TabularyPrivacy Policy
Tabulary 1.2.0 · Last updated 2026-10-02
Tabulary is a browser extension for saving and organizing open tabs, for Chrome, Edge, Brave and Firefox. This page sets out what it handles, where that data goes, and what you can do about it.
The short version
- Everything you save stays on your device by default. No account, no server of ours, no tracking in the extension.
- If you sign in with Google, your library and a small profile file are backed up to a hidden folder inside your own Google Drive — never to a database we operate.
- A photo you put behind Home never leaves the device it was chosen on.
- The extension has no analytics and no advertising, and nothing is sold or shared with anyone. This website counts page views (see “This website” below).
What Tabulary stores, and where
“Your library” below means everything the extension keeps for you: boards, collections, saved tabs, tags, sessions, review markers, Live Collection rules, Home shortcuts, and your settings, including how Home looks.
| Data | Where it lives | Who can see it |
|---|---|---|
| Your library | Your browser’s own storage (IndexedDB) | Only you, on this device |
| Your library, if you sign in with Google | Additionally: a hidden, app-private folder in your own Google Drive (Drive’s appDataFolder) | Only you — invisible in your normal Drive view, unreachable by any other app |
| Home background photo | IndexedDB on the device where you chose it. Never backed up, synced or exported; your other devices show the theme instead. | Only you, on this device |
| Display name, profile photo, theme and appearance choices | Local storage, plus the same private Drive folder if signed in with Google | Only you |
| Getting-started guide progress | localStorage on this device only — never synced | Only you, on this device |
| Other per-device view state (which view you last had open, the popup’s last section and board, a copy of Home’s look so it appears without a flash) | Local storage only — deliberately never synced | Only you, on this device |
| Whether the toolbar button opens the popup or the side panel | chrome.storage.local on this device | Only you, on this device |
| Account identity (email address, or your Google account) | Firebase Authentication, operated by Google — used only to know who you are | You and Google’s authentication infrastructure. We never see or store your password. |
| A short-lived Google Drive access token | chrome.storage.local on this device, replaced when it expires | Only you |
If you used the Desk in Tabulary 1.1, its widgets are still in your browser’s storage, untouched, but they are no longer backed up or synced; copies already in your Drive backup folder are left as they were. Its shortcuts were copied into Home.
Sign-in and Google Drive access
Signing in is optional — the extension is fully usable without ever doing it. There are two ways:
- Email and password — creates an account for identity only. Your library stays on the device unless you also connect Google.
- Google sign-in — additionally requests one narrow permission,
drive.appdata. This lets Tabulary read and write only its own hidden folder in your Drive. It cannot see, list, or modify your files, photos, or documents.
You can revoke that access at any time from Google Account → Security → Third-party apps, or delete the stored data directly from Google Drive → Settings → Manage apps → Tabulary → “Delete hidden app data.”
The token service
Keeping Drive backup working without asking you to reconnect requires a Google refresh token, and a refresh token must never ship inside an extension. Tabulary’s is held by a small separate service (a Cloudflare Worker), encrypted, one record per signed-in account. It hands the extension a short-lived access token when a backup is due.
That service never receives your boards, collections, tabs, sessions, rules, or any browsing data. It only knows that an account exists and holds the credential needed to refresh that account’s own Drive access. Signing out tells it to disconnect.
What goes over the network
Without an account, Tabulary sends nothing to us, to Google, or to the token service. Its fonts are built into the extension. The only requests it makes on its own are for site icons:
- In Chrome, Edge and Brave, an icon comes first from the browser’s own icon cache, which makes no network request. Only if that fails does the library page ask the site itself: the icon address the browser gave when you saved the tab (or that came with an imported file), then the site’s
/favicon.ico. The popup, the side panel and Home never fetch icons from the network; they show a letter instead. - Firefox has no such cache, so the library, the popup and the side panel ask the site for its icon directly. Home shows a letter.
- No third-party icon service is used.
Everything else happens because you asked for it: opening a saved tab or a Home shortcut loads that site, and pressing Enter in the search box sends your query to the search engine you picked. The saved-tab suggestions that appear as you type are worked out on the device.
With an account, Tabulary additionally talks to:
- Firebase Authentication (Google) — to sign you in with email and password or with Google, and to keep you signed in.
- Google sign-in — the consent screen when you connect Google Drive, shown by Google in a browser window.
- Google Drive — to read and write the hidden backup folder, only while you are signed in with Google.
- The token service described above — when you connect Google, when a backup needs a fresh access token, and when you sign out.
What Tabulary does not do
- It does not run a server that stores your tab data.
- The extension does not use analytics, advertising networks, or tracking pixels.
- It does not sell, rent, or share your data with third parties.
- It does not watch your browsing. It reads a tab’s title and URL when you ask it to save that tab, lists the tabs in your current window when you open the Open tabs section, and loads site icons as described above.
Browser permissions Tabulary requests
| Permission | Why |
|---|---|
tabs | To read the title and URL of your open tabs when you choose to save them, to list this window’s tabs in the popup and side panel so you can pick some to save, and to compare a session against what’s already open before restoring it. |
storage, unlimitedStorage | To keep your library on the device without a size cap. |
faviconChrome, Edge, Brave | To read the browser’s own icon cache, so saved links show their site’s icon without a network request. |
sidePanelChrome, Edge, Brave | To show Tabulary in the browser’s side panel when you choose it. Firefox’s sidebar needs no permission. |
identity | To run the Google sign-in flow, if you use it. |
bookmarksoptional | Asked for only when you click Import browser bookmarks. Tabulary reads your bookmarks for that import and shows you a preview; nothing is written back to your bookmarks. The browser keeps the permission once granted, until you remove it in its extension settings, but Tabulary reads bookmarks only when you start an import. |
topSitesoptional | Asked for only when you click Add your most visited sites on Home. Tabulary reads the browser’s list of most visited sites once and adds up to eight that aren’t already shortcuts, keeping each one’s address and a short name. Nothing else from the list is kept, and it is read only when you click that button. |
Tabulary also replaces the new tab page and registers tt as an address-bar keyword. Neither sends anything anywhere: the new tab page is the extension’s own library and Home, and an address-bar search is answered from local storage.
The feedback form
Settings → Support links to an optional feedback form hosted on Google Forms. Using it is entirely up to you, it never opens by itself, and it collects only what you type into it. Nothing from your library is attached.
Deleting your data
From Settings → Data you can export everything as a JSON file, clear this device’s data, clear the signed-in account’s data, or delete the account outright. Every destructive action offers to export first, and account deletion tombstones your cloud data before the identity is removed. An export does not include Home background photos.
Children’s privacy
Tabulary is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 13.
Changes to this policy
This website
This page and the rest of the Tabulary website (tabulary.vercel.app) count page views with Vercel Web Analytics. It sets no cookies and builds no profile of you: it records that a page was viewed, roughly where in the world from, and the kind of device and browser, with no way to follow you from one site to another. It is used only to see which pages people read. It does not run inside the extension, and the extension sends nothing to it. The site loads no advertising and no other tracking.
If this policy changes, the “Last updated” date above changes with it.
Contact
Questions about any of this: hishamsunjeq123@gmail.com.