SERPshot by Fortis Media – Privacy Policy

Last updated: 21 May 2026

About SERPshot

“SERPshot – SERP Screenshots” is a free Chrome extension built and maintained by Fortis Media, an SEO and digital marketing agency. It captures full-page screenshots of Google and Bing search engine results pages (SERPs), parses the ranking positions, and records brand mentions to a local CSV log on the user’s device. SEO and PPC professionals use it to produce verifiable, time-stamped evidence of how a SERP looked on a specific date, query, device, and location, for client reporting and competitive research.

The extension supports both desktop and mobile capture (via Chrome’s built-in device emulation), works in over a dozen languages, recognises every major SERP feature (organic results, sponsored ads, AI Overview, People Also Ask, Top Stories, Featured Snippets, knowledge panels, and Bing Copilot answers), and exports the collected position data to CSV in either wide or long format.

This policy explains exactly what data SERPshot handles and how that data is stored. Short version: nothing is sent to Fortis Media or any third party. Every piece of data stays in the user’s browser.

How SERPshot works

When you trigger a capture, SERPshot uses Chrome’s DevTools Protocol to take a full-page screenshot of the current Google or Bing SERP, scrolling and stitching the page as needed so the entire results column is included. It then injects a parser into the page that reads the visible result blocks and identifies each one as organic, ad, AI Overview, People Also Ask, Top Stories, knowledge panel, reviews, or another SERP feature. The parser also detects mentions of any brand domains or brand names you have configured.

The screenshot is saved to your browser’s Downloads folder using a filename template you control. The parsed positions and brand mentions are stored in a local log inside your browser. All processing happens on your own device. No screenshot, log row, query, or any other piece of data is uploaded to Fortis Media, to Google, to Bing, or to any other server.

1. What data we collect

SERPshot does not collect or transmit any personally identifiable information to any third-party server, including Fortis Media.

All of the following are stored locally in your browser using Chrome’s storage API (chrome.storage.local) and never leave your device:

  • Configuration: your filename template, brand list, query lists, capture preferences, and other settings.
  • Screenshots: saved to your browser’s Downloads folder (path configurable via Settings).
  • Position log: rows describing each capture (URL, query, country and location label as shown in the SERP footer, parsed positions, brand mentions, timestamp) accumulated in browser storage until you export to CSV or clear the log.
  • Queue state: the in-progress query list during bulk runs.

2. Permissions and why they are required

  • “debugger”: full-page screenshot capture requires Chrome’s DevTools Protocol. The extension attaches to your active tab only during a capture and detaches immediately afterward. It does not access network requests, inspect code, or modify pages outside the capture flow.
  • Host permissions (google.com, bing.com): Chrome’s tabs.captureVisibleTab API requires host permission for the URL being captured when the tab was navigated programmatically (for example, by the queue runner). Restricted to google.com, www.google.com, bing.com, and www.bing.com. Google retired country-code TLDs in 2025 and now redirects every ccTLD to google.com; Bing also funnels all locales through bing.com using query parameters. The extension only reads Google and Bing search result pages; it does not read or modify other websites.
  • “downloads”: saves screenshots and CSV exports to your downloads folder.
  • “storage”: persists your settings and position log locally.
  • “scripting”, “tabs”, “activeTab”: injects the SERP parser into Google and Bing search pages on demand and reads tab URLs to detect SERPs.

3. Third parties

SERPshot does not use third-party analytics, tracking, advertising, or telemetry of any kind. The extension contains no remote-code execution, no external script tags, no CDN dependencies, and no network requests to Fortis Media or any other domain. The only network traffic the extension generates is the user’s own browsing of Google and Bing search pages, which is handled by Chrome the same way it handles any other website you visit.

4. Data sharing and sale

We do not sell, rent, share, or transfer your data to any party. Because no data ever leaves your device in the first place, there is nothing for Fortis Media to sell or share.

5. Children

SERPshot is intended for professional SEO and PPC use and is not directed at children under 13.

6. Changes to this policy

We will update this policy if SERPshot’s data handling changes. The latest version is always available at this URL. Material changes will be reflected in the “Last updated” date at the top of the page.

7. Contact

For questions about this policy, about SERPshot, or to report a bug, contact us at [email protected].