Social's Privacy Blur

Privacy blur and live link safety security checks for Facebook, WhatsApp, Messenger, LinkedIn and Telegram Web.

Social's Privacy Blur (v1.0.0) Cross-Platform Privacy Blur & Live Link Safety Extension for Web Social Media & Messaging Supported Platforms: Facebook, Messenger Web, LinkedIn (Feed & Messaging), WhatsApp Web, and Telegram Web. 🛡️ Overview & Purpose Social's Privacy Blur is a privacy-first browser extension (Manifest V3) designed to protect sensitive personal information on popular web-based social media and messaging platforms. Whether you are, Streaming live or sharing your screen during meetings, webinars, or presentations, Working in public environments (coffee shops, open offices, co-working spaces), Recording tutorials or taking screenshots of web pages, or Guarding your personal data against shoulder surfing, Social's Privacy Blur gives you real-time, fine-grained control over what content is visible on your screen. ✨ Key Features, 🌐 Multi-Platform Support & Contextual Routing: Independent privacy controls for Facebook, Messenger, LinkedIn (Feed & Messaging), WhatsApp Web, and Telegram Web. 🎛️ Master & Per-Platform Switches: Turn privacy protection ON/OFF globally, per platform, or per sub-context (e.g., separate settings for LinkedIn Feed vs. LinkedIn Messaging). 👁️ Interactive Hover-to-Reveal: Hover over any blurred element (name, message, image, input box) to temporarily reveal it smoothly; mouse away to re-blur instantly. 🎚️ Dynamic Blur Radius Slider: Adjust blur intensity from 2px to 20px in real-time. 🔄 100% Reversible & Non-Destructive DOM Engine: Applies non-destructive CSS attributes (data-spb-blur, data-spb-media) and custom CSS variables. Disabling a feature immediately restores the native platform UI without overwriting or destroying page text or elements. 💬 Smart Unread Message Blurring: Selectively blurs unread message sender names and preview text while preserving unread indicators, message counters, and timestamps intact. 🔗 Platform Link Safety (Live Security Check): Scans external HTTP/HTTPS links found in feed posts and chat threads against VirusTotal's reputation API to warn users against phishing, malware, and malicious domains. 🎛️ Granular Privacy Controls The extension provides 12 customizable toggles tailored per platform: Feature Toggle, Master Switch: Enables/disables all privacy protections globally or per platform context. Profile Names: Blurs profile titles, account names, chat headers, and author handles. Profile Pictures: Blurs user avatars, profile photos, and account thumbnails. Group Names & Pictures: Blurs group chat titles, participant lists, community icons, and channel avatars. Chat Previews: Blurs conversation previews and contact names in sidebar chat lists. Message Previews: Blurs last message snippets in conversation lists. Chat Messages: Blurs active conversation thread bubbles (incoming and outgoing messages). Post Content: Blurs text bodies, post headlines, and status updates on main social feeds. Media & Attachments: Blurs shared images, videos, audio player controls, canvas graphics, and SVG media. Input Fields & Search Bars: Blurs text boxes, comment inputs, and search bars as you type. Unread Message List: Blurs sender names and preview snippets of unread messages without affecting unread badges. Platform Link Safety: Enables real-time URL reputation and malware scanning on discovered external links. 🔗 Platform Link Safety (VirusTotal Integration): The extension incorporates an optional security layer for analyzing web links found in social feeds and messaging threads: Live URL Reputation: Automatically checks HTTP/HTTPS URLs against VirusTotal's API v3 endpoint (urls/). Color-Coded Status Badges: 🟢 Safe (spb-vt-safe): Clean reputation across security vendors. 🟡 Suspicious (spb-vt-suspicious): Flagged as suspicious or low-reputation. 🔴 Unsafe (spb-vt-unsafe): Flagged as malicious or phishing. ⚪ Loading (spb-vt-loading): Scan in progress. In-Popup Link Scanner: The popup panel includes a dedicated Platform Link Safety Scanner card listing all discovered links on the active page, allowing single-click batch scanning ("Scan All"). API Key Flexibility: Comes preconfigured with a client API key and supports custom user-supplied VirusTotal API keys saved in browser storage. Short-Lived Caching: Scan results are cached locally for up to 30 minutes to reduce network usage and observe rate limits. 