Privacy Policy

Last updated: 2026-09-29

Mimik is a browser extension that lets you record browser workflows and generate step-by-step guides. This policy explains what happens to your data when you use it.

Summary

Mimik does not collect, transmit, or store any of your data on servers we control. There is no backend, no account system, no analytics, and no telemetry.

Your guides, screenshots and recordings stay on your device. Four things leave the browser, and each is described in full below:

  • Site icons. To show a recognisable icon next to each guide, Mimik asks Google’s public favicon service for the icon belonging to that site’s domain. This is on by default and cannot currently be turned off.
  • AI step descriptions, only if you enable them and supply your own API key.
  • Voice narration, only if you enable it and supply your own API key.
  • Video voice-over, only if you turn it on for a video export and supply your own API key.

The last three are off until you turn them on, and when enabled they send data straight from your browser to the provider you picked — never through us.

What Mimik Stores Locally

While you use Mimik, the following is stored inside your browser via IndexedDB:

  • Guides you create (titles, step descriptions, metadata)
  • Screenshots captured during recording, including any edits, annotations or redactions you make
  • Transcripts of voice narration, if you use it
  • Voice-over audio clips, cached so re-exporting a video does not ask the provider again
  • Your extension settings (language preference, AI configuration, voice configuration, blur preferences)
  • Your API keys, if you configure any (see below)

This data never leaves your device. You can delete any guide, clear all data by uninstalling the extension, or clear browser storage manually at any time.

Site Icons

To make guides easier to tell apart, Mimik shows the favicon of the site each guide was recorded on, in the library, the editor, search results and the guide view.

  • Those icons come from Google’s public favicon service (t1.gstatic.com). Requesting one sends that site’s domain — for example admin.example.com — to Google. The request happens whenever the icon is displayed.
  • Only the domain is sent. No page content, screenshots, step text, URLs beyond the domain, or anything identifying you is included, and the request carries no account or Mimik identifier.
  • This is currently on by default with no setting to disable it. It is why the Firefox manifest declares websiteActivity as required data collection rather than claiming none.
  • Google’s privacy policy governs those requests: https://policies.google.com/privacy

If you would rather this did not happen, the only option today is not to open views that list guides. We are tracking a change to capture the icon locally during recording instead, which would remove the request entirely.

Optional AI Features

Mimik offers optional AI features: generating human-readable step descriptions, generating guide titles, and rewriting a step on request. Using them requires you to choose an AI provider and supply your own API key for it.

When you enable these features:

  • Your API key is stored locally in your browser. Mimik never reads, transmits, or relays it to us.
  • Mimik sends a small amount of DOM context (~50–100 tokens of page structure — no screenshots) directly from your browser to the AI provider you selected, using your API key. This context includes the page title, the nearest heading, the labels of nearby interactive elements, and the element you acted on. It also includes the first 50 characters of what is currently in those fields, so text you typed into an ordinary form field is sent. Password fields and fields you have blurred are sent as *** instead.
  • When generating a guide title, Mimik also sends the URL of each captured step along with its description.
  • When you ask AI to rewrite a step, Mimik sends that step’s current text along with your instruction.
  • Mimik never routes any of this through a server of ours, because there isn’t one. The request goes from your browser to the provider you picked.

Which provider receives it

You choose, and your choice decides where the data goes. Mimik ships with four providers built in, each governed by its own privacy policy:

Custom and self-hosted endpoints

Mimik also lets you enter the base URL of a server of your own in settings and send the AI requests there instead. This works with an OpenAI-compatible server, or an Anthropic-compatible one when Anthropic is the selected provider. It can be a model running on your own machine, your company’s gateway, or a third-party service we have no relationship with.

When you do this, the same DOM context described above goes to the server you nominated. We cannot tell you who operates that server, what it logs, or how long it keeps anything, because you chose it and we never see the traffic. Satisfying yourself that the operator’s data handling is acceptable is your responsibility. If the endpoint is your own machine or your own infrastructure, the data does not leave it.

Optional Voice Narration

Mimik can transcribe narration you speak while recording and turn it into step descriptions. This is off unless you enable it and provide your own API key for a transcription provider.

