Privacy Policy

Cool New Tab is an open-source browser extension developed by heckthetech. It is designed to be a fast, customizable new tab page with built-in DIY plugin capabilities powered by

We believe in privacy by design. Core operations run locally on your device, but certain features require connecting to external services to function properly. This policy outlines exactly what data is processed and why.

Almost entire part of the extension's functionality operates entirely within your browser. Your layout preferences, applied themes, custom scripts, and saved bookmarks are stored locally on your device. We do not collect, track, or sell your general browsing history, keystrokes, or personally identifiable information (PII).

We don't even store or reserve the data at all , it stays saved locally.

To provide advanced aesthetic and productivity features, the extension connects to the following external services:

• High-Quality Bookmark Icons (Favfetch): When you add a bookmark, the extension contacts our open-source Favfetch server to retrieve a high-quality icon. This request includes the domain name of the bookmark and your region data (used for future region-specific icon localization). If an icon is not found, our server logs the missing domain name so we can create and reserve an icon for it. We mostly use Google's favicon service as a backbone for icons that aren't specified in the server.
• Title Fetching: We utilize the third-party Microlink API to automatically fetch and format website titles when you save a new bookmark.
• "Did you mean?" Feature: To provide accurate search suggestions without tracking, this feature queries the DuckDuckGo HTML search engine directly from your local client.
• Plugin Store: Browsing and installing plugins from the website and for updates it require connecting to the plugin repository and again which is opensource too.

Trust is earned through transparency. Both the core extension and our icon-fetching backend are entirely open-source. We encourage you to review the code to verify our privacy practices:

• Cool New Tab Extension Source
• Favfetch Server Source

As we add new features, we may update this policy to reflect any changes in data processing. But privacy priorities will stay forever unchanged.

If you have questions, find a bug, or wish to contribute, please visit our GitHub repository or use the feedback buttons below.