Privacy Policy

1. Controller

The controller responsible for data processing on this website is:
Matthias Wulff, hello@tracegist.com

2. Hosting

This website is hosted by Vercel Inc. (440 N Barranca Ave #4133, Covina, CA 91723, USA). When you visit this site, Vercel automatically records standard server log data including your IP address, browser type, operating system, referring URL, and the date and time of your request.

This processing is based on Art. 6 (1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in operating a secure and stable website). Vercel may transfer data to the United States; this transfer is covered by Vercel's Standard Contractual Clauses pursuant to Art. 46 GDPR. Vercel's privacy policy is available at vercel.com/legal/privacy-policy.

3. Cookies

This website does not use cookies. No tracking, analytics, or advertising cookies are set. Vercel's infrastructure may set strictly technical session cookies required for content delivery; these do not identify you personally and are not used for tracking.

4. No Analytics or Tracking, and the Update List

We do not use Google Analytics, Meta Pixel, or any other analytics or tracking services. Apart from the server logs described in section 2, the only personal data this website collects is an email address, and only if you choose to give us one.

4.1 Release and security notices

The extension is distributed as a zip and has no auto-update mechanism, so we offer an email list whose sole purpose is telling you when a new version of the extension or the MCP bridge is available, including security fixes.

• What we store: your email address, the date of your consent, and whether you confirmed it. Nothing else. We do not attach it to any recorded session, and the extension never sees it. Subscribing is not an account and gates nothing: the download and every feature work identically without it.
• Legal basis: your consent, Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR. We use double opt-in, so the address is only added after you confirm it from a link we email you.
• Purpose limitation: release and security notices only. We will not use this list for other marketing without asking you separately.
• Withdrawal: every message carries a one-click unsubscribe, and you can also write to hello@tracegist.com. Withdrawing consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing before you withdrew it.
• Retention: until you unsubscribe, after which the address is removed.
• Processor: the list is held by our email service provider, who processes it on our behalf under Art. 28 GDPR and stores it within the EU.

5. Chrome Extension

The TraceGist Chrome extension is installed and runs locally in your browser. By default, everything it records (session video, voice markers, screenshots, console logs, network requests, and interaction timelines) is stored exclusively in local browser storage on your own device. In this default mode no recorded data is transmitted to us or to any third party.

Note what “a recording” covers. While recording is running, the extension logs console output, JavaScript errors and interactions from any tab you use, and every network request your browser makes, not only the tab you started on. Screenshots capture whichever tab is in front when they are taken. Only the video recording is confined to the tab you started on. This applies to what is stored and exported, not only to the optional features below.

A “Deep Diagnostics” setting additionally records the bodies of POST, PUT and PATCH requests and of 4xx/5xx responses from the recorded tab. It is on by default and can be switched off in the extension’s settings. Request bodies routinely contain data that no redaction pattern recognises, so turn it off if you are recording against real production data.

Some features can send data off your device. Sections 6 and 7 describe the two you control: both are switched off by default and each requires an explicit action by you to enable. Section 8 describes voice transcription performed by the developer’s MCP bridge, which is configured by them rather than by you.

Before data leaves your device, the extension automatically scrubs recognised sensitive values (passwords, API keys, access tokens, payment card numbers, and similar credentials) from text content such as console logs, network data, URLs and form fields. Screenshots, voice recordings and video are transmitted as captured: they cannot be scrubbed automatically, and anything visible on screen or spoken aloud is included as-is.

Live shadowing on a single machine connects the extension directly to the coding agent on localhost, and the extension itself sends nothing externally in that mode. Note, however, that the MCP bridge receiving the session is separate software running on the developer's machine, and it may forward voice recordings to OpenRouter for transcription if the person running it has configured an OpenRouter API key. See section 8.

6. Remote Live Sessions (optional)

Remote Live Sessions let a developer's coding agent watch your recording session from a different machine. This feature is inactive unless you open the extension popup, select Test with a remote agent, and accept the consent screen shown there.

