Better Docs Privacy Policy

Effective October 4, 2026

What Better Docs is

Better Docs is a Chrome extension that helps you write in Google Docs. It has two features:

• Helpers: markers that you place in a Google Doc: a small creature picture shaped like a letter (the Fun look) or a text marker such as ⟦A⟧ (the Simple look). Text you highlight or copy on other websites can be sent to a helper, and it is inserted right before the marker.
• Autogramulate: while you type in a Google Doc, it can accept spelling and grammar fixes for you.

It is an independent project and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Google or Grammarly.

Data the extension accesses

Access to your Google account

When you click Connect Google account, Chrome shows Google's consent screen and asks you to let Better Docs "See, edit, create, and delete all your Google Docs documents" (the https://www.googleapis.com/auth/documents permission). Chrome then gives Better Docs an access token for the Google Docs API. Better Docs never sees your Google password. It does not ask for your name, email address or other profile information, and it has no access to Gmail, other kinds of Drive files, or any other Google service.

Your Google Docs

The permission covers all your documents, but Better Docs only opens a document when you use it with that document:

• when you plant a helper in it, send text to a helper in it, undo a send, change or remove a helper, or refresh your helpers (opening the Better Docs panel on a document with no helpers doesn't read it);
• when Autogramulate's built-in engine is turned on in that document: once when it starts, and then only after you type; and
• when you undo an Autogramulate fix.

It never lists, searches or browses your documents or your Drive. From an open document it reads the text and formatting, the title, the document's tabs and named ranges, and its revision number, to find helper markers and finished sentences. It writes only these things:

• the helper marker (a small creature picture, or with the Simple look a bold, colored ⟦A⟧) and an invisible named range that keeps track of it;
• the text you send to a helper;
• the spelling and grammar fixes Autogramulate applies, only to text you typed after turning it on (text that was already in the document is never changed);
• removals when you undo a send or a fix, or remove a helper, and removal of the short temporary code (such as zzbd1a2b3c4dzz) it types at your cursor while planting a helper. Leftover codes are removed later only if Better Docs itself typed them in that document in the last 7 days, wherever they ended up (including headers, footers and footnotes).

Helper pictures

With the Fun look (the default), each helper marker is a small picture of a creature shaped like the helper's letter. These pictures are published on the Better Docs website, at addresses such as https://betterdocs.freemanmiller.net/helpers/violet/A.png. When you plant a helper, change its color, or switch looks, Better Docs asks the Google Docs API to insert the picture from that address. Google's servers then download the picture and store a copy inside your document; that is how the Docs API inserts images.

• The address names only the picture's color and letter. Nothing about you, your account or your document is in it, and the extension sends nothing to the website.
• Your browser does not download the pictures from the website: the extension draws its creatures itself, and Google Docs shows the copy stored in your document.
• The website is hosted on Cloudflare, which may log Google's download (for example the address requested, the time, and the network address of Google's server) under Cloudflare's privacy policy. The extension never receives these logs.
• With the Simple look, markers are text and no picture is involved.

Text you choose to send

When you send a selection (from the side panel, the right-click menu or the keyboard shortcut), Better Docs reads that text, its basic formatting (bold, italic, underline, strikethrough and links) and the address and title of the page it came from. While the side panel is open, it reads the current selection in the active tab so you can see what will be sent; it can only do this on tabs where you clicked the Better Docs icon, or on all sites if you turned on Send on copy. Text you type or paste into the side panel is handled the same way.

Send on copy (off by default)

If you turn on Send on copy, Better Docs first explains what it does, then Chrome asks you to give it access to all websites. A small script then runs on every site except Google Docs (including the blank frames that some web editors and email composers use) and does one thing: when you copy text, it sends that text (with its formatting and the page's address and title) to your active helper and shows a short confirmation. To make sure the copy was yours, it notes that you clicked, tapped or pressed a key on the page shortly before, but never which key or where; copies a page makes on its own are ignored, and copies made very quickly one after another are not sent. It does not read pages at any other time. Turning the setting off stops the script, and you can remove the site access in Chrome's extension settings.

Quick plant in Google Docs

Quick plant is on by default and can be turned off in Settings. In a Google Docs document, Better Docs notices when you press Cmd+C (Mac) or Ctrl+C and checks whether anything was selected: Docs' selection highlight on the page and whether the copy holds any text. If nothing was selected, it plants a helper at your cursor. It doesn't keep or send what you copied, doesn't record any other keys, and doesn't change how copying works.

