The short version: f/riction currently collects nothing. No data leaves your device. No accounts, no analytics, no tracking. Future features that involve sharing data will always be opt-in and clearly explained before you decide.
f/riction is a Chrome browser extension that helps students use AI tools more intentionally. It presents a brief planning flow when a student navigates to an AI tool — Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, or Google AI Mode — and offers a session-level choice on regular Google search.
Currently: none. f/riction does not collect, transmit, store, or share any personal information, browsing history, search queries, or usage data. The extension has no server-side component. There are no user accounts.
f/riction uses Chrome's local storage (chrome.storage.local) to save session information on your device only. This includes:
This data never leaves your browser. It is not accessible to us, to schools, or to any third party. You can clear it at any time by removing the extension.
f/riction requests access to specific URLs solely to detect when you navigate to those pages and display the planning overlay. The URLs monitored are: Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, and Google search (including Google AI Mode). We do not read the content of those pages or your conversations.
We are building toward features that could give students, families, and educators a clearer picture of how AI is being used over time — things like usage patterns, planning quality trends, and progress over a school term.
Any feature that involves data leaving your device — including optional sharing with a parent, teacher, or school — will follow these principles without exception:
None of these features exist yet. This section describes our design principles for future development, not current behavior. The extension today collects nothing and shares nothing.
f/riction is designed for use by students, including those under 13. Because we currently collect no data whatsoever, f/riction is fully compliant with COPPA and similar children's privacy regulations. Any future features involving data collection will be designed with children's privacy as the primary constraint, not an afterthought.
Because f/riction stores data only on the student's local device and does not transmit, collect, or maintain student education records, it does not implicate FERPA. Future features involving data sharing with educators will be designed to comply with FERPA requirements and will be accompanied by appropriate data processing agreements with participating schools.
When this policy changes, we will update the effective date at the top of this page. For changes that involve new data collection or sharing, we will notify users through the extension itself before the change takes effect — not after.
Michael Whitaker
insertfriction.com
insertfriction@gmail.com