github-refresh

Privacy Policy — GitHub Auto-Refresh

Last updated: 2026-05-06

Plain-English summary

We don’t collect, transmit, sell, or share any of your data. Ever.

This extension runs entirely on your computer. It does not send anything anywhere. No analytics, no telemetry, no remote servers, no third-party SDKs.

What the extension does store, and where

Data Where it lives Why
Your settings (refresh threshold, reminder threshold, URL patterns, on/off toggles) chrome.storage.sync — Chrome syncs this across your signed-in browsers. Stored on Google’s infrastructure as part of Chrome Sync. So your preferences persist across browsers and reinstalls.
Per-tab timing state (last-focused / last-reloaded timestamps) chrome.storage.session — wiped every time the browser restarts. Local only. So we know when to refresh or remind.

The extension never reads, transmits, or processes the content of any web page — only URLs (to match against your patterns) and timestamps.

Permissions, and why we ask for each

Permission Why
tabs Read tab URLs (to match against your patterns) and call tabs.reload() to refresh idle tabs.
storage Save your settings (storage.sync) and per-tab timing state (storage.session).
alarms Schedule the periodic check (every 30 seconds) that decides whether to refresh or remind. Required because Manifest V3 service workers cannot use setInterval.
notifications Show optional desktop reminders when an active GitHub tab has gone stale.
webNavigation Detect GitHub’s in-page (Turbo) navigation so the reminder timer resets correctly when you click around without a full page reload.
Host permission: https://github.com/*, https://*.github.com/* Limits the extension to GitHub. We have no access to any other website.

Third parties

There are none. The extension makes no network requests of its own.

Data sold to third parties

None. We don’t have anything to sell.

Children

The extension is not directed at children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect data from anyone (because we collect no data).

Source code

The extension is open source under the MIT license. You can read every line of code at github.com/ivanmaierg/github-refresh and verify these claims yourself.

Changes

If we ever add data collection, this page will be updated before the change ships, and the changelog in the README will note it. Existing users would be opted out by default.

Contact

Open an issue at github.com/ivanmaierg/github-refresh/issues.