Web Browser Usage Tracker
A browser extension for the Reclaim 128 app development. Install it, browse the way you normally would, and flag the pages that pull at you.
What we're building
We're training machine learning models to recognize patterns in the text of web pages — what a page is about, and how that relates to when someone reads it and how long they stay. Real browsing is what those models learn from, which is why we need yours.
The part we can't get from data alone is your judgment. When a page tempts you, or leaves you anxious or restless or lonely, you know it and the numbers don't. That's what the flag button is for.
Installing it
This isn't in the Chrome Web Store yet, so it installs the manual way.
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Download and unzip
Unzip it somewhere you won't delete by accident — Chrome loads the extension from that folder every time it starts.
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Open your extensions page
Paste
chrome://extensionsinto the address bar and press Enter. -
Turn on Developer mode
The switch sits in the top-right corner of that page.
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Click "Load unpacked"
Select the folder you unzipped. The Reclaim 128 icon appears in your toolbar.
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Pin it to your toolbar — don't skip this
Chrome hides new extensions behind the puzzle-piece button () to the right of your address bar. Click it, find Reclaim 128, and click the pin () beside it.
The flag button lives behind that icon, and the small red dot that shows you're being recorded only appears when it's on the toolbar. Unpinned, both are hidden.
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Open it and switch tracking on
The popup lists exactly what gets collected. Nothing is recorded until you flip that switch — and a small red dot sits on the icon the whole time it's active.
Chrome may warn you about developer-mode extensions each time it starts. That's expected for anything installed outside the Web Store, and it's safe to dismiss.
What it collects
While tracking is on
- The address, title and visible text of pages you visit
- How long you spend on each one, and the time of day
- A rough city-level location, from your IP address
- A random ID made at install — never your name or email
Never, either way
- Webmail, messaging, banking and health sites — skipped automatically
- Email addresses and long number sequences, stripped before anything is sent
- Passwords and anything you type into a form
- Your history from before you installed it
Switch it off whenever you like and collection stops on the spot. One button in the popup erases everything tied to your ID from our server, permanently, no questions asked.
Questions
Anything at all — how it works, what happens to the data, or wanting your data gone — email davistn24@gcc.edu.