Privacy policy

What Daylight Commons reads, what it sends and to whom, what it keeps and for how long, and your controls.

Updated 2026-10-25.

Daylight Commons runs in your browser, and everything it reads or works out stays there. It talks to the site you are on, with that site's own session. Two features reach further, and both stay off until you turn them on and click: Other coverage downloads the public news feeds of outlets you choose, and evidence lookups send the repository names and web domains a post links to GitHub, rdap.org and the Internet Archive. Saving media downloads a file from the host the page loaded it from, on your click. Your browser's extension details page lists every site Daylight Commons has access to.

What Daylight Commons reads

Daylight Commons reads what the site you are on has already shown or loaded for you: the replies on the page, the account details the site discloses (for example X's "About this account" label), and the post data the site's own app downloaded. That is the same material the site shows any viewer. IP addresses stay out of it.

Requests Daylight Commons makes

Every request below goes to the site you are already using, with that site's own session in your browser:

Site	Request	When
X	The "About this account" data for reply authors, through the same request X's own app makes, at most one account every 1.5 seconds and slower when X says it is busy	Automatically while "Read account details automatically" is on
X	One account's profile and About page in a minimised window, so Daylight Commons can learn X's request the first time, or when you ask Daylight Commons to read accounts	The first time, and when you ask
Reddit	Reddit's public account data (`/user/<name>/about.json`) for comment authors, one account every 2 seconds	Automatically while that setting is on

On Bluesky, Threads, TikTok and Mastodon servers Daylight Commons reads the page and copies the responses the site's own app already loaded: on TikTok and Mastodon, the comment and thread lists. Request headers and login tokens stay with the site.

Mastodon servers. You turn Daylight Commons on one Mastodon server at a time. Open the toolbar button on a Mastodon page and it checks that page for the Mastodon web app, its version and its domain. It then offers "Turn on Daylight Commons here", and your browser asks you to allow access to that one server. The servers you turned on are kept in pb.instances.v1; Options, Mastodon servers, Remove takes the access back.

Fact-checks and site cards come from tables bundled inside Daylight Commons, so the matching happens on your device. Site cards show a site's owner, owner type, founding date, country, state links and fact-check record. They appear on links, on search results when you turn an engine on, and on the page you are reading when you press "Site card for this page".

Evidence lookups (off by default)

Turn evidence lookups on from the first "Look up evidence" click under a launch campaign section, or in the options page. Each lookup is one click, for the post you are viewing, and sends one thing: the repository names (owner/repo) and web domains that post links to. They go to GitHub's API (api.github.com), to rdap.org, which forwards to the registry for the domain, and to the Internet Archive (web.archive.org). Each service sees an ordinary web request without cookies: your IP address and the time. A GitHub token you add in the options page stays in this browser and goes to api.github.com alone, to read star timestamps. Ad libraries appear as links for you to open yourself. "Save this post to the Internet Archive" opens the archive's own save page in a tab, and the archive then sees which post you asked it to save. Results are kept as sealed receipts in this browser (pb.seal.v1) until you clear Daylight Commons data.

Other coverage (off by default)

Turn Other coverage on in the options page, then pick outlets from a suggested list or add any RSS or Atom feed address. Each outlet you choose asks the browser for access to that one feed's host. When you click "Find other coverage" on an article's site card, Daylight Commons downloads each chosen outlet's feed from the feed's own address and compares the article's title with the feed's headlines on your device.

Each request is a plain download of a public feed, with your browser's standard headers and nothing added: no cookies, no referrer, and no redirect followed to another address. The outlet sees your IP address and the time, and could guess that someone was reading news at that moment. Answers live in memory for ten minutes. Before the first request the card lists every host it will ask and waits for your click; adding an outlet asks again. Turning the option off withdraws every feed host's permission and forgets your choices.

Daylight Commons 2.x used the GDELT Project's search service for this feature, which received the main words of the title. Daylight Commons 3.0 replaced it with the feed downloads above and gives back that permission on update.

The window offers reverse image search links (Google Lens, TinEye, Bing, Yandex) for media. When you click one, that service receives the image address.

