Retrace — Privacy Policy

Last updated: 2026-09-21

Retrace is a tab and session manager for Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge. It is built to be private by default: everything Retrace stores stays on your own computer, and Retrace makes no network requests — it has no servers, no account system, and no analytics.

What data Retrace handles

Retrace works with the following information, only for the sessions and windows you choose to save or that are shown to you in its interface:

• Tab information — the title, URL, and favicon URL of open tabs.
• Sessions and Spaces you create — the names, groupings, pins, and archive state you assign.
• An activity log — a local list of actions you take in Retrace (saved, reopened, renamed, pinned, archived, deleted), so you can retrace your steps.
• Settings — your preferences, such as whether pinned sessions reopen on launch and what the toolbar icon opens.
• A license key (optional) — if you buy the Backup & restore unlock and paste your key, the key is stored locally. It embeds the email you purchased with; that email stays on your device and is never transmitted by the extension.

Chrome classifies tab URLs and titles as “web browsing activity.” Retrace uses this data solely to provide its features to you.

How Retrace uses this data

The data above is used only to provide Retrace's user-facing features: saving a window as a session, searching your sessions, reopening them, grouping them into Spaces, and showing your activity history. That's it.

On-device AI

When your device supports your browser's built-in on-device AI (Chrome's Gemini Nano, or Edge's own on-device model), Retrace can generate a short summary and title for a session, group related tabs, and write a brief. This runs entirely on your device. No tab data, and no other information, is sent to Google, Microsoft, to us, or to any third party for these features. If on-device AI is unavailable, Retrace falls back to simple summaries built from the tabs' domains.

Backup files and your license key

Backup & restore is an optional paid feature. When you export, Retrace writes a file to a location you choose; that file contains your sessions, Spaces, activity log, and settings, and it stays wherever you save it — Retrace does not upload it anywhere. When you import, Retrace reads a file you pick. Neither action makes a network request.

Your license key is verified entirely on your device, using a cryptographic signature check against a public key built into the extension. No server is contacted to activate or validate it, so the "no network requests" promise below holds even for paid users. Purchasing a key happens on a separate checkout page run by our payment provider, which is governed by that provider's own privacy policy; the Retrace extension is not involved in the purchase.

Where the data is stored

All of the above is stored locally using Chrome's chrome.storage.local API, on the device where you use Retrace. It is not transmitted off your device, not synced to other devices, and not sent to us or any third party. Retrace does not use chrome.storage.sync.

What Retrace does NOT do

• No data is sold, rented, or shared with anyone.
• No advertising, ad targeting, retargeting, or interest-based profiling.
• No account, login, or personally identifying registration.
• No remote code and no external analytics or tracking.
• No transmission of your data over the network — Retrace makes no network requests at all.

Retention and deletion

Your data stays until you delete it. You are in control:

• Delete a session, Space, or clear items from within Retrace at any time.
• Removing (uninstalling) the extension, or clearing the extension's site data in Chrome, permanently erases everything Retrace has stored.

Because the data never leaves your device, there is nothing for us to delete on our side — we never have it.

Limited Use disclosure

Retrace's use of information received from Chrome APIs adheres to the Chrome Web Store User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. Specifically, tab and browsing data accessed by Retrace is used only to provide user-facing features described here and in the Chrome Web Store listing; it is never transferred to third parties except as required by law, never used for advertising, and never read by a human (there is no server for anyone to read it from — it stays on your device).

Children's privacy

Retrace is a general-purpose productivity tool and is not directed at children. It collects no personal information.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the updated version will be posted at this same location with a new “Last updated” date.

Contact

Questions about this policy or Retrace's privacy practices: contact@retrace-addon.store