Privacy Policy

Effective May 4, 2026.

Plain-language summary

factSocial is a Firefox extension. It runs locally inside your browser. It does not have a backend, does not collect telemetry, does not include analytics, and does not share your data with anyone operated by the extension's author.

When you click the Fact-check button on a post, the extension sends two things to providers you have configured: the text of that post, and any search queries the model decides to run. Nothing else is transmitted.

What data the extension handles

Data	Where it goes	When
Post text (the body of a Threads or Bluesky post you click Fact-check on)	Your chosen LLM provider: LM Studio (running on `localhost`) or OpenRouter	Only on your click of the Fact-check button. Never automatically.
Search queries the model decides to run as part of the verification process	Your chosen search provider: DuckDuckGo, Brave Search, or Tavily	Only during a fact-check, only when the model invokes the `web_search` tool
Your settings (provider choice, model name, system prompt, max tokens)	Stored locally inside Firefox in `browser.storage.local`	Persistent on your device only. Never transmitted.
API keys (OpenRouter key, Brave key, Tavily key)	Stored locally in `browser.storage.local`; sent only as authentication headers to the provider they belong to	Sent only with requests to that specific provider. Never shared with anyone else.

What the extension does not do

The extension has no backend server operated by the author. There is no factsocial.com API; nothing routes through any server we control.
The extension does not include analytics, error reporting, crash reporting, or any kind of usage tracking.
The extension does not read or transmit posts that you have not explicitly clicked Fact-check on. Browsing the feed without clicking does not generate any network activity from the extension.
The extension does not read content from any other websites. It is scoped to the Threads and Bluesky domains for content scripts, plus the LLM and search provider domains for outbound requests.
The extension does not set cookies, fingerprint your browser, or use any storage other than the local browser.storage.local facility provided by Firefox.

Third parties

Because factSocial routes your fact-check requests directly to the providers you configure, those providers receive your data and apply their own privacy practices to it. The author of factSocial does not control and cannot guarantee how those providers handle your data. Their policies are linked below.

LM Studio runs on your own machine. Post text never leaves your device when this is your provider. Their site: lmstudio.ai.
OpenRouter privacy policy: openrouter.ai/privacy. OpenRouter forwards your request to the underlying model provider you selected (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, etc.), each of which has its own data-handling practices.
DuckDuckGo privacy policy: duckduckgo.com/privacy.
Brave Search privacy policy: search.brave.com/help/privacy-policy.
Tavily privacy policy: tavily.com/privacy.

You can change providers at any time in factSocial's settings. If you do not want any data transmitted off your device, choose LM Studio as the LLM provider and disable web search.

Data retention

factSocial does not store the text of fact-checked posts, search queries, or fact-check results anywhere persistent. Verdicts are rendered into the page's DOM only and disappear when you reload or close the tab. No history is kept.

Your settings and API keys remain in browser.storage.local until you uninstall the extension, manually clear them in Firefox, or change them in the extension's preferences page.

Your rights

Because the extension does not collect or store your personal data on any server, there is no remote record for you to access, correct, port, or delete. To remove all data the extension keeps on your device:

Open about:addons in Firefox.
Find factSocial, click the ⋯ menu, and choose Remove.
Firefox automatically clears the extension's browser.storage.local contents (settings, API keys) when you remove it.

This website (factsocial.download)

The marketing site you are reading right now (factsocial.download) is separate from the Firefox extension and uses Google Analytics 4 (gtag.js) to count visitors, page views, referrers, and rough geography. This is so we can see whether anyone is finding the site and which sections people read. The extension itself does not include Google Analytics, gtag, or any other tracker — Google Analytics runs only on this static website.

Google Analytics may set cookies in your browser when you visit this site, and may receive your IP address (which Google truncates before storage), user-agent string, and the URLs you visit on this domain. Google's handling of that data is governed by Google's privacy policy and the GA4 data practices.

To opt out, you can install Google's official opt-out browser add-on, block googletagmanager.com and google-analytics.com with a content blocker such as uBlock Origin, or enable Firefox's Enhanced Tracking Protection in Strict mode (Settings → Privacy & Security). Blocking these scripts has no effect on the extension's functionality on Threads or Bluesky.

Children

factSocial is a developer-facing fact-checking tool aimed at adults. It is not directed at children under 13, and the author does not knowingly collect any data about children.

Permissions the extension requests

Firefox's add-on system requires extensions to declare the URLs and APIs they use. factSocial declares:

storage — to save your settings and API keys locally inside Firefox.
Host permissions for http://localhost/* and http://127.0.0.1/* — so it can talk to LM Studio if you choose that provider.
Host permissions for openrouter.ai, html.duckduckgo.com, duckduckgo.com, api.search.brave.com, and api.tavily.com — so it can call the LLM and search providers you choose.
Host permissions for threads.net, threads.com, and bsky.app — so it can inject the Fact-check button on those sites.

The Mozilla AMO submission additionally declares websiteContent and searchTerms in the data_collection_permissions manifest field, reflecting the two categories above.

Changes

If this policy changes, the effective date at the top of this page will be updated. Material changes will also be noted in the extension's release notes on AMO.

Contact

Questions about this policy or the extension's data handling can be sent to hello@factsocial.download.