Legal

Privacy Policy

Scope

This policy covers two products operated by the team at geminiwatermarkremover.dev.

The web tool at https://geminiwatermarkremover.dev, which removes the four pointed star watermark Google embeds in images generated by Gemini and AI Studio.
The Gemini Watermark Remover Chrome extension, distributed through the Chrome Web Store.

The two products are designed so that image data stays on your device. The sections below describe exactly what is collected, why, and how long it is kept.

The web tool runs in your browser. When you upload an image to the on page editor, the image bytes are processed locally and never leave your device. We do not retain copies of uploaded or downloaded images.

The web tool does collect a small amount of account data when you choose to sign in or buy a Pro license.

Account information. Email address you use to sign in, and the timestamp of account creation. We use this to identify your account and to email you about license activation, refunds, and account security.
Billing information. Payment is handled by Stripe. We receive a Stripe customer id, the last four digits of the card, the country reported by Stripe, and an order amount. We do not see your full card number.
License records. For Pro buyers we store your license key, the email it is bound to, the device ids of the devices that have activated the license (up to three), and the issue date.
Server logs. Standard request logs containing the request path, response status code, IP address, and a timestamp. These are kept for 30 days for abuse mitigation and then deleted.

Chrome extension

The extension processes images entirely on your device. The watermark removal is two paths.

PNG path. PNG images served by Gemini and AI Studio are intercepted in the page world before the page paints them. The bytes are decoded in your browser, the four pointed star watermark is located and removed using a deterministic reverse alpha computation, and the cleaned bytes are returned to the page. The image never leaves your computer.
JPG and WebP path. When you drop a non PNG image into the extension popup, the extension runs a 27 MB MIGAN ONNX inpainting model in your browser. WebGPU is used when available, otherwise WASM SIMD. The model is bundled inside the extension. No image bytes are uploaded to any server.

The extension stores the following data on your device using chrome.storage.local, chrome.storage.session, and IndexedDB. None of it is synced.

Trial counter. A single integer counting how many cleanings you have used during the lifetime trial. Reset on uninstall.
Device id. A random UUID generated on first install. The device id is sent to our license verification endpoint together with your email so we can enforce the three device limit on Pro licenses. It is not a hardware identifier and cannot be linked to your physical device.
License cache. After successful license verification, we cache the result for seven days so the extension keeps working when offline. The cache holds the email, the issue date, the plan tier, and the verification timestamp.
Per-tab gate cache (chrome.storage.session): URL-prefix keys with timestamps to prevent double-counting; cleared on tab close.
Last cleaned image bytes are stored in browser-local IndexedDB so the popup can re-display them after re-opening; never transmitted.

The extension talks to our server only when you choose to enter your Pro email. The request to https://geminiwatermarkremover.dev/api/license/verify carries a Bearer token (which encodes your email server-side via HMAC) and a random device id. We do not transmit any image data, page urls, or browsing history. The server response contains the license validity, the plan tier, and the issue date.

Permissions used by the extension

The Chrome Web Store listing requires us to justify each permission. The full list and the reason for each permission is in our submission record. In summary the extension uses storage to keep the trial counter and license cache, activeTab so the right click context menu can act on the image you click, downloads to save the cleaned file with the original file name, contextMenus to register the right click menu, and offscreen for image processing tasks that require a DOM context outside of the service worker. Host permissions are limited to gemini.google.com, aistudio.google.com, and geminiwatermarkremover.dev.

The extension does not use the tabs, cookies, webRequest, history, or all_urls permissions. It does not read or modify pages outside of the listed hosts.

Website analytics

The website at geminiwatermarkremover.dev loads analytics scripts to measure page views and general traffic patterns. Depending on the configuration in use at any given time, this may include Google Analytics 4, Microsoft Clarity, Plausible, or similar tools. These scripts run on the website only. They may set first-party cookies or use browser storage to count unique sessions and recognize returning visitors. The data collected by these tools is aggregate traffic data such as page paths, referrer, country, and device type. We do not use this data to build advertising profiles.

The Chrome extension does not load any analytics scripts. It does not report usage events, session counts, or any telemetry to our servers or to any third-party analytics service.

Cookies

Website cookies

The website uses cookies in the following contexts.

Authentication. When you sign in, NextAuth sets a session cookie to keep you logged in. This cookie is first-party, scoped to geminiwatermarkremover.dev, and expires when the session ends or when you sign out.
Checkout. When you proceed through Stripe checkout, Stripe sets its own cookies to manage the checkout session and fraud prevention. Those cookies are governed by Stripe's privacy policy at https://stripe.com/privacy.
Analytics. If a third-party analytics tool is active, it may set a first-party cookie to distinguish sessions. These cookies do not contain personal data and are not shared with advertisers.

Extension storage

The extension does not use cookies. It uses chrome.storage.local to store four items on your device: a trial counter, a randomly generated device id, a license verification cache, and a last-result cache. These are described in the Chrome extension section above. None of them are shared with advertising networks.

What we do not collect

We do not collect or transmit any of the following from either product.

Image content. No upload or telemetry contains pixel data, image hashes, or thumbnails.
Browsing history. We do not log which Gemini conversations you visit or which prompts you type.
Cross site identifiers. We do not set advertising cookies and we do not embed third party trackers.
Hardware identifiers. The device id is a random UUID generated locally. It is not derived from MAC address, CPU id, or canvas fingerprint.

Limitations of local processing

We want to be honest about what local processing means in practice.

The PNG reverse alpha pipeline is mathematically reversible and recovers the original pixels exactly when the image is delivered as PNG. For JPG and WebP images, the MIGAN model fills the watermark area using the surrounding context. The output is plausible but not pixel accurate, and on busy areas the inpainting can leave a visible patch. We mention this in the popup so you can decide whether the result is acceptable.

The extension cannot recover an image that Google never sent in the first place. If Gemini falls back to a JPG download for a particular image, the auto path passes the original through unchanged and you can drop the file into the popup to clean it manually with the inpainter.

We share data with the following service providers, and only to the extent necessary to operate the products.

Stripe, for payment processing. Their privacy policy is at https://stripe.com/privacy.
Cloudflare, for hosting the web tool and the license verify endpoint. Their privacy policy is at https://www.cloudflare.com/privacypolicy/.
Neon, for the PostgreSQL database that stores license records. Their privacy policy is at https://neon.tech/privacy.

We do not sell, rent, or share personal data with advertisers. We only disclose data to law enforcement when required by a valid legal request.

Data retention

Account and license records are kept for as long as your account is active and for 30 days after a deletion request to allow refund handling and chargeback dispute. Server request logs are kept for 30 days. Extension storage is local to your browser and is removed when you uninstall the extension or clear browser site data.

Your rights

You can request the following at any time by emailing support@geminiwatermarkremover.dev.

A copy of the personal data we hold about you.
Correction of inaccurate data.
Deletion of your account and license records. Note that deletion will revoke the Pro license. We process deletion requests within 30 days.
Export of your license details for transfer to another email.

If you are in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, the legal basis for the processing described above is contract performance for license records and legitimate interest for server logs and abuse prevention. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.