Foldaway privacy policy

Last updated: 4 October 2026

In short: Foldaway keeps everything on your own computer. It has no server, no account, no analytics and no ads, and it never sells anything about you. By itself, it sends nothing anywhere unless you turn on the weather: then your chosen city’s rough position goes to MET Norway for the forecast, and what you type to find your city goes to Photon (by Komoot). Opening its Google apps menu loads that menu’s icons from Google, with nothing about you.

What Foldaway handles, and why

Your open tabs’ addresses, titles and site icons. These are shown on the new tab page, and when you put tabs away they’re saved into your folders so you can open them again.
Your Chrome tab groups’ names and colours. Folders are named after them, and tabs go back into their group when you undo or reopen them.
Your folders, shortcut circles and settings. These are what you create in Foldaway: saved tabs (address, title, site icon and the date you put them away), your shortcuts, your choices in Settings, and the apps you pick as favourites in the Google apps menu.
Your most visited sites, as Chrome lists them. Read the first time Foldaway opens, to start your shortcut circles with the sites you use most. The circles are kept, and so is that first list, so that an import can tell whether you’ve changed your circles since. They’re also read when you type in one of Settings’ site lists (“Sites that stay open”, “Sites that never sleep”), to suggest sites as you type; those suggestions aren’t kept.
The address each open tab is on. When you close a tab, Foldaway checks, on your computer, whether its page is in one of your folders, and if so asks whether to remove it from there too. The addresses are kept in temporary storage that Chrome clears when it closes (noted whether or not the question is on, so it’s ready whenever it is). You can turn the question off in Settings (“When I close a saved tab, ask whether to remove it from its folder”).
A background picture, if you choose one. Foldaway keeps a smaller copy in its storage on your computer, to show behind your folders, with two colours picked out of it on your computer for “Colours from your picture”. It’s never uploaded, and it isn’t part of backups.
The tabs you keep open. When you choose “Keep this tab open”, Foldaway notes that tab and the address it’s on, on your computer, so that putting tabs away leaves it alone, even after Chrome restarts (it’s found again by its address). It’s forgotten once you close the tab.
Whether Foldaway is your new tab page. Chrome shows one extension’s new tab page. Foldaway notes, on your computer, whether it’s the one, so that its toolbar button can open your folders either way.
The city you choose for the weather, and the place for a second clock, if you turn them on. Their names (and the city’s position and country) are kept with your settings, so they’re in your backups too. The latest forecast is kept so that every new tab can show it, until a newer one replaces it, and after a failed try, when to try again; both are deleted when you turn the weather off. See “What leaves your computer” for what the weather sends.
Your computer’s time zone and Chrome’s language, if you turn on the clock or the weather. Read on your computer to show the time and the date, and to choose between °C and °F (by your city’s country, or else by the language).
When you last looked at each tab. This is used only to decide which tabs have been idle long enough to sleep or be put away. It’s kept in temporary storage that Chrome clears when it closes.
What Foldaway put away by itself, for a day. When the timer or Alt+Shift+O puts tabs away, the next new tab says so and offers Undo, so for a day Foldaway keeps a list of those tabs (address, title, and where each one was in your windows). After a day, or once you’ve used Undo or dismissed the note, it’s deleted.
When you last saved a backup. So that Foldaway can remind you (a small dot on the Settings gear) when it’s been a month.

Private (incognito) tabs are never shown, saved or put away.

Where it’s kept

In Chrome’s extension storage, on your device. It isn’t uploaded, synced or copied anywhere by Foldaway, except into your own Chrome bookmarks if you turn that on (see Backups), and except for the weather’s rough position described below.

What leaves your computer

Foldaway sends nothing anywhere unless you turn on the weather, and its page loads nothing else from the web (even its font is part of the extension) but the Google apps menu’s icons, when you open that menu (see below). The weather is off unless you turn it on in Settings → Clock & weather:

The forecast. While the weather is on, Foldaway asks MET Norway (the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, met.no) for the forecast at your city’s rough position (rounded to about a kilometre), while a Foldaway page is open in front of you, at most about every half hour, as each forecast runs out. If MET Norway can’t answer, Foldaway waits before asking again, longer each time. Nothing else is sent with it but what your browser sends with any request (such as its version and language); as with any website, MET Norway sees your internet address. Turn the weather off and this stops.
Finding your city. When you type your city’s name in Settings, what you type is sent to Photon, a place search run by Komoot (photon.komoot.io) on OpenStreetMap’s data, to list the places it could be, with your browser’s language if it’s English, German, French or Italian, so that their names come in it. As with any website, Komoot sees your internet address.