Typing in Google Docs (Autogramulate)

Autogramulate is off by default. When it's on, Better Docs notices key presses in the Google Docs editor only to know when you've paused typing and whether you changed the text. It never records which keys you press. It also looks at the Docs page to tell whether the document is in Editing, Suggesting or view-only mode, and does nothing unless you can edit.

Grammarly (optional)

If Grammarly's own extension is running in your document and you use the Grammarly engine, Better Docs reads the suggestion cards Grammarly shows on the page and clicks Grammarly's own accept button for you, only while you are typing in that document. Fixes Grammarly makes are undone in the document itself, not from Better Docs' fix log. Better Docs sends nothing to Grammarly. Grammarly handles your writing under its own privacy policy, exactly as it does without Better Docs. The Copy Grammarly diagnostics button copies a description of Grammarly's on-page layout to your clipboard, with document text cut to 40 characters per piece, only when you click it. It is not sent anywhere.

Chrome's on-device proofreader

When your version of Chrome provides its built-in Proofreader, Autogramulate's built-in engine uses it. It runs on your device. If Chrome first needs to download its on-device model, Chrome handles that download, and it does not include your text. Without it, Better Docs uses a simple set of rules that is part of the extension.

Where your data is stored

Better Docs keeps the following in Chrome's extension storage on your own device:

• Your helpers: each one's document ID and title, document tab, marker letter, name, color and settings, about 40 characters of the document on either side of the marker (so you can recognize it), and the last text sent to it with the address of the page it came from (so you can undo it).
• Recent copies from Send on copy: up to 20, with the page address and title. A copy longer than 20,000 characters is kept shortened, without its formatting.
• Autogramulate's fix log: up to 50 fixes, each with the original and corrected words and about 20 characters around them, so you can undo them.
• Planting codes: the short temporary codes Better Docs typed while planting helpers in the last 7 days, with the document ID, so it only ever cleans up its own codes.
• Your settings.

The Google access token is kept by Chrome's built-in sign-in system, not in Better Docs' storage. Your documents stay in your Google account, as always. There is no Better Docs server and no Better Docs account.

Who your data is shared with

• No one. The extension contains no analytics, tracking, advertising or third-party code, and it does not transmit your data to the developer or any third party.
• The only network requests it makes go to Google: the Google Docs API (docs.googleapis.com) to read and edit the documents described above, and Google's sign-in service (through Chrome's sign-in, and oauth2.googleapis.com to revoke access when you sign out).
• Chrome's on-device Proofreader runs on your device. The Grammarly engine only clicks Grammarly's own buttons in the page.
• Helper pictures are downloaded by Google's servers, not by your browser, from the Better Docs website, as described under Helper pictures. No user data is sent with that download.

How your data is used

Solely to provide the features you use: inserting text at your helpers, showing your helpers and recent copies, and applying and undoing spelling and grammar fixes. Better Docs does not sell your data, does not use or transfer it for purposes unrelated to helping you write in Google Docs, and does not use or transfer it to determine creditworthiness or for lending purposes.

Google API Services User Data Policy

Better Docs' use and transfer of information received from Google APIs to any other app will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

In plain language, for data Better Docs receives from your Google Docs:

• It is used only to provide the features described above, which you can see and control in the extension.
• It is not transferred to anyone else, except as needed to provide those features (between your browser and Google) or to comply with applicable law.
• It is never used for advertising, including personalized, retargeted or interest-based ads.
• No person reads it, unless you give permission for specific content (for example, text you include in an email asking for help), it is needed for security reasons such as investigating abuse, or it is required by law. Because Better Docs has no server, the developer never receives it in the first place.
• It is never sold.

Keeping and deleting your data

• Data stays on your device until you delete it. Older recent copies and fixes drop off automatically once there are more than 20 copies or 50 fixes.
• Click Delete all Better Docs data in the side panel's settings to erase everything the extension has stored.
• Click Sign out to remove the cached access token and revoke Better Docs' access to your Google account.
• Removing a helper with its marker deletes the marker and its named range from your document. Text you sent to a helper is part of your document: edit or delete it like any other text. Markers still in your documents stay there until you delete them.
• Uninstalling the extension removes all of its stored data from your browser. To also revoke its access to your Google account, go to myaccount.google.com/permissions and remove Better Docs.

Security

All requests go over HTTPS directly between your browser and Google. The access token is managed by Chrome and is only sent to Google.

Children

Better Docs is not directed at children under 13 and does not knowingly collect personal information from them.

Changes to this policy

If a future version handles data differently, this policy will be updated before that version is released and the effective date above will change.

Contact

Questions about this policy can be sent to a.subject.humanity@gmail.com.