Back to Hover PDF

Privacy Policy

Effective date: February 27, 2026

Overview

Hover PDF Reader is a browser extension that replaces Chrome's default PDF viewer with an enhanced reader featuring citation previews, annotations, and document navigation. This policy explains how the extension handles your data.

Data We Collect

None. Hover PDF Reader does not collect any personal information, browsing data, or document content. We have no servers, no analytics, and no tracking of any kind.

How Your Data Is Processed

All data processing occurs locally on your device:

• PDF documents are fetched and rendered entirely within your browser using a local WebAssembly engine. No document content ever leaves your device.
• Your preferences (such as enable/disable state, wallpaper settings, and display options) are stored locally using Chrome's built-in storage APIs and your browser's localStorage. These are never transmitted externally.
• Authentication cookies for paywalled or institutional PDFs are used only by your browser to download the PDF from its original source. The extension never reads, stores, or transmits your credentials.

Permissions Explained

The extension requests certain browser permissions solely to function as a PDF viewer replacement:

• Tabs — Used to redirect the current tab from a raw PDF to the Hover viewer, and to locate open viewer tabs when toggling the extension.
• Storage — Used to save your enable/disable preference locally so it persists across browser sessions.
• Web Request — Used to detect PDF responses by reading content-type headers, enabling the local WASM engine to pre-load for faster rendering. No requests are modified.
• Host Permissions (all URLs) — Required because PDFs can be hosted on any domain. The extension must be able to intercept PDF navigations universally, just like Chrome's built-in PDF viewer.

Third-Party Services

When you use the citation lookup feature, the extension sends your search query to Google Scholar on your behalf to retrieve citation information. These requests are made directly from your browser to Google's servers — no data is routed through any intermediary server we operate. Google's own privacy policy governs how they handle those requests.

Data Sharing

We do not share any data with third parties because we do not collect any data in the first place. There are no analytics providers, advertising networks, or data brokers involved.

Changes to This Policy

If this policy is updated, the changes will be posted on this page with a revised effective date. Since we collect no data, changes are unlikely, but we will communicate any material changes through the extension's update notes.

---