Media checks, when you click. "Check this file" re-requests one image or video file the page already loaded, from the exact address the page used (for X, its own media server), without cookies, so the browser usually answers from its cache. Daylight Commons reads the file's Content Credentials and metadata in the tab and keeps the result in memory. "Take 4 frames" copies frames from the page's own video player in the tab. Choosing a search service then copies one frame to your clipboard and opens that service; the frame reaches it when you paste it there. Credentials stored online (a file that points to a remote manifest) stay where they are.

Reading text in an image, when you click. Turn on "Read text in images" in the options page. "Read text in this image" then re-requests that one image the same way, from the address the page used and without cookies, and hands its bytes to Daylight Commons' own background worker in your browser. Code and weights shipped inside Daylight Commons read the words there. The image, the text and any hash of either stay in your browser, and the text lasts as long as that window.

Saved media, conversions and ad blocking

Save to Daylight and Save media from this page read the current tab once, on your click, to list the media it loaded. On Save, your browser asks you to let Daylight Commons reach the one host each file or stream comes from (for example pbs.twimg.com); it then downloads the file from there, as the page did, with your browser's own cookies for that host. Nothing from the page is sent anywhere else.
Saved files, their hashes, addresses, page, time, tags, notes and lineage are kept in this browser's IndexedDB for the extension, until you delete them on the collections page ("Delete all saved media") or remove Daylight Commons. A case save also adds the file's address, page and hash to the case list in chrome.storage.local.
Ask the Internet Archive to keep a copy, a tick box on a case save that is off unless you tick it, sends the saved file's address (or the page's, for a stream) to web.archive.org. Firefox asks you to allow "browsing activity" for this the first time.
Download, Download as GIF, Copy, Copy link and Copy with caption read the current tab once, on your click (the Download button on X and Reddit posts reads that post). The file comes from the host the page loaded it from, with the same request the page's own player makes; cookies go only to the page's own site. It goes to your Downloads folder through your browser's downloads. The post's text, author, time, alt text and links that the page already shows go into a .md file beside it and into the file's own description; nothing is fetched for them and nothing is sent anywhere. Both can be turned off in the settings.
The Download control on pictures and videos watches where the pointer rests, in that tab only, to know when to show; it reads and sends nothing until you click it. It runs on the sites Daylight Commons reads, and on every https site only after you turn on "Show it on every site", when your browser asks you once. Alt+Shift+D reads the current tab once, on the key press. Study, Save as note, Save selection and Save as card keep text the page shows (and, for a card, a picture made on this device) in your Downloads folder; nothing is sent.
On YouTube, Save reference keeps the thumbnail the page shows and a note; Daylight Commons never downloads YouTube video. The command line's daylight media fetch, which you run yourself, asks yt-dlp to download from the address you give it.
The side panel shows what the window beside a post would show. It reads nothing itself.
Protected media (DRM or encrypted streams) is never downloaded.
Convert and compress runs on this device. No file is uploaded.
Ad and tracker blocking, off until you turn it on, is done by your browser's own blocking engine with the bundled EasyList and EasyPrivacy rules. Daylight Commons does not see which requests were blocked. The sites where you allowed ads are kept with your settings.

Source protection, off until you turn it on (toolbar menu, Source protection), stops every request in this policy that Daylight Commons makes on its own: no About pages or Reddit account data read for you, no evidence lookups, no Other coverage, no Internet Archive copy, and no file downloaded again from its host. Save to Daylight keeps only what the page already holds in memory. Download gives Share clean copies, and every evidence bundle is carrier-safe. The toolbar button shows a P while it is on. The sites you open still load their own pages and record what you do there; the mode's own page lists what it cannot protect against. It has not yet been independently reviewed.
Share clean (Collections, and the save page's result) makes a copy of a saved file with what the file says about itself removed: EXIF with GPS, XMP, IPTC, colour-profile text, comments, video tags and dates, PDF and office document authors, and the description Daylight Commons wrote into it. It runs on this device and sends nothing. The copy gets a neutral name. The saved file keeps everything, as your evidence copy, and its record gains a line tying the two hashes together.
What Daylight shows about you runs Daylight Commons' account signals on your own account: your profile as X already loaded it in this browser, read only when the page shows you signed in on your own profile, or the data export files you choose. It sends nothing and keeps nothing.
On the command line, daylight case add no longer asks the Wayback Machine for a copy unless you pass --archive or turn the case's archive setting on.

