Privacy policy

What the extension stores

Only the sessions you choose to save. For each one it keeps:

• the full web address and the page title of every tab in that session;
• the name you typed for it;
• the colour you picked for it;
• an internal identifier, and the number Chrome gave the tab group that session was last opened as — so it can tell when the session is already on screen;
• if you choose to schedule a session, the time of day and the days of the week you picked, and the moment it last opened (or closed) by itself.

From version 1.15, two more things, both on your computer only:

• Recently closed. When Session Tabs closes a session for you (you pressed Close or Switch, or the session has a closing time), the addresses and titles of the tabs it closed are kept in a short list so Bring back can reopen them. At most five entries, each kept for at most a week. The × beside an entry deletes it.
• The safety copy of your last closed window, only if you switch it on. It is off unless you tick Keep a copy of my last closed window at the bottom of the popup. While it is on, the extension keeps a copy of the addresses and titles of the tabs in your open windows, updated a moment after they change, so that a window you close by mistake (or lose when Chrome crashes) lands in Recently closed. Unticking it deletes the copy. With it off, the extension ignores tab changes.

From version 1.17, one small number, also on your computer only: how many times your sessions have opened by themselves. After a few, the popup asks once, quietly, whether you would like to rate Session Tabs. Once you press Rate it or the × beside it, it never asks again and stops counting. The number is never sent anywhere.

Two small housekeeping items sit alongside that list:

• the date of your last backup, so it can tell you when your last copy is getting old;
• a plain number recording which storage format your list is in, so a later version knows how to read it.

That is everything it stores. It does not store the contents of any page, anything you type into a page, cookies, passwords, or a record of pages you merely visited. A tab is only ever written down into your sessions when you press a button that says so: + Save this session, Save, Update, or + Add this tab. The only other copies are the two above: tabs Session Tabs closed for you, and, only if you switched it on, your open windows.

When you press Export backup, your browser downloads a plain JSON file containing those same sessions plus the date and time the backup was made. That file goes to your own Downloads folder and is uploaded nowhere. Importing a backup reads a file you pick and adds its sessions to your list.

Where it is stored

In chrome.storage.local — the browser’s own local storage area, on the computer you are using, inside the browser profile the extension is installed in. It is not synced to your Google account and it is not on anyone’s server. It stays on that machine unless you export a backup file yourself and move it.

What never happens

• No transmission. The extension declares no host permissions and makes no network requests at all. There is no code in it that can contact a server, so there is no way for your data to leave.
• No accounts and no cloud. Nothing to sign up for, nothing to sign in to.
• No analytics or telemetry. No usage statistics, no crash reporting, no cookies, no advertising or tracking identifiers of any kind.
• No selling or sharing. Your data is never sold, rented, shared, or transferred to anyone, for any purpose, including advertising or creditworthiness.

This website

Everything above is about the extension. This website, sessiontabs.com, counts its visits with Cloudflare Web Analytics: how many people visit, which pages, which country, and whether on a phone or a computer. It uses no cookies and nothing that names you, and it never sees anything the extension saves.

The permissions it asks for, and why

• tabs — Chrome shows this as “Read your browsing history.” The extension needs it to read the address and title of the tabs you are saving, so it has something to write down and something to reopen later. It is not used to observe your browsing, with one exception you choose: if you switch on the safety copy, it reads the addresses and titles of your open tabs to keep that copy on your computer.
• tabGroups — Chrome shows this as “View and manage your tab groups.” The extension needs it to create the named, coloured tab group a session opens into, and to notice when a session you saved is already open so it can offer to update it.
• storage — Chrome shows no warning for this one. It is what lets your sessions be saved locally between browser restarts.
• alarms — Chrome shows no warning for this one. The extension uses it to set a single timer for the next session you scheduled, so a scheduled session can open or close on its own. It does not watch your browsing and sends nothing anywhere.

Private browsing

The extension’s manifest declares "incognito": "not_allowed". Chrome therefore never runs it in an incognito window, and it cannot see, list, or save private tabs at all.

How to delete everything

• One session at a time. Click a session’s name to open it, then Delete. Individual tabs can be removed the same way, with the × beside them. Your open tabs are untouched either way.
• All of it at once. Remove the extension from Chrome (menu → Extensions → Remove). Chrome deletes the extension’s local storage along with it, and nothing is left behind anywhere else.
• Backups you made. Exported backup files are ordinary files on your computer. Delete them yourself when you no longer want them.

A note for the Chrome Web Store listing

Under the Chrome Web Store’s categories, the web addresses of the pages you save count as web browsing activity. They are collected only when you save a session, when Session Tabs closes a session for you, or (only if you switched the safety copy on) to keep a copy of your open windows; they are stored only on your own device, and used only for the extension’s single purpose: reopening the sessions you saved. They are not transferred to anyone, not sold, and not used for any unrelated purpose.

Changes to this policy

If any of the above ever stops being true, this page changes and the date at the top changes with it. There is no mailing list to be removed from, because there is no mailing list.