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Marty McEnroe edited this page Feb 19, 2026 · 6 revisions

Frequently Asked Questions


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?

Aletheia has a free tier with generous daily limits — no account required. For heavier usage, a premium subscription is available via Stripe with higher rate limits and priority processing. See the User Guide for tier details.

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.


Privacy & Security

Does Aletheia track my browsing?

No. Aletheia only processes pages where you explicitly select and analyze text. It has no access to your browsing history, open tabs, or any page you don't interact with. 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 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> or tabs. The extension cannot see your browsing history or read pages you haven't interacted with.

How is my account secured?

Aletheia uses LinkedIn OAuth for sign-in — we never see or store your password. After authentication, a JWT token is issued and validated locally in under 1 millisecond. Tokens are signed with secrets stored in AWS Secrets Manager, with support for dual-secret rotation (zero-downtime key changes).


Technical

What AI model does Aletheia use?

Aletheia uses Anthropic Claude via AWS Bedrock. This provides high-quality language analysis with the privacy guarantee that user prompts are not used for model training.

How many security layers does Aletheia have?

Seven. Requests pass through CloudFlare DDoS protection, IP rate limiting, origin secret validation, JWT authentication, input validation, server-side sanitization, and AI content guardrails before reaching the model. See the Security page for the full breakdown.

Is Aletheia open source?

Yes! The full source code is available at github.com/martymcenroe/Aletheia under the MIT License.

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.


Billing & Subscriptions

How does billing work?

Premium subscriptions are managed through Stripe. You can upgrade via the extension or at aletheia.study. Stripe handles all payment processing — Aletheia never sees your card details.

What happens if my payment fails?

A grace period activates, giving you time to update your payment method. You won't be immediately locked out.

Can I cancel anytime?

Yes. Cancellation takes effect at the end of your current billing period.


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

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.


Last updated: 2026-02-19

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