Howfolio privacy policy

Effective 14 November 2026.

Howfolio stores guides on your device. No account. No telemetry. The only network request is licence validation.

What Howfolio keeps, and where

Everything below stays in your browser's storage for Howfolio, on this device. None of it is uploaded, and Howfolio has no server to upload it to.

• Your guides, while you record and after you edit them: screenshots of the tab you are recording, the text of each step, the page title, and the page's address with its query string and most of its fragment removed (those can hold search terms or sign-in tokens; the path and page routes such as #/settings are kept). Your notes, marks, tags and edits.
• What you type into fields is not saved as text. A step says only that you typed into a field, by its label. Screenshots show the page as it looks, though, so a later step's screenshot can show what a field contains: check your guide and blur what should not be shared. On the step where you type a password, the field is blurred for you by default; later screenshots can still show it.
• Your options, such as image width and screenshot scale.
• Your licence, if you buy one: the key, and the activation details Lemon Squeezy returns. The customer name and email that come back with them are not kept.

Howfolio records only while you are recording, and only in the window you started it in, plus tabs opened from it. Recording stops when you click Stop, press the shortcut again or close the last recorded tab.

What leaves your device

The free version makes no network requests at all.

With a licence key, Howfolio contacts Lemon Squeezy (api.lemonsqueezy.com), which sells Howfolio licences on our behalf:

• When you activate a key: the key, and a label for this browser such as "Chrome-1a2b3c4d" (the browser's name and a random code), so you can tell your activations apart.
• At most once every 30 days afterwards: the key and the activation's id, to check the key is still valid. If that check gets no answer, Howfolio stays licensed and tries again a day later at the earliest.
• When you remove the licence from this browser, or at once if a key turns out to be for a different product: the key and the activation's id, to free the activation.

Like any web server, Lemon Squeezy also sees your IP address and your browser's version. Nothing about your guides is ever sent. Lemon Squeezy's own privacy policy covers what it does with what it receives, including when you buy: https://www.lemonsqueezy.com/privacy.

What Howfolio does not do

• No account or sign-in.
• No analytics, tracking, telemetry, crash reports or advertising.
• No cloud storage or sync.
• No remote code, fonts or scripts. Exported web pages also load nothing from the internet.

Files you make

Exports and backups are saved as files in your downloads folder, and "Copy as rich text" puts the guide on your clipboard, only when you ask. From then on they are your files: whoever you give them to can see what is in them, including screenshots. Blurs are burned into exported images: the pixels underneath are replaced, not covered. Step text is not blurred, so check it for names too. A backup keeps the original screenshots, without blurs, so you can still edit them: treat backup files as private.

Permissions

• Access to all sites is asked for only when you first start a recording, and is used only while one runs: to see your clicks and take screenshots on whichever site you are documenting.
• Tabs: to know the address and title of the pages you record, including browser pages such as settings, so going there still becomes a step. Chrome describes this as reading your browsing history; Howfolio reads addresses only during a recording, and keeps them only in your guide.
• Scripting: to add the recorder to pages during a recording.
• Storage: to keep a recording going if the browser pauses Howfolio in the background.
• Side panel: for the controls and your library.
• Downloads: to save exports and backups.

Deleting your data

Delete a guide in the side panel's library, or remove Howfolio from your browser: the browser then deletes everything Howfolio stored. Backup files you saved are yours to keep or delete.

Children

Howfolio is a work tool and is not aimed at children.

Changes

If this policy changes, the new version will be published here with a new effective date.

Contact

howfolio@cedricdhaenens.com