Last updated: 2026-10-22
Chrome Tab Router is a Chrome extension that routes incoming links to a preferred Chrome user profile. This page describes what data the extension processes and why.
To do its job, the extension processes: the URLs of tabs it evaluates against your routing rules, the routing rules and user profile names you configure, and the code that connects your profiles (a groupcode or a pairing code, see below).
Shared rules, profile information and URLs handed over to another profile travel between your connected profiles. You choose per profile, on the extension's Connection tab, how it gets there: through the cloud service or through a local relay on your own machine.
Each rule has a Sync across profiles setting. Rules with sync disabled stay in the profile where you create them and are not sent to the cloud service or local relay. Disabling sync on a previously shared rule sends a deletion of its old shared version; it cannot undo data that was already shared. An Open in current profile rule leaves matching tabs and popups in their original profile without transmitting a handover URL.
With the cloud option, the data is relayed through an Azure-hosted backend (Azure SignalR + Azure Functions) solely to pass messages between your own Chrome profiles in real time. The backend does not store your browsing history.
The groupcode is a shared secret: only extension instances configured with the same groupcode can exchange messages. It is meant to be shared only between your own Chrome profiles.
Generating a groupcode requires signing in to the web app through Azure Static Web Apps authentication. The identity details that this sign-in supplies, such as the identity provider, a user id, your sign-in name and roles, are used to create the groupcode and are contained in it. The groupcode is returned to you and kept in your own browser; the backend does not keep a user database or an account for you. Because the groupcode contains these details, treat it as private and only enter it in your own Chrome profiles. You do not need to sign in at all to use the local relay option.
With the local relay option, the data only travels between the extension and a relay
program that you run yourself on your own machine
(chrome-tab-router-localsync). The relay listens on the loopback address
only, does not store the messages, and does not connect to any outside service. Nothing is
sent to the cloud service or to any other party.
The pairing code contains the port and a random secret of your relay; the relay refuses connections that do not present that secret. It is meant to be used only in your own Chrome profiles.
No analytics, tracking, or advertising identifiers are collected, and no data is shared with third parties.
All configuration (rules, profile names, groupcode or pairing code, and your choice of
option) is stored locally in your browser via chrome.storage.local and
shared only between your own connected profiles where applicable. Your choice of option,
pairing code and rules with sync disabled are not synced; they stay in the profile where
you set them.
Questions about this policy can be raised via the project's GitHub repository.