These things also involve the internet, all of them ordinary browsing, and only when you ask for them:

Searching. When you search from the new tab page, Chrome sends your search to your default search engine, exactly as if you had typed it into the address bar.
AI Mode. The search bar’s AI Mode button opens Google’s AI Mode with whatever you typed, like the same button on Chrome’s own new tab page.
The Google apps menu’s icons. The first time you open the Google apps menu (the nine dots at the top right), its icons load from Google’s server (ssl.gstatic.com), as one picture, the one Google’s own apps menu shows; Chrome then keeps it, so it loads again only if Chrome’s cached images are cleared. Nothing about you or your tabs is sent with it; as with any website, Google sees your internet address. Never opened, or hidden (Settings → Appearance), the menu loads nothing.
Opening saved tabs and links. Opening a saved tab, a shortcut, or one of the Gmail, Images and Google apps links loads that website, as any link would.
Reporting a problem. Settings → About Foldaway → Report a problem opens a form at Google Forms, by way of a page on Foldaway’s website, with technical details filled in for you to see, change or delete: Foldaway’s and Chrome’s versions, your system and language, which of its features are on, and how many folders and saved tabs you have (never a tab, its title or its address). Google receives those details as the form opens; what you write, and your email address if you give it, only when you send the form.
Removing Foldaway. When you remove it, Chrome opens a page on Foldaway’s website with help to get your folders back and a way to say what went wrong.

Backups

Settings → Backup → Export saves a file to your computer that only you control. Import reads a file you choose (a Foldaway backup, or tabs saved by another app such as OneTab, Toby or Session Buddy, or a bookmarks file) or a list of links you paste in, and adds those tabs to your folders. Neither sends anything anywhere.

Keep a copy in Chrome bookmarks is off unless you turn it on, and Chrome asks for your permission first. While it’s on, Foldaway writes your folders’ names and their tabs’ titles and addresses into a “Foldaway” folder in your Chrome bookmarks and keeps it up to date. From there, your bookmarks are Chrome’s: it stores them on your computer and, if you use Chrome sync, syncs them with your Google account, as it does all your bookmarks. Foldaway itself sends nothing anywhere. Turning it off stops the copying and gives the permission back; the copy stays in your bookmarks until you delete it. Import can read it back (asking for the permission if it isn’t on).

Deleting your data

You can remove any saved tab or folder at any time. Uninstalling Foldaway deletes everything it stored, so export a backup first if you want to keep your folders. A copy in your bookmarks stays until you delete it.

Permissions, explained

Permission	Why Foldaway needs it
Read your open tabs (`tabs`)	To list your open tabs, save the ones you put away, notice when a saved page’s tab is closed, find tabs that have been idle, suggest the sites you have open as you type in Settings, tick “Keep this tab open” and “Keep this site open” for the page you’re on, and tell whether a new tab is showing Foldaway.
Tab groups (`tabGroups`)	To name folders after your tab groups and put tabs back into them.
Site icons (`favicon`)	To show each site’s icon, taken from Chrome’s own icon cache.
Most visited sites (`topSites`)	To start your shortcut circles with the sites you visit most, the first time Foldaway opens, and to suggest sites when you type in Settings’ site lists.
Storage (`storage`, `unlimitedStorage`)	To keep your folders on your computer, with no size limit.
Alarms (`alarms`)	To check once a minute for tabs that have been idle long enough to sleep or be put away.
Search (`search`)	To send searches to your default search engine.
Right-click menu (`contextMenus`)	To add “Put this tab away”, “Put this tab away in” (your folders, or a new one you name), “Keep this tab open” and “Keep this site open” (named for the site, such as “Keep youtube.com open”) to the menu you get when you right-click a page.
New tab page	To show Foldaway when you open a new tab.
Bookmarks (`bookmarks`), optional	Asked for only when you turn on “Keep a copy in Chrome bookmarks” or import from it: to write the copy of your folders into your bookmarks and read it back.

Foldaway’s use of this information follows the Chrome Web Store User Data Policy, including its Limited Use requirements.

Changes

If this policy changes, the new version will be published here with a new date.

Questions

Ask through Foldaway’s help page, or open an issue at github.com/victorirtwange/victorirtwange.github.io/issues.