Privacy policy

Scout AI Assistant ("Scout", formerly Scout for Safari) is made by Rare Creatures LLC ("we", "us"). This policy covers the Scout extension for Safari on Mac, iPhone and iPad (with its app), for Chrome and for Firefox, wherever in the world you use them. They work the same way; where one differs, this page says so.

The short version

• Scout works by sending your questions, and the page you ask about, to an AI provider: Anthropic or OpenAI, whichever you pick.
• It asks your permission once for each provider before it sends that provider anything. Nothing is sent if you choose Not now, and you can withdraw permission at any time in Settings.
• Requests go from your device directly to the provider, under your account and API key. We never see them.
• Nothing you do in Scout is sent to us.

Sharing with your AI provider

The first time you use Scout with a provider, it shows a screen titled Share with Anthropic? or Share with OpenAI?. It names the provider, lists exactly what will be sent, and links to that provider's privacy policy and to how it handles API data. Scout records your answer on your device, and until you choose Allow it blocks every request to that provider. If what Scout sends ever changes in a way that matters, it asks you again.

Once you have allowed it, this is what your provider receives:

• Your messages and the tasks you type.
• The page you are on, when a request uses it (questions, Summarize, Scout mode, Find coupons): its address, title, description and text. What you typed into forms, password fields and hidden fields are left out, and passwords, keys and tokens found on the page are removed. You can stop Scout including the current page in Settings.
• The page's links, buttons and form fields, for Scout mode and Find coupons, with password and card fields hidden. Scout mode sends them again after each step it takes.
• Other tabs, only the ones you attach to a question.
• A screenshot of the visible page, only when you allow it for that site, once or always. It shows everything on screen, including anything typed into the page. In Scout mode, a screenshot can follow each step on sites where you allowed them.
• The titles and addresses of your open tabs, only if you turn on tab search in Settings. It is off by default, and private tabs are left out.
• Your API key, only to sign in to that provider. Scout never sends it anywhere else.

Nothing is ever read from, screenshotted on or sent from a site you blocked in Settings, or one your organization blocked on a managed Mac or iPhone.

Which provider, and their terms

Scout talks to Anthropic's Messages API at api.anthropic.com or OpenAI's Responses API at api.openai.com, and nothing else of theirs. Because you use your own API key, the provider handles your requests under the terms of your API account with them, not its consumer chat service. How long they keep it, and how you delete it, is set by them:

• Anthropic: privacy policy and commercial terms.
• OpenAI: privacy policy and API data commitments.

We have no access to your provider account and cannot see or delete what you sent them. Scout is not made by or connected to Apple, Google, Mozilla, Anthropic or OpenAI.

Sensitive pages

Pages you view can hold personal, financial or health information. Scout removes the things it can recognise (passwords, card fields, keys and tokens), but it cannot recognise all sensitive text. If you would rather a page's content never reached your provider, don't use Scout on it, or block the site in Settings.

Find coupons

When you tap Find coupons on a checkout:

• Scout asks your provider to search the web for codes for that store, using the provider's own web search. The search runs at the provider, under your account.
• It reads codes the store itself advertises, on the page you are on and on the store's home page. Only the codes are kept.
• It tries codes in the store's own cart, as you would by typing them in, and compares the totals. On checkouts it cannot read by itself, it sends your provider the page title, the names of its buttons and fields (not what you typed in them) and the lines about totals and codes, at most once per search.

Scout mode

In Scout mode, Scout clicks, types and moves around a page for you to finish a task you gave it. It shows a border on the page while it is working, and you can take control or stop it at any time. What it sends to your provider while it works is listed above.

What Scout stores, and where

Everything Scout keeps is on your device, in your browser's extension storage, or, on Safari, in the system Keychain for your key. None of it is uploaded by Scout.

