Privacy Policy

Essentials is a local-first browser extension. This document tells you exactly what data the extension touches, where it lives, and what we — the developers — can and cannot see. Essentials for Firefox is operated by Pocket Atelier LLC.

The short version

• The Essentials extension never sends your data to us. No in-extension analytics, no crash reporting, no remote logging. (This marketing site uses privacy-friendly analytics — see below.)
• Your essentials live in your browser's local storage and, if you opt in, sync via your browser account's built-in sync storage.
• Browser sync runs through your browser provider's sync service, such as Firefox Sync, tied to your Mozilla account. Pocket Atelier LLC never receives a copy.
• The extension does not read page content, cookies, form data, or browsing history. It processes tab URLs and titles locally only when needed for features like adding the current tab, showing tile state, or opening/focusing a matching tab.

What is stored, and where

When you add a site to Essentials, the extension records the URL, a title (which you can edit), and the position in your grid. The extension also stores your space metadata (name, two-letter label, color), your layout settings (rows, columns, click behavior), and a local cache of the favicons it has fetched. That data lives in:

• Your browser's local extension storage on your device.
• If sync is enabled in Settings → Sync, your browser provider's extension sync storage. For Firefox, that means Firefox Sync, tied to your Mozilla account. Pocket Atelier LLC does not receive or operate a copy of this data; your browser provider's terms and privacy practices apply. Favicon images are kept locally only and are not synced.

Browsing data

Essentials does not read the content of the pages you browse — not the text, your cookies, your form data, or your browsing history. It uses the browser's tabs API and broad host permission to do three things: open or focus the tab matching an essential when you click it; show the active or loaded state of each tile; and offer "Add current tab" and "Add to Essentials" from the browser's right-click menu. For those features it processes tab URLs and titles in real time, locally on your device — this tab information is never sent to Pocket Atelier LLC or to any third party. Separately, to show a crisp icon for a site you've added, when that site is open in a tab Essentials runs a small one-off script in that tab that reads only its icon <link> tags (icon, apple-touch-icon, manifest) — never the page's content. If you intentionally save the current tab as an essential, its URL and title are stored as described above.

Network

The extension makes outbound requests for two purposes: fetching favicons for the sites you add, and validating your license with Polar. For favicons, it first tries the site itself; if that fails, it falls back to Google's public favicon service at www.google.com/s2/favicons, which returns the icon Google has on file for that domain. Both requests go directly from your device to those hosts — never through our servers, because we do not run any. The site whose icon is requested may receive ordinary network metadata for that request. When fetching a fallback icon from Google's public utility, Google receives the requested domain and ordinary network metadata, such as your IP address and browser request information, under Google's own privacy practices. Essentials does not attach your Essentials data, account information, or any Pocket Atelier LLC identifier to that request. For licensing, the extension sends your license key to Polar's validation endpoint (api.polar.sh) — once when you activate, and on a periodic background check afterward — so a refunded or expired license stops unlocking the paid features. Only the license key and the product identifier are sent; no browsing data, tab information, or favicon data is included. These requests go directly from your device to Polar, under Polar's own privacy practices.

Purchase

Polar, our merchant of record, processes the one-time purchase. We do not receive or store payment card details; those stay with Polar and its payment processor. We do receive purchase metadata from Polar, such as your email address, order ID, and license and refund status, so we can fulfil purchases, provide support, and honor refunds. If you email us at [email protected], we use your message and email address solely to answer your support request and will delete the correspondence on request.

Website analytics

This marketing site (essentialsforfirefox.app) uses Umami, a privacy-friendly analytics tool we self-host on our own infrastructure. It does not set cookies, does not store IP addresses, and does not track visitors across sites. We use it to understand basic site traffic, such as page views, referrers, browser and device type, country-level location, and similar aggregate metrics. The Essentials extension itself does not load Umami or any other analytics.

Children

Essentials is not directed at children under 13 and does not knowingly collect data from them. The extension does not send children's personal data to Pocket Atelier LLC.

Changes to this policy

If we ever change what the extension does, we will update this page and note the change in the changelog. There is no mailing list for us to email; the extension is the contract.

Contact

Questions? Write to [email protected]. A real person will reply.