Last Updated August 13, 2026
Homey is a browser extension and related website services available at https://homey.place/ and related Homey-operated subdomains, such as API and content delivery subdomains. This Privacy Policy explains how we process personal data when you use our website, browser extension, account features, and payment-related services.
We process limited personal and technical data to provide, secure, maintain, and improve Homey. The specific data we process depends on whether you use our website, browser extension, or account and payment features.
We do not sell your personal data. We share data only with service providers and partners where necessary to provide, secure, support, analyze, or bill for Homey, as described in this policy.
Homey is free to use and is partly supported by advertising shown on the new tab page: sponsored shortcuts and banner advertisements. Homey does not use anything obtained through the extension’s browser permissions — your bookmarks, browsing history, tabs, or most visited sites — to select or measure either of them, and Homey does not build an advertising profile of you. The two are provided by different services and work differently, which is described below. See Sponsored shortcuts and Advertising banners.
This Privacy Policy is organized into the following sections:
When you use our website, we process limited technical and usage data necessary to provide, secure, maintain, and improve the service. This may include IP address, browser and device information, request metadata, and website interaction data.
We use strictly necessary cookies and similar technologies for core website functionality, security, session management, CSRF protection, and remembering your cookie preferences. These technologies are required for the website to function properly.
We use the following categories of cookies and similar technologies on our website:
Examples of website cookies may include: cc_cookie (stores your cookie preferences), laravel_session and XSRF-TOKEN (required for website functionality and security), and analytics cookies such as _ga and _gid (only after consent).
With your consent, we also use analytics tools to understand how visitors use the website and to improve performance and user experience. Analytics is disabled by default and is only enabled after you provide consent through the cookie banner.
You can accept or reject non-essential cookies when you first visit the website. You can also update your choice at any time by clicking “Cookie settings” in the website footer. If you do not consent to analytics, analytics tracking remains disabled.
We may also use security-related services such as Cloudflare to protect the website from abuse, malicious traffic, and performance issues. We may use Google reCAPTCHA on selected authentication-related forms to prevent spam and automated abuse.
Chrome Extension API used within Chrome Add-ons and Edge Extension API used within Edge Add-ons have fine-grained permission levels enforced by the browser. The Homey extension can only access specific information that you have explicitly granted permission for.
Additional optional permissions may be requested when you enable specific features. When you enable a feature that requests an optional permission, your browser will make it clear what permission(s) are being requested. The feature will be accessible once you choose to allow them.
| Permission | Feature | Where it is used | Optional |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bookmarks | Bookmarks Bar, Search Panel | Used only within the Extension to display a Bookmarks Bar and search bookmarks via search panel. This is not sent or stored elsewhere. | No |
| Tabs | App | Used only within the Extension to show extension in new tab and open bookmarks in same/new tab. | No |
| History | Search Panel | Used only within the Extension to sort bookmarks by popularity in search panel. | No |
| Top Sites | Add Bookmarks Modal | Used only within the Extension to suggest popular sites to add to the bookmark panel. | No |
| Geolocation | Weather Widget | Location may be sent to our weather provider API to determine your closest weather station and request current weather information. | Yes |
| Site Access | Homey Tabs | Used only within the Extension to display embedded sites that you add to the Homey tab panel, such as Google Translate, News, Gemini, and Google Keep. | Yes |
To improve the content, features, reliability, and overall experience of Homey, we gather and log limited data about how users access and use our services. For example, we may log actions such as clicking a search button, updating a wallpaper, or completing a note. We do not use this to record the content of your notes, only the action itself where applicable.
Some of this usage data may be sent to analytics providers such as Amplitude. This data is pseudonymous, and analytics can be enabled or disabled at any time in the Extension Privacy settings.
Homey may show a small row of sponsored shortcuts on the new tab page, labelled “Sponsored”. These help cover the cost of keeping the free version available. They are provided by VEVE, a performance marketing service operated by Affinity Global Inc.
The shortcuts are not personalised. They are selected by country, plus basic device compatibility so that they work in your browser. Nothing about you personally is used to choose them, and Homey does not build, hold, or send any advertising profile of you.
How it works:
What we send when requesting the shortcuts:
We do not create or send any advertising identifier. Homey does not generate or pass on an advertising ID, a cookie ID, or a hashed device identifier that would let the advertising partner recognise your installation from one request to the next.
We also do not send your bookmarks, your browsing history, your open tabs, your most visited sites, your search queries, the contents of any page, your name, your email address, or your account details. Nothing obtained through the extension’s browser permissions is used to select or measure sponsored shortcuts.
Recording that a shortcut was shown:
When a sponsored shortcut appears, your browser loads a one-pixel transparent image — commonly called a tracking pixel or web beacon — which records that the shortcut was displayed. We use this to count how often shortcuts are shown, which is what advertising reporting and payment are based on.
