Last updated: November 2, 2026
In one sentence: Lanes does not collect, transmit, sell, or share any of your data — everything it does happens entirely on your own device, using your browser's own built-in local storage.
Lanes is a browser extension that lets you organize open tabs into categories you define, tracks one category as "active," and automatically discards (puts to sleep) tabs outside that active category to reduce memory usage. All of this logic runs locally inside your browser.
To do the above, Lanes reads and stores the following, entirely on your own device:
None of this information ever leaves your device. Lanes has no server, and makes no network requests of any kind.
Lanes uses two parts of your browser's built-in extension storage (chrome.storage), and nothing else:
chrome.storage.local — holds your categories and the URL-to-category mapping. This persists on your device until you uninstall Lanes or manually clear its data, and is never synced to any external service by Lanes.chrome.storage.session — holds short-lived, per-browser-session tracking data (which open tab belongs to which category right now, and recent activation history). This is automatically cleared by your browser whenever it restarts.There is no account, sign-in, or cloud sync associated with Lanes, and no data is ever copied off your device.
tabs — used to detect when you open or switch tabs, read basic tab metadata (title, URL, favicon, pinned/discarded state) to display in the extension's own UI, discard tabs outside your active category, and move you between tabs when you respond to a prompt. All of this stays local to your device.storage — used for the on-device storage described above.Lanes includes an in-extension page where you can optionally type a message — a feature request, a bug report, or just a note — along with an optional name and email address. When you click Send, your browser's default email application opens with that message pre-filled, addressed to the developer.
Lanes itself does not store, log, transmit, or have any access to anything you type there. Nothing is sent unless and until you personally click Send in your own email client, exactly as if you had written the email yourself — Lanes has no server to send it through, and no record of it is kept anywhere by the extension.
Local data (categories and the URL-to-category mapping) is kept until you either uninstall Lanes or clear its storage yourself. Session data clears automatically on every browser restart. Uninstalling Lanes removes all of its locally stored data from your device.
Lanes is not directed at children and does not knowingly collect information from anyone, including children under 13 — because it does not collect or transmit information from anyone at all.
Pages within Lanes may occasionally link out to external sites (for example, a donation page, if one is active). Clicking such a link takes you to a site Lanes does not control, governed by that site's own privacy policy, not this one.
If this policy is ever updated, the "Last updated" date above will change to reflect it. Since Lanes has no way to contact you directly, please check this page periodically if you have concerns.
Questions about this policy or how Lanes handles your data can be sent to bluestrawberry450@gmail.com.