Glossary
What is host permissions?
The sites an extension is allowed to read, listed in its manifest.
Separate from ordinary permissions, host permissions decide which addresses an extension may touch. Chrome shows them at install time as the sites the extension can read and change.
Broad host access is sometimes genuinely required, for example by anything that reads whatever page you happen to have open. Broad access plus a vague privacy policy is the combination worth avoiding.
You can restrict an installed extension to on-click access from its details page in Chrome, which is worth doing for anything you use occasionally.
In practice
An extension requesting access to all sites can read your banking tab as easily as the article you meant it to read.
Common questions
- What does host permissions mean in one sentence?
- The sites an extension is allowed to read, listed in its manifest.
- Why does host permissions matter when you use Claude or ChatGPT?
- You can restrict an installed extension to on-click access from its details page in Chrome, which is worth doing for anything you use occasionally.
- Can you give an example of host permissions?
- An extension requesting access to all sites can read your banking tab as easily as the article you meant it to read.
Related terms
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