Declaring Trader on the Chrome Web Store Published My Address

I was looking over my own extension on the Chrome Web Store when I found my home address further down the page.

It turned out that my developer information was declared trader, and the details used for that verification were on public display.

When you publish a Chrome extension, it is worth checking not only the forms you fill in, but what a user sees on the page afterwards.

There is a trader declaration

On the Chrome Web Store, developers declare themselves either a trader or a non-trader.

Trader here has nothing to do with buying and selling shares.

Google describes a trader as a person or company acting for purposes relating to a trade, business, craft or profession, in relation to contracts on the marketplace.

For traders, Google collects and verifies details such as a legal name and contact information, and makes that verified information available to Chrome Web Store users.

In my case I went through verification as a trader, and my home address then appeared on the listing.

While registering, I was thinking of it as identity information handed to Google. I had not checked closely enough that users would see it too.

It is not a setting for hiding an address

When I found the address, I went back and reviewed the trader / non-trader declaration. Changing it did remove the address from the listing.

What is worth being careful about, though, is that you do not pick non-trader in order to hide an address.

Google states that accurately self-declaring as a trader or non-trader is the developer's responsibility.

Nor does it say anywhere that publishing free of charge simply makes you a non-trader.

You have to check which side of Google's definition your own activity falls on, and declare accordingly.

This article does not assert where Legacy Tools falls, legally or under those rules.

Read the published page yourself

What I should have done was simple enough.

Open your own Chrome Web Store page and read it to the end, the way a user would.

Not just the description and the images, but also:

• the publisher name
• the contact details
• any address or similar information on display
• the trader / non-trader declaration

I had checked repeatedly how the extension handles a user's information. I had not checked nearly as carefully how much of my own information was on show.

When you publish an extension, permissions and privacy settings are not where it ends — look at the published listing itself.

That is the part worth keeping from this.

More detail

The trader / non-trader system exists as a response to EU consumer protection rules.

Finding the address on the listing, and the display going away after I changed the declaration, both happened on my own account. I did not, however, keep a record of the date or of which extension and version it applied to.

Rules and what gets displayed can change. Check the current official Chrome Web Store documentation when you publish.

References

• Chrome for Developers, "Trader/Non-Trader developer identification and verification" (external) — the trader and non-trader definitions, the developer's responsibility to self-declare accurately, verified trader information being available to Chrome Web Store users, and the EU consumer protection background. Last updated 2024-02-09. developer.chrome.com/docs/webstore/program-policies/trader-disclosure

Read on 2026-09-12.