When active, session data is relayed through a WebSocket relay server operated by the controller named in section 1 and hosted on Cloudflare infrastructure (relay.tracegist.com).

The data transmitted covers activity in your browser for as long as recording is running: console logs, JavaScript errors, clicks and other interactions from any tab you use, and every network request your browser makes; recording is not limited to the tab you started on. It also covers your voice notes, and screenshots sent when the agent requests one, when you answer an agent's question, or when you attach a highlight.

Screenshots sent to a remote agent come only from the tab you started on. A screenshot taken while a different tab was in front is withheld rather than transmitted; it remains stored on your device and still appears in an exported file, so the restriction applies to remote streaming rather than to recording. The session video recording is not streamed at all, and video capture is limited to the tab you started on. Whatever is on the recorded tab is still shared, so close anything private there before you begin. The following applies to that transfer:

• All session content is end-to-end encrypted on your device (AES-256-GCM) before it is sent. The encryption key is derived from the session code that you share directly with your developer. That code is never sent to the relay, so the relay cannot decrypt the content and we cannot read it.
• The relay forwards encrypted payloads to the connected developer and does not store them. It retains only a timestamp of the most recent activity in order to expire the session; sessions idle for 30 minutes are discarded automatically.
• As with any internet connection, technical connection data (including your IP address and connection timestamps) is processed by Cloudflare in order to route the traffic. Cloudflare acts as our processor for this; its privacy policy is available at cloudflare.com/privacypolicy.
• To pair you with your developer, the relay receives a room identifier derived from your session code by a one-way hash. It identifies the session only and cannot be reversed to recover the code or the encryption key.
• The legal basis is your consent pursuant to Art. 6 (1)(a) GDPR. You can withdraw it at any time by turning the remote session off in the extension popup, which terminates an in-progress stream immediately. Withdrawal does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before it.
• You are not required to use our relay. The relay software is open source and you or your organisation can self-host it, in which case no session data reaches our infrastructure at all.

7. AI Analysis in the Extension (optional)

The extension offers an optional “Analyze with AI” button in the session viewer. It is inactive unless you enter your own OpenRouter API key in the extension’s settings panel, and it transmits data only at the moment you trigger an analysis. The content is sent from your device directly to OpenRouter, not to us; OpenRouter is an independent controller for that processing. Its privacy policy is available at openrouter.ai/privacy. Your API key is stored locally on your device. The legal basis is your consent pursuant to Art. 6 (1)(a) GDPR.

8. Voice Transcription by the MCP Bridge

When you share a session with a developer (live or as an exported file), the MCP bridge on their machine may transcribe your voice notes. This is separate software run by that developer, not by us, and the choice of transcription route is theirs rather than yours:

• By default the bridge transcribes locally with Whisper. The model file is downloaded once on first use; after that no audio or session content is transmitted externally.
• If the developer has configured an OpenRouter API key for the bridge, your voice recordings are sent to OpenRouter for transcription instead, with local Whisper as the fallback. This applies to both same-machine and remote sessions.

If this matters to you, ask the developer you are testing for how their bridge is configured.

9. Your Rights

Under GDPR you have the right to:

• Access the personal data we hold about you (Art. 15 GDPR)
• Rectification of inaccurate data (Art. 16 GDPR)
• Erasure of your data (Art. 17 GDPR)
• Restriction of processing (Art. 18 GDPR)
• Data portability (Art. 20 GDPR)
• Object to processing based on legitimate interests (Art. 21 GDPR)
• Withdraw consent at any time where processing is based on it, such as the update list in section 4 (Art. 7(3) GDPR)

To exercise these rights, contact hello@tracegist.com.

10. Right to Lodge a Complaint

You have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. In Germany, the relevant authority is the data protection authority of the state where you reside or work. A list of German supervisory authorities is available at bfdi.bund.de.