DOB NOW Autofill and Autopilot — by DOB Desk

What this extension does

DOB Desk offers two browser extensions for DOB NOW: Build. Autofill types supported fields from your DOB Desk Filing page into the DOB NOW form you have open. Autopilot is a standalone supervised extension that captures a DOB Desk package, binds it to a filing number, prepares a field-by-field review plan, and applies only the changes you approve. The extensions can also audit a filing against your prep package and match filing objections against a shared resolution knowledge base. Every action runs only when you click a button. The extensions never submit anything on your behalf - you always review and submit the filing yourself, while logged in as yourself.

What data it reads

The filing data JSON embedded on your own DOB Desk Filing page (project address, work types, cost figures, and similar fields you entered there) — read only from the tab you have open, never fetched from a remote server by the extension itself.
For Autopilot, captured package snapshots, package-to-filing bindings, approved review rows, and local recheck history stored in your current browser profile.
The on-screen structure (field labels, dropdown options) of the DOB NOW page you have open, so it can find the right fields to fill or audit.
On-screen DOB NOW content you act on: the filing's job number, filing status, signature states, filing-fee amounts, and — only when you click "Decode Objections" — the objection text DOB NOW displays.

What data it sends, and where

The extension talks to exactly one server: DOB Desk's own backend. It never contacts any other third party. Telemetry and observation reports are on by default — the welcome page shown at install explains them, with the switch right there — and one checkbox in the popup (“Settings & reports”) turns all of them off at any time; turned off, nothing below is sent. None of them ever carries a value you or the extension typed into DOB NOW. What it sends:

Field reports (on by default — a labeled checkbox in the popup turns them off or back on any time): the DOB NOW page's field labels and structure — the label text (e.g. "House Number", "Category of Work"), what kind of control it is, the field's name in the page's own HTML, the heading it sits under, whether it is required, and for dropdowns the list of choices offered — plus which fields the extension matched or missed. Never the values you typed and never your project data (any value embedded in a match result is stripped by the extension before sending). Where a dropdown's choices would be your own records rather than the form's — your businesses, licence numbers, e-mail addresses — the list is dropped in your browser and never sent. Used solely to fix the field-matching rules for everyone.
Run diagnostics (sent under the same toggle as field reports): one record per fill — how many fields were written, how many tabs were walked, how long it took, which version of the extension and which prepared filing were involved, and a structural fingerprint of each tab (a hash of its control labels, used to notice when DOB changes a form). No values and no field labels.This is what lets a problem be diagnosed from a record instead of a screen-sharing call.
Correction outcomes (sent under the same toggle as field reports): when you save a section, the extension re-reads the fields it filled and compares them, on your computer, against what it typed. It sends only the field name and one of three verdicts — unchanged, you changed it, oryou cleared it — plus the filing's job number. The comparison never leaves your machine and no value is ever sent, including the value you replaced ours with. This is how we learn which fields the extension fills wrongly: without it, a field we get wrong every time and you quietly fix every time looks identical to one we get right.
Filing observations (sent under the same toggle as field reports): the filing's job number, its DOB-displayed filing status and signature states by role only (e.g. "owner: signed" — names are stripped by the extension before sending; used so your own project tracker can show filing progress without re-typing it), and DOB-calculated filing-fee amounts (used to calibrate the fee estimator against what DOB actually charges). These are private to your account or organization, are marked as observed rather than verified customer state, and are not publicly readable. These are values DOB NOW itself displays — not values you typed.
Objection text (only when you click "Decode Objections"): the objection rows DOB NOW displays are sent only to match the reviewed knowledge base. The extension path does not retain raw objection text as an improvement corpus. It does keep each objection's code, short title and status (e.g. "C-2.1 Hydraulic Calculations — Closed") against a keyed hash of the job number — never the job number itself — so DOB Desk can learn which drafted notes lead to objections clearing. When you click "Draft drawing notes", the generated draft is kept for the same purpose; drafts written with your project details are never shown to other users. When you fill a filing from a DOB Desk package, its DOB NOW job number is linked to that project so DOB Desk can watch the filing's approval timeline and alert you if it falls behind similar filings; the popup also looks up that public timeline for the job on screen.
Service status check (always, independent of the reports toggle): before a fill and when the popup opens, the extension asks DOB Desk whether any filing type or DOB NOW tab is paused (for example because DOB changed a form) and whether there is a notice to show. The request carries only the extension's version number — no job number, no account and no filing data.
Harvest mode (operator build only, off by default, never in the Chrome Web Store version): when explicitly switched on, a read-only capture of your own filings — field labels, control shapes, cost-affidavit rows and objection text — used to calibrate the matchers. Values that identify people (names, e-mail addresses, telephone numbers, business addresses, licence and registration numbers) are redacted before storage, and the captured page text has the signed-in banner stripped.

AI processing. Some features (the objection decoder's AI fallback, response drafting, Plan Check and Prep from Plans) send the text or documents you submit to a third-party AI provider to generate their output. That text can include objection language, scope descriptions and drawing content. It is not used to train the provider's models. Features that do not call AI never send anything there.

None of this data is ever sold, shared with third parties for their own purposes, or used for advertising. It is used only to provide and improve the features described above.

What it stores

Locally in your browser only: your field-report on/off preference, a per-job checklist of which DOB NOW tabs you've already filled, and a running count of fields auto-filled (the "time saved" number).
Autopilot also stores local package snapshots, package hashes, package-to-filing bindings, selected review rows, and recheck history in the current browser profile so the supervised review workflow can resume. You can clear this browser-local state from the extension's review page or by removing the extension data.

Permissions it requests, and why

activeTab / scripting — to read and fill the DOB NOW form on the tab you have open when you click a button.
storage — the local preferences and counters listed above, a copy of the prep package for the filing you have open, a record of what the extension typed (compared on your computer after a save), and a short log of recent extension errors for troubleshooting. The error log stays on your computer; it is only shared if you copy it from Settings → Diagnostics into a message to us, and it never contains values you or the extension typed.
Host access to dobdesk.com, www.dobdesk.com, and a810-dobnow.nyc.gov — the only sites the store extensions read from or write to: DOB Desk (where your filing data is generated) and DOB NOW: Build (where they preview, audit, or fill the form).

What the extensions never do

They do not collect or store DOB NOW usernames, passwords, MFA codes, security answers, seals, or payment details.
They do not sign, seal, certify, attest, pay, or submit a filing. Every filing must be reviewed, signed and submitted in DOB NOW by the PE/RA or an authorized representative.
They do not run against DOB NOW in the background. You choose the tab and action each time.

Saving drafts

DOB NOW will not move to the next tab while the current one has unsaved changes. With Save each tab as I go turned on (the default in DOB NOW Autofill), the autofill extension clicks DOB NOW's own Save button to keep your draft as it moves between tabs — after a 5-second on-screen countdown you can stop, and never on Statements & Signatures. A saved draft is not a filing: nothing is signed, certified or submitted. You can turn this off in the extension popup, and it will pause for you to click Save instead. DOB Desk Autopilot does not save.

Questions

Contact support@dobdesk.com with any questions — about this policy, the extension, or anything else on DOB Desk, from the filing workflow to ZoneIQ CAD.

Stuck? Email us