That request goes to a Homey-operated address, and our servers pass it on to the advertising partner. Because of that, the partner receives it from our infrastructure rather than from your device, and does not receive your IP address from it. The Homey-operated endpoint sets no cookie of its own.
The code behind that endpoint is published at github.com/ScriptArtist/homey-ads-cloudflare-proxy and can be inspected. It is designed to contact only a fixed list of the advertising partner’s domains, to build each forwarded request from scratch rather than passing on your browser’s cookies or headers, and not to follow redirects onward to other services.
When you open a shortcut:
Clicking a sponsored shortcut is a normal navigation, so from that point your browser is talking to the advertising partner and then to the advertiser directly. They will see your IP address and browser information as any website you visit would, and may use cookies or similar technologies under their own privacy policies. This happens only when you choose to click, and only for the shortcut you clicked.
Gradual rollout:
While these features are being introduced, the extension keeps one random number on your device and compares it against how far each rollout has progressed, in order to decide whether a feature is switched on for your installation. The same number is used for all gradual rollouts, so it works as a cohort number rather than as a per-feature setting. If you have extension analytics enabled, it is included in that analytics data so we can compare how a feature performs between the installations that received it and those that did not. It is never shared with any advertising partner, and it is not used for advertising, profiling, or tracking you across services.
Your control:
Homey may show a banner advertisement on the new tab page, clearly labelled as sponsored. Like sponsored shortcuts, it helps cover the cost of keeping the free version available. Banners are provided by PlayaYield, an advertising service operated by PlayaNext LLC in the United States.
These work differently from sponsored shortcuts. Sponsored shortcuts are requested by our servers, so that advertising partner does not receive your IP address when the shortcuts are requested or displayed. Banner advertisements are requested by your browser directly from PlayaYield, in the same way your browser loads any other remote content. PlayaYield therefore receives your IP address and basic technical information about your browser.
What PlayaYield receives when a banner is requested:
PlayaYield uses this information to select and deliver advertisements, to count how often they are shown and clicked — which is what advertising reporting and payment are based on — and to detect invalid traffic and fraud. For that request, it may pass limited technical data to its own demand partners, including your user agent and a masked version of your IP address.
Banner advertisements are contextual, not personalised: they are not selected on the basis of your browsing activity or an advertising profile about you, and they are not retargeting or interest-based advertising. PlayaYield may use limited contextual and technical information associated with the request — such as the placement and size of the banner, your browser’s user agent, and your approximate location — to select and deliver advertisements.
Homey does not create, store, or provide any advertising identifier for you. PlayaYield generates a one-off identifier for each individual advertisement request, used to count that impression and any click on it. PlayaYield states that it does not store a persistent advertising identifier for users, and that it does not use personal data to build cross-site behavioural profiles or track users across unrelated services. To limit how often the same advertisement is shown, frequency data is kept in your browser’s session storage and is cleared when your browser session ends.
What we do not send. We do not send your bookmarks, your browsing history, your open tabs, your most visited sites, your search queries, the contents of any page, the contents of your notes, your name, your email address, your account details, or your payment information. Nothing obtained through the extension’s browser permissions is used to select or measure banner advertisements.
Where banners are shown. Banner advertisements are not shown to users in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland.
When you click a banner. Clicking is an ordinary navigation. The click is recorded and your browser then goes to the advertiser or another third-party destination. From that point the destination and any intermediaries in the navigation see your IP address and browser information as any website you visit would, and may use cookies or similar technologies under their own privacy policies. This happens only when you choose to click, and only for the banner you clicked.
PlayaNext LLC decides for itself how it handles the information it receives, as an independent controller under its own privacy policy. See PlayaYield’s Privacy Policy.
Gradual rollout: the feature is being introduced gradually and is not active for every installation. It uses the same rollout number described under Sponsored shortcuts.
Your control:
If you create a Homey account, we may process information such as your name, email address, account settings, and data necessary to provide account-related functionality. This data is transferred and stored securely and is not shared with third parties except as described in this policy.
We may also process authentication-related data when you sign in, reset your password, verify your email address, or use supported sign-in providers such as Google.
To upgrade to Homey Premium, billing and payment information such as your name, country, postal code, and payment method details may be required. Payment processing is handled by Paddle, Inc. When you pay by credit card, card details do not pass through our servers; they are sent directly to Paddle and handled according to Paddle’s privacy and security practices.
