Offshoot Privacy Policy
Offshoot keeps your data in your own browser. Nothing goes to Offshoot's servers unless you choose to share it: a share link, or a project you share with other people. There are no accounts, no analytics and no ads.
Who we are
Offshoot is developed by [DEVELOPER NAME]. Questions about this policy can be sent to [CONTACT EMAIL].
What Offshoot reads
Offshoot runs only on claude.ai, gemini.google.com and chatgpt.com. On those sites it reads the conversation shown on the page (your messages, the AI's replies and the chat's title and address). That's how it lets you branch, take notes, run challenges and build memos. It doesn't read any other websites, and it doesn't read your browsing history.
What Offshoot stores, and where
Everything below is saved with Chrome's extension storage on your own computer. Unless you share it (see the next section), it is not sent to the developer.
| Data | Why |
|---|---|
| Text of the chats you open on the three supported sites | To link branches, search your chats and write memos |
| Your margin notes, projects, tasks, challenges, verdicts and memo versions | The core features you use |
| Your settings, including the display name you choose for sharing | To remember your preferences and show teammates who you are |
| The keys to your share links and shared projects | So you can delete links, sync projects and leave them |
| An Anthropic API key, only if you choose to add one | To update memos and verdicts through Anthropic's API |
When text leaves your browser
- When you branch, challenge, merge or update a memo in a chat. Offshoot places a prompt in the message box of the AI site you picked: Claude, Gemini or ChatGPT. The prompt may contain text from your other chats. Once it is sent, that site's own privacy policy applies to it.
- When you make a share link. A copy of that one chat or memo, with your display name, is stored on the Offshoot sync service. Anyone who has the link can read it until you delete the link in Settings.
- When you share a project, or join one. The project's chats, memo versions, tasks, challenges and branch links, plus your display name, are stored on the Offshoot sync service and sent to everyone who joins with the invite link. Changes you make to the project sync to them, and theirs to you. Your margin notes and chats outside the project are never shared.
- When you have added an Anthropic API key and choose to update a memo or get a verdict through the API. Offshoot sends the relevant chat text straight from your browser to Anthropic's API (api.anthropic.com), and Anthropic's terms apply. Without a key, nothing is sent this way.
Offshoot does not send your data anywhere else. It doesn't use analytics, tracking pixels or advertising, and it doesn't load code from remote servers.
The Offshoot sync service
- Where it runs: on Vercel, with data stored in an Upstash Redis database. Both are service providers that process data on our behalf.
- Access: share links and invite links contain long random keys. Anyone who has a link can open it, so send links only to people you trust. Secret keys are stored only as one-way hashes.
- What the server logs: standard request logs from the hosting provider, and a short-lived, hashed IP counter used to limit abuse. It doesn't keep your IP address with your content.
- How long it's kept: a share link stays until you delete it. A shared project stays until the person who shared it chooses Stop sharing, which deletes it from the server for everyone. Anyone who leaves keeps their own local copy.
- Who can see it: the people you share with. The developer doesn't read shared content, except when it's needed to keep the service running, to investigate abuse or to comply with the law.
What we never do
- Sell or rent your data.
- Share it with third parties, apart from the AI services you choose to use, the people you choose to share with, and the hosting providers that run the sync service, as described above.
- Use or transfer it for advertising, credit decisions or any purpose unrelated to Offshoot's features.
- Read your local data. It never leaves your browser unless you share it.
The use of information received from Google APIs follows the Chrome Web Store User Data Policy, including its Limited Use requirements.
Your control
- Export: in Offshoot's Settings, Download backup saves all your data as a file.
- Delete: in Settings, Erase all Offshoot data removes everything at once. Removing the extension from Chrome also deletes all of its stored data.
- API key: you can remove the key in Settings at any time.
- Share links: in Settings → Sharing, Delete removes a link from the server so it stops working for everyone.
- Shared projects: in the project, Shared → Stop sharing deletes it from the server, and Leave project removes you from it. To ask for deletion of anything else, contact us at the address above.
Children
Offshoot is not directed at children under 13 and does not knowingly collect their information.
Changes
If this policy changes, the new version will be posted on this page with a new effective date. If a change affects how your data leaves your browser, it will also appear in the extension's release notes.