01Scope and purpose
This notice describes STEPDRAFT version 1.0.0, a local Chrome extension for creating screenshot-based instructions. It covers deliberate captures, draft editing, original image storage, annotations, local exports and user controls.
STEPDRAFT does not require an account, operate a document-sharing server or automatically record every click. Its purpose is to help you collect selected website views, explain them and produce a guide that can be opened offline.
The websites you capture, the browser distributing the extension, and services through which you later send a guide have their own data practices. This notice does not replace those services’ notices or authorize capturing someone else’s confidential information.
02Deliberate screenshot capture
A capture starts when you use Capture this step in the toolbar popup, request a capture from the collection interface where permission is available, or invoke the configured capture keyboard shortcut. Nothing starts recording automatically at installation.
The extension requests an image of the currently visible website viewport. It does not stitch a long page, capture the whole desktop, record a video, listen to a microphone or collect background-tab screenshots on a schedule.
Anything visibly rendered in that viewport may appear in the image, including private messages, profile pictures, account identifiers or information you have typed. Review the page before capturing, and do not assume the extension can recognize sensitive content for you.
03The permissions requested
The activeTab permission supplies temporary access associated with your browser action or shortcut. It is used to identify the active page and request a visible-tab screenshot. This build does not declare all-sites host access.
The sidePanel permission provides a compact collection view beside the website. The storage permission retains the active-guide identifier and small settings or capture-error details through chrome.storage.local. Drafts and images use an extension-local IndexedDB database.
There is no tabs permission for reading an unrestricted global tab list, no scripting permission, no content script, no cookies or history permission, and no microphone or camera permission. Creating the editor tab is not a request to inspect every website.
04Which pages are supported
The application’s capture flow accepts ordinary HTTP and HTTPS pages when Chrome grants the necessary access. Browser internal pages, file addresses, extension pages and private-window workflows are outside the supported capture scope.
A permission grant can end when you navigate to a different origin. Use the toolbar action or shortcut again on the new website rather than expecting a sidebar button to retain unrestricted access. Chrome can also reject a capture for policy or platform reasons.
The worker compares the active tab and its address before and after capture. If they changed, it discards that capture and reports the problem. This check reduces wrong-tab mistakes but cannot prove that every element on a rapidly changing page stayed constant.
05Source information accompanying a step
A captured step normally receives the website’s tab title as its initial title. You can edit that title and write instructions. The capture record also contains a local image identifier and the source origin, such as the scheme and domain.
The source-origin field is derived from the address without retaining its path, query or fragment in that field. The full address is temporarily examined to check page identity during capture. A visible screenshot or your own text can nevertheless contain complete addresses.
Chrome error messages may include technical context supplied by the browser. A capture error can be retained as a small local error record for the toolbar workflow. Errors are not uploaded to a crash-reporting service.
06Draft documents and image records
A draft document contains its title, introduction, creation and update times, revision number, ordered steps and local identifiers. A step contains its title, explanatory text, optional source origin, optional original image reference, annotations and crop rectangle.
Annotations store types and normalized image coordinates, along with label text or marker numbers where needed. Cropping stores the selected region. These are editing instructions; they do not immediately rewrite the original screenshot in the draft.
Original images are stored separately in the same extension-local database as PNG data URLs. Copying a step can reuse an image reference. Image records are not exposed to a webpage through a content script or an externally connectable API.
07Originals and redactions are different
The editor intentionally keeps the original screenshot so you can undo a redaction, reset a crop or revise the guide. A black rectangle in the editor therefore does not mean the private original has disappeared from local draft storage.
When preparing shared HTML or Markdown, the application draws annotations into a new raster image and applies redactions as opaque pixel covers. Redactions are drawn last, and the selected crop is applied to the rendered image.
The shared export does not include an editable overlay over an unredacted original. However, the cover must be large enough and correctly positioned. The application does not automatically locate all sensitive information or certify a document as anonymized.
08Image import and replacement
You can explicitly choose a PNG file to add or replace a screenshot. The file picker grants access to that chosen file; the extension does not scan folders, search your image collection or read unrelated local files.
The importer checks size and PNG dimensions before decoding, then redraws the image as PNG for editing. It rejects corrupt or excessive inputs. This is a format and resource check, not a content-safety or ownership check.
Replacing an existing screenshot clears that step’s annotations and crop after confirmation because coordinates from another image may be wrong. The old original can remain available for undo until unused images are cleared or the relevant guide is deleted.
09Where drafts are saved
Documents and originals are saved in the extension’s IndexedDB database in the local Chrome profile. Small preferences, the active-guide identifier and capture-error details use chrome.storage.local. This build does not use Chrome storage synchronization.
STEPDRAFT does not encrypt drafts with a separate password. Browser-profile protections, device encryption, enterprise backup policies and access by other users of the same unlocked device remain outside the application.
Browser storage is not unlimited and is not a substitute for a backup. Local records may be lost if the extension is removed, the profile is deleted, storage is cleared or a device fails. Export important projects to a location you control.
10Resource limits and storage failures
The application supports up to twenty guides, forty steps per guide and one hundred annotations per step. Individual PNG inputs are limited to twelve megabytes, sixteen megapixels and sixteen thousand three hundred eighty-four pixels on either edge.
The local image safety budget is one hundred ten million data-URL characters. This is an application limit rather than a guarantee of available disk space. Chrome may impose a smaller effective quota or reject a write for another reason.
Private project imports and exports have a forty-five-megabyte limit. Shared rendered image exports also have a safety budget. A failed operation should produce a visible message; reduce image size, split a guide or export and remove older work before retrying.
