About this policy
This policy describes how Headway — A Calmer New Tab, developed by Michael McKeever, handles information in the Chrome extension and on its marketing website. It does not describe unrelated services with similar names.
Tasks and settings
Headway stores the tasks you enter, including task text, links, order and completion information, together with your preferences in Chrome extension storage. Chrome can synchronize these records across devices when you use the same Chrome account and enable extension sync. Google handles that synchronization through Chrome; Headway does not operate a separate task account or task-storage server. Your task contents are not sent to Google Analytics, OpenWeather or Unsplash by Headway.
Headway also keeps local recovery/migration backups and personal statistics, including completed task identifiers and known days of use. These are stored in your browser rather than sent to the developer. Personal statistics can include history derived from retained task timestamps and migration backups.
Optional usage analytics
Usage sharing is off by default. If you enable Help me improve Headway in Settings, Headway sends basic feature-use events and error categories to Google Analytics to measure use and improve the extension's features and reliability. These can include opening Headway, adding/completing/editing/deleting/reordering tasks, changing settings, automatic task removal, coarse task-count and startup-time buckets, whether tasks contain a link or multiple lines, and limited error categories.
Events use a randomly generated installation identifier, session information, the extension version, event times and event-associated engagement time. This identifier is local to the browser installation and is not your name or a Headway account. Headway does not send task text, task identifiers, link destinations, clipboard contents, typed characters, coordinates, browsing history, screenshots or raw error messages to Analytics. Google receives connection information such as your IP address when requests reach its servers, so this sharing should not be treated as completely anonymous. Analytics advertising consent is sent as denied.
You can turn usage sharing off in Settings. This clears the local analytics identifier and queued events, cancels pending delivery where possible and stops future analytics collection. It cannot recall requests already received by Google or automatically delete previously delivered data. Opting in again creates a new identifier.
Local weather
When Show local weather is enabled and your browser and operating system permit location access, Headway obtains coordinates and sends them to OpenWeather for current weather and forecast data. The resulting city/weather information and a location-derived cache key are stored locally for caching. Headway does not continuously track your location in the background, and it does not include your location in usage analytics. Turn the weather setting off or revoke browser/system location access to stop new location-based weather requests.
Photo backgrounds
Gallery mode requests photo information from Unsplash and images from its image service. Requests can include the selected gallery and screen dimensions needed for an appropriately sized image. Headway also registers photo download/use events required by the photo provider. Photo metadata and attribution are cached locally. These services receive normal connection information, including your IP address. Bundled backgrounds can be used without a photo-service request succeeding.
Storage and retention
Tasks and settings remain in Chrome storage until changed or deleted. Completed tasks can be removed automatically according to your chosen setting. Local statistics and recovery backups are separate from active task records, so deleting a task does not erase those separate records. Photo and weather caches have expiry times for reuse; expiry does not guarantee immediate erasure of an old cache record. Local analytics queues are limited to 100 events and events older than 24 hours are discarded when the queue is processed. Data delivered to Google Analytics is retained under that property's configured retention settings and Google's applicable policies.
You can edit or delete tasks in Headway, disable the optional features, and manage Chrome sync in Chrome settings. To remove retained local statistics, recovery records or caches, clear the extension's stored data or remove the extension; check Chrome sync settings separately for synchronized data. Turning analytics off does not erase the separate personal statistics shown in About. Chrome and third-party services control retention of data they have already received.
Third parties and limited use
Headway uses Google Chrome storage/sync, Google Analytics for opted-in usage sharing, OpenWeather for enabled local weather and Unsplash for gallery photos. Data is used to provide or improve Headway's disclosed features and reliability. Headway does not sell user data, use it for targeted advertising, collect general browsing history or use it for credit or lending decisions. Transfers are limited to providing or improving these features, legal obligations, security needs or another permitted transfer with any required consent. Headway's handling of user data follows the Chrome Web Store User Data Policy, including its Limited Use requirements.
Requests to external APIs use HTTPS. No method of storage or transmission can be guaranteed completely secure. Third-party services process received data under their own policies, including Google's privacy policy at https://policies.google.com/privacy.
This website
This policy also covers the marketing website at headwaytab.com. Its interactive preview runs in memory and is reset when you reload; it does not access or save your extension tasks. Demo task contents are not sent to analytics services.
The public website uses Vercel Speed Insights to measure page loading, responsiveness and visual stability. Performance reports can include the public page path, Web Vitals and element attribution, browser, device and operating system details, network speed, country and event time. We remove query strings and URL fragments before reporting. Speed Insights runs only on the live homepage and privacy page, outside the interactive task preview; it does not collect demo task contents. Vercel states that these measurements do not identify individual visitors or reconstruct browsing sessions. Retention follows the configured Vercel Speed Insights plan and service policies.
Google Analytics is planned but is not currently enabled on this website. Before adding it or another usage analytics service, this policy will be updated with the provider, information collected, retention period and available controls, and consent will be requested where required.
The website’s weather panel is predefined example forecasts for San Francisco, London, Tokyo and Sydney. It does not request forecasts, access your location or send information to a weather provider.
Vercel hosts the website and processes normal connection and request information, such as IP address, requested path and browser information, to deliver and secure the site. Visiting the Chrome Web Store, contacting the developer by email, or following another external link is subject to that service’s own data practices.