SpareRoom Scout

Privacy

The short, plain-English version of what Scout keeps and what it shares.

What happens to your data

  1. Most things stay in Chrome. Your ads, “About you” details, drafts, settings and message history are saved only on your computer. They are not copied or backed up elsewhere.
  2. OpenAI writes the drafts. When you press Generate, Scout sends the ad and your “About you” details to OpenAI. Scout does not save this text or the finished draft. OpenAI may keep them for up to 30 days for safety checks, but does not use them to train its models.
  3. Google shares only your email address. Scout uses it to check that you are on the friends list and to count your drafts each month. It cannot access your Gmail, Drive or contacts.
  4. Scout never sees your SpareRoom password. It checks only whether Chrome has SpareRoom’s sign-in marker, called a cookie — never its value.
  5. Scout has no ads and does not track or sell your data.

What Scout keeps online

Scout remembers your Google email address and how many drafts you generate each month. To help fix problems, it also briefly records your email address and whether each request worked; these records disappear within a week. It does not save your ads, “About you” details or generated messages.

The services involved

  1. Google confirms the email address for your Google Account. Google privacy policy.
  2. OpenAI writes the drafts. OpenAI privacy policy.
  3. Cloudflare runs these pages and the online part of Scout. Cloudflare privacy policy.
  4. SpareRoom sees the pages Scout opens and the messages sent from your account, just as it normally would.

Deleting your data

  1. Remove Scout at chrome://extensions to delete everything it has saved in Chrome.
  2. Open your Google Account permissions and remove Scout to cancel its Google sign-in access. This will not delete or change anything else in your Google Account.
  3. Ask the person who sent you the link to remove your email address.

Messages already sent remain in your SpareRoom account; Scout cannot unsend them.

Questions?

SpareRoom Scout is a personal tool shared with friends. Ask the person who sent you the link if you have any questions.

Last updated 15 September 2026.