Patch the Web is designed to repair websites without turning browsing into surveillance.
When a person explicitly installs a community repair for a website, the extension validates a constrained patch manifest and applies it only on that repair’s declared domain and path.
Patch the Web does not transmit or retain page text, form values, cookies, browser history, query strings, credentials, payment details, authentication codes, or local-storage contents. It does not use analytics, advertising, profiling, or data sales.
The extension stores installed-patch settings locally in the browser. Some explicitly declared repairs may save non-sensitive form progress or user filter preferences locally and temporarily; the patch receipt discloses this before activation. Sensitive fields are excluded by the runtime. A pending guided installation is kept in Chrome’s temporary session storage for at most fifteen minutes.
When someone requests a repair from the extension, the cleaned public origin and path, their own complaint, and suggested outcome categories are placed in the URL fragment after #. Browser URL fragments are not included in the web request. The request page reads this bounded payload locally and immediately removes it from the address bar. Structural inventory, selectors, page text, form values, query strings, cookies, and storage are never included.
When a person explicitly chooses a patch file returned by Codex on the Patch the Web author page, the page validates its constrained safety policy and request scope. The selected bytes and cleaned target are passed locally to the installed extension through a bridge available only on the exact author page. The extension validates the sender, size, policy, target, and scope again before opening the target and guided installer. This handoff does not upload the patch file to Patch the Web.
The request page shows the exact cleaned text before anything is shared. If direct intake is available and a person explicitly confirms submission, Patch the Web sends only that cleaned public URL, complaint, chosen outcomes, and a random submission identifier to its server. The server validates the request again and creates a public GitHub issue. Patch the Web does not ask for or store the reporter’s name, email address, account, or contact information. A network address may be processed transiently for abuse throttling; Patch the Web does not place it in the public request or application storage. Vercel and GitHub may process ordinary service logs under their own policies. The GitHub fallback sends nothing until the person follows the reviewed link and submits while signed in.
The extension may request the public Patch the Web registry to discover a repair and its compatibility receipt. That registry request contains no browsing history or page contents. Patch manifests cannot make network requests or execute remote code.
activeTab and scripting are used only after a person opens the extension or explicitly starts a guided test and approves the repair. storage is used for local settings, temporary install handoffs, and declared local preferences. Permanent target-site access is requested only for a repair’s exact domain. Access to patch-the-web.vercel.app is used for the trusted registry and the exact author-page local bridge.
Questions or reports: Patch the Web GitHub issues.