Hooks Privacy Policy
Last updated October 6, 2026
- There are no accounts. Hooks never asks for your name, email or any sign-in.
- Hooks never sends the address of the page you're on. It sends a scrambled code (a SHA-256 hash) instead.
- Notes are public, but they show a random number like
#4821, never who wrote them. Your number is different on every page. - No ads, no analytics, no tracking, and nothing is sold or shared for marketing.
What Hooks is
Hooks is a Chrome extension that lets you leave short anonymous notes on web pages and read the notes others left. Notes are stored using Google Firebase, a cloud service run by Google.
Your anonymous ID
The first time you open Hooks, Firebase creates a random anonymous ID for your browser. It is not connected to your Google account, name, email or anything else about you. Hooks uses it to enforce the posting limits, to let you delete your own notes, and to make sure each person votes or reports a note only once. The ID is stored inside the extension. If you uninstall Hooks, your browser forgets it and a reinstall starts a new one.
Page addresses
To find the notes for a page, Hooks cleans up the page address (for example, it removes tracking tags like utm_source) and turns it into a SHA-256 hash on your computer. Only that hash is sent to Firebase. The address itself never leaves your browser.
A hash can't be turned back into an address directly. But for well-known pages, someone who hashes the same address would get the same code, so we treat these codes as information about the pages you use Hooks on.
Hooks sends a page's code when you open the Hooks panel on that page. If you turn on toolbar note counts (off unless you choose it), Hooks also sends the code of every page you visit, to count its notes. Counting does not store anything about you.
What is stored
Public, visible to anyone using Hooks on that page:
- Your note's text, the time you posted it, its upvote count, and your random number for that page.
Private, readable only by your own copy of Hooks and by the Hooks operator:
- Which notes on a page are yours, and how many notes you have on it.
- Which notes you upvoted or reported.
- The page codes you posted on in the last 24 hours, and when (for the daily limit).
These private records are tied to your anonymous ID and a page's code, never to a page address, a name or an email. Notes themselves never store your anonymous ID, so other users can't connect your notes across pages.
On your computer only: your settings (dark mode, toolbar counts) and a list of notes you've upvoted or reported, so Hooks doesn't have to ask the server each time.
What Hooks does not collect
- No page addresses, page content or browsing history.
- No names, emails, contacts or account details.
- No location, and no analytics or advertising trackers.
Hooks reads the title and address of your current tab only to show the right notes and the page title in the panel. They stay on your computer.
Google Firebase
Hooks stores its data with Google Firebase (Firestore and Firebase Authentication). Like any web service, Google receives your IP address when Hooks connects, and uses it to run and protect the service, for example to limit how quickly new anonymous IDs can be created. Hooks does not store IP addresses. Google's handling of this data is described in the Firebase privacy information and the Google Privacy Policy.
Sharing
We don't sell, rent or share your data with anyone, and we don't use it for advertising or for anything other than running Hooks. We would disclose data only if required by law.
How long data is kept
- Notes stay up until their author deletes them, or until we remove them, for example after a report.
- Daily-limit records are replaced as you post; they only ever describe the last 24 hours.
- Other records stay as long as the note or page they belong to.
Your choices
- Delete your notes at any time with the Delete button on each note. Do this before uninstalling: afterwards Hooks can no longer tell which notes were yours.
- Turn toolbar counts off in Hooks settings to stop checking pages you don't open Hooks on.
- Report a note that breaks the Hooks rules with its Report button, or email us.
- Uninstall Hooks to remove everything it stores on your computer.
Children
Hooks is not meant for children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect information from them.
Changes
If this policy changes, we'll update this page and the date at the top.
Contact
Questions, or a note you want removed: hooksapphelp@gmail.com. If it's about a specific note, include its text and the page it's on.