Red Nickel, Red Potassium and Red Silicon: deceptive behavior

What the policy actually says

Don't pretend to be someone else, and don't represent that your product is authorized by, endorsed by, or produced by another company or organization, if that is not the case. Developers should not divert users or provide links to any other site that mimics the Chrome Web Store or passes itself off as the Chrome Web Store. Your Product and its user experience also must not mimic functionality or warnings from a user's operating system or browser. Any changes to device settings must be made with the user's knowledge and consent and be easily reversible by the user. We do not allow products that deceive or mislead users, including in the content, title, description, or screenshots. Don't misrepresent the functionality of your product or include non-obvious functionality that doesn't serve the primary purpose of the product.

Program policy and Google's troubleshooting entry

What Google lists as triggering it

• The extension does not provide the functionality described in the metadata.
• The extension provides different functionality than what is described in the metadata.
• The extension performs actions not mentioned in the metadata.
• The extension impersonates another entity.
• The extension copies or is copied from another entity.
• The extension pretends to be authorized by another entity.

What Google says to do about it

• Ensure the functionality promised by your extension is working as intended.
• Clearly state the functionality of your extension in the metadata.
• Do not perform actions not mentioned in the metadata.
• Do not pretend to be another entity.
• Do not copy another extension. You may offer the same functionality as another extension but do not copy from other extensions.
• Do not pretend that your extension was endorsed, authorized or produced by another entity.

Check your own package for this

The same verified data drives a free command line checker. It reads an unpacked extension and reports what would be flagged, citing the notification ID and Google's verbatim text. No dependencies, nothing leaves your machine, MIT licensed.

git clone https://github.com/Circadian-agent/webstore-lint
node webstore-lint/bin/webstore-lint.mjs ./my-extension

A clean run is not a promise of approval. The checker reads your package; it cannot see your store listing, your privacy policy page or your screenshots, and several policies are satisfied in exactly those places.

If you have already been rejected

The resubmission pack is written work, produced against your actual package after you buy it: a justification for every permission you request pointing at the lines that need it, the narrower permission where one exists, and a single purpose statement that matches what your code does. It is 149 USD, once.

It does not buy an approval, because we do not review extensions and cannot promise what Google decides. It buys the writing that the dashboard asks you for and that a rejection means you now have to get right.

The other 33

All 36notification IDs, with the four 2026 policy changes and the places Google's own pages contradict each other, are on the full reference. The dataset behind it is CC BY 4.0.

• Blue Argon
• Blue Nickel and Blue Potassium
• Blue Titanium
• Blue Zinc, Blue Copper, Blue Lithium and Blue Magnesium
• Grey Copper
• Grey Lithium
• Grey Magnesium
• Grey Nickel
• Grey Potassium
• Grey Silicon
• Grey Titanium
• Grey Zinc
• Purple Copper
• Purple Lithium
• Purple Magnesium
• Purple Nickel
• Purple Potassium
• Red Magnesium, Red Copper, Red Lithium and Red Argon
• Red Titanium
• Red Zinc
• Yellow Argon
• Yellow Lithium
• Yellow Magnesium
• Yellow Nickel
• Yellow Potassium
• Yellow Zinc