Guide
Is your scraper extension safe? Check what it sends.
A scraper extension sees every page you point it at, and often every page you visit. Extensions change hands, and a new owner can change what one collects. You don't need to trust anyone's word: here is a ten-minute check you can run on any of them, Magic Scraper included.
A ten-minute check for any extension
Read the permissions
In Chrome, open chrome://extensions, press Details. "Read and change all your data on all websites" means it can see every page you open, not just the one you scrape.
Read the privacy disclosures
On the store listing, open Privacy practices. Look for "Web history", "Personally identifiable information" or "Website content" being collected.
Watch its traffic
Open the page, press F12, choose Network, then scrape. Requests to a domain that isn't the site you're on are the extension talking to someone.
Check who owns it now
Look at the publisher on the listing and the developer's website. When a popular extension is sold, the name stays the same and the owner changes.
Look for consent screens
A screen asking you to "accept all" before the tool works is asking for something. Read what.
Magic Scraper's answers
Your data: what you scrape stays in your browser until you save a file or, with Pro, send it to a Google Sheet in your own account or to a webhook address you set. Finding a table, picking one by hand and exporting it make no network requests at all. There is no account and no server of ours for anything to go to.
| When | What is requested | |
|---|---|---|
| Crawling or drill-down | Further pages of the site you're on, after you press Start | |
| Activating Pro | Your licence key to Gumroad, once, to confirm the purchase | |
| Send to Google Sheets (Pro, from 1.23) | The rows you send, straight to your own sheet at Google | |
| Send to webhook (Pro, from 1.23) | The rows you send, to the https address you saved, and nowhere else | |
| Install and uninstall | A welcome page opens, and a page asking why on removal | |
| Anything else | Nothing: no analytics, no tracking, no AI service |
Permissions: it asks for access to the tab you click it on, to save downloads and to open the side panel. Wider access, such as reading other tabs for a crawl or keeping a schedule, is optional and asked for only when you use the feature that needs it. Each one is explained on the privacy page.
Run the check above on it. If you ever see a request that isn't in this table, tell us.
Why it matters for scraping
Scraping work is often confidential: a prospect list, a competitor's prices, research nobody has published yet. A tool that sends the pages you visit, or your results, to its own servers or an AI model is sharing that work, whatever its terms say about it.
For how the ownership of one popular scraper changed, see who makes Instant Data Scraper now.
Reasonable questions
Are web scraper extensions safe?
Some are and some collect more than you'd expect. Check the permissions, the store's privacy disclosures and the network requests while you scrape, and look at who owns the extension now.
Does Magic Scraper send my data anywhere?
Only where you send it. Scraped data stays in your browser until you save a file or, with Pro, send it to a Google Sheet in your own account. Detection and export make no network requests; otherwise the only requests are further pages of the site you're crawling and a one-time licence check with Gumroad if you buy Pro. Nothing ever goes to us.
Why does a scraper extension need access to all websites?
To work on whatever site you open, and to crawl pages in the background. In Magic Scraper that wider access is optional and requested only when a feature needs it.
How do I see what an extension sends?
Open DevTools with F12, choose the Network tab, and use the extension. Any request to a domain other than the site you're on came from somewhere else, often the extension.
Does Magic Scraper use AI or send pages to a server?
No. Detection runs in your browser with no AI service and no server of ours.
What happens when an extension is sold?
The listing usually keeps its name and users, and the new owner can change what it collects in an update. Check the publisher name and the privacy disclosures after a big update.