The following privacy policy is intended to inform users of the Cleanstart browser extension of how their data is handled by Cleanstart and the third-party services which Cleanstart connects to. Note that Cleanstart does not directly collect any personal information from its users.
Information which Cleanstart has access toBased on permissions granted by the user when installing or updating Cleanstart, Cleanstart has access to the user’s bookmarks, the icons of the websites they visit, and optionally (if granted by the user) a list of recent/frequently accessed websites provided by the browser, along with any information uploaded to Cleanstart by the user such as a nickname or wallpaper image. Cleanstart does not save any of this information (except that which is required to apply user preferences such as the wallpaper or the user’s nickname, if provided) and never transmits this information off the user’s computer or collects it. However, search queries entered by the user in the Cleanstart searchboxes are transmitted to third parties for autocomplete and search functionality as described below.
Collection & use of informationCleanstart does not collect or transmit any information that can be used to personally identify the user, with the exception of search queries (which depending on what the user types may contain sensitive information) which are transmitted to the user-selected search engine upon submitting a search query as well as to third-party services for autocomplete functionality, as described below.
Cookies & analyticsCleanstart uses cookies to store user preferences. This includes user-uploaded wallpapers stored as Base64 images. Cleanstart does not use any analytics services to track user activity.
Third-party ServicesCleanstart connects to several third-party services to which it sends some data required for the functionality of Cleanstart. These services and the data which they are sent by Cleanstart are outlined below. Since these are third-party services, how they handle your data is up to them. However, in theory none of the information sent to these services by Cleanstart contains personal or sensitive information.
Google suggestqueries service
Cleanstart uses this service to get autocomplete predictions when using the searchbox built into Cleanstart. The contents of the searchbox is sent to the service as the user types. This is the same service used by the Google Search homepage. View the Google Search privacy policy here.
Wikipedia API
Cleanstart uses this service to get links to relevant Wikipedia articles along with an image and short summary of the topic as you type into the Cleanstart searchbox. The contents of the searchbox is sent to the service as the user types. View the Wikimedia Foundation privacy policy here.
Openweathermap API
Cleanstart uses this service to obtain the weather data shown on the Cleanstart new tab page. Each time you open a new tab, Cleanstart sends the latitude and longitude of the city you selected weather data to be displayed for in the Cleanstart preferences. Note that these coordinates are not tied to your current location (Cleanstart does not access geolocation data), but to the city name you selected in Preferences. View the Openweathermap privacy policy here.
Teleport Cities Search API
Cleanstart uses this service to get autocomplete predictions when you use the city name searchbox in the Cleanstart preferences menu. The contents of the cities searchbox is sent to the service as the users types. View the Teleport privacy policy here.
This policy is valid for the current version of Cleanstart, version 2.2 Photon. New updates to the extension may add new features or access new kinds of data. If that happens, this policy will be updated accordingly, and the new policy will supersede the old one. For most users, Cleanstart will automatically update to the new version when one is released, and users are notified of this by a popup on the new tab page – in that case, continued use of Cleanstart represents an acknowledgement of changes to this policy and your agreement to abide by them.
Contact meIf you have any questions or concerns about this extension or policy, please email me at [email protected].