Vistra — Privacy Policy
Last updated: June 24, 2026
Vistra is a Chrome extension that provides OCR (optical character recognition)
and translation for web pages, captured screenshots, clipboard images, and
selected text. This page explains what data Vistra handles and where it goes.
Vistra has no backend server of its own. It never collects, stores, or sees
your data on any server we operate — everything either stays on your device
or is sent directly from your browser to the third-party services described
below, which you provide your own credentials for.
What data Vistra processes, and why
-
Images you choose to translate — screenshots of the page
you're viewing, a cropped region you select, or an image you paste/drop/read
from your clipboard. These are sent to
OCR.space,
a third-party OCR service, using the personal API key you provide in
Settings, purely to recognize the text in the image.
-
Text you choose to translate — typed into the Text tab, the
text Vistra's clipboard tool recognizes from an image, or text you select on
a page and right-click "Translate with Vistra." This is sent to Google's
public translation service to produce the translated result.
-
Your settings — your OCR.space API key and chosen source/
target languages are stored using Chrome's built-in
chrome.storage.sync, which syncs through your own Google
account across your devices. Vistra never transmits these settings
anywhere except as part of the OCR/translation requests above.
Clipboard and screenshot access only happen when you actively trigger a
feature (pasting an image, clicking "Crop & Translate," etc.) — Vistra
does not passively monitor your clipboard, browsing, or page content.
Permissions Vistra requests
-
activeTab — to capture a screenshot of the tab you're
currently viewing only when you click "Translate Page" or "Crop &
Translate," and to identify that tab so the translation can be applied
to it.
-
tabs — to query which tab is currently active so Vistra
can target the right tab when you trigger a translation from the popup
or a keyboard shortcut.
-
scripting — to inject Vistra's content script into the
active tab on demand if it isn't already running (for example, on tabs
opened before Vistra was installed or updated), so on-page translation
works without requiring a page reload.
-
storage — to store your OCR.space API key and language
preferences locally via
chrome.storage.sync.
-
contextMenus — to add a "Translate with Vistra" option
to the right-click menu for selected text.
-
clipboardRead — to read an image from your clipboard
only when you click "read from clipboard" or paste an image into the
Clipboard tab, so Vistra can run OCR on it.
-
Host permission (all sites) — Vistra's translation
features (Translate Page, Crop & Translate, right-click translate)
can be invoked on any website you're visiting, so the content script
needs to be able to run on any site you choose to use it on. No data is
read or transmitted unless you explicitly trigger one of these actions.
What Vistra does not do
- No analytics, telemetry, or usage tracking of any kind.
- No advertising or ad-tracking identifiers.
- No selling or sharing of your data with third parties, beyond the
OCR/translation requests described above that are required to perform the
action you asked for.
- No use of your data for credit, lending, or any purpose unrelated to
translating the content you selected.
Third-party services
Images and text you submit for OCR or translation are sent directly from
your browser to these services, governed by their own privacy policies:
- OCR.space — text recognition, using your own API key.
- Google — translation, via Google's public translation service.
Data retention & control
Vistra itself retains nothing — there's no Vistra server. Your settings live
in chrome.storage.sync under your own Google account and are
removed if you uninstall the extension or clear it from Chrome's sync data.
What OCR.space or Google retain on their end is governed by their respective
policies linked above.
Children's privacy
Vistra is not directed at children under 13 and does not knowingly collect
data from children.
Changes to this policy
If this policy changes, the update will be posted on this page with a new
"Last updated" date.
Contact
Questions about this policy can be sent through the developer contact
link on Vistra's Chrome Web Store listing.