diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index b2b307f..7feee4e 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -23,4 +23,7 @@ coverage/
 
 # temporary files
 *.tmp
-*.temp 
\ No newline at end of file
+*.temp
+
+# plugin data (contains sensitive information like tokens)
+data.json 
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/data.json b/data.json
deleted file mode 100644
index 6fa15f5..0000000
--- a/data.json
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,7 +0,0 @@
-{
-  "githubToken": "",
-  "repositoryUrl": "",
-  "lastSyncTime": 0,
-  "showRibbonIcon": true,
-  "language": "auto"
-}
\ No newline at end of file