📖 User Guide & How to Use 1. Daily Usage & Access Click the Social's Privacy Blur icon in your browser toolbar to open the extension popup. The extension automatically detects the social platform you are currently viewing and highlights the relevant platform tab. 2. Context Switching Facebook & Messenger: Switch between Web & Feed and Messenger & Chats tabs to set different privacy levels for social browsing versus messaging. LinkedIn: Switch between Feed & Profile and Messaging & Chats tabs. 3. Adjusting Blur Intensity Use the Blur Strength slider (2px to 20px) at the top of the popup to make blurred text subtly obscured or completely unreadable. 4. Hovering to Reveal You do not need to turn off protection to read a message or name. Simply move your mouse cursor over any blurred item to instantly unblur it. 5. Managing Link Safety & Custom API Key Toggle Platform Link Safety ON for your selected platform. Open the extension popup to view discovered external URLs on the page and click Scan All. To use your own VirusTotal API key, paste it into the Link Safety Scanner API Key input at the bottom of the popup and click Save API Key. 🏗️ How It Works (Technical Architecture) Social's Privacy Blur is built on modern browser standards and clean design principles: 1. Extension Manifest V3 Architecture Service Worker (background.js): Runs in a non-persistent background environment. Handles tab URL detection, maintains extension badge states (ON/OFF), syncs settings via chrome.storage.local, and acts as an asynchronous proxy for VirusTotal API calls to bypass CORS issues. Content Script Engine (content.js): Executes lightweight DOM observers (MutationObserver) directly in target web pages (document_idle). Continuously detects dynamic SPA renders (React, Webpack, Shadow DOMs, dynamic chat lists) without slowing down page performance. Scoped Stylesheet (privacy.css): Injects hardware-accelerated CSS rules that leverage CSS filter effects (filter: blur(...)), transitions (0.15s ease), and opacity adjustments. 2. Non-Destructive DOM Tagging Instead of replacing or redacting page text in memory, the engine marks elements with HTML data attributes: data-spb-blur="1": Applied to text, inputs, and container nodes. data-spb-media="1": Applied to media elements (<img>, <video>, <canvas>, <picture>, <svg>). data-spb-feature="<feature_name>": Tracks which feature applied the protection. --spb-blur: Xpx: Injects the custom blur radius directly into the element's style declaration. When protection is turned off, DomMarker.unmark() strips these attributes, restoring 100% of original platform styling immediately. 🔒 Security, Data Handling & Privacy Assessment Social's Privacy Blur is engineered from the ground up with a strict privacy-first model: 🛡️ Privacy Guarantee Matrix Security Parameter Status Technical Reality Remote Server Connection ❌ NONE Operates with zero remote servers, analytics databases, or telemetry APIs. Data Collection / Logging ❌ ZERO No browsing history, personal data, profile names, chat contents, or keystrokes are collected. Data Storage Location 🏠 LOCAL ONLY Settings, preferences, and custom API keys are stored strictly on your device using chrome.storage.local. DOM Integrity 🔒 SAFE Page text and DOM nodes are never deleted, overwritten, or modified in transit. Permissions Scope 🎯 MINIMAL Limited strictly to storage, tabs, and explicit social domain host permissions. No broad <all_urls> permission. 🔍 Link Safety Privacy Scope When Platform Link Safety is active: Only URL Strings Transmitted: Only isolated HTTP/HTTPS URLs extracted from page link tags are sent to https://www.virustotal.com/api/v3/urls/. Zero Context Leakage: No surrounding message text, chat history, user identifiers, account tokens, or IP trackings are included in scan requests. User Control: Link Safety is disabled by default and can be toggled off at any time. 📥 Installation Instructions Developer Mode / Unpacked Installation (Chrome) Download or clone this repository to your local machine. Open your browser's extension management page: Chrome: chrome://extensions/ Enable Developer mode (toggle switch in the top-right or sidebar). Click Load unpacked. Select the Social's Privacy Blur root directory containing manifest.json. Open any supported social site (Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp Web, Telegram Web, or LinkedIn) and refresh the tab.