Privacy Policy

Effective October 5, 2026

Clearing is a Chrome extension made by Studio Luna. This policy explains what information Clearing works with and what happens to it.

The short version: everything Clearing does with your tabs happens on your own computer. Your tabs, their addresses and their contents are never sent anywhere, and Studio Luna never sees them. The only information that leaves your browser is what's needed to start a trial and to buy, check and release a license, described below.

What Clearing works with

To show your tabs as a grid, Clearing reads what Chrome already knows about your open tabs: their titles, web addresses, site icons, and the tab groups you've made, including their names and colors. This information is used to draw the grid and is never saved. It lives only in the page while Clearing is open, and disappears when you close it. The same is true of anything you type into Clearing's search, and of the undo history.

To show a preview picture on each card, Clearing photographs the visible part of a tab while you are looking at it. It only ever photographs the tab you are currently on, never one in the background. Chrome does not allow this on its own settings pages, on the Chrome Web Store, or on other extensions' pages, and Clearing simply shows no preview there.

Clearing also remembers your preferences: which view you were last in, your layout, your background, whether group labels are shown, and whether Clearing's own tab appears as a card.

Where it's kept

Everything in this section is kept by Chrome on your own computer, in the storage set aside for Clearing. Clearing does not use Chrome's sync feature, so none of it is copied through your Google account to your other devices. Each computer keeps its own.

A picture of each tab, taken while you are looking at that tab, so the grid can show you the page rather than a title. These are page content — a photograph of what the page was showing — and they never leave your machine. They are not sent to us, and not to anyone else. One picture per tab; it is removed when the tab closes. Pictures belonging to tabs that no longer exist are swept up at three moments: when the browser starts, when Clearing installs or updates, and when a Clearing page opens. Some pages Chrome will not let any extension photograph — its own settings pages, other extensions, the Web Store — and those get a placeholder instead of a picture.

Your choices: the view you were last in, by window or all tabs; whether group names show on cards; the background; the layout; and how the Clearing card itself appears.

Housekeeping for split views: a measurement of the window's own frame, the temporary group that an interrupted split move can leave behind, and a mark for each of the four split-view explanations once it has been shown, so each is shown once.

The licensing record: when Clearing was installed; the trial, if you started one — the email address as you typed it, a hash of it, the end date and the service's signature of that date; the license, if you registered one — the key, this installation's id, how many installations the key is on, the purchaser's name and email as the license service returned them, and the date; when the notice about the trial was shown or dismissed; and the dates the license was last checked, last failed to be checked, or found to be gone.

Which Clearing page has the settings panel open, so that two open copies do not both show it.

Two more things are kept in the Clearing page's own browser storage rather than the extension's: a copy of your background choice, so the first paint is already the right colour, and — only while the browser is running — which tab you came from, so the grid can mark that card when you return to it.

None of this is encrypted, and that is deliberate. It sits in your own Chrome profile, and the profile is what protects it — which is to say your computer account protects it. Anything running under that account can read a Chrome profile, so encryption would not change who can reach these files: the key would have to be kept in the same profile, where anything able to read the pictures could read the key too. It would cost every open of the grid a decode and protect nothing. What we owe you instead is to say plainly that the pictures are there, which is what this page is for.

Recording your trial

Clearing contacts a server in two situations: when you register for the trial, and when it deals with a license. This is the first.

When you register, Clearing sends a scrambled version of your email address to getclearing.app — never the address itself. Your address is lowercased, trimmed and put through SHA-256, and the 64-character result is what travels. It cannot be turned back into an address.

We keep that fingerprint in a database on our side, scrambled once more under a secret only the server holds, together with the day your trial started and the day it ends. That row is what lets re-entering the same address return your original dates instead of starting a new trial. Keying it with a secret means the table cannot be matched against a list of guessed addresses, and the fingerprint cannot be turned back into an address — which is why we have no way to email trial users.

Your address is also kept on your own machine, exactly as you typed it, so Clearing can show you which address the trial belongs to. That copy never leaves your computer.

The request reaches Cloudflare, which handles getclearing.app for us. Cloudflare sees the IP address the request came from, as it does for any visit to the website. Your email address is not stored on our side at all, and Clearing itself records no IP address.

The reply carries those two dates, the length of the trial, and a signature Clearing checks so it knows the dates came from us and belong to your address rather than someone else's. The reply is marked not to be cached.

Because the row is tied to your address rather than to the installation, registering the same address again — after reinstalling, or on a second computer — gives back your original end date instead of starting another seven days.

The website

This policy covers the Clearing extension. The website at getclearing.app is a separate thing, and it does use Google Analytics.

Analytics tells us how many people visit, which pages they read, roughly where in the world they are, and which links they use — including whether anyone presses Buy license.

Analytics stores a cookie in your browser, so return visits are recognised as the same browser, and it processes your IP address to work out roughly where you are. We use it to see totals rather than to follow individuals, and none of it is connected to the extension or to anything you do inside it.

