Access model
Pinterest downloader extension: what it reaches, and what it asks for
Whether a downloader is a website or a browser extension is not a packaging choice. It decides what the thing can reach, what it has to ask you for, and where your files are put together.
Updated August 28, 20263 min read4 sections
The same session you are already in
An extension runs inside your browser, beside the Pinterest tab you already have open. It sees the board the way you see it, because it is reading your session rather than making requests of its own. Everything else here follows from that.
It is built for Chrome and runs on the Chromium browsers built from it: Edge, Brave and Opera. What it can reach in any of them is whatever you are signed in to there.
Why a website cannot do the same job
A site has no view into your session. To reach anything beyond fully public content it would have to ask you for your credentials, or keep its own copy of the material, and both are worse trades than they look at first.
Running inside the browser removes the choice. There are no credentials to hand over, because there is nothing in the middle to hand them to.
What the permissions are actually for
A permission list only means something next to the reason for each line, so here is the list with the reasons.
pinterest.com
- What it is for
- reading the board, profile or search you have open
pinimg.com
- What it is for
- fetching the image and video files themselves
Downloads
- What it is for
- writing the files where you chose to put them
Storage
- What it is for
- holding the pin list of a large run while it is going
Alarms
- What it is for
- keeping the extension awake through a long run
An offscreen page
- What it is for
- assembling a ZIP, which a background worker cannot do on its own
Right-click menu
- What it is for
- the download entry that appears on a pin
bulkopin.com
- What it is for
- signing in, and reading which plan you are on
Notifications
- What it is for
- optional, and only if you allow it
There is no permission for other websites, none for browsing history, and none for anything to run while you are not exporting. Every export starts because you started it.
Being able to download is not permission to republish
An export is a copy of material that mostly belongs to someone else. Keeping a reference archive of work you found is a different act from publishing it, and the second one is between you and the rights holder.
BulkoPin does not bypass any access control, and it is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Pinterest, Inc.
Common questions
- Does the extension see my Pinterest password?
- No. It never asks for one and there is nowhere for it to send one. It works inside a session you signed into yourself, in your own browser.
- Can it reach a private board I am not a member of?
- No. It reaches exactly what your own account already reaches. A board closed to you in a browser tab is closed to it as well.
- Does it keep running in the background?
- No. Every export is something you start, and it stops when it finishes. There is no scheduled or continuous collection.
See the whole run.
Install it, pin the toolbar, pick a board, choose how the files come out. The walkthrough, on the screens it happens on.