1. What Tab Assistant is
Tab Assistant is a Manifest V3 Chrome extension that auto-refreshes tabs and cycles between internal links of a site with human-like timing. It runs entirely inside your browser. There is no remote Tab Assistant server — your browsing data never leaves your device and is never sent to us. Because of this design, we are physically unable to see what you do.
2. What we don't collect
This is the heart of the policy. Tab Assistant does not collect:
- No account — the extension has no sign-up, login, or user profile.
- No browsing history, URLs you visit, or page contents sent off your device.
- No personal information (name, email, phone, location, contacts).
- No advertising identifiers and no third-party analytics or ad SDKs.
- No selling or sharing of personal data — there is none to sell.
Verified by source inspection: the codebase contains zero fetch, XMLHttpRequest, WebSocket, or sendBeacon calls. You can audit the source yourself.
3. How it works (the technical truth)
When you open the popup on a page, Tab Assistant uses chrome.scripting.executeScript to inject a small script that reads the page's same-origin <a href> tags. That URL list is shown in the popup so you can pick which links to rotate through. The background service worker uses chrome.alarms to schedule navigations on the cadence you configure. A content script watches for mouse / keyboard / scroll activity so the rotation can auto-pause when you're actually using the page. None of this involves a network call to us.
4. Data stored on your device only
To remember your settings and power local analytics, Tab Assistant stores the following on your device only, via chrome.storage.local. It is never transmitted to us and never syncs across devices:
- Per-domain settings: min/max navigation delays, toggle states, link selections, per-link refresh intervals, activity-detection preferences.
- Per-domain analytics counters: navigations, refreshes, total time automated, and your chosen retention window (7 days, 30 days, or never).
- Lightweight UI flags such as
tipsDismissed.
You can clear this data at any time from the Reset button in the popup, the Analytics tab's reset action, or by clearing the extension's storage and/or uninstalling it. When it's gone, it's gone — we hold no copy.
5. Page content we read (and don't read)
Tab Assistant only reads the href attribute and link text of <a> tags on the active tab — and only when you open the popup on that tab. It does not read form values, text content, cookies, localStorage, IndexedDB, or any other page state. It does not capture screenshots. It does not record keystrokes (the activity content script only checks whether an event occurred, not what you typed).
6. Third parties
Tab Assistant has no backend, but two third parties are inherently involved:
- Google Fonts. The popup and onboarding pages load the Inter font from
fonts.googleapis.com. When you open the popup, Google sees a font request. No other data is sent. This can be self-hosted on request. - Google Chrome / Web Store. If you install from the Chrome Web Store, Google may collect install and diagnostic metrics under Google's privacy policy. This is standard for any Chrome extension and is outside Tab Assistant's control.
7. Permissions we use
tabs— identify the active tab and navigate it.scripting— inject the link scraper into the current page when you open the popup.storage— save per-domain settings and analytics locally.notifications— optional status notifications. Off unless you enable them.activeTab— operate only on the tab you opened the popup on.alarms— schedule navigation timers in the MV3 service worker.host_permissions: <all_urls>— required so you can use the extension on any site you choose. It does not grant us anything: we never see what you visit.
Tab Assistant does not request access to your camera, microphone, location, downloads, identity, history API, cookies, or any other sensitive permission.
8. Children
Tab Assistant is suitable for general audiences and does not knowingly collect any personal data from anyone, including children. Because the extension collects no personal data at all, it poses no specific risk to children's privacy.
9. Changes to this policy
If we change how Tab Assistant handles data, we'll update this page and revise the date above. Material changes will be reflected in the Chrome Web Store listing and, where relevant, in the extension itself.
10. Open source & license
Tab Assistant is open source under the MIT license. Full source is at github.com/shakiltousif/tab-assistant-extension. Anyone is welcome to read it, audit it, fork it, or file an issue.
11. Contact
Questions about Tab Assistant's privacy? privacy@shakvaro.com or open an issue at GitHub Issues. Tab Assistant is built by Shakvaro (Chattogram, Bangladesh).