Show HN: Chrome extension to blur personal data before screen capture

I normally run a https://crxcavator.io/ check on any extension, but cannot because it's free. I'm assuming this is all done locally?

"pretty secure"

It's either completely secure or it isn't secure at all.

Blurs can be deconvolved if the point spread function is known or can be guessed. Two blurs is just security through obscurity and hoping that numerical precision / stability issues work out in your favor.

Just black out sensitive areas.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deconvolution

http://refocus-it.sourceforge.net/

Security shouldn't be opt-in; you should be secure by default because most users will stay with the default (which is reasonable - the entire point of the extension is to prevent information leaks, and as the author you're the domain expert and your users should be able to trust your judgement which comes in the form of a default).

Also, may I propose that as replacement text before blurring you use ads targeted at computer graphics researchers. /jk

Chrome and privacy don't go together. Are you planning on releasing a version for Firefox?

Porting extensions to FF is very easy because of how similar WebExtensions is to the Chrome extension API: https://wiki.mozilla.org/WebExtensions

When you click to install, it says the extension can "read and change your data on www.googleapis.com".

Can't it read and change your data on any site where you invoke it, not just www.googleapis.com? This seems like an interesting conundrum — the only pages where you would invoke it are pages that have information you'd like to keep private. But you're granting the developer of the extension read/write access to the content on these pages, which seems unwise unless you know and trust the dev.

As someone with an accessibility-related extension that needs broad access, I can say that some folks are hesitant to install any extensions that have broad read/write access. Some companies (including Google, I'm told) forbid employees from installing extensions that have global read/write access, and would presumably feel the same way about this extension since it is intended to be invoked on pages with private content. I wish the creator the best of luck — this seems like a cool tool! — but I wonder about how this will pan out.

A couple pricing suggestions, since I also started out at $10/yr: set your price higher and offer coupons. I thought the affordability and simplicity of $10/yr would be a winner, but it isn't. People expect discounts on software, so they'll wait until they get one. If you don't give a coupon, many of them will give up and uninstall. You'll have more revenue AND more customers if you price at $15 and give random $5-off coupons.

Also, it appears this is a free trial that becomes paid, with no free functionality past the expiration of the trial. I would suggest allowing some functionality (perhaps 2x uses per month?) to post-trial users, so they have a reason to stick around instead of just uninstalling.

It would also provide a greater inducement for people to sign up — I like the idea of your extension, but I won't install because I don't value it at $10/yr — and I don't want to spend time learning how to use a tool that I'm only going to have access to for a short time. If there were an ongoing-but-usage-limited functionality, I would be much more likely to install.

I'm happy to share more learnings from 7 years in the Chrome Store, if you find any of this helpful. Contact info is in my profile.