The short version
- Tab Economist does not collect, transmit, or share any personal data
- All data is stored locally on your device using
chrome.storage.local - Categorization runs entirely on-device via smart rules; optional AI summaries use Gemini Nano locally
- No account, email address, or personal information is ever required
- Sensitive sites (banking, email, medical) are automatically excluded from all tracking
- Uninstalling the extension permanently deletes all stored data
1. Who we are
Tab Economist is a Chrome and Edge browser extension developed and maintained by Anish Monci Varghese as an independent project under Cheppulabs. It is distributed through the Google Chrome Web Store and the Microsoft Edge Add-ons store.
For questions about this policy, contact: chromeextensions@anishmoncivarghese.com
2. What data the extension stores
Tab Economist stores the following data locally on your device only, using the browser's built-in chrome.storage.local API. This data never leaves your device and is never transmitted to any server.
Tab activity records — For each open browser tab (excluding sensitive sites), the extension stores:
- Tab title and URL
- Domain name (e.g.
github.com) - Favicon image URL
- Timestamp of last visit
- Timestamp of first tracking
These records exist only while the tab is open and are deleted when the tab is closed.
Archive (Library) — When a tab is archived, the following is stored locally:
- Tab title and URL (normalized for duplicate detection)
- Domain name
- Favicon image URL
- A category label derived from smart domain rules (e.g. "Work", "Research", "Shopping")
- An optional one-sentence summary generated on-device by Gemini Nano, when available
- Timestamp of archiving and visit count
Archive items persist until you manually delete them or until auto-prune removes them (if enabled). Pruned items live in a 24-hour local trash bucket so they can be restored with one click.
Snoozed tabs — Tabs you choose to snooze are stored locally with their target wake-up time, then reopened automatically in your browser when that time arrives.
User settings — Your preferences are stored locally:
- Inactivity threshold
- AI summaries on/off
- Auto-prune threshold
- Focus session duration
- Custom protected domain list
- Per-domain archive overrides
Usage statistics — Aggregate counts stored locally for the Stats view:
- Number of tabs archived over time
- Count of tabs per category and per domain (for the top-domains chart)
Search history — The last few search queries you typed in the Library search bar, stored locally only.
3. What data the extension does NOT collect
- No personal identification information (name, email, phone number)
- No browsing history sent to any server
- No analytics or usage telemetry
- No crash reports sent externally
- No advertising identifiers
- No financial, health, or authentication information (these sites are blocked entirely)
- No page content from sensitive sites (banking, email, medical, password managers)
4. How categorization and AI summaries work
Tab Economist is rules-first. Every archived tab is categorized using a built-in domain-rules engine that runs entirely locally — no page content is required for categorization itself.
When a tab is archived, the extension may optionally inject a script into the page to extract readable text (headings and paragraphs, capped at ~2,000 characters). If Gemini Nano — Google's on-device language model built into Chrome — is available on your device, that text is passed to Nano to generate a single-sentence summary. Nano processes text entirely on your device. The page content is never sent to Google's servers, to our servers, or to any third party.
If Gemini Nano is not available, no page text is extracted or processed — the extension stores just the title, URL, domain and rule-based category. AI summaries can also be turned off manually in Settings at any time.
The extension never injects content scripts into sensitive sites. The full list of excluded site types is described in Section 6.
