) between sessions |
| contextMenus | To add the right-click "Search this image" option to images on web pages |
| windows | To open Google Lens results in a floating popup window if you have selected that mode |
| webNavigation | To detect page navigation on YouTube so the Lens button reappears after you change videos |
| host permissions | To inject the Lens button into YouTube and Amazon pages, and to interact with the Google Lens results page |
Search Your Screen Pro
Everything above is unchanged whether or not you use Pro. Buying the optional $1.99/month Pro subscription adds exactly one piece of personal data: your email address. Here is exactly where it goes and why.
- Payment details — entered directly on Stripe's own checkout page and never seen, touched, or stored by us. We never have your card number, and neither does the extension.
- Your email address — collected by Stripe at checkout, then passed to us so we can send you the activation passkey below. It is sent through Resend, the email service that actually delivers that one message.
- Billing address and country — collected and held by Stripe, for tax purposes and to show you accurate local pricing. We don't receive or store this ourselves.
- Subscription status, the date it next renews, and your activation passkey — the only Pro-related data we hold ourselves, kept in our own database for as long as your subscription is active or until you ask us to delete it.
We keep the email address and passkey for as long as reasonably needed to run the subscription — to answer support questions, honour the passkey's device limit, and keep basic records for tax purposes — and delete them on request; email support@searchyourscreen.com to ask.
The Pro features themselves run entirely on your own computer. Searching inside a PDF, extracting text from an area, your search history, saved areas, and folders are all stored locally in your browser and are never sent to us or to anyone else — buying Pro does not change how your searches or their results are handled, only the email and billing details above.
Cancelling keeps Pro working until the end of the period you already paid for — nothing more is charged, and nothing is clawed back early.
Third-party services
- Google Lens — receives your image when you perform a search. Governed by Google's Privacy Policy.
- Cloudflare — used to serve this website and to process anonymous usage events. Cloudflare may log IP addresses at the network level per their own privacy policy.
- PostHog — used to analyse anonymous, aggregated usage data about the extension (no personal data, no images).
- Stripe — processes Pro's payment and holds your billing details. Governed by Stripe's Privacy Policy. Only used if you buy Pro.
- Resend — delivers the one email that contains your Pro activation passkey. Only used if you buy Pro.
Children's privacy
This extension is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect data from children.
Changes to this policy
If we make material changes to this policy we will update the effective date above. Continued use of the extension after changes are posted constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.
Contact
Questions about this privacy policy? Email us at support@searchyourscreen.com.