FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

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General

What does "Aletheia" mean?

Aletheia (Greek: ἀλήθεια) means "truth" or "disclosure" — the state of not being hidden. It represents our goal of revealing the hidden history and context behind everyday language.

Is Aletheia free?

Yes, Aletheia is free and open source under the MIT License.

What browsers are supported?

• Chrome 88+ (Manifest V3)
• Firefox 109+ (Manifest V2)

Edge and other Chromium-based browsers may work but are not officially supported.

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Privacy & Security

Does Aletheia track my browsing?

Aletheia only processes pages where you explicitly select and analyze text. For each analysis, we store the selected text, surrounding paragraph, and page URL for internal analytics. Your user ID is removed within 30 days, anonymizing the data. See our Privacy Policy for details.

Where is my data sent?

Selected text, surrounding context, and page URL are sent to AWS for AI processing and stored for analytics. Data is retained with your user ID for up to 30 days, after which your ID is removed and the data is anonymized. AWS Bedrock (Amazon Nova Micro) does not use your text for model training.

How long is my data stored?

• With user ID: Up to 30 days
• Anonymized: May be retained for aggregate analytics (user ID removed)
• On request: Deleted entirely via GDPR erasure request

Does Aletheia sell my data?

No. Aletheia does not sell, share, or monetize user data in any way.

Why does Aletheia need the permissions it requests?

Permission	Why It's Needed
contextMenus	To add "Explain with AI" to your right-click menu
activeTab	To read the text you've selected (only on the current tab)
storage	To save your preferences locally on your device

We deliberately avoid requesting broader permissions like <all_urls>.

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Technical

What AI model does Aletheia use?

Aletheia uses Amazon Nova Micro via AWS Bedrock. This model is optimized for fast, accurate language analysis.

Is Aletheia open source?

Yes! The full source code is available at github.com/martymcenroe/Aletheia.

Can I self-host the backend?

The backend is designed to run on AWS Lambda. Self-hosting instructions are available in the Developer Guide.

Why are there two extension versions?

Chrome requires Manifest V3 for new extensions, while Firefox still uses Manifest V2. We maintain both to support all users.

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Troubleshooting

The analysis is taking too long

• Check your internet connection
• The backend may be under heavy load
• Try a shorter text selection

I'm getting an error message

• Refresh the page and try again
• Check that the extension is enabled
• Report persistent issues on GitHub

The extension icon disappeared

• Go to chrome://extensions/ (or about:addons in Firefox)
• Ensure Aletheia is enabled
• Try reinstalling the extension

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Contributing

How can I contribute?

See our Contributing Guide for information on:

• Reporting bugs
• Suggesting features
• Submitting code changes

I found a security vulnerability

Please report security issues privately using GitHub's Security Advisory feature. Do not create public issues for security vulnerabilities.

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Last updated: 2026-01-04 19:10 CT