Discourse checks

Off until you turn on Discourse checks in the options. The quote index and the name list ship inside the extension and are read in its background worker; a post's text and an account's display name and handle go there, inside your browser, and nowhere else. Counts, replies and document pages are read on the page. Document pages are read only on your click, with Read text in images on. Nothing is kept beyond the page, except what you save as a study item.

The argument lens, with its claim-type, inference-gap and reframing markers, is off until you turn it on under the discourse checks. It reads the post's own text on the page and sends nothing.

What Daylight Commons keeps, where, and for how long

Everything is kept in chrome.storage.local (Firefox: browser.storage.local) in the browser profile you installed Daylight Commons in, on this device.

Store	What it holds	Kept for
Settings (`pb.settings`)	Your choices on the options page	Until you change them or remove Daylight Commons
Account details (`pb.about.v1`, `pb.reddit.v1`)	What X or Reddit disclosed about accounts you saw: location label, join date, counts, name changes, and a summary of posting times and apps	14 days by default; 1 to 30 days in options
Connections log (`pb.net.v2`)	Which accounts replied in which threads you opened, how many seconds after the post, link domains, and a short hash of each reply's wording in place of the wording	30 days, or your shorter history setting
Source trails (`pb.trail.v1`)	Post ids, handles and times that carried the same upload or link	30 days, or your shorter history setting
Thread history (`pb.history.v1`)	One summary per thread you opened: counts, origins, flagged shares, linked sites, Community Note and fact-check counts	60 days by default; 1 to 60 days in options, at most 600 threads
Feed tally (`pb.feed.v1`)	Per site and day: the ids of feed posts counted (so each counts once), how many linked each site, and how many showed strong rhetoric signs, a Community Note or a fact-check match	60 days by default; follows the history setting
Saved files (`pb.saved.v1`)	For each file you downloaded: its address (or, for a file made on this device, its SHA-256) and the name it was saved under, so the same file is not saved twice	Until you delete your data; at most 20,000 files, the oldest dropped first
Media checks (`pb.media.v1`)	For each file you asked Daylight Commons to check: a short hash of its address, the site, the time and the outcome (credentials intact, partly checked, changed, stored online, or absent), for the survival count on the feed page	60 days by default; follows the history setting; at most 5,000 files
Thread card (session storage)	The card you asked for from a thread panel, and the thread's posts as the page showed them, so the card page can build a signed evidence bundle if you ask for one. The card names no account	Until the browser closes
Bundle key (IndexedDB `radar-keys`)	The ECDSA P-256 key pair Daylight Commons makes the first time you save a signed evidence bundle. The browser stores the private half so it can sign and stays sealed against reading, export or sending. Carrier-safe bundles use their own one-time keys	Until you remove Daylight Commons
Your feedback (`pb.feedback.v1`)	Your "This was right" and "This was wrong" marks: which sign (its kind, the post id and a short hash of its label), the thread, your mark and the time, plus the post text when you ticked "include the text"	Until you clear it or remove Daylight Commons; at most 2,000 marks, the oldest dropped first
Count ledger (`pb.ledger.v1`)	For each launch post you opened: its post id and the public counts (reposts, likes, replies, quotes, bookmarks, views) at each visit, at most one point per 10 minutes	30 days, at most 48 visits per post and 500 posts
Evidence log (`pb.seal.v1`)	The receipts of evidence lookups you ran: what GitHub, RDAP and the Internet Archive said about a repository or domain, when, a hash of each answer, and the chain that seals them	Until you clear Daylight Commons data; at most 2,000 receipts
GitHub token (`pb.evidence.github`)	The token you add in the options page, sent to api.github.com alone	Until you remove it or clear Daylight Commons data
Launch overlap (`pb.campaign.v1`)	For each launch post you opened with enough accounts loaded: its post id and salted hashes of the sampled accounts (a random salt made in your browser that stays there), so the campaign lens can count accounts seen on several launches. "Forget launches I viewed" in the thread panel clears it	30 days, at most 200 launches
Account details from other sites (`pb.meta.v1`)	What Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky or a Mastodon server showed about accounts you saw: join date, counts, labels, renames	14 days
Mastodon servers (`pb.instances.v1`)	The servers you turned Daylight Commons on for	Until you remove them
Catalogue age (`pb.head.v1`)	After you check a signed head on the options page: its version, a hash of it, its signed time and expiry, the catalogue version and how many signatures it carried. Used to refuse an older head and to show how old the catalogue is	Until you remove Daylight Commons
Data packs (`pb.packs.v1`, `pb.packkeys.v1`)	Pack files you imported on the options page, whether each is on, and the public keys you chose to trust. Packs arrive only as files you pick, and stay in this browser	Until you remove them
X request shape (`pb.tpl`)	The shape of X's About request, so Daylight Commons can repeat it. The login token is read fresh from X's cookie each time	Until X changes it or you clear Daylight Commons' data

