Privacy Policy

Spartan Shield for Chrome (version 5.0.0 and later) and for Safari on Mac, iPhone and iPad (version 5.1.0 and later)

Effective 3 November 2026 · Developer: GZVS (Georgios Zacharidis)

Summary

Spartan Shield does not collect, store on any server, sell or share any personal data. Everything the extension does happens inside your browser. The developer has no servers, analytics or telemetry, and never receives any information about you or your browsing.

What Spartan Shield does

Spartan Shield blocks ads, trackers, tracking parameters, social media widgets, cookie-consent pop-ups and known dangerous websites. You can also turn on optional adult-site and gambling-site blocking. It does this with filter rules packaged inside the extension, which the browser's built-in content-blocking engine applies (Declarative Net Request in Chrome; in Safari, the same rules become Safari content blockers). Safari can't hold the very large dangerous-site, adult and gambling lists as content blockers, so in Safari Spartan Shield checks the address of each page you open against those packaged lists, on your device, as the page starts loading. Packaged CSS hides empty ad placeholders. On youtube.com, a packaged script removes ad entries from the video player's data and skips video ads.

Its safety features warn you about fake websites and unsafe password pages. They also stop pages from secretly copying commands to your clipboard or asking to send notifications, skip tracking redirect links, and send websites the Global Privacy Control signal. They spot tech-support scam pages that try to trap you, and ask you to double-check the address the first time you sign in to a new site.

Information processed on your device

To work, the extension has to process some information locally. None of it ever leaves your device:

• Web addresses and requests. The browser compares the requests it makes against Spartan Shield's bundled rules. The extension doesn't receive or log these requests, and it keeps no history of the sites you visit or the requests it blocks.
• Page hostname. On each page, the cleanup script reads the site's hostname in memory, only to check whether you've added that site to your allowed websites.

• YouTube player data. On youtube.com, a script edits the video player's data in the page's memory to remove ad entries. It doesn't read, store or send your viewing history, account details or any other content.

• Website address checks. The fake-site check compares the address of the page you're on with a list of well-known brands bundled in the extension. The password check notes whether a page has a password field and whether the page uses HTTPS. Neither check reads what you type.

• Text a page tries to copy. When a website tries to put text on your clipboard, Spartan Shield checks that text in memory for hidden commands (like PowerShell or Terminal commands). If it finds one, it stops the copy and shows you the command. Spartan Shield never reads your clipboard, and never stores or sends what it checked.
• Notification requests. When a website asks to show notifications, Spartan Shield declines on your behalf unless you've allowed that site.
• Scam page behaviour. To spot tech-support scam pages, Spartan Shield notices when a page forces fullscreen, locks your keyboard or mouse, repeats pop-up dialogs or plays sound, and checks the page's visible text in memory for scare phrases like "virus detected, call support". Nothing about the page is stored or sent.
• Password fields for the first sign-in check. When you click into a password field, Spartan Shield checks whether you've signed in to that site before. It never reads what you type.
• Page addresses (Safari). When a page starts loading, Spartan Shield compares its website address with the packaged dangerous-site list, and with the adult and gambling lists if you turned those on. The check happens in memory on your device; the address isn't stored or sent anywhere.
• Tracking redirect links. When you open a link like l.facebook.com/l.php?u=… or google.com/url?q=…, Spartan Shield reads the real address from the link and opens it directly, so the tracking step is skipped.

Spartan Shield doesn't read what you type into forms, your passwords, messages, clipboard contents or the text of the pages you visit.

Information stored on your device

Spartan Shield stores the following in your browser profile, using the browser's extension storage:

• Your filter settings (which shields are on or off)
• The list of websites you've chosen to allow, the sites you've let ask for notifications, and the sites you've told it not to warn about
• Whether the filters were applied successfully
• A count of scams and dangerous sites stopped, shown in the popup. No addresses are kept.
• For the first sign-in check: scrambled fingerprints (one-way hashes) of the sites you sign in to. They can't be turned back into addresses, and you can clear them in Settings with "Forget them".
• Temporarily, the result of the "Test blocking" check if you run it, and any dangerous site you chose to open with "Proceed anyway". Both are cleared when the browser closes.

None of this is synced to your Google or iCloud account or sent to the developer or anyone else. Your settings are shared between normal and private (Incognito) windows. They're deleted when you remove the extension.

Signals sent to websites

When "Do-not-sell signal (GPC)" is on, your browser sends websites the standard Sec-GPC: 1 header, and pages can read navigator.globalPrivacyControl = true. This signal contains no information about you. It tells the site you don't want your data sold or shared, and websites have to honour it under several privacy laws.

Data sharing and selling

Spartan Shield has no backend, analytics, advertising SDK, crash reporting or automatic filter-list downloads. It doesn't transmit, sell, rent or share any user data, and it doesn't use data for advertising, profiling or creditworthiness. Filter lists are updated only through new versions of the extension published on the Chrome Web Store and the App Store.

Permissions

External links

The popup and settings page contain a link to the developer's GitHub profile (https://github.com/GZVS) and, in the Chrome version, an optional donation link (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/Zacharidis). These links open only when you click them, and they send no referrer or other data from the extension. Once you're on those sites, their own privacy policies apply.

Children

Spartan Shield doesn't collect personal information from anyone, including children under 13.

Your choices

You can pause all protection, turn any filter off, add or remove allowed websites, or uninstall the extension at any time. Uninstalling removes all data the extension stored.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the updated version will be published at this address with a new effective date. If Spartan Shield ever starts handling data differently, it will ask for your consent first.

Contact

Questions about this policy: gzvsDev@icloud.com