Why is my browser saying the Zotero Connector needs access to my data on all websites?

When you install the Zotero Connector in your browser, your browser will tell you the permissions required by the extension:

  • Chrome: “Read and change all your data on all websites”
  • Firefox: “Access your data for all websites”
  • Safari: “Can read sensitive information from webpages, including passwords, phone numbers, and credit cards. Can alter the appearance and behavior of webpages. This applies on all webpages.”

This is the standard permission an extension needs in order to interact with the content on webpages as you browse the web. The Zotero Connector needs it to detect content on the page and update the save icon with the detected item type (e.g., a book icon for “Save to Zotero (Amazon)”, a PDF icon for “Save to Zotero (PDF)”), as well as to provide advanced features such as automatic proxy redirection and automatic RIS/BibTeX import.

No data about the pages you visit is logged on your computer or sent to Zotero servers unless you click the save button, at which point the Connector will save data and files either to the Zotero app on your computer (if it's open) or your online library on zotero.org (if you've given the Connector permission to do so and logged in).

If saving fails after you click the save button and “Report broken site translators to zotero.org” is enabled in the Zotero Connector preferences, the Zotero Connector will send an an anonymous error report, including the URL, browser, and version information, to Zotero servers, so that we can more quickly fix site compatibility issues. We store this information for up to one week. No additional personally identifying information (e.g., username or IP address) is stored, and reports are generally only viewed in aggregate.

For more information on the data Zotero collects, see our privacy policy.

kb/connector_permissions.txt · Last modified: 2022/11/10 17:27 by dstillman