Post data from the page (views, posting app, media upload times) is held in memory for the tab and goes when you close it.

Carrier-safe evidence bundles

An ordinary bundle is signed with this browser's own key, so every bundle you save carries the same key id, and it records the exact save time and the page address. Anyone who holds two of your bundles can tell they came from one install. For a bundle you will hand to someone else, tick Carrier-safe on the card page, or use radar analyze --carrier-safe on the command line. A carrier-safe bundle:

is signed with a one-time key made for that bundle alone and discarded when the signing ends;
keeps the day it was saved and blanks every time of day inside it;
carries a page address when you type one in;
names the tool by its major version.

Its signature proves the bundle is unchanged and says nothing about who made it. Anyone watching the network can still link two bundles sent from one connection, and the post ids identify the thread and, on X, when each post was made. For information that could put you at risk, use a newsroom's SecureDrop or a GlobaLeaks site through Tor Browser, with their own tools for removing hidden data. The carrier-safe profile awaits independent review.

Your controls

Options page: switch Daylight Commons off per site or pause it everywhere, change how long it keeps data, and press "Clear all Daylight Commons data", then confirm, to delete everything above except your choices: your settings, the Mastodon servers you turned on, your data packs and the keys you trust, and the tour's "No more tips". The bundle signing key stays too, so bundles you already shared still check as yours.
History page: clear the history, connections and trails on their own.
Save report: writes a JSON file to your computer when you click it, with the thread report, account labels and flags and without reply text.
Save feedback to a file (options page): writes your marks to a JSON file on your computer when you click it. You choose whether to share it, for example by attaching it to an issue on Daylight Commons' repository. "Clear feedback" deletes your marks.
Analyse a file: reads a saved page, thread JSON, a platform data export or a media file you choose, on your device, and leaves the file where it is.
Save signed bundle (Analyse a file and the thread card page): writes a JSON file to your computer when you click it. It holds post ids, the evidence with the matched words, Daylight Commons' version, a hash of its data tables, the time and your bundle key's public half. Tick the box to include full post text. The file stays on your computer for you to share.
Removing Daylight Commons deletes everything it kept.

What Daylight Commons sends, in full

To the sites you use: the requests in the table above.
To GitHub, rdap.org and the Internet Archive: the repository names and web domains a post links to, when evidence lookups are on and you click.
To the news outlets you chose: a feed download, when Other coverage is on and you click.
To the host a saved file came from: the download of that file, when you click Save.
To the Internet Archive: a saved file's address, when you tick "Ask the Internet Archive to keep a copy" on a case save.

With source protection on, the list is empty: only the sites you open load their own pages.

That is the whole list. Your data serves the features above and stays out of advertising and sale. Account labels show what each site discloses about an account, kept per site; Daylight Commons leaves who runs an account, and anyone's age, gender, ethnicity, religion or politics, unguessed.

Changes

Changes to this policy are listed in Daylight Commons' changelog with the version that made them.

Contact: open an issue on Daylight Commons' repository.

Daylight Commons reads the site you are on. It contacts anything else only when you turn on Other coverage or evidence lookups and click. Free and open source under the AGPL-3.0.