When you enable voice narration:

  • Mimik asks for microphone permission, and records audio only while a narrated recording session is running.
  • The captured audio is sent directly from your browser to the transcription provider you selected — OpenAI or Groq — using your own API key. It is not sent anywhere else, and never to us.
  • Audio is used to produce the transcript and is not retained by Mimik after the session is transcribed. What the provider retains is governed by their policy. See:
  • The transcript that comes back is stored on your device. It includes everything the provider heard, not only the parts that became step text, so anything you said aloud (a password read out, for example) is in it as plain text. Smart blur cannot reach speech.
  • The transcript is never included in an exported or shared guide. You can delete it on its own from the guide’s Transcript panel, which also removes the spoken text from the guide’s steps, and it is deleted with the guide.
  • On Chrome, the offscreen permission exists solely to host the microphone stream, because a Manifest V3 service worker cannot access the microphone directly.

Optional Video Voice-over

When you export a guide as a video, Mimik can read each step aloud. This is off by default, stays off even when you have a key saved, and turns itself off again when you close the export panel.

When you turn it on for an export:

  • The guide title and the text of every step are sent directly from your browser to the text-to-speech provider you selected, OpenAI or ElevenLabs, using your own API key. Nothing else from the guide is sent: no screenshots, no URLs, no transcript.
  • If you already use OpenAI for AI features, Mimik can reuse that key for voice-over. It never does this when your AI key belongs to a custom endpoint.
  • With ElevenLabs, Mimik also asks ElevenLabs for the list of voices on your account, so you can pick one.
  • The audio that comes back is cached on your device and built into the video file. It is not sent anywhere else, and never to us. What the provider retains is governed by their policy. See:

Exporting and Sharing Guides

Exports (HTML, PDF, Word, Markdown, video, GIF and .mimik files) are created in your browser and saved to your device. Mimik does not upload them anywhere. Who you share a file with is up to you.

A .mimik file can be imported into someone else’s copy of Mimik. Because it is meant to be shared, the export removes what you probably did not mean to send:

  • Blurred areas are burnt into the screenshots, so the recipient has nothing to un-blur.
  • Text you typed into fields is removed from the step text, the title and the links.
  • Links are trimmed to the page address by default, dropping query strings that can carry session tokens.
  • Narration transcripts and the spoken originals of steps are left out.

Screenshots still show whatever was on screen when they were taken, so blur anything sensitive before you share. Importing a file adds it to your library as a new guide; it never replaces one you already have.

With AI features, voice narration and voice-over switched off, the site-icon lookup above is the only network request Mimik makes beyond what the browser itself does.

What Mimik Does Not Do

  • Mimik does not have a backend server. There is no account to create, no login, no cloud sync.
  • Mimik does not collect analytics, telemetry, crash reports, usage statistics, or any other identifying data.
  • Mimik does not sell or rent your data, and shares nothing with third parties beyond the site-icon lookup and the AI, transcription or voice-over provider you configure yourself.
  • Mimik does not use your data for advertising or profiling.
  • Mimik does not read page content, or transmit anything from pages you visit, unless you have explicitly started a recording session. The site-icon lookup described above sends only a domain, and only for sites you already recorded.

Chrome Web Store User Data Policy

The use of information received from the browser by Mimik complies with the Chrome Web Store User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. Data Mimik handles is used only to provide its guide-making features, is never sold, is never used for advertising or to determine creditworthiness, and is never read by us.

Permissions Explained

Mimik requests the following browser permissions:

  • storage, unlimitedStorage: store guides and screenshots locally in IndexedDB.
  • activeTab, tabs: capture screenshots of the tab you are currently recording and follow tab switches during a session.
  • scripting: inject the recording content script into the active tab when you start recording.
  • webNavigation: detect single-page app route changes so guides capture navigations correctly.
  • sidePanel: display the Mimik user interface in Chrome’s side panel.
  • offscreen (Chrome): host the microphone stream for voice narration. Only used while a narrated recording is running.
  • <all_urls> host permission: recording can run on whatever website you are documenting. This permission is only exercised while a recording session is active.

Open Source

Mimik is open source under the MIT license. You can inspect the full source code, including every network request and storage operation, at:

https://github.com/westpoint-io/mimik

Changes to This Policy

If this policy ever changes, the updated version will appear in this file with a new “Last updated” date. Because Mimik has no way to reach you (no account, no email list), you are encouraged to review the policy at install time and after major updates.

Contact

Questions about this policy or the extension? Open an issue at:

https://github.com/westpoint-io/mimik/issues