Tabrief · Chrome Extension

Privacy Policy & Terms of Use

Effective September 11, 2026 Version 1.0 Applies to Tabrief on Google Chrome

In short — the plain-English version

Tabrief keeps everything on your device. There's no account, no server, and no analytics collecting what you do.
Its summarizer runs locally and free by default. Nothing is sent anywhere unless you add your own AI provider key and click "Rewrite in plain language."
Even then, your page text goes directly from your browser to the provider you chose — never through us, since there is no "us" server in between.
A summary is a guide, not a substitute for reading the real thing — especially before agreeing to anything.
Uninstalling Tabrief deletes everything it stored, immediately.

The sections below are the full, formal version of the five lines above.

§1

What Tabrief does

Tabrief is a Chrome extension with two functions: it produces a local, automatic summary of the page you're viewing — including PDFs — and it keeps your open tabs from being lost, either because you deliberately saved one (like a bookmark) or because its background session backup captured it automatically before a crash, a shutdown, or an accidental close.

§2

Data we collect: none, by default

Tabrief has no backend server, no account system, and no analytics of any kind. Everything it needs — your saved tabs, your session backup, your settings — is written to chrome.storage.local, a storage area that lives entirely on your own device and is never transmitted to us, because there is no destination for it to be transmitted to.

Nothing you do inside Tabrief is logged, tracked, or shared with any third party as a matter of course.

§3

The one optional exception: AI rewriting

Tabrief's Quick Summary is produced entirely on your device by a local heuristic — it never leaves your browser, costs nothing, and works with no setup.

Separately, Tabrief offers an optional "Rewrite in plain language" upgrade. It only exists if you go to Settings and enter your own API key for Anthropic or OpenAI. If you do, and you click that button, the text extracted from the page you're viewing is sent directly from your browser to whichever provider you configured — governed by that provider's own privacy policy, not ours. We never see, store, or have any way to access that request. Your API key itself is also stored only in chrome.storage.local, on your device.

If you never configure a key, this exception does not apply to you at all.

§4

Permissions Tabrief requests, and why

Chrome requires an extension to declare every permission it uses up front. Here is what Tabrief asks for and the specific feature each one is for — nothing is requested "just in case."

Permission	What it's for
`tabs`	Listing your open tabs in the popup, knowing which one is active, and letting you save, close, or switch to one.
`storage`	Saving your tabs, session backup, and settings locally, on your device only.
`alarms`	Running the automatic session backup roughly once a minute as a fallback, in case a browser crash skips the usual triggers.
`scripting`	Reading the visible text of the current page — only at the moment you click "Summarize," never in the background or automatically.
`activeTab`	Grants the permission above temporary access to whichever tab is active when you open the popup or click "Summarize" — not to any other site or tab, and not automatically.
`host_permissions` — api.anthropic.com, api.openai.com	Used only if you configure a key and click "Rewrite in plain language" — see §3.

§5

Disclaimer & limitation of liability

Tabrief is provided "as is," without warranty of any kind. Its summaries — local or AI-generated, for a Terms of Service page, an article, or anything else — are automated approximations meant only to give you a general idea of what a page contains. They may be incomplete, outdated, or wrong. A summary is never legal advice, and never a substitute for reading the actual page.

You are solely responsible for thoroughly reading and understanding any terms, policy, or agreement in full before relying on it or accepting it. To the fullest extent permitted by law, the developer of Tabrief is not liable for any damages, losses, or claims arising from your use of the extension, including reliance on an inaccurate summary or any decision made on the basis of one.

§6

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the version number and effective date at the top of this page will change with it. Continuing to use Tabrief after an update means you accept the current version.

§7

Questions

Tabrief doesn't run a support inbox at this time. If you obtained this extension from someone directly, that's the right person to ask. This document is a plain-language policy, not a substitute for advice from a licensed attorney.