Chrome Extension Privacy Policy: Requirements, Template, and Examples for 2026

You finished your extension. You uploaded the zip, filled out the store listing, and clicked through to the Privacy Practices tab. Then Chrome Web Store asks for a privacy policy URL and you realize you do not have one. You paste in a Notion link, hit submit, and three days later your extension comes back rejected. This happens to almost every first-time Chrome extension developer, and it is one of the easiest review failures to avoid once you understand what Google is actually asking for.

A privacy policy is not a legal formality you can copy from another extension and forget about. The Chrome Web Store reviewer cross-checks your policy against the permissions in your manifest and the data disclosures in the Developer Dashboard. If any of the three disagree, you get rejected. The good news is that the requirements are concrete, the format is predictable, and you can write a compliant policy in about an hour using the template at the bottom of this post.

Do You Even Need a Privacy Policy?

Almost certainly yes. Google requires a privacy policy for any extension that handles "personal or sensitive user data," and that definition is broader than most developers expect. If your manifest requests tabs, cookies, history, bookmarks, identity, storage, webRequest, activeTab, or any host permission like https://*/*, you need a privacy policy. If your extension touches form inputs, reads the URL the user is on, or syncs anything to a server, you need one. In practice this covers roughly ninety-five percent of extensions on the store.

The only extensions that can skip the privacy policy are things like pure visual themes, simple new-tab page replacements with no network calls, and offline utilities that never read or transmit user data. If you are not certain whether your extension qualifies, assume it does. Adding a privacy policy when you do not strictly need one costs you nothing. Skipping one when you do need one costs you a rejection and several days of waiting. For the full list of common review failures, see how to pass the Chrome Web Store review on your first try.

What Google Actually Requires in 2026

The Chrome Web Store program policies for 2026 spell out exactly what your privacy policy must contain. It must clearly describe what categories of user data your extension collects, why it collects each one, who that data is shared with, how it is stored and secured, and how users can contact you to access or delete their data. It must include an effective date and a working contact email. And it must live at a public, persistent URL that anyone can open without logging in.

The categories of data you disclose in the policy have to match the categories you select on the Privacy Practices tab in the Developer Dashboard. Google now publishes a fixed list of data types like personally identifiable information, authentication information, location, web history, and user activity, and your policy needs to use the same vocabulary. Vague phrases like "we may collect some information to improve the service" no longer pass review. You have to be specific.

Your policy also needs to explain how data is transmitted and stored. Google requires that personal and sensitive user data is sent over HTTPS or another secure channel and stored at rest with strong encryption. You do not need to publish your encryption keys, but you do need to state in plain English that these protections are in place. And the policy URL itself must be served over HTTPS.

The Mistake That Causes the Most Rejections

The single most common privacy-related rejection is a mismatch between three things: the permissions in your manifest.json, the data categories you declared in the Developer Dashboard, and what your privacy policy actually says. Reviewers open all three side by side. If your manifest requests history but your policy never mentions browsing history, that is a rejection. If you declared "user activity" in the dashboard but your policy only talks about email addresses, that is a rejection. If you list a third-party analytics provider in your policy but the dashboard says you do not share data with anyone, that is a rejection.

The fix is to write the policy last. Lock down your manifest permissions first, then fill out the Developer Dashboard fields, then write your privacy policy to match what you already declared. Working in that order eliminates almost all of the inconsistency rejections and saves you the cycle of editing the same document three times.

A Copy-Paste Privacy Policy Template

Here is a template you can adapt for most extensions. Replace the placeholders in curly braces with your own values, delete the sections that do not apply, and add anything specific to your extension. This is a starting point for solo developers and small teams, not legal advice. If your extension handles payments, health data, or anything regulated, talk to a lawyer.

# Privacy Policy for {{EXTENSION_NAME}}

Last updated: {{LAST_UPDATED}}

This Privacy Policy describes how {{EXTENSION_NAME}} ("we", "the extension") collects, uses, and protects your information when you use our Chrome extension.

