Privacy

The short version

Halo works in your browser. It doesn’t collect the pages you visit, the files you save, or anything about you. It sends us only a licence key you chose to enter, to check it, and, when you pick a cloud tool (marked ✦), the one picture or video sound you chose, to process it. Everything else, including the editing tools, Remove BG and Copy text, runs on your device.

The extension

• Saving and copying. When you choose an option, Halo fetches the file from where the page got it — the site’s own servers — and saves it to your Downloads folder or clipboard. Nothing passes through a Halo server. On an Instagram grid, where a video post shows only its thumbnail, Halo asks Instagram for that post’s video the way Instagram’s own site does, with your Instagram login; that request goes to Instagram only.
• Editing. The tool windows (Crop, Redact, Annotate, Trim and the rest) work on the file inside your browser. Nothing is uploaded to edit it.
• Lens. Lens opens Google Lens in a new tab with the picture’s address, so Google can search for it. That’s your choice, made each time; Google’s privacy policy covers that tab. Halo itself sends Google nothing.
• Video. To rebuild a streamed video, Halo notes (read-only) which video playlists and tracks a page loads. That list stays in your browser’s session storage and is cleared when the browser closes.
• Stored on your device: your theme, how many free uses you’ve used, your licence key, and a short log of recent saves for the report for support (on the Licence page), which you can send us if a site doesn’t work. With Chrome sync on, the free-use count is also kept in your Chrome sync storage, so reinstalling doesn’t reset it.
• No analytics, no tracking, no ads. Halo has no analytics and sells nothing to anyone.

Licence checks

When you enter a licence key, and about once a week after that, Halo sends api.withhalo.app the key, a random id for this browser install, and a label like “Halo · Chrome on macOS”. We use them to tell you whether the key is valid and to count the browsers it’s active in (up to 3). We don’t receive your name, email, browsing or files.

Keys bought on withhalo.app are checked with Polar, our payment provider; we don’t store them. Keys from AppSumo are kept with the browsers they’re active in, so AppSumo licences work and support can find a licence by its key.

Cloud tools (✦)

A few tools run on our servers instead of your device, and are paid with your licence’s credits. Only when you pick one does Halo send api.withhalo.app what that tool needs, with your licence key to take the credit, and we send the result straight back. We don’t keep what you sent or the result, and we don’t use them to train anything. We keep a record of each job (the tool, its size, when, and the credits) without its content.

• HD cutout and Upscale 4× send the picture you chose. Replicate (replicate.com) runs the model for us and deletes the inputs and outputs of these jobs after an hour.
• Transcribe video sends the video’s sound (never the picture). OpenAI runs the transcription for us. OpenAI doesn’t train on it, and may keep it for up to 30 days to check for abuse before deleting it.

Buying a licence

Polar (polar.sh) is the merchant of record: it takes your payment, handles tax and receipts, and emails your key. Polar’s privacy policy covers what you give it. If you buy on AppSumo, AppSumo’s does. We receive the key and the order, not your card details.

The website

withhalo.app sets no cookies and has no analytics. Our host, Cloudflare, keeps standard request logs for security and reliability.

Your choices

Uninstalling Halo removes everything it stored in your browser. To have a licence’s activations removed, deactivate it in Halo or write to hello@withhalo.app.

Contact

hello@withhalo.app