Strict Offline Engine
This is Dadblock's locked front door. Nothing about this engine ever leaves your machine.
- All threat scanning happens directly on your device.
- We do not collect the websites you visit.
- We do not collect the content you scan.
- Zero data leaves your browser.
Hybrid Cloud Engine Default
For the trickier scams, Dadblock calls in backup — a fast AI model running on Cloudflare's edge network, powered by Groq. Here's exactly what that trip looks like.
What we send
- Only the text visible on the page you're viewing.
- The page URL, so the model has context.
What we do not send
- No accounts.
- No cookies.
- No installation IDs.
- No browser fingerprints.
We have no way to tie a scan request back to a specific person — there's simply nothing attached to it that could.
How we process it
Before anything is transmitted, the extension runs a local redaction script that strips common personal identifiers — phone numbers, credit card numbers, emails, IP addresses, and social security numbers — right there in your browser. Our infrastructure is designed not to retain this data after analysis, and we do not use it to train models.
The active page domain and this redacted text are evaluated in real time solely to detect phishing, impersonation, financial fraud, and deceptive redirects.
Engine Room Bring Your Own Key
Want full control of the wheel? If you supply your own Groq API key, it's stored securely in your browser's local storage. It is never sent to our servers — your browser talks directly to Groq on your behalf.
Data Collection, Use & Sharing — Full Disclosure
This section exists to give you a complete, plain-language answer to three questions: what we collect, how we use it, and who we share it with.
What we collect
- The visible text of the web page you're viewing, read locally to detect threats.
- The active page's URL, so scam detection has context.
- We do not collect your name, browsing history across sessions, account credentials, or any data unrelated to the page currently being scanned.
How we use it
Page text and the URL are used solely to detect phishing, impersonation, financial fraud, deceptive redirects, and intrusive ad/pop-under patterns on the page you're viewing. This data is never used for advertising, profiling, analytics unrelated to threat detection, or any purpose outside Dadblock's core protective function.
Who we share it with
- When Cloud Mode is active, redacted page text and the URL are sent to Groq, Inc., our third-party AI inference provider, solely to classify the page in real time.
- Our backend infrastructure runs on Cloudflare, which processes this data only as our hosting/edge provider — it does not use the data for its own purposes.
- We do not sell data to anyone, and no other third party receives it.
- If you supply your own Groq API key (BYOK), your browser sends requests directly to Groq — that traffic never passes through our servers at all.
Data retention
Our infrastructure is designed not to retain scanned page text or URLs after a result is returned. We do not log, store, or use this data to train models.
Your choices
Dadblock requires no account or sign-up. You can switch to the Strict Offline Engine to keep all scanning entirely on your device, or use the in-extension controls to ignore or allowlist specific pages and domains. Uninstalling the extension removes all locally stored data immediately.
Children's privacy
Dadblock is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect data from children.
Contact
Questions about this policy? Reach us at support@dadblock.org.
THE DAD PROMISE
A dad shield doesn't ask questions before it steps in front of you. It's not there to know your business — just to catch what's coming. That's the whole design, front to back.
Back to Dadblock