Installation & Documentation
SOWA Privacy is a Chrome extension that protects your personal information when you chat with AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini. It finds things like your name, email, phone number, or bank details and replaces them with fake placeholders before they get sent – so AI never sees your real data.
Five steps to your first protected message
Open the Chrome Web Store
In Google Chrome, click the blue "Get the extension" button at the bottom of this page – it takes you straight to SOWA Privacy in the Chrome Web Store. (Or search for "SOWA Privacy" there yourself.)
Click "Add to Chrome"
It’s the blue button near the top right of the store page. A small popup will ask for permissions – click "Add extension" to confirm. The install takes a few seconds.
Pin the extension to your toolbar
Click the puzzle-piece icon next to your address bar, find SOWA Privacy in the list, and click the small pin icon next to it. Now you can see and click the SOWA icon any time.
Open your AI tool inside Chrome
Go to ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or another supported chatbot in your Chrome browser – not the desktop app. SOWA Privacy only protects the browser version. It activates automatically on these sites: no settings, no logins, no extra clicks.
Type as you normally would
SOWA Privacy detects names, addresses, account numbers, medical details and other sensitive information as you type, and replaces them with neutral placeholders before your message leaves your computer. Look for the green dot on the SOWA icon – that’s your visual confirmation that protection is active.
Stuck somewhere? Get in touch and we’ll walk you through it personally.
Table of contents
1. Getting started
After you install the extension, you'll see a small SOWA icon in your Chrome toolbar (top-right). Click it to reveal the popup menu with three buttons:
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| Chat | Opens the full Chat page where you can type text, detect PII, and send messages to AI. |
| Settings | Opens the Settings page where you configure how SOWA works. |
| Audit | Opens the Audit page where you can see a log of everything SOWA did. |
Those three buttons are your doorway to everything.
2. The Privacy Owl
When you visit a supported AI chat site (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot, Grok), a small owl appears in the corner of your screen. This is your privacy guardian.
How the Owl works
- Normal eyes – everything looks safe, no personal data detected.
- Red eyes – the owl found personal information in what you're typing.
- The owl watches your typing continuously (every half second) and checks for personal data.
- You can drag the owl to any corner of the screen.
Owl navigation menu
Click the owl to open its menu. The menu includes a lock toggle (switch between real text and placeholder text), a de-anonymise file picker (drop a DOCX and SOWA restores placeholders to originals), and quick links to Chat, Audit, and Settings.
What happens when you type
- You start typing in the AI chat box.
- The owl scans your text for personal data.
- If PII is found, the owl's eyes turn red and detected items get highlighted in your text field.
- Before your message gets sent, SOWA replaces the personal data with safe placeholders (e.g.,
Anna Nowakbecomes[NAME_1]). - After the AI responds, SOWA puts the real data back into the response automatically.
Auto-send protection
When you press Enter and PII is detected, a small overlay appears with three options:
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| Anonymise first then send | Replaces all PII with placeholders, then sends automatically. Safest option. |
| Send anyway | Sends as-is, without anonymising. |
| Cancel | Cancels the send so you can edit. |
3. File upload scanning
When you upload a file to an AI chat (dragging a PDF into ChatGPT, for example), SOWA can scan the file for personal data before it gets sent.
How it works
- You drag a file into the chat or click the attachment button.
- SOWA intercepts the upload and scans the file for PII.
- If PII is found, a modal pops up showing the file name + size + format, how many PII items were found (grouped by type), and a side-by-side preview of original vs anonymised text.
Decision buttons
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| Anonymise first | Replaces all PII in the file, then uploads the anonymised version. For PDFs, redacts directly in the PDF (white box + placeholder text). |
| Send anyway | Uploads the original file without changes. |
| Cancel | Cancels the upload. |
Supported file types
- Text files: .txt, .md, .csv, .json, .log, .xml, .html, .py, .js, .ts, .yaml, .sql, .sh, and many more.
- Documents: PDF (text extracted and redacted in-place), DOCX (text extracted), XLSX (text extracted).
- Maximum file size: 5 MB.
4. The Selection Bubble
When you select text on a supported AI site, a small floating pill bar appears near your selection.
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| SOWA | Anonymises the selected text inline. |
| WL | Adds the selected text to the Whitelist (SOWA will ignore it). |
| BL | Adds the selected text to the Blacklist (SOWA will always treat it as PII). |
5. Right-click menu
Right-click on any page and you'll see SOWA options in the context menu:
- SOWA: Send Selection – copy selected text to the SOWA popup.
- SOWA: Anonymise (inline) – anonymise selected text directly on the page.
- SOWA: Whitelist Selection – add to Whitelist.
- SOWA: Blacklist Selection – add to Blacklist.
6. Chat page
Open the Chat page by clicking Chat in the popup or owl menu. This is where you type, detect PII, and send messages to AI in a controlled workspace.
Main workspace
- Text area – type or paste your message.
- Model profile dropdown – pick which AI model/API to use.
- Preview button – see what your message looks like after anonymisation.
- Detected PII card – colour-coded chips show each PII type found. Expand Details for positions and confidence scores.
- Local LLM card – if Power Mode is on, run the local AI model for stronger detection.
