kero Privacy Policy

1. Philosophy & Architecture

kero is built for users who prioritize privacy and performance. Unlike cloud-based tools that send your web queries or page contents to remote servers, kero bundles a quantized vector search model directly inside the extension. Embedding calculations and search rankings occur entirely within an isolated offscreen document in your browser.

2. What Information kero Accesses

To function as a semantic tab search engine, kero accesses:

• Open Tab Metadata: Tab titles, URLs, and favicon icons to index active pages and switch to them when requested.
• Page Excerpts (Optional): If you explicitly enable Deep Content Search in settings, kero reads introductory text (meta descriptions and the first 2,000 characters of page text) on loaded tabs to compute semantic vectors.
• User Preferences: Extension settings, such as your preference for "Forever Mode" or "Deep Content Search," stored locally via Chrome's storage API.

3. kero Pro Waitlist & Email Communications

If you voluntarily choose to join our mailing list or waitlist for kero Pro updates:

• Information Collected: Only the email address you voluntarily enter into our waitlist form.
• Purpose of Collection: We collect your email solely to inform you when kero Pro launches, invite you to early-access testing, and deliver related product release announcements or launch-discount details.
• Zero Sharing or Sale: We never sell, rent, monetize, or disclose your email address to advertisers, data brokers, or any unaffiliated third parties.
• Opt-Out & Erasure: You can unsubscribe or request complete deletion of your email address from our notification list at any time. Simply click the unsubscribe link in any message or email us at privacy@kerokero.dev with "Unsubscribe" in the subject, and your details will be immediately purged.
• Security & Handling: Waitlist records are managed securely with standard access controls and encryption in transit and at rest.

4. Where Your Browsing Data Is Stored

All vector embeddings and search metadata generated by the extension are stored locally in your browser's private IndexedDB database on your device. We do not maintain any cloud databases or external sync servers for your browsing data.

5. Data Retention & Control

• Standard Mode: Closing a browser tab immediately deletes its record and vector embedding from IndexedDB.
• Forever Mode (Opt-in): Keeps closed tabs searchable on your device so you can recall them later. Turning Forever Mode off in the popup immediately purges all closed tab records.
• Uninstalling: Removing the kero extension instantly deletes all stored IndexedDB tables and local configuration data.

6. Third-Party Sharing & Network Traffic

The kero browser extension makes zero external network requests during its operation:

• No browsing or tab data is ever sold, rented, or monetized.
• No analytics, telemetry, crash reporting SDKs, or tracking scripts are bundled into the extension.
• No cookies or persistent web identifiers are set by the extension.

7. Permissions Explained

• tabs: Allows reading active tab titles/URLs to build the local index.
• activeTab: Used to open the Spotlight search bar on your currently active tab when you press the shortcut.
• scripting: Injects the Spotlight overlay UI and reads page text for local embedding.
• storage: Remembers your toggle preferences locally.
• offscreen: Runs the on-device vector search engine via WebAssembly without network access.

8. Contact

If you have questions about this policy, kero's architecture, or wish to remove your email address from our Pro waitlist, contact us at privacy@kerokero.dev.