Shop Smart helper: privacy policy
In short: the helper collects nothing about you. It asks supermarket websites for prices from your own browser, when you use Shop Smart, and hands the answers back to the Shop Smart page on your screen. Nothing is sent to us, sold, or used for advertising.
What the helper is
The Shop Smart helper is a browser extension for people invited to test Shop Smart, a grocery price comparison website for New Zealand. Shop Smart can't ask supermarket websites for prices by itself, so the helper does that from your browser, only when the Shop Smart page asks it to.
The helper only answers the Shop Smart website (shop.ssgm-vwo-1983.nl). Other websites can't use it.
What it asks the supermarkets
When you search for a product or check prices in Shop Smart, the helper asks the supermarket's own website for the matching products and prices. It contacts only these sites: New World, PAK'nSAVE, Woolworths, The Warehouse, and SuperValue and FreshChoice store sites. What it sends them is what you'd type on their site yourself: a search word, a product number or barcode, and the store you chose in Shop Smart.
It asks at a person's pace, one question at a time per supermarket, and it stops straight away if a supermarket's site shows anything unusual.
Supermarket sessions
To show prices for a particular New World or PAK'nSAVE store, their websites need a short-lived session, the same one your browser gets when you visit them. The helper reads that session from your browser (this is why it needs the "cookies" permission), and uses it only in requests to that same supermarket. When it runs out, the helper may briefly open the supermarket's own page in a background tab so that their site can renew it the normal way, then closes that tab.
The helper does not save the session, never shows it, and never sends it to Shop Smart or anyone else.
What it does not do
- It doesn't collect your name, email address, location, browsing history or anything you do on other websites.
- It has no analytics, no advertising and no tracking of any kind.
- It doesn't sell, share or transfer any information to anyone.
- It doesn't log in to supermarket accounts or place orders.
Where the information goes
Prices and product details from the supermarkets go straight back to the Shop Smart page open in your browser. Shop Smart keeps your basket and settings in your own browser's storage. Sign-in to the Shop Smart website itself is handled by Cloudflare Access, which uses your email address to send you a one-time code.
Chrome Web Store policy
The helper's use of information complies with the Chrome Web Store User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements: information is used only to provide the helper's single purpose, comparing grocery prices for Shop Smart, and for nothing else.
Removing it
You can remove the helper at any time from your browser's extensions page. It keeps no data of its own, so nothing is left behind.
Not affiliated
Shop Smart and the helper are an independent project. They aren't connected with, or endorsed by, any of the supermarkets named here.
Contact
Questions about this policy: shopsmart@ssgm-vwo-1983.nl