Effective Date: February 21, 2026

Extension: Kara-Tiles — A New Tab page with fuzzy search for your Karakeep bookmarks

Developer: solariz.de

Overview

Kara-Tiles is a extension that replaces your New Tab page with a visual, searchable grid of bookmarks from an Karakeep instance. This policy explains what data the extension accesses, how it is used, and where it is stored.

In short: All your data stays on your device. We do not collect, transmit, sell, or share any personal or browsing data with anyone.

Data Collection and Usage

What Data Does Kara-Tiles Access?

Kara-Tiles accesses the following data solely to provide its core New Tab functionality:

  • Bookmark Data from Karakeep: URLs, titles, descriptions, tags, favicons, and screenshot asset references are fetched from the Karakeep instance you configure. This data is used exclusively to render the visual bookmark tiles on your New Tab page.
  • User Interface Preferences: Settings such as your light/dark theme choice, background image selection, and sync interval are stored to personalize your experience.
  • Access Counts: Kara-Tiles locally tracks how often you open each bookmark to surface your most-used tiles. This data never leaves your device.

What Data Does Kara-Tiles NOT Collect?

  • We do not collect or transmit your browsing history.
  • We do not use any analytics services (Google Analytics or otherwise).
  • We do not track your usage of the extension.
  • We do not transmit fuzzy search queries to any server.
  • The extension operates entirely offline beside the sync with your own Karakeep instance.

Local-First Architecture

Kara-Tiles is designed as a fully local New Tab experience. All data required for the extension to function is stored strictly on your device using chrome.storage.local. This includes:

  • Cached Karakeep bookmarks and their metadata
  • Favicon images (cached as base64 to avoid external requests on page load)
  • Background images
  • Your search index
  • All user interface settings

No data is ever sent to the extension developer, any third-party service, analytics platform, or external database.

Permissions Explained

storage and unlimitedStorage

All extension data is stored locally on your device via Chrome’s built-in storage API. We request unlimitedStorage to ensure you have enough local space to cache a large number of bookmark tiles — including base64-encoded favicons and background images — without the browser forcibly clearing them.

declarativeNetRequest

To display visual tiles for your bookmarks, the extension must fetch screenshots and metadata from your Karakeep instance. These assets are protected behind authentication. Kara-Tiles uses declarativeNetRequest strictly to:

  • Inject your API Bearer token into image requests to your Karakeep server so that authenticated screenshot assets load on the New Tab page.
  • Modify request headers to bypass Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) restrictions, allowing preview images to render seamlessly.

This permission is never used to inject advertisements, monitor your active web traffic, block or redirect requests, or intercept personal communications.

http://*/* and https://*/* (Optional Host Permissions)

These broad host permissions are defined as optional (optional_host_permissions) and are only requested at runtime when you actively initiate a sync for the API Domain of the kara instance you sync with.

Why they are necessary: Kara-Tiles connects to a backend service called Karakeep. Karakeep is open-source and supports self-hosting. Because your self-hosted instance could be located on any arbitrary custom domain, local network IP address, or specific port, we cannot whitelist specific URLs in the manifest.

  • The http:// permission is required because many self-hosted Karakeep instances operate on local home networks (e.g., http://192.168.x.x or http://localhost) where SSL/TLS certificates may not be deployed.
  • The https:// permission covers instances hosted on public domains or the official Karakeep cloud service.

These permissions are used exclusively to make API requests to the specific Karakeep server URL you manually configure in the extension’s settings. Kara-Tiles does not read, change, monitor, or interact with the content of any other website.

New Tab Override (chrome_url_overrides)

The sole purpose of this extension is to replace your default New Tab page with the Kara-Tiles bookmark search interface. No other browser pages or behavior are modified.

Data Sharing and Third Parties

  • We do not sell your data to third parties, data brokers, or information resellers.
  • We do not transfer data to third parties for purposes unrelated to the extension’s core functionality.
  • We do not use or transfer your data for personalized advertising or any advertising purpose.
  • We do not use or transfer your data for creditworthiness or lending purposes.

Single Purpose

Kara-Tiles exists for one purpose: to provide a visual, bookmark-searching New Tab page powered by your Karakeep data. Every permission requested is strictly necessary to deliver this functionality. No data accessed by the extension is used for any purpose beyond rendering and searching your personal bookmarks on the New Tab page.

Changes to This Policy

If we update this privacy policy, the changes will be reflected in this document with an updated effective date. Continued use of the extension after changes constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.