Privacy policy

To re-rank a search, Winnow sends your search query, the titles, links and snippets of the results, and the text of your preferences to our server to be scored. We don't store your searches or results. If you sign in we keep your Google email and a billing ID; otherwise we keep only daily usage counts.

When you search on Google, Winnow reads the results already on the page and sends our server: your search query; the title, link and snippet of each result; and the text of your active preferences (not their weights). It also sends a random install ID and, if you're signed in, your Winnow session token, so we can apply your plan's limits. This is used only to score and re-order your results.

If you choose to re-rank more than one page, Winnow loads the next result pages of the same search directly from Google in your browser, then sends those results for scoring in the same way.

Signing in is optional and only needed for a paid plan. When you sign in, Chrome gives Winnow a Google sign-in token, which our server uses once to confirm your email address with Google. We don't store that token. We then give the extension a Winnow session token, and we keep only a one-way hash of it.

We do not store your search queries, the results, the pages you visit, or the results you click. Scoring happens in memory and is discarded once the response is returned to your browser.

If you sign in, we keep your Google email address, your plan, and a billing identifier from our payment processor so we can manage your subscription. Free users need no account: the extension creates a random install ID, and we keep a count of how many searches it used each day so we can apply the daily limit. To stop that limit being bypassed, we also count searches per network address using a one-way hash that changes every day. We never store the address itself.

Your preferences and settings, your install ID, your session if you're signed in, and a temporary cache of scores (so the same search isn't scored twice) are stored by the extension in your browser. The score cache is cleared when you close the browser.

We use a few service providers, only to run Winnow. TypeSafe (Jev) receives the query, results and preference text described above to compute scores. Cloudflare hosts our server and database. Stripe handles payments and stores its own billing records under its privacy policy; we never see your card details. We never sell your data, and we don't use it for advertising or anything unrelated to re-ranking your results.

Uninstalling Winnow removes everything stored in your browser. To delete your account and the email and billing ID linked to it, email us from that address and we'll remove them. Cancel any active subscription first.

Questions about privacy? Email hello@winnowsearch.com.