Personal Web Sentry

A new home screen simplifies browsing. Admin-defined guardrails decide which sites open quietly, stay closed, or warn.

Their computer, your boundaries. Personal Web Sentry is a Chrome extension for one computer. It lets someone keep using the web on their own, within boundaries you set. The home screen is theirs to click. You are the admin on that same computer. You choose which sites open quietly, which sites never open, and what happens when a new site is opened. You choose the bookmarks and the sites that are off limits. Everyday sites open right away. An unfamiliar link stops long enough to show the address. A blocked site stays closed. The lists stay on that computer, in the Admin Console, behind a PIN. The person at the keyboard keeps a simple page of places they already know. New places wait. They see the address and can go home, open that one page, or ask you to allow the site for good. You see that request in the Admin Console. The next new link warns again. Favorites keep the everyday sites at the top, so the useful web is the easy web. If you choose only approved sites, there is no button to continue. The home screen can also show a greeting, the time and date, a short quote you type, and the weather for one U.S. town. The picture, the quote, and the weather are changed on Settings, which does not ask for the PIN. Chrome’s own Safe Browsing still runs. Personal Web Sentry adds the home screen, the warning, and a note when a page uses the language of a lockup, a tech-support call, or a gift-card demand. On a mail site, a note can also name a link that is not approved. The words on the page are not saved.