11Network and external processing
No screenshot, draft, note, annotation or export is automatically sent to an application server. This build contains no upload endpoint, remote-code loader, AI analysis service, external image compressor or online publishing feature.
The underlying website can continue using its own network resources while it is open. Capturing its visible output does not stop or change that behavior. The browser’s normal site connections are not document uploads performed by STEPDRAFT.
The extension packages its executable code and icon assets locally and uses system fonts. It does not retrieve a web font or a remote template when you open the editor. The packaged privacy page can be read without contacting a policy-hosting service.
12Analytics and other third parties
There are no advertising trackers, behavioral analytics events, audience profiles, affiliate links or automatic diagnostic uploads in this version. STEPDRAFT does not measure which websites are most often captured for a remote report.
No third-party SDK is included for login, payments, cloud editing, screenshot classification or file synchronization. The ZIP writer used for Markdown bundles is packaged application code, not an external conversion service.
Chrome and its extension store have their own installation, update, security and account policies. A file you place in a cloud-synced folder can be uploaded by that folder’s software even though STEPDRAFT itself has no synchronization service.
13Shared HTML documents
Standalone HTML export contains the guide title, introduction, ordered step titles, instructions and flattened PNG images embedded in the file. It can be opened offline in a browser without installing the extension.
The normal shared export does not include the editable project structure, original screenshot records or source-origin fields. It may still contain sensitive text you typed or information visibly left uncovered in the rendered images.
The document contains no application script and uses a restrictive content security policy. This does not prevent a recipient from copying, editing or redistributing the file. Export only material you are authorized to share.
14Markdown bundles
Markdown export creates a ZIP with a README.md file and numbered PNG files in an images folder. Those PNGs use the same flattened rendering process as the HTML output, including the redaction and crop instructions.
The archive does not contain a hidden original-image folder or the editable project. Step text is escaped for Markdown, and the generated image paths are fixed local paths. The bundle does not depend on a remote image host.
A recipient’s Markdown application may have its own preview, synchronization or indexing behavior. STEPDRAFT cannot control what happens after you transfer the archive or extract its contents into another application’s workspace.
15Private project backups
A .stepdraft file is deliberately different from a shared guide. It contains the editable document, local-style metadata, annotation instructions and original PNG images needed to continue editing. Redacted details can be recovered from those original images.
The export interface warns that the file contains originals and requires explicit acknowledgment. This file is appropriate for a private backup or a trusted collaborator who is permitted to see the underlying screenshots, not for a public handoff.
Project files are ordinary readable JSON and image data, not encrypted containers. Protect them with your own file-access controls. A redaction visible after reimport does not change the fact that the private file includes its unredacted source.
16Project import and integrity
Project import reads only the file you select, checks its schema, limits and required image references, and decodes its PNG images. The application creates a new guide with new identifiers instead of overwriting an existing guide silently.
A malformed file, missing image, excessive project or invalid annotation coordinate is rejected. Format validation is not a guarantee that a screenshot is appropriate or that the person sending the project had permission to capture it.
If you receive a project from another person, assume it contains original screenshots until you have reviewed it. Do not mistake an editable project for a sanitized export simply because the visible annotations contain black rectangles.
17Retention, undo and unused images
Guides remain locally until you delete them, erase application data or lose the relevant browser storage. There is no automatic age-based expiration in this version. Captures append to the selected active guide, subject to its limits.
Undo and redo history are held in memory in the current editor, up to sixty structural edit states. Original images can outlive a removed step so that undo remains possible. Closing a view does not itself purge all unused originals.
The Help interface offers Clear unused originals. Save other views and close them before using this control because their undo histories may still refer to removed image records. Clearing unused images is distinct from flattening a shared export.
18Deletion and export copies
Deleting a guide removes its document and image records not referenced by another saved guide. The erase-all control clears the extension’s guides, images and small stored preferences after explicit confirmation.
These actions do not delete HTML, ZIP or private project files previously downloaded, nor copies sent through email or stored on another device. Delete or recall such copies through the system that holds them.
Clearing local records is an application-level operation, not a promise of forensic erasure from storage hardware, system backups or organization-managed profiles. Browser uninstall and data-clearing controls provide additional ways to remove local extension records.
19Conflicts, recovery and security
Saves carry document revisions. When a different view or a new capture changed the guide first, stale edits are rejected instead of silently overwriting the newer version. The editor can offer an unsaved private project export before reloading the saved guide.
Input text is rendered as text, project structures are validated, and extension messages are restricted to the extension’s own pages. The application includes a local-code security policy. None of these measures replaces protection of the operating system or unlocked Chrome profile.
Do not rely on a brief saved indicator as a lifetime preservation guarantee. Review exported files independently and keep backups appropriate to the sensitivity of the images. Do not send a private project merely to demonstrate a minor interface problem.
20Children, updates and contact
STEPDRAFT is a general-purpose documentation tool. It does not ask for age, birth date or a child profile. A responsible adult or organization should decide whether capturing, retaining and sharing website images is suitable for the people using the device.
This notice applies to version 1.0.0 and is effective on 8 September 2026. A future network feature, additional permission or different retention behavior should be described in an updated policy. The current build collects no email address for policy announcements.
The publisher is the developer identified on the verified Chrome Web Store listing for STEPDRAFT. Use that listing’s support or developer-contact method. No invented contact address or in-app message submission service is bundled here; redact screenshots and omit originals unless support genuinely needs them.