Privacy Policy

Effective date: 2026-10-29

Hammock is a browser extension that saves open tabs to a list and restores them later. This policy explains, in plain language, what information Hammock handles, where it lives, and how to remove it.

What Hammock handles

Hammock processes the following information so it can do its one job:

• Tab addresses (URLs) and page titles of the tabs you choose to save, including native browser tab group names and colours.
• Favicon addresses for saved tabs, when the browser provides one.
• Saved-list content you create: group names, folders, workspaces, tags, auto-filing rules, notes, task checkmarks, snooze schedules, and the order of groups and tabs.
• Settings you choose, such as which tabs are eligible, restore behaviour, auto-stash intervals, backup schedules, theme, and excluded sites.
• Technical data needed for recovery: undo snapshots, automatic backup snapshots, and a health record used to recover from unreadable saved data.

Hammock does not read the content of web pages. It does not collect keystrokes, form data, passwords, cookies, or browsing activity beyond the tab addresses and titles you save.

Where the information is stored

All of it is stored in the browser's local extension storage on your computer, under the extension's own storage area. This is the same local storage area the browser provides to extensions; it is not a cloud service and it is not shared with other extensions.

When off-browser backups are enabled, backup snapshots are written to your computer's Downloads/Hammock Backups/ folder or to a local folder you choose (such as your personal OneDrive, Google Drive, or Dropbox sync folder) using the File System Access API. These files remain entirely on your own computer or your own cloud folder.

Hammock does not operate a server. There is no account and no sign-in.

No transmission

Hammock makes no network requests. It does not send your saved tabs, settings, notes, or any other information to the developer or to anyone else. Specifically:

• No analytics, telemetry, crash reporting, or usage statistics.
• No advertising and no advertising identifiers.
• No third-party services, SDKs, or remote scripts.
• No remote images or web fonts. Favicons come from the browser's own local icon cache.
• No data is sold, rented, or shared.

The extension is fully bundled: its JavaScript, WebAssembly, styles, and images ship inside the extension package. It does not download or execute remote code.

The extension includes an optional project support link (“Buy me a coffee”) in Settings and list views. Clicking this link opens an external website in a standard browser tab. The extension makes no network requests itself, passes no metadata or tracking parameters, and transmits no data when the link is clicked.

Backups and exports

You can export your list as a text file, JSON, HTML, Markdown, or CSV, and you can create an encrypted backup with a passphrase.

In addition, Hammock can automatically write periodic backup files to your Downloads/Hammock Backups/ folder or to a folder you explicitly select on your computer (including your personal cloud storage folder). These files stay on your machine or your own cloud folder.

If you enable backup encryption, the passphrase is used on your computer to derive an encryption key (using Argon2id) and encrypt the backup file with AES-256-GCM. The passphrase is never stored by Hammock and is never sent anywhere. Keep it safe: a lost passphrase cannot be recovered by the developer, because there is nothing to recover it from.

Automatic backup snapshots are also kept in local extension storage on your computer, never uploaded.

Notifications

Hammock uses local notifications exclusively to alert you when snoozed tabs or groups reach their scheduled wake time and have been reopened. These notifications are generated locally by your browser; no remote push service or external notification server is used.

What Hammock does not do

• It does not create an account or profile.
• It does not track you across sites.
• It does not collect or transmit web history to the developer.
• It does not read or change page content.
• It does not use your data to determine creditworthiness or for lending purposes.
• It does not transfer your data for purposes unrelated to saving and restoring tabs.

Permissions and why they exist

• tabs — read tab addresses, titles, favicons, pinned state, tab group associations, and order; close saved tabs; open restored tabs. There are no host permissions.
• storage — keep your saved list, folders, workspaces, tags, rules, settings, undo history, and backups in local extension storage.
• unlimitedStorage — allow large saved lists and automatic backups to stay local instead of hitting the default quota.
• contextMenus — offer right-click commands such as “Send only this tab” and “Exclude this site”.
• alarms — run scheduled local tasks: auto-stash checks, snooze wakeups, trash cleanup, and automatic backups while the background worker is asleep.
• favicon — show site icons from the browser's local icon cache, without contacting the site.
• sidePanel — show a compact companion panel of saved tabs alongside your web pages.
• tabGroups — preserve and recreate native browser tab groups (names and colours) when saving and restoring tabs.
• notifications — display local notifications when snoozed tabs wake up.
• downloads — write automatic backup files to your Downloads folder and prune older backups according to your retention settings.
• offscreen — create local blob URLs in Manifest V3 for backup files and exports without network activity.

How to delete your information

You are in control of the data on your computer:

• Delete everything in Hammock's settings removes the saved list, folders, workspaces, tags, rules, trash, notes, tasks, and in-browser backups from local extension storage. It asks you to type DELETE and takes a backup first.
• Empty trash removes deleted items before their retention period ends.
• Delete individual groups or tabs to remove them from the live list.
• Delete backup files from your Downloads or chosen backup folder directly through your computer's file manager.
• Remove the extension from the browser. Removing an extension deletes its local extension storage, including everything Hammock saved inside the browser.

Because the developer never receives your data, there is no server-side copy to delete and no request to make.

Children

Hammock is a general-purpose productivity tool. It is not directed at children and does not knowingly collect information from anyone.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the effective date at the top changes too. A new version will be published at the same public URL before a release that changes how data is handled.