Privacy Policy

Hearstead is designed to improve browser-tab audio without retaining or transmitting that audio.

Audio processing

When you explicitly activate Hearstead for a browser tab, Chrome provides that tab's audio to the extension. Hearstead processes frequency and loudness locally in memory with Chrome's Web Audio APIs.

Hearstead does not identify media, recognize speech, record, retain, upload, transmit, sell, or share audio content. The audio connection is released when enhancement stops, the tab closes or navigates, or the connection ends.

Information stored on your device

Chrome local extension storage may contain:

• Appearance and sound preferences
• Onboarding status
• Optional domain-level sound profiles
• Premium license key, checkout email, instance and product identifiers, status, and activation or validation timestamps

A saved website profile contains the domain and selected sound settings—not the full URL, page path, query, title, media title, or audio.

Session information

While an audio connection starts or runs, Chrome's session-only extension storage temporarily holds the selected tab identifier, domain, profile, status, last state-change time, and a random session identifier. Identifying fields are cleared on stop, navigation, or failure and are not retained as browser history.

Lemon Squeezy

Buying Premium opens Lemon Squeezy's hosted checkout. Lemon Squeezy processes payment under its own terms and privacy policy; Hearstead does not receive or store payment-card details.

When you activate, validate, or deactivate Premium, Hearstead sends the license key and relevant checkout email and installation instance directly to Lemon Squeezy's License API. The response is used only to verify that the license is active, non-expiring, belongs to the configured Hearstead product, matches the checkout email, and belongs to this installation. Audio, media information, and saved website domains are never sent to Lemon Squeezy.

Chrome permissions

• activeTab identifies the selected tab's domain after explicit activation.
• tabCapture receives audio from that selected tab.
• offscreen keeps local audio processing alive under Manifest V3.
• sidePanel displays persistent controls.
• storage saves preferences, site profiles, and the Premium license record.
• Optional access to https://api.lemonsqueezy.com/* is requested only for a license action.

Hearstead requests no microphone, history, cookie, or content-script access.

Your choices

You can remove site profiles, disable website memory, restore sound defaults, deactivate Premium on an installation, or uninstall Hearstead. Uninstalling removes local extension data according to Chrome's normal behavior.

Children's privacy

Hearstead is not directed to children under 13. Premium purchase and license information is processed only to provide the paid feature requested.

Contact

Privacy questions can be sent to support@hearstead.com.