We agree, @b00kgrrl, and did try to make the permissions optional upon developing the extension, but we could not make it work. The gist is that we can’t do it without removing functionality, and we don’t support restricted permissions at this point.
You can visit this information page for more details (scroll down to the section Chrome extension), which is part of our Privacy Policy and public commitment to users. We will always respect and enforce user privacy.
Our mobile apps do not require these permissions to use the annotator, in case that’s an option for you.