Privacy policy
The short version: Verifyd checks the pictures and pages you look at so it can badge them. It sends those pictures and page addresses to our servers, keeps a fingerprint of each picture and the public page it appeared on, and nothing else about you. We never sell data, never use it for advertising, and never build a profile of you.
Who we are
Verifyd ("Verifyd") is run by Planckchron Inc., a Delaware corporation based in Los Angeles, California ("we", "us"). Contact us about privacy at privacy@planckchron.com.
What the browser extension sends
Nothing is sent until you agree on the welcome screen after installing. After that:
| Data | When | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Videos on the pages you view: the page address and the video's address, to match them against checked speeches | As a video scrolls into view | To show the speech's stamp, and change it as checked claims are spoken |
| Pictures on the pages you view (larger than an icon), or their web address if the picture is too large to send | As each picture scrolls into view | To read its Content Credentials and metadata, fingerprint it, and optionally run an AI-image detector |
| The address of the page the picture is on | With each picture | To tell whether the same picture appeared earlier on another site |
| The address of a news article | When you open a page that looks like an article | To check whether the site imitates a known outlet and to check its headline |
| Text you select and choose to fact-check | Only when you ask | To look up fact-checks and sources |
The extension does not run, and sends nothing, on webmail, chat, document, cloud-storage, account, checkout and dashboard pages, or on any page with a password or card-number field. You can pause it on any other site from the toolbar button, or turn it off entirely in Settings.
The extension does not read or send your browsing history, cookies, form contents, or anything that identifies you. It keeps your settings in your browser's synced extension storage.
What we keep
- Picture fingerprints and sightings. A 64-bit perceptual fingerprint of each picture, plus the public web address of the page (and of the picture) where it was seen, without query strings or fragments, and when it was first and last seen. Addresses of private pages, as described above, are never stored. We do not keep the pictures themselves. Sightings are shown to other people as "first appeared on…", which is why only public pages are kept. Kept until a picture has not been seen for 24 months.
- Verdict cache. The result of each check, so the same picture or link is not checked twice. Deleted after 30 days.
- Rate-limit counters. A salted one-way hash of your IP address and a count, per minute, to stop abuse. We never store the IP address itself. Deleted after one day.
- API keys (businesses only). A one-way hash of the key, the name and email it was issued to, and daily usage counts.
- Server logs. Our hosting provider keeps standard request logs for a short period for security and debugging.
Who else processes data
We use these service providers, only to provide Verifyd:
| Provider | What they receive | When |
|---|---|---|
| Vercel (hosting) | All requests to our servers | Always |
| Supabase (database) | The data we keep, listed above | Always |
| Google Cloud Vision | A picture | Only when you click "Find the original" on a picture with no known source |
| An AI-image detection service (Sightengine) | A picture | Only if enabled on our servers, for pictures with no Content Credentials |
| Google Fact Check Tools | The text of a claim, a headline, or a claim extracted from a speech | When a claim, article or speech is checked |
| Deepgram (speech to text) | A recording uploaded to the speech desk | Only when a speech is added without captions, and only if transcription is enabled on our servers |
| Anthropic (Claude) | The transcript of a speech, to list the checkable factual claims in it; it does not judge them | When a speech is added |
| Brave Search and Anthropic | The text of a claim or headline, and public pages found for it | When a claim is checked against sources, or the real version of an impostor article is looked up |
We do not sell or rent data, share it for advertising, or allow it to be used to determine creditworthiness or for lending. We may disclose information if the law requires it.
Speeches and videos
Campaigns, newsrooms and platforms with an API key can add a public speech or video. We keep the recording (if uploaded to us), its transcript, the claims found in it with the published fact-checks that match, and the addresses where the speech is posted, and we publish these on a public page. Verifyd does not rate political claims itself: TRUTH and FALSE come only from the published ratings of named fact-checkers, linked on every stamp, and the same rules apply to every speaker. A video the extension meets on a page is matched against checked speeches by address or by frame fingerprints; the video itself is only sent to us when it is a direct media file, and is never kept.
Chrome Web Store limited use
The use of information received from Google APIs and from the Chrome extension adheres to the Chrome Web Store User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. Data is used only to provide and improve Verifyd's single purpose: showing authenticity badges and taking you to original sources.
The website and API
The website uses no analytics, advertising or tracking cookies. When you check something on the website, the same processing described above applies. Businesses using the API send pictures, links and claims under their own privacy terms with their users; we process them as described here.
Your choices and rights
- Withdraw consent: untick it in the extension's Settings, or uninstall the extension. Nothing more is sent.
- Ask us to delete sightings of a picture or page: email us with the page address.
- Depending on where you live (for example California, the EU or the UK), you may have rights to access, correct, delete or object to processing of personal data, and to complain to a regulator. We do not knowingly hold data that identifies you, but we will answer any request at the address above.
Security
All traffic is encrypted with HTTPS. Servers refuse to fetch addresses on private networks. API keys are stored only as hashes.
Children
Verifyd is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them.
Changes
If we change what is collected, we will update this page and the effective date, and ask for consent again in the extension before sending anything new.