Legal

Privacy Policy

Last updated: July 14, 2026

The short version

StarStash is built to work entirely on your device. If you never create an account, we don't collect, see, or store any of your data — your bookmarks live in your browser, full stop.

If you choose to create an account for backup or sync, we only collect what we need to make that work, we never sell your data, and we never use your bookmarks to train AI models. Your data is your data. If you'd like all the details, read on.

No account? No data collection.

This is the core of how StarStash works. Using the app without an account means:

• Your bookmarks, tags, folders, and notes are stored only in your browser, on your device.
• Nothing is sent to our servers. We have no copy, and no way to see what you've saved.
• We don't track how you use the app or what you bookmark.
• We don't drop tracking or analytics cookies.

Because everything lives on your device, it's also entirely up to you to keep it safe. If you clear your browser data or switch devices without exporting first, that data is gone — we can't get it back for you, because we never had it.

Import and export, no strings attached

Whether or not you have an account:

• Import your existing bookmarks from the standard HTML bookmark file that every major browser can export (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge). This happens on your device.
• Export everything, anytime, in that same standard HTML format or as JSON. No paywalled exports, no missing fields, no lock-in. It's your data — take it with you whenever you want.

If you create an account

An account is optional, and only needed if you want your bookmarks backed up or synced across devices. Here's what we collect, depending on how you sign in:

We only ask Google or GitHub for the minimum needed to log you in and get your email — nothing else, like your files or contacts.

Free accounts

A free account doesn't change how the app works — it just unlocksopt-in cloud backup. If you turn that on, your bookmarks are sent to our servers, encrypted both in transit and at rest, as a safety-net snapshot. Your local database is still what the app actually runs on. You can turn backup off, and delete any backed-up data, whenever you like.

We also collect a small amount of technical telemetry from account holders — things like browser/device type and basic feature usage — to help us fix bugs and understand what to build next. This is never collected from local-only, no-account use.

Pro accounts

Pro adds cross-device sync, so your bookmarks stay up to date everywhere you use the app. Your local database is still the source of truth — the server exists to keep your devices in sync, not to replace it. Everything is encrypted in transit and at rest.

Billing is handled by Stripe. We never see or store your full card details — Stripe manages your payment method, invoices, and billing history directly. You can readStripe's privacy policyfor how they handle that.

What we'll never do

• We don't sell your data. Not to advertisers, not to data brokers, not to anyone.
• We don't train AI models on your data without asking you first, separately and explicitly.
• We don't use your bookmarks for advertising.

Deleting your account

If you delete your account, we'll first let you export everything. Once that's done and you confirm, we permanently delete your account data, backups, and synced content from our servers — usually within 30 days, except where we're required to keep something (like billing records) for legal reasons.

What's coming next

We're building a couple of features that will handle your data differently, and we'll tell you exactly how before either one is turned on for your account:

• AI auto-tagging. To suggest tags and organize your bookmarks automatically, we may send bookmark info (like the URL, title, or page content) to an AI provider — this could be a third party (such as Anthropic, OpenAI, or OpenRouter) or infrastructure we run and manage ourselves. This will be opt-in, and we'll tell you exactly which provider is being used and what data it sees before you turn it on.
• Permanent page archiving. So a bookmark still works even if the original page disappears, we may store a copy of that page. This is a private copy just for you — it's never shared, combined with other users' archives, or made public, and it's deleted the moment you delete the bookmark or your account. This is opt-in too.

Keeping your data secure

We encrypt account data in transit and at rest, and follow standard security practices to protect it. That said, no online service can promise perfect security, and if you're using the app without an account, the security of your local data depends on your own device and browser.

Age requirement

StarStash is meant for people 16 and older. We don't knowingly collect data from anyone younger than that, and if we find out we have, we'll delete it.

Your privacy rights

If you're in the EU, UK, California, or another place with its own privacy laws, you generally have the right to access, correct, delete, and export your personal data, and to object to or limit how we use it. Since we don't collect anything from local-only use, these rights mostly apply to account holders. To use any of them, just email us atlegal@starstash.app.

Cookies

We don't use tracking cookies in local-only mode. For account holders, we use the minimum needed to keep you signed in, including handling Google/GitHub sign-in.

Who else sees your data

We work with a small number of trusted providers to run the service:

Changes to this policy

If we make meaningful changes to this policy, we'll let account holders know by email or an in-app notice before the changes take effect.

Questions?

Email us anytime atlegal@starstash.app.