START HERE PRIVACY POLICY

Effective date: October 22, 2026

Start Here is a new tab page extension for Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, made by Matt Evans Tech ("we", "us"). This policy explains what information Start Here handles and what happens to it.

THE SHORT VERSION

Start Here does not collect, sell, or share your personal information. Your settings stay on your own device. There are no accounts, no ads, no analytics, and no tracking of any kind.

INFORMATION STORED ON YOUR DEVICE

Start Here saves your settings using Chrome's built in extension storage on your computer. This includes your name (if you enter one), your daily focus, your checklist, your countdowns, the city you choose for weather, your world clock time zones, your widget layout, which bookmark folder to show, your font and background choices, and any background photo you upload.

This information stays on your device. It is never sent to us or to anyone else. Removing the extension deletes it.

SYNC ACROSS COMPUTERS (OPTIONAL)

Sync is off until you turn it on. If you turn on Sync Across Computers in Settings, Start Here saves your settings, countdowns, checklist, daily focus, and layout in Chrome's own sync storage. Chrome then copies them to the other computers where you are signed in to the same Chrome profile, the same way it syncs your other Chrome settings. In Firefox, the same happens through your Firefox account when add-on syncing is on. This is handled entirely by your browser under your Google or Mozilla account and that company's privacy policy. The data never passes through us, and we cannot see it.

A background photo you upload, your Google Calendar connection, your bookmarks, and the weather forecast are never synced. Turning sync off stops sending changes from that computer.

GOOGLE CALENDAR (OPTIONAL)

Connecting Google Calendar is optional. If you choose Connect Google Calendar in Settings, Start Here asks Google for permission to read your calendar, using Google sign in through Chrome with read only access (the calendar.readonly scope).

Once you allow it, Start Here requests today's and tomorrow's events from your primary calendar directly from Google and shows them on your new tab page. Events are kept in memory only while the page is open. They are not saved, and they are not sent to us or to anyone else. Chrome manages the access token.

You can disconnect at any time in Settings, which revokes Start Here's access. You can also remove access from your Google Account at https://myaccount.google.com/permissions.

Start Here's use and transfer to any other app of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy (https://developers.google.com/terms/api-services-user-data-policy), including the Limited Use requirements.

WEATHER (OPTIONAL)

Weather is optional and off until you turn it on. In Firefox, turning it on also asks for Firefox's permission to share location information, which covers the city coordinates described here. Start Here never asks your browser or computer for your location. Instead, you type the name of a city in Settings. Start Here sends that search to Open-Meteo to find matching places, and then sends the chosen city's map coordinates to Open-Meteo to get its current weather and forecast. The latest forecast is saved on your device so new tabs can show it right away.

Nothing else is sent with these requests: not your name, your settings, or anything else you have typed into Start Here.

BOOKMARKS (OPTIONAL)

Showing bookmarks is optional and off until you turn it on. If you turn on Show Bookmarks in Settings, Chrome asks whether Start Here may read your bookmarks and the icons of the websites they point to.

Once you allow it, Start Here reads the bookmarks in the one folder you choose and shows them on your new tab page. It never adds, changes, or deletes bookmarks. It does not save a copy of them, and it never sends them to us or to anyone else. Website icons come from Chrome's own icon store on your computer. If Chrome doesn't have one, Start Here asks that website for its own icon, the same way your browser does when you visit it. It never asks a third party for icons.

Turning Show Bookmarks off removes this permission.

SERVICES START HERE CONNECTS TO

To work, Start Here loads content from the services below. Each one receives the standard information any website receives when your browser connects to it, such as your IP address and browser type, and each is governed by its own privacy policy.

• Unsplash (images.unsplash.com), for the background photos.
• Open-Meteo (api.open-meteo.com and geocoding-api.open-meteo.com), for the weather, only if you turn it on.
• Google (www.googleapis.com and oauth2.googleapis.com), for your calendar, only if you connect it.
• The search engine you choose in Settings (Google, Bing, or DuckDuckGo), when you search from the search bar.
• Matt Evans Tech (mattevanstech.com), only when you choose Report a bug or Suggest an idea, which opens our support form in a new tab. Anything you submit there is covered by that site.

Start Here does not send your settings, your calendar, your bookmarks, or anything you type into it to any of these services, except the search terms you choose to search for with your chosen search engine.

CHILDREN

Start Here is not directed at children under 13, and it does not knowingly collect information from them.

CHANGES TO THIS POLICY

If this policy changes, we will update the effective date above and post the new version at this address.

CONTACT

Questions about this policy? Reach us through https://mattevanstech.com/support.