Is Location Guard Safe? (Permissions & Privacy Explained)

The Permission That Worries People

When you install Location Guard, Chrome shows this warning:

"Read and change all your data on all websites you visit"

This sounds alarming. It's one of the most common reasons people leave 1-star reviews or hesitate to install the extension. Let's break down exactly what this means — and what Location Guard actually does with it.

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Why the Warning Appears

Chrome groups permissions into user-facing plain-English descriptions that are intentionally conservative. The message above is triggered by the scripting permission — a technical permission that allows an extension to inject JavaScript into web pages.

Here's why Location Guard needs it:

The Technical Reality

The browser Geolocation API (navigator.geolocation) is built into every web page's JavaScript environment. To override what it returns, Location Guard must inject a tiny piece of JavaScript that intercepts the API call before the page's own code runs.

This injection is why the scripting permission is required. Any extension that overrides a browser API will trigger the same warning, including password managers (which read form fields), ad blockers (which modify page content), and translation extensions (which rewrite entire pages).

What Location Guard Actually Injects

The injected code is straightforward — it intercepts the Geolocation API and returns your configured coordinates. It does not read passwords, form data, cookies, browsing history, or any other page content.

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Verifying This Yourself — Open Source Code

Location Guard is fully open source. You can inspect every line of code on GitHub.

The key files to review:

• content-script.js — the code injected into pages; it only touches navigator.geolocation
• background.js — the service worker; handles extension settings and icon state
• options.html / options.js — the settings UI

If you're a developer, you can load the unpacked extension and read the source directly from your own file system. No obfuscation, no minification beyond what the build step applies.

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What Location Guard Does NOT Do

To be explicit:

• ❌ Does not read your passwords or form inputs
• ❌ Does not access your cookies or session data
• ❌ Does not track which websites you visit
• ❌ Does not send any data to external servers
• ❌ Does not have analytics or telemetry
• ❌ Does not require an account or registration
• ❌ Does not have a paid tier or monetization layer

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Chrome's Review Process

Before any extension can appear in the Chrome Web Store, Google's team manually reviews the code. For extensions requesting powerful permissions like scripting, the review is particularly strict. Google requires developers to:

1. Justify each permission in writing
2. Demonstrate that the permission is used only for its stated purpose
3. Comply with the Chrome Web Store Developer Policies

Location Guard passed this review because its use of scripting is exactly as described — and nothing more.

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The Offline Install Option

For users who prefer maximum transparency, Location Guard can be installed from source:

1. Download the source code from GitHub
2. Review the code yourself
3. Load it as an unpacked extension via chrome://extensions/ → Load unpacked

Our Installation Guide walks through this process for Chrome, Edge, and Firefox. You're never forced to trust the Chrome Web Store packaged version if you'd prefer to audit first.

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Community Trust

Location Guard is used by privacy researchers, web developers, and journalists who understand browser extension mechanics deeply. If the extension were doing anything it shouldn't, it would be caught quickly — the code is public, and the community is watching.

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Summary

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Questions? Contact us — we're happy to walk through the code with you.

Install Location Guard → — transparent, open-source, free forever.