Hoverwise Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 10, 2026

In short: Hoverwise has no accounts, no analytics and no server of its own. It never collects, stores or sends your data to us. To show a preview, it contacts the website the link points to (or that website's own data service), the same way your browser would if you opened the link, but without your cookies.

What happens when you preview a link

When you hover over a link (or hold Shift over it, if you chose that setting), Hoverwise requests information about that link:

From the link's website. Hoverwise downloads the start of the page to read its title, description and preview image.
Or from that website's own data service, for these sites: Twitch (gql.twitch.tv), X (cdn.syndication.twimg.com), YouTube (www.youtube.com), Discord (discord.com), Reddit (www.reddit.com), Wikipedia (wikipedia.org) and Stack Exchange (api.stackexchange.com). Google Maps links are read from the link address alone, without contacting Google.
Preview images are downloaded from wherever the page says its image is stored. This is usually the same company's image server, but a page can name any address.
Shortened links (bit.ly, t.co and similar) are followed one step at a time to find the real destination.

These requests are sent without your cookies (so you are never logged in when previewing) and without telling the website which page you were on.

Like any visit to a website, these requests show the website your IP address, and they may be recorded in its logs. A link shortener may count a preview as a click. Hoverwise cannot prevent this.

What Hoverwise does not do

It has no server of its own. Nothing is sent to the makers of Hoverwise.
It does not use analytics, ads or tracking of any kind.
It does not keep a history of the links you preview. Previews are held in memory for the open page only, and are gone when you close or reload it.
It does not read or send the contents of the pages you visit. On a page, it only looks at the link under your mouse.
It does not sell or share any data, because it doesn't collect any.

What is stored

Two settings: when previews appear (on hover, only while you hold Shift, or never), and whether all preview images are blurred. They are saved with Chrome's local storage, on your device only, and are not synced to other devices. Removing the extension deletes them.

Adult-content checks

To blur images from adult sites, Hoverwise checks links against a list of popular adult sites that is included in the extension. This check happens entirely on your device; the links you preview are not sent anywhere to be checked.

Safety checks

Before contacting any address, including each step of a redirect and each preview image, Hoverwise checks it and refuses to contact:

known IP-logging services, which exist to record the IP address of anyone who opens a link;
addresses on your local or private network, such as your router or your own computer;
anything that isn't an ordinary web address (for example, files on your computer).

These checks have limits. The list of IP-logging services is not complete. And if an ordinary-looking website name secretly points to an address on your local network, Hoverwise can only detect this after its request has been sent. It then discards the response and stops, but it cannot take back the request.

Permissions Hoverwise asks for, and why

Access to all websites, so that it can show previews on any page and request information about any link.
webRequest, so that it can see where its own requests are redirected and which server answered them, in order to run the safety checks above. It only looks at requests Hoverwise itself makes, not the pages you browse.
Storage, to save the two settings described above.

Changes to this policy

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