fastretouch

Privacy policy

Nothing leaves
your machine.

Retouch is a Chrome extension that edits the text of HTML files on your own disk and saves them in place. This page says exactly what it stores, what it reads and writes, and what it never does. It is short because there is little to tell.

Effective 21 October 2026 (updated for the review card and the uninstall question). Applies to Retouch 0.5.0 and later, installed from the Chrome Web Store, the Microsoft Edge Add-ons store or GitHub.

No serverRetouch makes no network requests. There is no account, no sign-in, no upload and no update check of its own.
No analyticsNo usage tracking, crash reporting, telemetry or third-party scripts of any kind.
No browsing dataRetouch runs only on file:// pages you open, and only does anything after you click its icon. It never sees websites.
No sharing or saleThere is nothing to share. Retouch has no data about you and transfers none to anyone, including us.
Files you chooseIt reads the HTML file you open and writes the same file when you press Save. Images you pick are copied beside the page.
Folders you grantIt remembers the folders you allow, on your device, so the next Save needs no dialog.
Your undo historyBefore each Save it keeps the previous version of that file on your device, so you can undo or restore it.

What Retouch stores on your device

Retouch keeps four kinds of record in the browser's storage for the extension (IndexedDB), on your computer only:

  • Folder grants. When you pick a folder in Chrome's folder dialog so Retouch can save into it, Chrome hands the extension a handle for that folder. Retouch stores the handle, the folder's name, the path prefix under which it found your file, and the time you added it. This is what lets the next Save happen without another dialog. Chrome still asks you to confirm the grant once after each restart.
  • Version history. Each time you press Save, Retouch first keeps a copy of the file as it was on disk, so "Undo" and History can put it back. It keeps the newest 20 versions of each file, and drops the oldest when one file's versions pass 25 MB. Only files you saved with Retouch get history.
  • How far you have got. One word: whether you have switched on file access, opened a page in Retouch, or saved one. It is used only for the page Chrome opens if you remove Retouch (see below).
  • Notes for your AI. Requests you pin in Prompt mode (your note, the quoted text of the element and where it sits in the file) are kept per file until you clear them, so they survive closing the tab.

That is the whole list. Retouch keeps no list of the files you open, no settings that describe you and no identifiers, and none of this ever leaves your computer. Uninstalling the extension deletes all of it. You can also revoke a folder at any time from Chrome's site settings for the extension.

While you are editing, the file's text and the page's stylesheets are held in memory so Retouch can patch the source exactly and list the styles the page already uses. That memory is released when you leave the page.

What Retouch reads and writes

  • The file you open. When you click the Retouch icon on a file:// page, Retouch reads that HTML file so it can show it in the editor and patch its source when you save.
  • The file you save. Save rewrites only the text runs or elements you changed, in the original file, in place. Everything else stays byte for byte as it was.
  • Images you choose. If you replace an image, the file you picked is copied into the page's folder under a name that does not collide, and the page is pointed at the copy.
  • Screenshots you ask for. If you capture a region for a note in Prompt mode, the picture is saved as a PNG next to the page, and the copied prompt refers to it. Nothing is captured unless you choose "Capture this area for Retouch".
  • Locating the file. To find your open file inside a granted folder, Retouch walks that folder by name and compares the candidate's contents with the page it is showing. It does not index, list or read other files for any other purpose.
  • The practice page. The tour can write a small tutorial file to Downloads/Retouch so you have something safe to edit. That uses Chrome's downloads permission, which Retouch asks for only at that click and only if you want the page.

Permissions, and why

  • Access to file URLs (file:///*). Retouch edits local files, so it needs to run on pages loaded from your disk. This is the only host permission. It has no access to http or https websites at all, and Chrome keeps even this switched off until you turn on "Allow access to file URLs" in the extension's details.
  • Downloads (optional). Requested once, when you ask for the practice page, because it is the only way for an extension to place a file in a known location and then open it. Decline it and everything else still works.
  • Active tab and context menu. Used together for one thing: when you right-click and choose "Capture this area for Retouch", Chrome lets Retouch take a screenshot of the local page you are editing, once, at that moment. The menu item appears only on file:// pages.

Retouch asks for nothing else: no tabs, no browsing history, no cookies, no access to websites.

What Retouch never does

  • Send any data anywhere. There is no server to send it to and no code that talks to one.
  • Collect analytics, telemetry or crash reports.
  • Read, record or infer your browsing activity. Its script is inert on every page except a local file shown inside the Retouch editor.
  • Load code from the internet. Everything Retouch runs ships inside the extension package and is open source.
  • Sell, share or transfer data about you to anyone, for any purpose. It has none.

The only network activity connected to Retouch is Chrome's own: the Chrome Web Store keeps the extension updated, under Google's privacy policy, and the links on the tour open fastretouch.com or GitHub in a normal tab when you click them. After your third save, the editor may offer two links (and at most once more, later): one to review Retouch on the Chrome Web Store and one to post about it on X. They open in a normal tab only if you click them, and the suggested post carries nothing from your page.

If you remove Retouch, Chrome opens one page on fastretouch.com asking what stopped you. Its address carries the Retouch version and that one word about how far you got, nothing else. GitHub, which hosts the site, sees the page request like any other visit; we keep no analytics, so the answer reaches us only if you choose to send the email the page prepares, and the page shows you everything the email will say before you send it.

Children, changes and contact

Retouch is a general-purpose tool and is not directed at children. It collects no personal information from anyone.

If a future version handles data differently, for instance an optional update check, this page will say so with a new effective date before that version ships, the change will be described in the release notes, and the extension will tell you inside its own interface before the new behaviour is switched on.

Retouch is made by Kamanashish Roy and is open source under the MIT licence. Questions about this policy go to @doubts on X, hello@fastretouch.com or the issue tracker. If you would rather check than trust, read the code.