GenuineArticle Privacy Policy
GenuineArticle is a Chrome extension from Innovaritas LLC, a limited liability company in Virginia, United States. When you right-click on a Pinterest pin and choose "Find the real thing with GenuineArticle", it searches for where that item can be bought. It has no accounts, no ads, and no analytics, and we do not know your name, your email address, or your Pinterest account. This policy explains the small amount of information it does handle.
What GenuineArticle accesses
GenuineArticle runs only on pinterest.com and pin.it. There it notes the web address of the picture you right-click, so it knows which picture to search. It does not read your boards, your account, your messages, or any other pin.
What GenuineArticle sends, and why
GenuineArticle sends information to our server only when you search, and when it needs to refresh how many free searches you have left. To refresh that number, it sends only your install number. When you search, GenuineArticle sends two things to our server: the web address of the picture, and a random install number. The install number is created on your device the first time you search. It is not linked to your name, email, or Pinterest account. We use it to count free searches and to limit abuse. After a search, GenuineArticle may also send that install number, a search number, and a page number, and nothing else, to fill in prices and seller names for the results you are looking at.
Your install number works like a key to your free searches. Anyone who has it can use those searches and can see how many are left, so please keep it private.
We process this information because it is necessary to run the search you asked for, and because we have a legitimate interest in keeping the service working and limiting abuse. Our server runs in the United States. If you do not want the picture's web address or an install number sent to us, do not run a search.
Who else receives information
To run a search, our server uses service providers, each of which receives only what it needs for its part of the job:
- An image search provider and an image safety check provider receive the picture's web address.
- An AI language model provider receives the titles and website names of the matching pages (not your picture and not your install number), to work out brand names, product names, and what kind of website each one is.
- A public knowledge base receives brand names and website names, to check which website belongs to a brand.
- Etsy. For results on Etsy, our server sends the listing number to Etsy's official interface to look up the shop name. Etsy information is used only to show that shop name, is kept only briefly, and is not used to train artificial intelligence.
- Websites in your results. Our server may open a matching page to read its public price, brand, and seller. That site sees our server, not you. If you click a result, you go to that site, and its own privacy policy applies.
- Our hosting and database providers run our server and store the short-lived counters and caches described below. They handle information only to provide those services to us.
We do not sell your information, share it for advertising, or use it to build a profile of you.
What we keep on our servers
- A free-search count tied to your install number, so the free search limit can work.
- Overall counts of searches, not tied to anyone, to apply daily limits and understand usage.
- A temporary list of result links for a search in progress, tied to the search and install numbers, so prices and sellers can be filled in. It is deleted within minutes.
- Cached lookups of public information, such as the brand named in a listing title or the kind of website a domain is. These are not tied to you.
- Search limits. To limit how many searches one internet connection can run each day, our server keeps a scrambled (hashed) form of your IP address, together with a search count, for up to 48 hours. The scrambling uses a secret key held only by our server. We do not store or log your IP address ourselves.
- Hosting logs. Our hosting provider, Netlify, automatically records technical details of each request, including your IP address, for a limited period that Netlify sets, and uses IP addresses to apply the request-rate limits we set. We do not control these logs. Our own logs record counts and timings, not picture addresses or results.
We keep our own records only as long as we need them for the purposes above, typically from minutes to a few weeks, except the free-search count, which we keep for as long as the limit applies to your installation.
What is stored on your device
GenuineArticle uses Chrome's local extension storage, never sync storage, to store your install number, whether you have accepted our terms, the picture address you searched, how many free searches you have left, the current results (so the results page can show them), and progress for filling in prices. A new search replaces the previous results, and removing the extension clears everything.
What we do not do
GenuineArticle has no analytics, advertising, or tracking code, and it does not follow you across other sites. Because we do not track visitors, there is nothing for a "Do Not Track" signal to turn off. Its fonts are bundled inside the extension, so opening it contacts no outside host, and it runs no code downloaded from elsewhere.
Permissions
GenuineArticle asks for contextMenus, to add its right-click item; storage, to save the items described above on your device; access to our server, to run your searches; and access to pinterest.com and pin.it, to note which picture you right-click.
Limited use
GenuineArticle uses the information described above only to find where the item in a picture can be bought, to enforce its search limits, and to keep the service secure. It is never sold, never used for advertising, and never used to judge creditworthiness or for lending. This complies with the Chrome Web Store Limited Use policy (opens in a new tab).
Children
GenuineArticle is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect information from them. If you believe a child has used it and you want the related install number removed, contact us.
Your rights
You can ask us what information we hold that is tied to your install number, and ask us to correct or delete it, by sending your install number through our contact form. You can find your install number in the extension. If we have reasonable doubt about who is asking, we may ask for more information to confirm it. We aim to respond within one month. You can also object to our processing, and removing the extension stops all collection. If you live in the European Union, the United Kingdom, or another place with a data protection authority, you also have the right to complain to that authority.
Not affiliated with Pinterest or Etsy
GenuineArticle is an independent tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Pinterest. The term "Etsy" is a trademark of Etsy, Inc. This application uses Etsy's API, but is not endorsed or certified by Etsy.
Changes to this policy
If GenuineArticle's data practices change, we will update this policy and the date below, update the privacy details on its Chrome Web Store listing, and, for material changes, tell you in the extension.
Contact
Questions about this policy can be sent through our contact form or to (address appears when JavaScript is on).