Is Manga Translator Z safe?
Short answer: yes, and this page shows the specifics rather than asking you to take our word for it. Below is every permission the extension requests, exactly what leaves your browser when you translate a page, what never leaves it, and a direct answer on the antivirus question.
The permissions it asks for
Five, all narrow. Chrome shows them at install:
| Permission | Why it is needed |
|---|---|
| activeTab | Read the page you are looking at, only when you press T or click the icon. |
| scripting | Draw the translated text over the speech bubbles. |
| storage | Remember your language, font and per-site settings on your device. |
| downloads | Save a translated page as a PNG when you ask for it. |
| contextMenus | Add the right-click menu entry. |
There is no standing access to your browsing. The extension ships with an empty host_permissions list. Broad site access is optional and only requested for a specific reader site, once, from the extension button, if that site blocks the normal path. You can decline and keep using it elsewhere.
What leaves your browser, precisely
Speech-bubble detection runs locally, inside your browser, using models bundled with the extension. Nothing is uploaded for that step.
When you use hosted translation, the request contains the cropped bubble image, the detected bubble regions, your source and target language, an optional tone and glossary, and an anonymous installation ID. That is the whole payload.
What is never sent: the address of the page you are reading, your browsing or reading history, your Chrome profile, your email unless you choose to create an account, and any page you have not explicitly asked to translate.
Image data is processed in memory and is not stored permanently. Your translation history and any edits you make stay in your browser local storage, on your machine.
If you would rather nothing left at all
Two modes keep translation off our servers entirely. BYOK sends the image straight to OpenAI with your own API key, with nothing in between. Ollama mode points the extension at a model running on your own computer, so the page never leaves the machine. Both are in the Backend tab.
Why did my antivirus flag it?
Some users saw a warning from BitDefender or a product that licenses its engine. It was a false positive, and here is the actual cause rather than a brush-off.
A generic heuristic looks for screen capture, outbound network requests and file downloads appearing together in one background script, because that combination can indicate spyware. Translating a manga page legitimately needs all three: capture the page, send the bubble crops, save the result if you ask. In earlier builds they sat in a single file and matched the pattern.
It was reported to the vendor, and in version 1.5.28 the translation handler was moved into its own file so the combination no longer appears anywhere in the extension. If you are on an older version, update from chrome://extensions.
Does it work on Windows 11?
Yes, and on Windows 10, macOS, Linux and ChromeOS. It is a browser extension, so it runs wherever Chrome, Edge, Brave or another Chromium browser runs. Nothing is installed outside the browser and there is no background program on your system.
Do I need an account?
Not for the free tier. An optional account exists only to track your quota across devices and manage a paid plan. You can read and translate without one.
The full data-handling statement is in the privacy policy, and the documentation covers every setting. Anything still unclear, write to support@mangatranslatorz.com.
View it on the Chrome Web Store