Favourites Privacy Policy

Summary

Favourites is operated by Jordan Simpson in the United Kingdom. Favourites does not operate a bookmark server, does not require a Favourites account, and does not sell your data. Your bookmarks stay in Chrome.

Favourites uses product usage analytics and optional features that may contact third-party services. Some information therefore leaves your device. The details are explained below.

Chrome bookmarks

Favourites reads and updates your Chrome bookmarks so it can show, open, reorder, rename, move, and organise favourites and folders. Bookmarks remain in Chrome, and in Chrome Sync if you use it. Favourites does not maintain a separate bookmark database. Uninstalling Favourites does not delete your Chrome bookmarks.

Appearance and preference settings

Favourites stores settings such as background colour, layout, hidden-favourite IDs, icon preferences, widget choices, and feature toggles using Chrome storage on this device. Some of those preferences sync with your Chrome profile, as described below.

Synced preferences

Selected Favourites preferences are saved with Chrome’s sync storage so they can follow your signed-in Chrome profile across devices. This can include Launchpad choices, weather settings, and per-folder layout density. That sync is provided by Google Chrome, not by a Favourites server. Favourites does not operate its own synchronisation backend for bookmarks.

Site icons

Favourites shows Chrome’s cached favicons, then may request higher-resolution icon files from websites you have already bookmarked. If a bookmarked site has no usable icon, Favourites may ask Google or DuckDuckGo for one and send that site’s hostname only. That is different from uploading your complete bookmark collection. Favourites does not fetch bookmark page HTML for rendering the New Tab page.

Optional widgets

Widgets such as Date, Calendar and World Clock are optional. Weather is also optional.

When Weather is enabled, Favourites may request weather data from Open-Meteo using a location you choose. Automatic location is used only if you enable that option. Weather responses may be cached locally on your device.

When you search for a World Clock city, Favourites may send the city search term to Open-Meteo even if Weather is turned off.

Open-Meteo requests send the city or location information needed for that feature, not your bookmarks. Weather and city-search locations are not intentionally included in PostHog analytics events.

Optional Daily Suggestions

If you enable Daily Suggestions, Favourites requests Chrome’s optional history permission and analyses recent browsing on this device only, to suggest sites you have not bookmarked yet. History is not uploaded to a Favourites server. Turning the feature off removes the history permission when Chrome allows it.

Optional on-device intelligence

If you enable Intelligence in Settings, Favourites may use Chrome’s built-in on-device language model on this device to suggest bookmark folders, cleaned titles, or similar helpers. Favourites does not send bookmark or history content to a remote Favourites AI service. If the model is unavailable, Favourites falls back to non-AI behaviour.

Active Workspace sessions

When you open a folder as a Workspace (tab group), Favourites may keep a short-lived mapping in Chrome session storage on this device so it can focus an already-open Workspace. That mapping is not synced and is cleared when the browser session ends.

Settings backup

Import/export creates or reads a local JSON file of Favourites settings only. It does not export or replace your Chrome bookmarks.

How data is stored

Most Favourites settings, the icon cache, weather cache, hidden IDs and similar preferences stay in Chrome local storage on your device. Launchpad choices, weather settings, and per-folder layout density can live in Chrome sync storage with your Chrome profile. Workspace session mapping stays in Chrome session storage on this device. Bookmarks stay in Chrome.

Product analytics (PostHog)

Favourites uses PostHog for product usage analytics inside the Chrome extension. This is separate from analytics on this website.

Purpose: understand feature adoption, measure engagement and retention, identify usability problems, and improve Favourites. These analytics are not used for advertising or to sell personal data.

What is sent: product-usage events that describe how Favourites is used. Favourites is designed so that analytics event payloads do not include bookmark names, bookmark URLs, browser history content, Favourites search queries, website page contents, or weather and World Clock locations.

Identifiers: PostHog may associate events with a persistent identifier for the installation or browser context so usage can be understood over time. That makes the information pseudonymous rather than fully anonymous. As an analytics provider, PostHog may also process technical information such as browser or device details and network information such as IP address.

Controls: this policy does not claim that Favourites includes an in-extension analytics opt-out. Check your installed version of Favourites Settings for any privacy controls that are available. For analytics questions or deletion requests, contact hello@jordansimpson.io.

Existing installs: if you installed Favourites before product analytics were added, this policy describes the current analytics behaviour. Changes to data practices should also be disclosed in the product where Chrome Web Store rules require that.

