Privacy Policy
Effective date: March 2, 2026
1. Introduction
NodeZero is a decentralized password manager distributed as a Chrome browser extension. This Privacy Policy describes what data is collected, how it is stored, and your rights regarding that data. NodeZero is designed from the ground up to minimize data collection. We operate no server that holds your vault, and the key that opens it exists only on your devices — so we cannot read, access, or recover your vault contents. Where a protection has limits, this policy states them rather than leaving them to be assumed; see section 6b on encrypted email.
2. Zero-Knowledge Architecture
All vault entries (usernames, passwords, secure notes, card details, and identity information) are encrypted locally in your browser before any data leaves your device. Secret fields are encrypted individually; the whole bundle, entry titles and URLs included, is then sealed again before it is written to disk or uploaded.
The vault key is generated at random on your device and is not derived from anything you type. Each unlock method you set up — security key, passphrase, or your 12-word recovery phrase — stores its own encrypted copy of that key. The passphrase copy is protected with Argon2id; the recovery-phrase copy with PBKDF2-SHA256 over 2,000,000 iterations. None of these secrets leave your device.
We cannot: decrypt your vault, read your passwords, recover your credentials, or access your mnemonic recovery phrase. If you lose both your device access and your recovery phrase, your vault is irrecoverable.
3. Data We Store
| Data | Location | Encrypted |
|---|---|---|
| Vault entries (credentials, notes, cards) | Local + Google Drive (encrypted) | Yes (field-level, then sealed as a whole) |
| Cryptographic identity key | Local browser storage | Yes (encrypted at rest) |
| WebAuthn credential ID | Local browser storage | Plaintext (non-secret) |
| Contacts and their public keys | Local + Google Drive (encrypted) | Yes — addresses are never in the clear at rest |
| Encrypted vault blob | Your Google Drive | Yes (fully encrypted) |
4. Data We Do NOT Collect
- Emails, phone numbers, or names
- Browsing history or visited URLs
- IP addresses or geolocation data
- Analytics or telemetry data
- Cookies or tracking pixels
- Plaintext passwords or vault contents
5. Extension Permissions
NodeZero requests only the minimum permissions necessary to function:
| Permission | Purpose |
|---|---|
| storage | Store encrypted vault and settings locally |
| contextMenus | Right-click menu for fill, generate, and save actions |
| idle | Auto-lock vault after a period of inactivity (configurable, 1 hour by default) and immediately when the screen locks |
| activeTab | Fill credentials into the current active tab only |
| scripting | Inject form-filling code when you use fill/save features |
| tabs | Identify the page you invoked NodeZero on, and open its own windows |
| identity | Obtain a Google OAuth token for Drive sync. Scoped to drive.appdata — NodeZero's own app folder, not the rest of your Drive |
| alarms | Run the auto-lock timer, which must survive Chrome suspending the extension |
| sidePanel | Open NodeZero as a Chrome side panel |
One permission is optional and is requested only at the moment you first use an email feature — access to mail.google.com. It exists so NodeZero can encrypt and decrypt message bodies inside Gmail. Decline it and the rest of the extension works unchanged; the email features simply do not run.
6. Cloud Sync
When you enable cross-device sync, your encrypted vault bundle is uploaded to your personal Google Drive via the Google Drive API. It is stored in the appDataFolder — an app-private area of your own Drive, scoped per user and per application. The bundle is sealed before it is uploaded, so what arrives is a single opaque blob. You authorize access through standard OAuth and can revoke it at any time from your Google account settings.
NodeZero does not operate any central storage server for vault data, and has no access to the folder your vault is stored in — it is in your Drive, under your Google account.
6b. Encrypted Email — Exactly What Is Covered
When you encrypt a message, NodeZero encrypts the message body in your browser before Gmail receives it. What Google stores for that message is ciphertext. NodeZero operates no mail server and never receives your mail; delivery is Gmail's, as it was before.
Body encryption does not hide the envelope a mail system routes on. When you send an encrypted message, Google still observes:
- • Recipients — every address in To, CC and BCC. Gmail cannot deliver without them.
- • Timing and frequency — when you send, and how often you write to whom.
- • Approximate length — ciphertext size tracks message size.
- • That NodeZero was used — the ciphertext carries visible markers and the subject line is replaced with a fixed one. This is not concealed and is not intended to be.
- • Attachments and inline images — these are not encrypted. NodeZero refuses to send rather than deliver a message it can only partly protect.
- • Anything you typed into a Gmail compose window — Gmail autosaves drafts as you type, so that text reached Google before encryption occurred at Send. Deleting the draft afterwards does not undo this.
Subject lines. An encrypted message is sent with a fixed marker subject, so a real subject is never left readable in the header. Where the subject you typed goes depends on where you typed it: composed in NodeZero's own composer, it is folded into the body and encrypted with it, so Google never receives it and your recipient reads it after decrypting. Typed into a Gmail compose window, it is replaced by the marker before sending — but Gmail will already have autosaved it, so it is protected in the delivered message and not from Google.
NodeZero holds your correspondents' public keys and email addresses in the encrypted vault described above. There is no lookup service and no key directory: nobody, including us, can query whether a given address uses NodeZero.
7. WebAuthn & Biometrics
NodeZero uses WebAuthn (FIDO2) for vault authentication. Biometric data (fingerprints, facial recognition) is processed entirely by your device's secure hardware and operating system. NodeZero never receives, stores, or transmits biometric templates. We only receive a cryptographic assertion confirming successful authentication.
8. Recovery Phrase
Your recovery phrase is generated locally, displayed once during onboarding, and immediately wiped from memory after you verify three words. It is never stored by NodeZero, transmitted over the network, or backed up to any server. You are solely responsible for securely storing your recovery phrase.
9. Third-Party Services
NodeZero uses the following third-party infrastructure:
- • Google Drive — stores your vault file in the app-private folder of your own Drive. It is sealed on your device before upload, so what Drive holds is one opaque blob rather than readable vault data. You can revoke access at any time.
- • Static hosting provider — hosts this website. No user data is processed.
We do not use Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, or any other tracking services.
10. Children's Privacy
NodeZero is not intended for children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. Since NodeZero does not collect personal information from any users, this is a minimal concern.
11. Data Deletion
Your local vault data can be deleted at any time by removing the NodeZero extension from Chrome. The synced copy lives in an app-private folder that does not appear in your normal Drive file list; to delete it, disconnect NodeZero from your Google Account (Google Account → Data & privacy → Third-party apps and services). Google deletes an application's app-data folder when you remove its access.
Individual contacts can be deleted from within the extension. Deletions are recorded so that syncing with another device does not bring the contact back.
Since we have no user accounts and no central server, there is no account to delete.
12. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Changes will be posted on this page with an updated effective date. Since NodeZero has no email or account system, we recommend checking this page periodically.
13. Contact
For questions about this Privacy Policy, email us at intothenode@gmail.com.