Questions, answered straight.

What does the extension actually do?

It reads the article you're on, identifies any current or former members of Congress mentioned, and shows their official roll-call voting record on related bills, sourced directly from congress.gov, house.gov, and senate.gov. No editorializing, no ranking, no partisan framing.

How accurate is the politician detection?

Names are matched against the official congressional roster (including known aliases and shorthand), not guessed from context. If someone isn't a current or former member of Congress, or the name can't be confidently matched, the extension says so rather than showing a possibly-wrong record. The matching logic is open source, and anyone can audit it directly.

Where do the voting records come from?

Directly from the official record: congress.gov for roll-call votes and bill text, with house.gov and senate.gov as supplementary sources. If it's not in the official record, it's not in the ledger, and we don't use secondhand summaries or third-party scorecards for the core voting data.

Does it work on every news site?

It works on standard article pages, including news sites, op-eds, and most blog and transcript formats. Heavily paywalled or JavaScript-rendered content that loads after the page is already scanned may not be picked up. If you find a site where it should work but doesn't, open an issue on GitHub.

Which browsers are supported?

Chrome is fully supported and available now on the Chrome Web Store. Other Chromium-based browsers (Edge, Brave) will generally work using the same extension, though they aren't separately tested or officially supported yet.

What is an "anonymous token"?

A random UUID generated locally on first install. It's not linked to your name, email, or any personal information. See the privacy policy for full details.

Do you collect my browsing history or reading habits?

No. The extension reads the page you're actively on to detect politicians and surface votes, and it doesn't log, store, or transmit a history of what you've read. See the privacy policy for the full breakdown of what is and isn't collected.

Is the extension open source?

Yes - github.com/ryanegauthier/liars-ledger. You can audit exactly what data is sent and when.

How does the free daily limit work?

Each installation gets a random anonymous token. Free tier's daily scan allowance is dynamic: it starts at 30 scans/day at launch and scales down as the user base grows, to keep server costs sustainable. Pro gets a separate, flat allowance of 100 scans/day that doesn't scale down. Both reset at midnight UTC, and the current limit is always shown in the extension popup.

What does Pro actually add?

An AI-generated article summary, a claim verdict (whether a politician's stated claim matches their actual voting record, supports, contradicts, or mixed), a separate, flat 100 scans/day allowance instead of Free's scaling pool, and early access to upcoming visual features. Detection, official roll-call votes, and VoteSmart interest-group ratings are free and identical between Free and Pro. See the pricing page for the full comparison.

What is an "anonymous token"?

A random UUID generated locally on first install. It is not linked to your name, email, or any personal information. See the privacy policy for full details.

How does payment work?

Payments are processed by Square. Your card details go directly to Square - we never see them. Upon successful payment, your token is automatically upgraded to Pro.

Can I cancel anytime?

Yes. Cancel through Square and your Pro access remains until the end of the billing period. After that, your token reverts to Free tier.

I lost my token (or reinstalled) - how do I get Pro back?

Open the extension popup → Account panel → Restore Pro after reinstalling. Paste the order number from your Square receipt email and your Pro status will be restored to that token automatically. We never collected your email, so we can't look this up for you here on the website - the order number is the only thing that links your payment back to your install.

Is the extension open source?

Yes - github.com/ryanegauthier/liars-ledger. You can audit exactly what data is sent and when.

Why does a free tool need donations?

Every scan runs through real AI models and hits official government APIs, and both cost money to run, while the server itself runs around the clock. There's no ad revenue and no data being sold to cover that, so donations and Pro subscriptions are what keeps the free tier's daily limit high.