Website analytics (Vercel)

The Favourites pages on jordansimpson.io are hosted on Vercel and use Vercel Web Analytics. That website analytics is separate from PostHog analytics inside the Chrome extension.

Website analytics may process standard technical information such as pages visited, approximate location derived from network information, browser or device details, and related request data used to operate and improve the site. See also the site-wide privacy policy at https://jordansimpson.io/legal/privacy.

Third-party services

Favourites may contact the following third-party services:

PostHog — privacy-conscious product usage analytics for the Chrome extension, as described above.

Open-Meteo — optional Weather data and World Clock city search. Weather may send selected location information or coordinates. Manual city search sends relevant search terms. World Clock city searches may contact Open-Meteo even when Weather is disabled. Weather responses may be cached locally.

Google and DuckDuckGo — optional favicon retrieval when Chrome or the bookmarked website cannot supply a suitable icon. Favourites may send an individual bookmarked website’s hostname for that lookup.

Google Chrome — stores your bookmarks and may synchronise bookmarks and selected Favourites settings through Chrome Sync if you use a signed-in Chrome profile. Chrome Sync is Google’s product and is governed by Google’s policies.

Vercel — hosts this website and provides Web Analytics for Favourites website pages.

Contacting a bookmarked website for an icon file is a direct request from your browser to that site’s origin. Optional on-device intelligence uses Chrome’s local model facilities when available.

Chrome Web Store Limited Use

Favourites uses information accessed through Chrome extension permissions, and related product features, only to provide or improve Favourites’ user-facing functionality and for related operational purposes such as measuring product usage and reliability.

Favourites does not sell user data and does not use user data for unrelated advertising. Limited information may be processed by third-party services as described in this policy, including product analytics, optional weather and city search, and optional favicon retrieval.

The use of information received from Google APIs and Chrome extension capabilities is intended to adhere to the Chrome Web Store User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

Data sharing

Favourites does not sell your data. Favourites does not share your bookmarks, browsing history, or settings with third parties for advertising or unrelated purposes.

Information may leave your device in these limited ways: bookmarks and selected settings may synchronise through Chrome Sync if you use it; individual hostnames may be sent for favicon retrieval; weather locations or city search terms may be sent to Open-Meteo; product-usage events may be sent to PostHog; and website visits may be processed through Vercel Web Analytics.

Favourites does not maintain a separate bookmark database. It would be inaccurate to say that no information ever leaves your device.

Retention and deletion

Local data: uninstalling Favourites removes the extension and its Chrome storage for that profile, including local settings, cached website icons, hidden-bookmark preferences, widget configurations, weather cache and similar local data held by the extension. Chrome bookmarks remain until you delete them in Chrome. Workspace session mapping is cleared when the browser session ends.

Chrome Sync: selected preferences that were synced with your Chrome profile may remain associated with that profile according to Chrome’s sync behaviour until they are cleared or overwritten. Favourites does not operate its own sync server for bookmarks.

PostHog and other third parties: uninstalling Favourites does not automatically delete information previously transmitted to PostHog, Open-Meteo, icon providers, or website hosting and analytics providers. Those providers retain data according to their own systems and the settings configured for Favourites.

PostHog retention for Favourites analytics depends on the retention settings configured in the Favourites PostHog project. This policy does not state a specific number of days because that setting should be confirmed in PostHog before a fixed period is published. Contact hello@jordansimpson.io to ask about retention or to request deletion. Practical identification or deletion of a specific installation’s analytics records may depend on the information you can provide.

You can restore hidden favourites from Settings, and you can turn off Daily Suggestions, Intelligence, Weather and similar optional features at any time.

Your privacy rights

Depending on where you live, including under UK data protection law, you may have rights to ask for access to personal data, correction, deletion, or other applicable privacy rights.

Contact hello@jordansimpson.io for privacy questions, access requests, deletion requests, corrections, or other applicable privacy rights. This policy does not guarantee that every analytics record can be identified or deleted in every case. Any practical limitations will be explained when you get in touch.

Some providers may process information outside the United Kingdom. If you need more detail about international transfers for a specific service, contact hello@jordansimpson.io.

Contact

Privacy questions about Favourites: hello@jordansimpson.io.

Site-wide policy: https://jordansimpson.io/legal/privacy.