- Send (external LLM) – sends your anonymised message to the chosen API and displays the response with placeholders restored.
Quick actions sidebar
On wide screens, a right sidebar offers shortcuts to File Anonymisation, wide-history view, Diagnostics, and a debug toggle.
7. Settings
Three sections, switched from the left sidebar.
Detection
Controls how SOWA finds personal data.
- Power Mode toggle – turns on an extra local AI (WebLLM) for better PII detection. Uses 2–4 GB RAM but catches more edge cases.
- Pipeline dropdown – choose detection order: regex-only (fastest), regex-ner (recommended), or ner-only.
- Regex / Whitelist / Blacklist toggles – enable or disable each detection layer.
- NER section – enable named-entity recognition (a 65 MB local model, opt-in). Pick a model, set confidence threshold and priority.
- Local LLM section – enable browser-based LLM processing (requires WebGPU, downloads ~200 MB).
- PII Presets – pre-built rule sets: default, light, bank, med (medical), insurance.
- Custom rules & lists – add your own regex rules. Format:
KIND|REGEX|FLAGS|PRIORITY. Whitelist and Blacklist textareas accept one phrase per line.
AI Models
Which AI services SOWA talks to.
- Base URL, Model, API Key, Temperature, System prompt – standard OpenAI-compatible API settings. API keys are stored locally, never transmitted to SOWA.
- Model Profiles – JSON array of configs for quick switching.
Sites & Privacy
Where and how SOWA works on websites.
- Site Integration toggle – master switch for anonymisation on external AI sites.
- Privacy Owl Display Mode – show only the inline button, only the owl, or both.
- Highlight colours – PII highlight (default red) and sent-message placeholder highlight (default purple).
- Owl accent theme – Teal, Purple, Blue, Amber, or Custom.
- Dictionary scope – per-domain (separate dictionary per site) or global (shared across all sites).
- Site rules – URL patterns where SOWA is active (wildcards supported, e.g.
*chatgpt.com*). - Upload file scanning toggle, Autosave toggle.
8. Audit page
A complete record of everything SOWA has done – every PII detection, every anonymisation, every send decision, every config change. Stored locally on your device.
Statistics cards
Total events, anonymisations, messages sent, user decisions, files scanned, storage used.
Integrity verification
SOWA uses a SHA-256 hash chain to make sure nobody has tampered with the audit log. Each event's hash includes the previous event's hash. Click Verify Integrity to validate the chain end-to-end.
Export options
- Export JSON – full audit log as a JSON file.
- Export CSV – audit log as a spreadsheet.
- Clear Audit Log – delete all events (irreversible).
Filters
Filter by event type, date range, or URL. Event types include PII Detected, Anonymised, Sent, Response, De-anonymised, User Decision, Config Changed, Error.
Dictionary tab
Shows every PII ↔ placeholder mapping SOWA has created. Search, delete individual entries, export, or clear the whole dictionary.
9. File Anonymisation page
A dedicated page for batch-anonymising text files. Drop one or many .txt files, get a per-file PII count, choose to anonymise, send original, or download.
10. Keyboard shortcuts
| Shortcut | Where | What it does |
|---|---|---|
Alt + Shift + A | Any supported AI site | Anonymise the selected text or current text field. |
Enter | Upload modal | Confirm "Anonymise first". |
Escape | Upload modal | Cancel the upload. |
11. Languages
SOWA's user interface supports four languages:
- Deutsch (DE)
- English (EN)
- Français (FR)
- Polski (PL)
Switch language using the DE / EN / FR / PL buttons in the header on every extension page. The entire interface updates instantly.
Detection itself works on text in any language. The shipped NER model is multilingual (DistilBERT, PL / EN / DE / FR).
12. FAQ & troubleshooting
The owl doesn't appear on my AI chat site
Open Settings → Sites & Privacy and make sure "Enable anonymisation on external sites" is on. Then check that your site is in the Site Rules list – you can add custom URL patterns there.
SOWA doesn't detect certain names or organisations
Enable NER detection in Settings → Detection → Local AI. NER uses a local AI model that's much better than regex at finding names, organisations, and locations.
The dictionary keeps old entries
Click Clear Dictionary on the Audit page's Dictionary tab. That clears entries from both the website's local storage and the extension's storage.
I want even more accurate detection
Enable Power Mode in Settings. This adds a local LLM (Phi-3 or similar) to the pipeline. Slower but catches edge cases. Requires WebGPU and 2–4 GB RAM.
How do I know my audit log hasn't been tampered with?
Go to the Audit page and click Verify Integrity. SOWA checks the SHA-256 hash chain. Green banner means every event's hash matches.
Can I use SOWA offline?
Yes. Once the NER model (~65 MB) and/or WebLLM model (~200 MB) are downloaded, all PII detection happens locally. The only time data leaves your device is when you explicitly click “Send” to an external AI API.
What types of personal data does SOWA detect?
Names, email addresses, phone numbers (including German mobile), physical addresses, PESEL, NIP, IBAN, BIC/SWIFT, credit card numbers, driver's licence, passport numbers, dates of birth, IP addresses, URLs with personal info, API keys, passwords, tokens, organisation names, and more.