Privacy policy

Effective 31 October 2026 · Applies to the Store Watcher Chrome extension (version 0.5.0 and later) and this website.

The short version. Store Watcher has no server, no account and no analytics. Everything it stores stays in your browser. It only connects to the online stores you open or choose to watch, to Shopify’s image server when you export images, and to our license provider if you activate Pro. We never sell, share or use your data for advertising.

1. Who we are

Store Watcher is published by Orbiting Solutions (“we”). Contact: [email protected]. We are responsible for the extension and this site.

Store Watcher helps you research online stores built on Shopify. It reads a store’s public product catalog so you can browse, export and compare it, and re-reads stores you choose to watch to tell you about price, stock and product changes.

2. What is stored on your device

All of the following is kept only in your browser’s extension storage (chrome.storage and IndexedDB) on your computer. We have no copy of it.

Data	Why
Settings	Theme, check frequency, notification choices (quiet hours, minimum price change, instant or daily digest).
Watchlist	The stores you chose to watch: address, name, currency, your tags, and the result of the last check.
Store data from watched stores	The latest public catalog snapshot, a compact baseline (prices, sale prices and in-stock flags per variant) used to detect changes, the change feed, and per-variant price history (Pro).
Recent visits	A compact copy of the last read of up to 30 stores you opened, so the extension can show “since your last visit”.
Your alerts and views	Product alerts you set (product, variant, target price) and saved catalog views.
Usage counters	How many exports you made today (Free has a daily limit). Counted locally; never sent.
License	If you activate Pro: your license key, its status and when it was last checked.
First-run confirmation	The date you finished the welcome screen.
Diagnostics log	The last 20 background check results (time, store, status, counts, error text) and the last error shown, kept only so you can choose to include them in a problem report. Never sent unless you tick “Include diagnostics” and send the email yourself.

Store data is public information the store publishes (product titles, descriptions, prices, stock flags, images, dates). The only browsing-related data Store Watcher keeps is the addresses of stores you open with it (recent visits) or choose to watch, so it can show what changed. It doesn’t record other sites you visit, and doesn’t read cookies, passwords, form data, or the content of pages other than the store catalogs you ask it to read.

3. What is sent over the network

Store Watcher has no backend server. It makes only these requests:

The stores you open or watch. When you click the toolbar icon on a store, or when a watched store is checked in the background, the extension requests that store’s public catalog endpoints on the store’s own domain: /products.json, /meta.json, /collections.json, per-product .json (only for Pro detailed exports), the storefront home page (to find languages and payment icons), the store’s icon (/favicon.ico, shown next to its name), and, for stores that hide products.json, the store’s public Storefront API on its own domain. For headless stores it may look up the store’s myshopify.com address. These requests go directly from your browser to the store; extension background requests are sent without your cookies. Like any website visit, the store’s servers can see your IP address and browser type.
Shopify’s image server (cdn.shopify.com). Product images shown in the extension load from where the store hosts them. When you export images as a ZIP, the extension downloads them from there, and Chrome asks for access first.
The license provider, only if you activate Pro. When you enter a license key, and about every 12 hours after that to re-check it, the extension sends the key and an instance identifier to our provider’s license API (Dodo Payments, our merchant of record). Payment happens on the provider’s own checkout page, under its privacy policy; the extension never sees your card details. The provider receives the details you give at checkout (such as your email and billing country) to sell and manage your subscription; see our terms of sale.
Links you click. Some buttons open other websites in a new tab, such as the Meta Ad Library, Google Ads Transparency Center or Shopify Theme Store page for a store. Nothing is sent until you click, and then it’s a normal visit to that site.

Feedback and problem reports (only when you choose to send one). The extension has a “Send feedback” / “Report this problem” form. Nothing in it is sent by the extension itself: when you press Send, it opens a prefilled email in your own email app (a mailto: link), and nothing leaves your computer until you send that email yourself. If the report is too long for an email link, the extension copies it to your clipboard (only when you press Send) and the email asks you to paste it. The email contains the type (bug, idea or other), your description, and your reply email address only if you typed one. We use it only to answer you and fix problems, and delete reports when they are no longer needed.

Diagnostics in a report are optional and off by default. If you tick “Include diagnostics”, the report also contains: the extension version, Chrome version, operating system and processor type, the domain of the store you are looking at, the last error message, and the last 20 background check results (time, status, product and change counts). Other stores in that log are replaced by “store 1”, “store 2”, and web addresses, emails and key-like text in error messages are masked. Diagnostics never include product or catalog data, your watchlist, your license key or your browsing history. The form shows a live preview of exactly the text that will be sent. To keep that check log, the extension stores the last 20 check results on your device; stopping watching a store removes its entries, and “Delete everything” removes all of them. If we ever switch to a web form instead of email, this policy will name its provider before that version ships.

4. What we never do

No analytics, telemetry, crash reporting or tracking pixels, in the extension or on this website.
No selling, renting or sharing of your data with anyone. No advertising, and no use of data for credit or lending decisions.
No affiliate links and no changes to links on the pages you visit.
No remote code: all code ships inside the extension package.
No accounts and no profiles. We can’t see who uses the extension.

5. Permissions and why

Permission	Used for
`activeTab`	Reading the store in the current tab, only after you click the toolbar icon.
`scripting`	Running the catalog reader in that tab (same-origin requests) and reading Shopify’s page details such as theme and currency.
`storage`, `unlimitedStorage`	Keeping the data listed in section 2 on your device. Large catalogs go beyond the default storage quota.
`alarms`	Scheduling background checks and the optional daily digest.
`notifications`	Telling you about changes in watched stores and alerts you set. You can turn them off.
`sidePanel`	Showing the catalog, watchlist and changes.
Optional site access	Never granted at install. Requested in context: a store’s site when you watch it (removed when you stop watching), `cdn.shopify.com` and the store while you export images (given back afterwards), and the license provider’s API when you activate Pro. Store Watcher never asks for access to all websites.

6. Chrome Web Store Limited Use

The use of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Chrome Web Store User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. Store Watcher uses the data it handles only to provide its single purpose (inspecting and monitoring the public catalogs of stores you choose) and only in the ways shown in its interface. We don’t transfer it to anyone except as needed to validate a license you activate; we don’t use it for advertising; we don’t use it to judge creditworthiness or for lending; and no person reads it. We couldn’t anyway: it never reaches us.

7. Keeping and deleting data

Retention. Free keeps the change feed for 7 days. Pro keeps history until you delete it; Settings → Data can delete history older than 90, 180 or 365 days. Recent visits are capped at 30 stores, oldest first out.
Stop watching a store to delete its snapshot, baseline, history and changes, and give back its site access.
Delete everything (Settings → Data) erases all stored stores, history, visits, alerts and settings. Your license status stays so Pro keeps working; remove the key in Settings → Plan to delete it too.
Uninstall the extension to remove all of its data from your browser.
Export (Settings → Data) lets you download a copy of everything stored first.

Because we hold no data about you, there is nothing for us to look up, correct or delete on our side. If you have questions about your rights under laws such as the GDPR or CCPA, contact us at the address above.

8. This website

This site is static. It uses no cookies, no local storage, no analytics, no external fonts and no third-party scripts. It’s hosted on Cloudflare Pages, and Cloudflare may log technical data such as IP addresses to run and secure the service, under the Cloudflare Privacy Policy.

9. Children

Store Watcher is a business research tool and isn’t directed at children under 13 (or the minimum age in your country). It collects no personal information from anyone.

10. Changes and contact

If the extension’s data practices change, we’ll update this policy and its effective date before the new version ships. Material changes will also be noted in the extension’s release notes. Questions: [email protected].