To perform requested changes to or inquiries about your Homey account (such as cancellation, refund, or payment-related support), authorized members of Homey’s support team may access limited payment-related information available through Paddle’s dashboard, such as billing name, billing address, postal code, the last four digits of card(s), and card expiry date(s). This information is accessed only when needed to support your request.
| Service | Purpose | Privacy |
|---|---|---|
| DigitalOcean | DigitalOcean powers our core Cloud infrastructure (providing the necessary hardware, software, networking, storage, and other related technology). | Privacy Policy |
| Cloudflare | We use Cloudflare as a security and performance provider. Cloudflare may process limited technical data such as IP address, user agent, and request metadata to provide DDoS protection, caching, and secure delivery of our services. Cloudflare also hosts the Homey-operated endpoint that serves brand logos and display signals for sponsored shortcuts, so that your browser does not connect to the advertising partner’s own domains for them. Cloudflare acts as a data processor on our behalf. | Privacy Policy |
| Google Analytics | We use Google Analytics to understand how users interact with our website. This is enabled only after consent where required. | Privacy Policy |
| Google reCAPTCHA | We use reCAPTCHA on selected authentication-related forms to prevent abuse and automated access. | Privacy Policy |
| Paddle | Credit card data, payments, subscriptions, and renewals are processed by Paddle. | Privacy Policy |
| Amplitude | Amplitude is a third-party analytics service used to understand how users interact with our website, and to improve functionality and performance. | Privacy Policy |
| Service | Purpose | Privacy |
|---|---|---|
| Sentry | Sentry is an error monitoring and diagnostic service that helps us identify and fix technical issues within Homey. It may receive limited technical information needed for troubleshooting. | Privacy Policy |
| Amplitude | Amplitude is a third-party analytics service used to understand how users interact with our browser extension, and to improve functionality and performance. Data sent for extension analytics is pseudonymous, and analytics can be enabled or disabled at any time in the Extension Privacy settings. | Privacy Policy |
| Google Fonts | Google Fonts may be used to load font resources. A request may be made from your IP address to retrieve font files. | Privacy Policy |
| images.weserv.nl | Used to cache and resize bookmark favicons. Bookmark URLs may be sent to this service to request cached favicon images. | Privacy Policy |
| flixel.com | Some photo or media files are retrieved from Flixel. A request may be made from your IP address to download media files. | Privacy Policy |
| openweathermap.org | Used to request weather data. Your city identifier may be sent to OpenWeather and requests are made from your IP address to retrieve weather information. | Privacy Policy |
| VEVE (Affinity Global Inc.) | Provides the sponsored shortcuts shown on the new tab page. Homey’s servers request them on your behalf and send a two-letter country code and your browser’s user agent — no IP address and no advertising identifier for that request. Opening a shortcut takes you to VEVE’s redirect address and on to the advertiser, where their own privacy policy applies. See Sponsored shortcuts for what is and is not shared. | Privacy Policy |
| PlayaYield (PlayaNext LLC) | Provides the banner advertisements shown on the new tab page. Your browser requests them directly, so PlayaYield receives your IP address, the approximate location derived from it, your user agent, the placement and size of the banner, timestamps, and whether the banner was shown or clicked. It may pass limited technical data, including a masked IP address and user agent, to its own demand partners to serve and measure advertisements and to prevent fraud. Homey does not create or provide any advertising identifier. Banners are not shown in the EEA, the UK, or Switzerland. See Advertising banners. | Privacy Policy |
Data security is a priority at all times.
All data communication in transit to and from our servers is secured using HTTPS/TLS. Homey domains use HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) to enforce HTTPS where configured.
Where applicable under data protection law, we rely on the following legal bases:
For sponsored shortcuts we rely on our legitimate interest in funding a free product. They are chosen by country rather than by anything about you, and no advertising identifier is created, stored, or shared with anyone.
Banner advertisements are not shown to users in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland. Where they are shown, we rely on our legitimate interest in funding a free product. They are selected contextually rather than by anything about you, and Homey creates no advertising identifier. The advertising partner determines its own legal basis for the information it receives directly from your browser.
The use of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Chrome Web Store User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
In particular, data obtained through the extension’s browser permissions — such as bookmarks, tabs, browsing history, or most visited sites — is used only to provide the features you see inside Homey. It is never transferred to advertising platforms, never used to select or measure sponsored shortcuts or banner advertisements, and never used for personalised, retargeted, or interest-based advertising.
Some of our service providers may process data outside your country or outside the European Economic Area. Where applicable, we rely on safeguards and protections provided by our service providers in accordance with their data protection commitments.
PlayaNext LLC is based in the United States. Information it receives through PlayaYield may be processed in the United States or in other countries outside your country of residence.
Depending on your location and applicable law, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, or restrict the processing of your personal data, as well as the right to withdraw consent where processing is based on consent.
To exercise these rights, please contact us at [email protected].
We may amend this Privacy Policy from time to time. Use of information we collect is subject to the Privacy Policy in effect at the time such information is used. If we make major changes in the way we collect or use information, we will notify users by posting an announcement on the website or, where appropriate, by sending an email. A user is bound by any changes to this Privacy Policy when they continue using the services after such changes have been posted.
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us:
Email address: [email protected]