Tierline Lens / Privacy
Privacy policy for Tierline Lens
Publisher: Tierline Contact for privacy questions: tierline.archives@gmail.com Applies to: the Tierline Lens browser extension, version 0.5.0 and later, until this policy is updated. Effective: October 29, 2026
In short
Tierline Lens has no account, no server, no analytics and no tracking. What you save, import and transcribe stays in your browser. Lens sends something over the internet only when you ask it to search an online archive, or to show an image from one, and then only to that archive.
What Lens handles, and why
| What | When | Where it is kept | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| The text you select on a web page, the words around it, and the page's title, address and citation details it publishes (such as author and date) | Only when you click the Lens button, press its shortcut or use its right-click menu on that page | In your browser (session storage until you save it; your library once you save it) | To show related records and to save the passage with a citation that leads back to it |
| Files you import (text, HTML, PDF, PNG, JPEG, WebP, reference files) | Only when you import them | Your library in your browser. Scans and PDFs are kept whole so their pages can be shown | So you can read, mark, cite and transcribe them |
| The words Page Studio reads from a scanned page, and your corrections, review status and notes | Only when you press *Read this page*, or correct, review or annotate | Your library in your browser. The machine's reading is kept unchanged beside your corrections | So the transcription can be checked, corrected, cited and exported |
| Your collections, notes, marks, relationships and readings of evidence | When you make them | Your library in your browser | They are your research |
| Settings (for example, whether online search is on) | When you change them | Your browser | To remember your choices |
| A list of requests sent to online archives in this session | When a request is sent | Session storage in your browser; cleared when the browser closes, or by you | So you can see exactly what was sent, to whom and when |
| Study record (kinds of actions, counts, timings, ease ratings; never any text, names, titles, places, addresses or searches) | Only if you join the optional study in Settings, after reading what is kept and agreeing | Your browser | To help evaluate Lens, if you choose to give the exported file to someone |
Page Studio reads text from page images on your own computer, inside the extension. The page image and the words read from it are never uploaded to the publisher, to Tierline, or to any OCR, AI or cloud service.
What leaves your browser
Nothing leaves your browser unless you do one of the following:
- Search the online archives. Online search is off until you turn it on in a consent panel. When it is on and you search, Lens sends the words in the search box (you see and can edit them first; at most 200 characters) and any filters you chose to the Library of Congress (
www.loc.gov) and/or the Internet Archive (archive.org), whichever you enabled. Requests carry no cookies and no referrer. - Read a newspaper page Lens found, or search inside a book. Lens asks the archive for the page's word positions (
tile.loc.gov) or searches inside the book (iiif.archive.org), sending the item's identifier and your search words. - Show a page image. When you ask to see a scan or a region of a page, your browser requests that image from the archive that holds it (
tile.loc.gov,archive.org,iiif.archive.org). Lens does not store it. - Open a link. Opening an original page or a catalog record is an ordinary visit to that website.
- Save a file. Packets, citation files, exports and backups are files you choose to save on your computer.
Those archives handle the requests under their own privacy policies: Library of Congress and Internet Archive. Tierline Lens is not affiliated with either.
The publisher receives nothing from the extension: no usage data, no error reports, no content.
Sharing and selling
Lens does not sell, rent or share your data with anyone. The only data sent to a third party is what is listed under *What leaves your browser*, sent at your request to the archive you chose. Lens's use of information complies with the Chrome Web Store User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
Keeping and deleting
Your library stays in your browser profile until you delete it. You can:
- delete any source, passage, note or document (deleting a document deletes its scans and transcriptions);
- export a backup file of your library, and restore it later;
- erase everything from Settings (you type "erase" to confirm);
- remove the extension, which removes its storage from the browser.
Session storage is cleared whenever the browser closes. The optional study record is deleted when you leave the study or erase everything.
Permissions
Lens reads a web page only after you click its button, press its shortcut or use its right-click menu there, and only the frame you selected in. It does not run on pages in the background and has no access to your browsing history. If you ask Lens to find a saved passage again on a site it cannot currently read, Chrome asks you whether to allow access to that one site.
Children
Lens is a research tool and is not directed at children. It collects no information from anyone.
Changes
If Lens's handling of data changes, this policy will be updated before the new version is published, with a new effective date, and the change will be described in the extension's release notes.
Contact
Questions about privacy: tierline.archives@gmail.com.