Privacy at Tarn
Connections the browser makes
Apart from the pages you open, Tarn's shell makes only these requests. The same list is in Settings › Privacy.
| Connection | Receiver | What they see | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| Update check | GitHub (this repository's releases) | Your IP address and Tarn version | Once a day while automatic updates are on, and when you check by hand |
| Filter-list update | GitHub (this repository's releases) | Your IP address. Every list is downloaded, so your blocking choices stay private | Once a day; can be switched off |
| Fraudulent-website check | Apple, which relays Google Safe Browsing (done by WebKit) | Shortened hashes of the addresses you visit, not the addresses | While Block dangerous sites is on (the default) |
| Extensions | GitHub (the repository you name, or the official catalog) | Your IP address and which extension you install or check | Only when you install or check; can be switched off |
| Themes | GitHub (the repository you name, or the official catalog) | Your IP address and which theme you install or check | Only when you install or check; can be switched off on macOS and Windows |
| Site icon | The site you are on, or a server it already loaded from (such as its CDN, without cookies), through the tab's own engine and Shield rules | Same as visiting the site | After an https page loads; never under Lockdown |
| Translation (builds with on-device translation) | Nobody: Apple's Translation framework runs on your Mac | Nothing | Only when you click Translate |
AI features are not built yet. When they are, they will send only the page content you choose, and only to the provider you set up.
What stays on your device
History, cookies, cache, open tabs, permissions, downloads, site icons, settings and the Shield card's counters are stored only on your device, separately for each profile. On macOS they live in ~/Library/Application Support/Tarn and in WebKit's per-profile data stores.
- A private space keeps everything in memory and writes none of it to disk.
- A burner tab (⌥⇧⌘N) gets its own in-memory store at Strict, records no history and is dropped when it closes.
- Settings › Privacy › Your data exports a profile as a JSON file or deletes everything in it.
- Read Aloud uses macOS's on-device voices; nothing is sent.
Blocking and search
Ad, tracker, cookie-banner, malware, phishing and pop-up blocking runs on your device against signed lists such as EasyList, EasyPrivacy, AdGuard Base and uBlock Origin's filters. Which sites you visit, which were blocked and which you let through are not sent anywhere.
The default search engine is DuckDuckGo. What you type is sent only when you press Enter on a search; suggestions are off, so keystrokes are not sent while you type.
Chromium tabs
WebKit is the default engine. If you open a tab in Chromium, Tarn tells you first that Chromium connects to Google. Chromium's data lives in its own folder for one profile only, its background networking and component updater are off, third-party cookies are blocked and every permission defaults to block.
Crash reports
Crash reports stay on your device. Nothing is sent unless you send it yourself.
The full technical notice is PRIVACY.md in the repository.
This website
Controller under the GDPR: Quavon UG (haftungsbeschränkt), represented by its managing director Leopold Link, Langbehnstraße 39, 83022 Rosenheim, Germany. Email contact@tarnbrowser.com, phone +49 175 425 10 56. Full details are in the imprint.
- Hosting. This site runs on servers in Germany that we rent from netcup GmbH, Emmy-Noether-Straße 10, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany. We operate the software on them ourselves; no content delivery network or other service sits in between.
- Access logs. Our web server records every request in an access log: your IP address, the time, the address requested, the referring page, your browser's user agent and the server's response. Our own installation of CrowdSec reads this log to detect attacks on our servers; it shares nothing with CrowdSec's central service. The log is not archived or copied elsewhere and is deleted when the server's log rotation overwrites it. The legal basis is our legitimate interest in delivering the site and keeping it secure (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).
- No cookies, no analytics, no tracking. The site sets no cookies, stores nothing on your device and loads no analytics or third-party scripts.
- No third-party requests. Fonts, images and video are served from this site itself.
- Email and phone. If you contact us, we use your name, contact details and message only to answer you (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR where it concerns a possible contract, otherwise Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR) and delete them once they are no longer needed, unless a legal retention period applies.
- Links to other sites. Links, such as the download and repository links to GitHub, lead to sites that apply their own privacy terms once you follow them.
- Encryption. The site is served only over TLS.
Your rights
Under the GDPR you have the right to access your personal data, to have it corrected or deleted, to restrict its processing and to receive it in a portable format. You can object at any time to processing based on our legitimate interests (Art. 21 GDPR).
You can also complain to a data protection supervisory authority, for example the one where you live, or the one responsible for us: the Bayerisches Landesamt für Datenschutzaufsicht (BayLDA), Promenade 18, 91522 Ansbach, Germany.
Write to contact@tarnbrowser.com for any of these.
Last updated 15 November 2026