• Your API key. On Safari, in the Keychain, never in extension storage. On Chrome and Firefox, which give extensions no Keychain, in the browser's local extension storage on that computer; it is never synced to your other devices. On every browser, never in logs or anything sent to the AI.
• Your settings: provider, model, how long to keep history, and your page access choices (sharing the current page, tab search, screenshot answers per site, sites you blocked).
• Your permission for each provider: which provider, when, and which version of the disclosure you saw.
• Chat history: your questions and answers, with the titles and sites of the tabs shared for each answer (not their text). You choose to keep it for 7 days (the default), 30 days, or not at all, and Scout keeps at most 200 entries.
• The activity log: the time, tool, site, how long it took and the result for each thing Scout did for your answers. No page text. It is kept as long as your chat history, and only in memory when history is off.
• Coupon runs: the codes tried and cart totals, in a local run log.
• Sites you granted access to, in your browser's own permission settings.

Scout does not store your browsing history, cookies, passwords or the text of the pages you visit.

What we receive

Nothing. There is no Scout server. We cannot see your key, your questions, the pages you ask about, or whether you use it. The app contains no analytics, no crash reporting and no advertising, and sets no cookies. The App Store, Chrome Web Store and Firefox Add-ons may give us aggregate download and rating figures, which do not identify you.

Who is responsible for your data

Rare Creatures LLC makes Scout, but we do not receive or hold your personal data, so we do not process it on our servers. What Scout keeps stays on your device, under your control. When you allow Scout to share with an AI provider, that provider receives the data directly from you, under your own account, and is responsible for it under its own terms and privacy policy. Apple, Google and Mozilla are responsible for their stores and browsers.

Legal bases

Where data protection laws such as the GDPR or UK GDPR apply: Scout handles data on your device to provide the features you ask for, and it sends data to your AI provider only on the basis of your consent, given on the sharing screen. You can withdraw consent at any time in Settings. Withdrawing does not affect what was sent before.

International transfers

Your AI provider may process your requests in the United States or other countries. Those transfers happen between you and your provider, under your provider's own safeguards, as described in its privacy policy and API terms. We do not transfer your data anywhere, because we never receive it.

How long data is kept

On your device: as described above, until you change a setting, history expires, or you delete it. At your provider: as long as your provider keeps it under your account terms. With us: never, because we hold none.

Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, delete, restrict, object to or take a copy of your personal data, to withdraw consent, and not to be discriminated against for using these rights. Because Scout keeps your data only on your device, you can exercise most of these yourself with the controls below. For data held by your AI provider, contact that provider. If you have a question or request for us, write to the address under Contact and we will answer within 30 days. If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, you may also complain to your local data protection authority.

United States

We do not sell or share personal information, use it for targeted advertising, or use it to profile you, as those terms are defined under California and other US state privacy laws. We do not collect sensitive personal information.

Children

Scout is not directed at children under 13, or under the age of digital consent where you live if that is higher, and we do not knowingly collect data from anyone. Your AI provider sets its own minimum age for its API, and you must meet it to use Scout.

Security

On Safari your API key is kept in the system Keychain; on Chrome and Firefox it is kept in the browser's local extension storage, which other extensions and websites cannot read. Requests go straight from your device to your provider over an encrypted connection. Scout removes passwords, card fields, keys and tokens it recognises before sending a page. No system is perfectly secure, and you are responsible for keeping your device and your provider account secure.

Websites and services we don't control

Scout works on websites and with AI providers that we do not own or control. We are not responsible for their content, their privacy practices or how they handle data you send them. AI answers can be wrong; check anything important, and review what Scout mode or Find coupons is about to do before you let it.

Your controls

• Withdraw permission for a provider in Settings, or on the app's setup screen. Nothing is sent to that provider until you allow it again.
• Choose what Scout can see: the current page, tab search, screenshots per site, and sites to block.
• Set how long chat history is kept, or turn it off.
• Delete all data in Settings, which removes your keys, Scout's storage and its site access on this device. On iPhone and iPad, Safari keeps site access itself; Scout tells you where to remove it.
• What you sent to your provider is deleted through your account with them.

Changes

We may update this policy. If it changes, the date at the top changes with it, and if what Scout sends to your provider changes, Scout asks your permission again before sending anything. Using Scout after an update means the updated policy applies.

Contact

[email protected]
Rare Creatures LLC. Company details are on the legal page.