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Privacy Policy

Last updated: May 2026

1. What RefDrop is

RefDrop is two pieces of software that work together:

A Chrome extension that adds a hover button and right-click option to send images and video frames from web pages.
A desktop application (RefDrop Capture) that receives those images and stores them as references, and can also forward them into PureRef.

Everything happens on your computer. There is no RefDrop account, no login, and no cloud database of your captures.

2. Data stored on your device

The Chrome extension stores the following locally via chrome.storage.local:

Send count — a cumulative counter of how many images you have sent (used to enforce the 50-image free tier).
License status — a boolean flag indicating whether a valid PRO license has been activated.
License key — the key you entered, stored locally so PRO persists across browser restarts.

The desktop application stores the following on disk inside the OS-standard application data directory:

Captured images — PNG files written to <app_data_dir>/captures/.
Capture history database — a SQLite file at <app_data_dir>/history.sqlite containing, for each capture, the timestamp, file path, capture type, and (for web captures) the source page URL and image referrer.

By default this history is retained indefinitely and you can clear individual entries or the entire history at any time from the in-app history view. We plan to introduce a default retention policy (for example, 30 days or 1,000 most recent entries) in a future release; until then, retention is entirely under your control.

3. License verification

License keys are issued and verified by a small server we operate at https://refdrop.mmwo.io/verify-license. When you activate a key, the extension sends the key to that endpoint, which performs a lookup against a self-hosted database of issued keys and returns a { valid: true | false } response. We do not log the IP address or any identifying information against the verification request beyond the standard server access log.

4. Payments

Purchases are processed by Paddle (paddle.com). Paddle is the merchant of record and handles all card data, billing, and tax collection. RefDrop never sees your card number. After a successful purchase, Paddle notifies our server via webhook with your email and a transaction ID; we generate a license key and email it to you. The transaction ID and email are stored alongside the license key in our license database for refund and support purposes.

Paddle's privacy policy applies to that processing: paddle.com/legal/privacy

5. How images move

When you click an image in the browser, the extension fetches the image bytes and forwards them to the desktop application running on your computer. In RefDrop v0.2 this happens via a localhost-only HTTP server bound to 127.0.0.1 on a port in the range 39573–39582. Two safeguards apply:

The server only accepts connections from your own machine — it is not reachable from the public internet or other devices on your network.
Each connection must present a per-install token that the extension and the desktop app share when you first install both. Requests without a valid token are rejected.

The previous versions of RefDrop used Chrome's Native Messaging API for this transfer; that mechanism has been removed in v0.2.

6. Optional cloud upload

RefDrop's desktop app may, in a future release, offer an optional output destination that uploads a captured PNG to https://refdrop.mmwo.io/api/upload and returns a shareable URL. If and when this feature ships, it will be opt-in per capture and disclosed at the moment of upload. This feature is not currently active. No images are uploaded to any RefDrop-operated server today.

7. Permissions used by the extension

The extension's manifest.json declares only the permissions it actually needs:

contextMenus — adds a right-click "Send to RefDrop" entry as an alternative to the hover button.
storage — stores the send count, license status, and key locally as described above.
host_permissions: <all_urls> — allows the content script to attach to pages you visit and to fetch image bytes across origins so they can be sent to the desktop app. Required because reference images can come from any site.
host_permissions: http://127.0.0.1/* and http://localhost/* — allows the extension to talk to the desktop app's local HTTP server.

The extension does not request nativeMessaging, tabs, history, bookmarks, downloads, or any other permission outside the list above.

8. Tracking and analytics

RefDrop does not include any analytics SDK, crash reporter, telemetry, or fingerprinting library. The extension and desktop app make no outbound network requests except: (a) the license verification request you trigger by activating a key, and (b) the optional cloud upload described in section 6, when and if it is enabled.

9. Changes to this policy

If the privacy policy changes in a meaningful way, we will update the date above and note what changed.

Questions? hello@mmwo.io