## Information We Collect

{{EXTENSION_NAME}} collects the following categories of data:

- **{{DATA_CATEGORY_1}}**: {{WHAT_AND_WHY}}
- **{{DATA_CATEGORY_2}}**: {{WHAT_AND_WHY}}

We do not collect personally identifiable information unless you voluntarily provide it, for example by signing in or contacting support.

## How We Use Your Information

We use the data described above only to provide and improve the core functionality of the extension. Specifically:

- To {{PURPOSE_1}}
- To {{PURPOSE_2}}

We do not sell your data. We do not use your data for advertising. We do not transfer your data to third parties except as described below.

## Third-Party Services

{{EXTENSION_NAME}} uses the following third-party services:

- **{{SERVICE_NAME}}** ({{PURPOSE}}): {{LINK_TO_THEIR_PRIVACY_POLICY}}

## Data Storage and Security

Any data transmitted by {{EXTENSION_NAME}} is sent over HTTPS. Data stored on our servers is encrypted at rest. Data stored locally in your browser using `chrome.storage` remains on your device.

## Your Rights

You can request access to, correction of, or deletion of your data at any time by emailing {{CONTACT_EMAIL}}. You can also uninstall the extension at any point, which removes all locally stored data.

## Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The "Last updated" date at the top of this page reflects the most recent version. Continued use of the extension after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

## Contact

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, contact us at {{CONTACT_EMAIL}}.

Save this as a markdown or HTML file, fill in every placeholder, and double-check that every permission in your manifest has a matching entry in the "Information We Collect" section.

Where to Host It

The Chrome Web Store does not care where the policy lives as long as it is publicly accessible over HTTPS without authentication. The cheapest options are GitHub Pages, a Gist, a published Notion page with public access enabled, or a static page on Cloudflare Pages or Vercel. All of them are free.

The better option is to host the policy on your extension's own marketing site at a clean URL like https://yourextension.com/privacy. It looks more professional to reviewers, builds trust with users who actually open the link, and gives you a predictable canonical URL you can reuse across browsers if you later port to Firefox or Edge. If you do not have a marketing site yet, this is one more reason to put one up. For more on what your store listing and site should look like, see how to optimize your Chrome Web Store listing for maximum installs.

Filling Out the Privacy Practices Tab

Once your policy is live, open your extension in the Developer Dashboard and go to the Privacy Practices tab. You will see three sections to complete. The first asks you to declare what user data your extension collects, using Google's fixed category list. Check every box that matches a permission in your manifest. The second asks you to certify how that data is used, shared, and whether it is sold. Read each statement carefully and only check the boxes that are actually true. The third is the field where you paste your privacy policy URL.

The Limited Use disclosure is the part most developers skip without reading. It is a binding promise that you will only use the data for the user-facing features of your extension, that you will not transfer it for personalized advertising, and that human review of the data is restricted. If any of those statements are not true for your extension, you cannot certify them, and you need to redesign your data flow before you submit.

What Happens If You Get Rejected

Privacy-related rejections usually come back with a message that points to a specific gap. Common ones are "your privacy policy does not disclose the use of the X permission," "your privacy policy is not accessible at the provided URL," or "your data usage disclosures do not match your privacy policy." Read the message carefully and resist the urge to argue with the reviewer. They are working from a checklist, and the fastest path to approval is to fix the gap, update your policy, update the dashboard, and resubmit.

If the rejection mentions a permission you do not actually need, the better fix is often to remove the permission rather than write more policy text. Fewer permissions means a simpler policy, faster reviews, and more user trust at install time.

Keeping the Policy Up to Date

Your privacy policy is not a write-once document. Update it any time you add a new permission, switch analytics providers, add payment processing, or change how you store user data. Bump the "Last updated" date every time. If your extension starts collecting payments down the line, your policy needs to disclose your payment processor before you ship the update — see how to collect payments for your Chrome extension in 2026 for the integration side of that.

A current, specific privacy policy that exactly matches what your extension does is one of the cheapest things you can do to pass review on the first try, build user trust, and avoid surprise rejections on every future update. Spend the hour now and you will not have to think about it again until your next major feature.