The Kagi Translate browser extension currently is not open source/free software. As it is requesting full access to all websites I visit (which is needed for it to work), I don’t want to install an extension with those permissions for which I can’t access the source code. Open sourcing the Translate extension (like the privacy pass and search extension already are) will strengthen user’s trust in the extension and all services offered by Kagi.
Since The main Kagi Translate service is not part of the extension, but called by it over an API, this will not harm Kagi’s business model, as the control over the Translate service and its access restrictions will still remain intact. The only part affected is the client running in the user’s browser.
Users that previously did not trust the closed source Kagi Translate browser extension will start using it, as they now can verify its inner workings without involving reverse-engineering of minified code.