5. Permissions used and why
| Permission | Why it's needed |
|---|---|
| tabs | Read tab titles, URLs, and window IDs to track activity and render the Active view in the side panel. |
| storage | Save tab records, archive items, and settings to chrome.storage.local on your device. |
| sidePanel | Open and display the extension's UI as a side panel attached to the browser window. |
| alarms | Schedule periodic sweeps (every 15 minutes), snooze wake-ups, and the daily auto-prune task. |
| scripting | Inject the page-text extraction function into non-sensitive tabs at the moment of archiving, to generate AI summaries. |
| notifications | Show a system notification with an Undo button when tabs are about to be archived, and to surface snooze wake-ups and auto-prune events. |
| tabGroups | Create and name browser Tab Groups when you use the "Restore all" or "Reopen session" features. |
| downloads | Save exported archive files (Markdown or JSON) to your Downloads folder when you use the Export feature. |
| <all_urls> (host permission) | Required to inject the page-text extraction script into tabs on any domain when archiving. The extension only does this for non-sensitive pages, only at the moment of archiving, and only to read page headings and paragraphs for AI summarization. No data is collected passively or sent externally. |
6. Sites that are never accessed
Tab Economist maintains a built-in blocklist of sensitive site categories. Tabs on these sites are never tracked, never have content extracted, and are never archived:
- Financial services: Banks, credit card providers, investment platforms, cryptocurrency exchanges, and payment processors (including Chase, Bank of America, PayPal, Coinbase, Stripe, and others)
- Email providers: Gmail, Outlook, ProtonMail, Yahoo Mail, iCloud Mail, Hey, Fastmail, and others
- Medical portals: Patient portals and electronic health record systems
- Password managers: 1Password, Bitwarden, LastPass, Dashlane, and others
- Active media streaming: Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, Spotify, Twitch, and similar services
- Local and private network addresses: localhost, 127.x.x.x, 192.168.x.x, 10.x.x.x, and RFC-1918 private ranges
- System and extension URLs: chrome://, about:, edge://, devtools://, data:, blob:, and similar
- Sensitive URL patterns: Any page whose URL contains paths such as /login, /auth, /2fa, /account, /payment, /checkout, /billing, /password-reset, /patient, and similar patterns — regardless of domain
Users can also add custom domains to the Protected Domains list in Settings. These domains are stored locally and are never shared.
7. Data sharing and third parties
Tab Economist does not share any data with any third party — because no data ever leaves your device.
There is no analytics provider, no advertising network, no crash reporting service, and no backend infrastructure of any kind. The extension has no server-side component.
The only external software involved is Gemini Nano, which is part of Chrome itself and operates entirely on your device. Tab Economist does not control or have access to Gemini Nano's internal operation. Nano's use is governed by Google's own terms for Chrome built-in AI features.
8. Data retention and deletion
Data is retained locally on your device until you delete it:
- Active tab records: Deleted automatically when the tab is closed
- Archive items: Persist until you delete them individually, use bulk delete, run auto-prune, or use "Clear all archive" in Settings → Danger Zone
- Pruned items: Sit in a local trash bucket for 24 hours so they can be restored, then are permanently removed
- Settings: Persist until you change them or uninstall the extension
- All data: Permanently and completely deleted when the extension is uninstalled from your browser
9. Children's privacy
Tab Economist does not knowingly collect any personal information from anyone, including children under the age of 13. Because no personal data is collected, transmitted, or stored with any identifying information, the extension does not present specific risks to children's privacy. However, it is intended for general adult use as a productivity tool.
10. Changes to this policy
If this privacy policy changes materially — for example, if a future version of the extension adds any form of data collection — the updated policy will be posted at this URL with a revised "Last updated" date, and the change will be noted in the Chrome Web Store and Edge Add-ons release notes.
We will never introduce remote data collection without updating this policy and providing clear disclosure in the extension update notes.
11. Your rights
Because Tab Economist does not collect or store any personal data on external servers, there is no personal data held by us to access, correct, export, or delete. All data exists solely on your own device under your own control.
To export your data: open the side panel → Settings → Export Archive (Markdown or JSON).
To delete your data: open the side panel → Settings → Danger Zone → Clear all archive. Alternatively, uninstall the extension.
12. Contact
If you have any questions about this privacy policy or the extension's data practices, please contact:
Tab Economist — Anish Monci Varghese
Email: chromeextensions@anishmoncivarghese.com
GitHub: github.com/anishmoncivarghese/tab-economist