ContactSift privacy policy and short terms of use

Effective date: 8 November 2026.

Publisher: Matheus da Silveira Mello. Support and privacy contact: matheus.mello.developer@gmail.com.

This policy and the short terms below cover both ContactSift editions: Chrome 0.1.1 and Firefox 0.1.1.

Canonical policy: ContactSift privacy policy. Both editions link here from Settings. See also the Terms of use.

Privacy policy

ContactSift is a free browser extension for finding email addresses and phone numbers on a page you choose to scan. It works locally, with no account, server, analytics, tracking or advertising.

Consent before scanning

Chrome 0.1.1: Before the first scan, the popup displays an in-product disclosure explaining what ContactSift reads and how it is used. Settings shows the same text. You must explicitly choose “I agree” to enable scanning; “Decline” keeps it off. Agreeing alone does not read a page. ContactSift reads a page only after consent and your separate “Scan this page” action. It does not query tab metadata, inject the scanner or read page content before consent.

Firefox 0.1.1: Before the first scan, the popup displays a disclosure explaining what ContactSift reads, how results are used and saved, and your choices. You must explicitly choose “I agree” to enable scanning; “Decline” keeps it off. Agreeing only records consent and does not read a page or start a scan. After agreeing, you must separately click “Scan this page”. Firefox checks stored consent before querying tab metadata, injecting the scanner or reading page content. Missing, outdated or unreadable consent keeps scanning off.

In both editions, Settings displays the disclosure and your consent status. “Withdraw consent” removes the consent record, blocks further scanning, including in an already open popup, and clears unsaved results from open popups. It does not delete saved collections, clipboard copies or exported files. To scan again, review the disclosure in the popup and explicitly choose “I agree” again.

What ContactSift reads

For the current page you choose to scan, ContactSift processes rendered body text, email and phone links (mailto: and tel:), and Cloudflare-encoded email attributes (link and encoded-attribute searches are not restricted to visible elements) to find email addresses and phone numbers. It also reads nearby text, the page title and the page address without its query string or fragment, and records when contacts were found, so you can identify their source.

Email addresses and phone numbers are personal information. Nearby text, page titles and source addresses may also contain personal or sensitive information. Removing a query string and fragment does not remove information in an address's path or the page title.

ContactSift does not crawl websites, scan other tabs, monitor pages as you browse, read browsing history or send messages. Firefox phone validation uses bundled numbering-plan data; it does not contact a service or confirm that a number is in use.

Local storage

Unsaved results stay in popup memory and are discarded when the popup closes. In Firefox, this includes opening Settings from the popup. Saving, copying or exporting creates the separate copies described below.

Chrome 0.1.1 uses chrome.storage.local on your device. Firefox 0.1.1 uses Firefox local extension storage (browser.storage.local) in the current Firefox profile. ContactSift stores locally:

• Contacts you choose to save with “Save selected”, together with source page title, page address without query or fragment, nearby text snippet and time found. Both editions also save contact type and national phone format where applicable.
• Collection names and the active collection selection in both editions.
• Your phone-country preference, domain-filter preference and exclusion list. Both editions infer the initial phone country locally from the browser language setting, defaulting to US if no supported country is found.
• The disclosure version you explicitly agreed to, so agreement is remembered locally.
• A daily scan counter containing the UTC date and the number of scans used that day.

Saved data persists across browser sessions. ContactSift does not use synchronized storage or sync data between browsers, profiles or devices. Neither edition adds encryption of its own to local records.

Free limits

Both editions are free to use, with 5 scans per UTC day and 100 saved contacts in total across all collections. The daily limit resets at 00:00 UTC. In both editions, a scan counts after page access and scanner execution succeed, even if no contacts are found or filters hide all results. Unsupported pages and page-access failures do not count. Copying, exporting and saving current results do not consume additional scans.

Clear or delete a collection in Settings to make room for saved contacts. Exporting creates a copy; it does not remove saved contacts or free capacity.

Clipboard and CSV copies

“Copy” places only selected email addresses or phone numbers on your clipboard. “Export CSV” creates a local file containing contact type, value, national phone format, source page title, page address without query or fragment, and time found. The CSV omits nearby text snippets. In Settings in both editions, Copy and Export CSV apply to the current saved collection; the add-on does not read your clipboard.

Clipboard copies and exported files are under your control. Other applications, clipboard history, operating-system sync or your chosen file destination may handle those copies separately. ContactSift does not invoke a remote service to transmit them.

Network requests and sharing

ContactSift makes no network requests and does not upload, share or sell extracted contacts, page content, source addresses, browsing history, preferences, consent records or usage information. It contains no remote executable code. Firefox also loads no remote assets and its extension-page security policy includes connect-src 'none'.

Privacy and Terms links in Settings open ordinary web pages when you click them. That navigation makes a normal browser request to the hosting site, which receives ordinary request information such as your IP address. ContactSift attaches no extension data to those links. Visiting these pages is separate from local scanning.

Permissions and Firefox data declaration

• activeTab: Chrome grants temporary access to the viewed tab when you open the popup; Firefox grants temporary access when you click the toolbar button. ContactSift uses access only after consent and your “Scan this page” action.
• scripting: runs the bundled scanner in that tab.
• storage: saves the local information described above.

Neither edition requests website host permissions or declares automatic content scripts.

The Firefox manifest declares browser_specific_settings.gecko.data_collection_permissions.required as ["none"], with no optional data categories. This describes the absence of data collection and transmission outside the local add-on/browser for remote storage or processing. Firefox still processes personal information locally and offers user-initiated clipboard and file outputs. “None” does not mean no personal information is read or stored. The separate in-product consent step governs local scanning.

Retention and deletion

Saved contacts remain until you clear or delete their collection in Settings, clear the extension's local data, or uninstall ContactSift. Use “Clear collection” to remove a collection's contacts or “Delete current” to delete a custom collection and its contacts. In both editions, the default “My collection” can be cleared but cannot be renamed or deleted.

Clearing or deleting collections does not remove preferences, the consent record or the daily counter. “Withdraw consent” removes the consent record and stops scanning, but leaves saved contacts. Uninstalling removes the extension's local storage from that browser profile. The developer never receives or retains these records and has no remote copy to delete.

Delete exported files and clear clipboard copies or clipboard history separately. Deleting contacts or uninstalling ContactSift does not remove those copies or copies you shared yourself.

Privacy contact

For privacy questions about either edition, contact matheus.mello.developer@gmail.com.

Short terms of use

These short terms apply to ContactSift for Chrome and Firefox, provided by Matheus da Silveira Mello, effective 8 November 2026.

Both editions are free to use within the limits of 5 scans per UTC day and 100 saved contacts across all collections. ContactSift is intended for manual, page-by-page research.

Use ContactSift only on pages you are authorized to access and for purposes permitted by applicable privacy, data-protection and anti-spam laws and the website's terms. A contact appearing on a page does not itself give permission to contact that person, market to them or share their information. You are responsible for your use, retention and sharing of extracted data. Do not use ContactSift for spam, harassment or unlawful collection or disclosure of personal information.

Extraction, deduplication and phone validation can produce errors or miss information. Review results before using them. Validation does not establish ownership, availability or permission to contact anyone.

ContactSift is provided “as is” and “as available”, without guarantees of accuracy, uninterrupted operation or fitness for a particular purpose, to the extent permitted by applicable law. Keep any exports you need before deleting local data. These terms do not limit rights that applicable law does not allow to be waived.

For support or questions about these terms, contact matheus.mello.developer@gmail.com.