The extension has no analytics of any kind. No tracking, no telemetry, no counting of any sort. That has not changed and is not going to.

The pricing page also loads a checkout script from Lemon Squeezy, so that paying happens in a panel on our page rather than on theirs. It runs only on that page. What it collects when you buy is covered by Lemon Squeezy's privacy policy.

Buying a license

Purchases are handled by Lemon Squeezy, which acts as the merchant of record — it is legally the seller for the transaction. When you buy a license, your details go to Lemon Squeezy rather than to us. Your payment card details never reach Studio Luna at any point.

What Lemon Squeezy collects, and how it handles it, is covered by Lemon Squeezy's privacy policy. From the order, Studio Luna can see your name, your email address, the country used to work out tax, and the license key that was issued. We use that only to support you and to honor refunds.

Registering, checking and releasing a license

After the trial ends, a license keeps Clearing working. This is the second time it contacts a server.

Registering a license, checking one, and unregistering a single installation all go to Lemon Squeezy, the company that handles payment — not to us. Each sends three things: your license key, an installation name — "Clearing on Mac", or whatever platform the browser reports — and this installation's id. The name and the id are what let a license be counted against the five-installation limit and released again later.

That is everything those requests carry. Nothing about your tabs goes with them — not their titles, not their addresses, not their pictures.

Unregister all is the one that goes somewhere else. It is sent to getclearing.app — to us — because releasing every installation at once needs an account key that cannot be put inside an extension. It carries your license key and this installation's id, and our server then asks Lemon Squeezy to release them all. So it is the one license action that involves us as well as Lemon Squeezy: we receive the request, and Lemon Squeezy carries it out. As with the trial, Cloudflare handles it for us and sees the IP address it came from.

The check also runs on its own, from Clearing's background worker, at most once every twelve hours, and tries again ten minutes after a failure to reach the service. So a license is checked from time to time without you doing anything. If a key no longer checks out, Clearing removes it from this machine — that is how a refund, or a key withdrawn for any other reason, takes effect.

Lemon Squeezy's reply confirms whether the license is valid. It also carries the order the license belongs to, including the name and email address used when buying. Clearing keeps those on your machine so it can show you whose license it is on the license screen. They are not sent anywhere else.

Clearing remembers the answer so it keeps working offline. If the check cannot get through, Clearing carries on rather than locking you out.

Sending feedback

The Feedback pane does not send anything. It composes a message in your own mail app and leaves it there for you to read, change or discard. Nothing reaches us unless you press send yourself.

The message it drafts includes a line of details, so a report arrives with enough to act on: Clearing's version, Chrome's version, your operating system, the window size, the layout, the theme, the view you were in, and how many tabs, windows and groups you had open. No titles, no addresses, no pictures. You can see all of it before you send, and delete any of it.

Buy license, Help and Learn more simply open a web page in a tab, as any link does.

What Clearing doesn't do

The extension contains no analytics, no tracking, no telemetry, no crash or error reporting, no advertising, no user accounts, and no third-party code or libraries bundled into it. (The website is a separate matter, and is covered above.) It doesn't read the text on your pages, what you type, your forms, your passwords, your browsing history, your bookmarks or your cookies. No page content ever leaves your machine, previews included.

It doesn't sell your information to anyone, and it leaves your machine in only three places, all described above: the hash of your address when a trial starts, the license key and installation details when a license is registered, checked or released, and the purchase itself, which goes through Lemon Squeezy. Nothing about your browsing is involved in any of them.

About the permission warning Chrome shows you

When you install Clearing, Chrome will tell you it can read and change your data on all websites. That warning is the same for every extension that needs it, and it is broader than what Clearing does. Chrome requires this permission before an extension can take a picture of a page, and taking that picture is the only thing Clearing uses it for. Clearing does not read, alter or send the contents of any site you visit.

Site icons

Each card shows the icon of the site in that tab. To display it, your browser requests the icon from that site, just as it does when you're viewing the site normally. Clearing does not use any icon service, so nothing goes through Studio Luna, Google or any other third party. A site can see that its own icon was requested, and nothing about your other tabs is included.

Removing your data

Uninstalling Clearing deletes everything it has stored on your machine. Chrome removes the extension's storage automatically.

The trial record stays until you ask us to remove it. It holds no address and no name, so there is nothing in it we could show you, but if you want it gone, email support@getclearing.app and tell us the address you registered with — we can find the row from that. Deleting it means registering again would start a fresh seven days.

Your purchase record stays with Lemon Squeezy as the seller, as their own policy describes, and we keep the order details for as long as tax and accounting rules require.

If you want to know what we hold, have something corrected, or have it deleted, email support@getclearing.app. We answer within 30 days, and usually much sooner — it is one person reading that inbox.

Chrome Web Store commitment

Clearing's use of information complies with the Chrome Web Store User Data Policy, including its Limited Use requirements.

Changes to this policy

If the way Clearing handles information ever changes, this page and the date at the top will be updated before the change takes effect.

Contact

Questions about privacy are welcome at support@getclearing.app.