Privacy Policy — Better VSB

Short version: Better VSB does not collect, transmit, or store any personal information about you. It reads professor names already visible on the McGill VSB page, looks them up in a local ratings database, and displays the results — entirely on your own device.

1. What the extension does

Better VSB is a browser extension that enhances McGill University's Visual Schedule Builder (VSB). It reads the professor names already rendered on the VSB page, looks up pre-fetched ratings data stored on your device, and injects inline badges and a detail panel into the page.

It also lets you customise course colours and export your timetable as an image. All of these features run entirely within your browser.

2. Data we do not collect

We do not collect, log, or transmit any of the following: your identity, McGill credentials, student ID, course selections, schedule, IP address, usage statistics, or any other personal information.

There is no server, database, analytics service, or tracking pixel associated with this extension. Your data never leaves your device.

3. What is stored locally on your device

Item	Where	What it contains	Sent anywhere?
Professor ratings DB	`chrome.storage.local`	Publicly available RateMyProfessors ratings for McGill faculty, downloaded as a static JSON file	Never
DB fetch timestamp	`chrome.storage.local`	Unix timestamp of the last database refresh (used to decide when to re-download after 7 days)	Never
Custom course colours	`chrome.storage.local`	Up to 5 hex colour strings you chose in the colour picker	Never

All of the above is stored only in your browser's local extension storage. You can clear it at any time by removing the extension or clearing extension data in Chrome's settings.

4. Network requests made by the extension

Destination	When	What is sent	Why
raw.githubusercontent.com	On install, and at most once every 7 days	A plain HTTP GET request — no user data is included	Download the latest static professor ratings JSON file

The extension does not contact RateMyProfessors, mcgill.ca, or any other server at runtime. Professor names are looked up entirely against the locally cached database — zero network calls during normal use.

5. Third-party services

The ratings database is hosted as a public file on GitHub (owned by Microsoft). When the extension downloads this file, GitHub's standard server logs will record the request. This is a standard HTTP request to a public URL — no personal data specific to you is included beyond what any HTTP request contains (e.g. your IP address, handled under GitHub's own privacy policy).

The professor ratings data in that file originates from RateMyProfessors and mcgill.courses, both publicly accessible websites. The extension does not access these sites on your behalf.

6. Chrome permissions used

Permission	Why it is needed
storage	Save the ratings database and your colour preferences to `chrome.storage.local`
Host: vsb.mcgill.ca	Read professor names from the VSB page and inject rating badges
Host: raw.githubusercontent.com	Download the static ratings JSON file during the once-per-week refresh

7. Children's privacy

This extension does not knowingly collect any information from anyone, of any age. No personal data is collected.

8. Changes to this policy

If the privacy practices of the extension change in a material way, this page will be updated and the "Last updated" date at the top will be revised. The current version is always available at the URL in the extension's store listing.

9. Contact

Questions about this policy can be raised by opening an issue on the GitHub repository.