Privacy Policy
Last updated: 2026-04-21
amem is a local-first knowledge capture system. This document covers the Chrome extension (“amem Clipper”) and the native CLI (“amem”). Companion repos: amem-clipper, amem-sh.
What amem does
amem captures web pages, papers, and recordings into your personal, local-first knowledge base. Everything stays on your machine unless you explicitly opt into a sync destination.
Data collection
amem does not collect, transmit, or store any user data on external servers. There is no backend, no database, no analytics, no telemetry.
What amem Clipper accesses
- Active tab when you click the amem action, open the side panel, or pick a context-menu entry — to read the page title, URL, and (when asked) visible text.
- Local storage (
chrome.storage.local) — for capture history and preferences. - Local WebSocket at
ws://127.0.0.1:7600(the amem bridge) — only when running on your own machine, to write captures to your filesystem. No external network calls. - Tab recording (
tabCapture) — only while you are actively recording from the side panel. Recordings are saved directly to your browser Downloads folder as.webmfiles.
What amem Clipper does NOT do
- Does not read your browsing history.
- Does not track your activity or behavior.
- Does not send data to any third-party server.
- Does not use Google Drive, OAuth, or any cloud provider in this release.
- Does not record audio.
Permissions explained
| Permission | Why |
|---|---|
storage | Save capture history and settings locally in the browser. |
activeTab | Access the current tab when you initiate a capture. |
scripting | Inject capture helpers into the active tab when you press capture. |
sidePanel | Render the amem side panel UI. |
alarms | Periodically retry the local bridge connection. |
tabs | Read the current tab’s URL and title for the capture record. |
tabCapture | Record the active tab’s video stream (explicit user action only). |
offscreen | Host MediaRecorder in an offscreen document (service workers can’t). |
contextMenus | Offer right-click capture entries. |
downloads | Save recordings to your Downloads folder as .webm files. |
host_permissions: <all_urls> | Capture works on whatever page you are viewing. Nothing is read without an explicit capture action. |
amem CLI + crate
The native amem binary (installed via amem install, brew, or cargo) runs entirely on your machine. It reads and writes only ~/.amem/ and (optionally) paths you pass as arguments. It makes outbound HTTPS requests only when you run amem capture <url> — strictly to fetch the URL you asked for (e.g., arXiv PDF, YouTube audio via yt-dlp). No analytics, no telemetry.
Contact
Questions about this policy: open an issue at https://github.com/yiidtw/amem-clipper/issues or https://github.com/yiidtw/amem-sh/issues.