The short version: TabDiary never sells your data, and by default nothing leaves your device at all. If — and only if — you choose to sign in for cross-device sync, your sessions are mirrored to a private database that only you can read.
When you save a session, TabDiary stores the following, using Chrome's built-in chrome.storage.local API:
| Data | Purpose | Where it goes |
|---|---|---|
| Tab titles, URLs, and favicon links | Let you find and restore a saved session later | Your device only |
| Session and folder names you type | Organize your saved sessions | Your device only |
| Your brightness / background / language preference | Remember your interface settings | Your device — and your own synced account, if you signed in |
| Permission | Why it's needed |
|---|---|
tabs | To read the titles/URLs of the current window's tabs when you choose to save a session, and to reopen or close tabs when you choose to restore or close them. TabDiary never reads tabs you have not asked it to act on. |
storage | To save your sessions, folders, and preferences locally on your device. |
unlimitedStorage | To avoid an arbitrary cap on how many sessions or how much tab history you can keep — since everything is stored locally, there is no cost to TabDiary in raising this limit. |
tabGroups | To read the title of a Chrome tab group when you save a window, so each group can be saved as its own named session. TabDiary never creates, modifies, or deletes tab groups. |
identity | To let you sign in with your Google account, only if you choose to, to enable the optional cross-device sync feature described below. TabDiary never uses this permission for anything else. |
contextMenus | To add two entries to your right-click menu — save every tab in the window, or just the current one — so you can save without opening the popup. TabDiary adds only its own entries and reads no page content. |
sidePanel | To open TabDiary as a side panel beside the browser window when you choose to, instead of the toolbar popup. It grants no access to page content or browsing data. |
TabDiary does not request host_permissions to read or modify the content of the pages you visit.
The Export button produces a plain JSON file containing every session, folder, and item in your trash — and the Import button reads it back, so a backup is genuinely restorable rather than just readable. Uninstalling the extension, or clearing its storage from Chrome's extension settings, permanently deletes all locally stored data.
TabDiary offers an optional cross-device sync feature. It is strictly opt-in: nothing leaves your device unless you explicitly choose "Sign in with Google." Sync is the one paid feature (a single $14.49 payment — see Pricing); every feature that protects your data, including import and export, is free. Payments are processed by Lemon Squeezy, who act as merchant of record: when you choose to buy, your account identifier and email address are passed to them so the purchase can be attached to your account. We never see or store your card details.
If you sign in, TabDiary receives your Google account's email address, display name, and profile photo (via Firebase Authentication) to identify your account, and mirrors your sessions and folders (the same data already stored locally) to a private Firestore database under your account, so they can sync to your other signed-in devices. Only you can read or write your own synced data — access is enforced server-side. Signing out stops all syncing immediately; your local data is unaffected either way. TabDiary does not use this data for advertising, analytics, or any purpose beyond syncing your own sessions across your own devices.
The first time you sign in, we send a single welcome email to your Google account's address. That is the only email TabDiary ever sends you — there is no newsletter, no product announcements, and no marketing. It is sent once per account, not once per device or per sign-in.
To send it, your email address and display name are passed to Resend, our email delivery provider, at that moment. We also store your account's identifier so we can tell that the welcome email has already been sent and never send it twice. We do not track whether you opened the email, and we do not sell, share, or otherwise pass your address to anyone else.
If this policy changes in a way that affects what data leaves your device, the "Last updated" date above will change and the new terms will apply only going forward.
Questions about this policy can be sent via the support link on TabDiary's Chrome Web Store listing.