Privacy, Data & Troubleshooting

Privacy & what the extension accesses

Everything runs locally in your browser — no URLflows account, no server, no analytics. Here's exactly what the extension reads, why it reads it, and where it all stays.

The short version

URLflows for Teams does not collect, transmit, or sell any personal data. It has no backend, no accounts, no analytics, and no telemetry. All processing happens on your device, and the only network requests it makes are to the sources you configure — your spreadsheets and calendar feeds — plus Gmail's unread feed if you keep that badge on. Everything the extension stores lives in Chrome's local storage on your machine.

Your sheet: read-only, through your own Google session

Your sheet does not need to be public. The bar reads it through your browser's existing Google session, so Google's own permissions are respected: a sheet shared only with your team loads for the people you've granted access and no one else. "Anyone with the link" and published CSVs work too, if you'd rather not require a sign-in. Either way, access is strictly read-only — the bar can display your links, but it can never edit your spreadsheet.

Fetched bookmark titles, URLs, and tags are cached locally so your bar renders instantly without re-fetching on every page. The cache lives only on your device. The data itself stays in your spreadsheet, which you control — to change what the team sees, you change the sheet.

No URLflows account, no server in the middle

You never create a URLflows account or sign into URLflows, and neither do your teammates — there's no backend. For a sheet you've restricted to your team, the bar simply relies on the Google session your browser is already using, the same one that lets you open the sheet in a tab. Nothing is routed through a URLflows server.

Calendar feeds

If you add a calendar (.ics) link, the extension fetches it on the same refresh schedule as your sheets to power the Now/Next agenda and Timeline markers. Events are cached locally and never sent anywhere. One tip: treat a "secret address" feed URL like a password — the extension stores it only in your browser, so keep it out of shared sheets.

Gmail unread badge (optional, on by default)

While the Mail button's unread badge is enabled, the extension fetches Gmail's legacy Atom feed about once a minute, using only the Google session already signed into your browser — no OAuth, no API key. It reads only the unread-count number from that feed; message subjects, senders, and bodies are never extracted, stored, or transmitted. If you're signed out, there's simply no badge. You can turn it off, or point it at a single label, in Settings — see Show your Gmail unread count.

Smart bookmarks (optional, off by default)

When you switch on Smart bookmarks, Chrome's built-in on-device model (Gemini Nano) categorizes the pages you visit using only each page's address, title, and meta description (up to 300 characters) — never the page body. The model runs entirely on your device; nothing about your browsing is uploaded. The resulting bookmarks are stored locally until they expire on the retention schedule you choose, or until you clear them.

On the pages you visit

The extension injects its bookmarks bar on the pages you browse, which is why it asks for access to sites. The injected script reads the current page's hostname and path so it can apply your per-site overrides (hide the bar on this site, pin it on this page) and run the tools you trigger, like screenshots, zoom, and PII masking. No page content is sent off-device.

For the Network JSON Viewer, a small in-page observer watches the page's own network requests so the viewer can show responses that fired while you were there. It only observes — nothing is altered — and captured responses are kept in memory for the life of the page (newest 50, no persistence), readable only by the extension's own UI.

The tools, and the permissions behind them

Each remaining permission exists for one visible tool, works only when you use that tool, and nothing it touches leaves your device:

  • Browser history — powers the Browser History tool and the optional "Recently visited" strip. Read-only, recent http/https URLs, only when you open those views. Your history is never modified.
  • Closed-tab sessions — powers Reopen Closed Tab. Reads the browser's recently-closed list when you click that button.
  • Tabs — used to screenshot the active tab, open bookmark URLs, spot that a clicked link is already open so you can switch to it, and snapshot the current window when you use Store Open Tabs. Stored tab sets stay in local storage.
  • Chrome bookmarks — used only by the "Push to Chrome bookmarks" action you trigger. It writes your links into a single folder named URLflows and replaces that folder on a re-push; it reads only Chrome's top-level folder list to find the destination. Your existing bookmarks are never read, changed, or collected.
  • Site icons — bookmark rows show each site's icon from Chrome's own local favicon cache. No request is made to any third-party icon service.
  • Network capture (HAR) — the "HAR for support" tool attaches Chrome's DevTools debugger to the current tab only when you start a capture (Chrome shows its own "debugging this tab" bar), then saves the result as a .har file on your machine.
  • Screen capture — the whole-screen/window screenshot tool triggers Chrome's native source picker; the capture goes to your clipboard and/or a file, per your settings.

Scratch Pad, settings & where everything lives

Your notes, theme and layout choices, connected sheets, per-site overrides, and every other setting are stored in Chrome's local storage on your device. The optional backup export writes them to a JSON file you save — nothing is uploaded.

What the extension never does

  • No analytics. No usage pings, no telemetry, no crash reporting.
  • No remote backend. The only network requests are to the sheet and calendar URLs you configure, and Gmail's unread feed while that badge is on.
  • No accounts or sign-in. Nothing requires creating an account.
  • No advertising. No third-party scripts are loaded; all code ships in the package.
  • No selling or sharing of data. There's no data to sell — nothing is collected.

Removing your data

Cached bookmarks refresh on your schedule, Smart bookmarks expire on the retention window you choose, and the Reset controls on the settings page wipe whichever section you point them at. Uninstalling the extension clears all locally stored data — there's nothing anywhere else to delete.

Questions about privacy?

If anything here is unclear or you have a privacy question, let us know and we'll be glad to help.

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