Privacy Policy — Lapse

Last Updated: September 22, 2026
Developer: Life Design Studio

1. Overview

Lapse is a Chrome browser extension that finds bookmarks you no longer use — broken links, duplicates, and pages you never open — and helps you remove them safely. This policy explains what data the Extension accesses and how it is used.

Lapse has no server and no user account. Every judgement it makes happens on your own computer.

2. Data Access

The Extension requests the following Chrome permissions to operate:

Permission	Why it is needed
`bookmarks`	Read your bookmarks to analyse them, and move them between folders when you archive or restore
`storage`	Store your settings, your "keep permanently" list, and the record of archived bookmarks so they can be restored
`alarms`	Run a daily job that refreshes last-visited times and deletes archived bookmarks whose grace period has ended
`history`	Read your browsing history once at install, to learn which bookmarks you have opened recently. Chrome keeps roughly 90 days, so without this the Extension could not judge anything for its first three months. History is read only, never modified
`host_permissions: <all_urls>` (optional)	Check whether a bookmarked page still exists. Requested when you start a scan, not at install

3. Data Storage

All storage is provided by Chrome. The Extension has no database of its own.

Synchronised by Chrome (chrome.storage.sync) across devices where you are signed in, using your own Google account:

Your settings: the unused-period threshold, the archive grace period, and whether notifications are on.
The bookmarks you marked "keep permanently", stored as the first 16 hexadecimal characters of the SHA-256 hash of the normalized URL. The hash cannot be reversed into a URL, but it is a stable identifier: someone who had already guessed a URL could use it to confirm that guess.

Local to the device (chrome.storage.local), never synchronised:

When each bookmarked URL was last visited, as a hash-to-timestamp pair.
Records of bookmarks you archived, including their title, URL and original folder, so they can be restored.

Cleared when you close the browser (chrome.storage.session): the results of your most recent scan.

Removing the Extension deletes all of it.

4. What the Link Check Does

To tell you whether a bookmark is broken, the Extension sends an HTTP HEAD request (falling back to GET for servers that reject HEAD) to that bookmark's own URL, and reads only the response status.

The request goes to the bookmarked site and to no third party.
As when you open the page yourself, that site can see your IP address and that a request was made.
No cookies, credentials, identifiers, or information about you are sent.
Nothing about the result leaves your computer.

This permission is optional. If you decline it, scanning still reports duplicates, empty bookmarks and unused ones — it simply cannot tell you which links are broken.

5. What Is Never Collected

The Extension does not transmit your bookmarks, URLs, titles, or browsing history to any server.
The Extension does not use analytics, tracking, telemetry, or crash reporting of any kind.
The Extension does not display advertising, and does not sell or share data.
The Extension does not require an account or sign-in.
The Extension does not load any remote code. All code ships inside the package.

6. Deletion of Bookmarks

The Extension never deletes a bookmark without you asking. Archiving moves a bookmark into a "Lapse Archive" folder, where it remains for the grace period you set (30 days by default) and can be restored with one click. Only after that period does the Extension delete it. Bookmarks you marked "keep permanently" are never deleted.

7. Third-Party Services

The Extension does not integrate with or send data to any third-party services.

8. Children's Privacy

The Extension does not knowingly collect any information from anyone, including children under the age of 13.

9. Changes to This Policy

If this policy is updated, the "Last Updated" date above will be revised. Continued use of the Extension after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

10. Contact

lifedesignstudio42@gmail.com