Last updated: October 31, 2026
Hook Block is a Chrome extension that blocks distracting websites, social media feeds and short videos, keeps YouTube to the videos you choose, and can block adult websites. This policy explains what information it handles and where that information goes. It describes version 1.3.8.
SUMMARY
• Hook Block has no account and no analytics. Your settings and activity stay in your browser.
• We don't sell, rent or share your information, and we don't use it for advertising or for anything unrelated to the extension's features.
• Only two features send anything out of your browser: Focus Mode search (what you type goes to Google for suggestions as you type, your search words go to YouTube, and only if that fails, to our search service) and site icons (a site's name goes to Google's icon service). Both are described below.
INFORMATION STORED ON YOUR DEVICE
Hook Block saves the following in Chrome's extension storage on your device. Apart from the install ID and your own API key, which Focus Mode search uses as described below, the extension never sends any of it to us or to anyone else:
• The sites you block, for how long or on what schedule, and a history of those blocks.
• Your YouTube settings: saved playlists, Focus Mode and Whitelist Mode, the video or playlist you picked in Focus Mode (for a playlist, the list of its video IDs), and how long you've watched in Focus Mode.
• Focus Mode sessions and breaks, your focus preset, Commitment Lock sessions, your Block Feeds settings, and how many feed searches you've made today on Reddit, X and Facebook.
• Adult-content protection: whether it's on (and, if you switch it on before allowing Hook Block in incognito, when you did, kept for up to an hour so it can finish switching on), how many times today you've tried to get past an adult-site block, a log of the times you chose to unlock one anyway (date, site and attempt number), and, while protection is paused, when the pause ends.
• Your light or dark theme choice.
• A random install ID, created the first time you open Focus Mode's search page. It says nothing about you (see "Focus Mode search" below).
• A YouTube API key, only if you add your own under Focus Mode → Advanced.
• A short log of how your last 50 Focus Mode searches were answered: the time and the method used (your browser, your own key or our search service). It does not include what you searched for, and it is never sent anywhere.
A few short-lived notes, such as which tab is being redirected right now or that YouTube has asked this network to slow down, are kept in Chrome's temporary session storage and are cleared when you close Chrome. Everything else stays until you remove it or uninstall Hook Block, which deletes all of it.
HOW HOOK BLOCK CHECKS THE PAGES YOU VISIT
To block sites and feeds, Hook Block needs to know which page a tab is opening. It checks page addresses (URLs) inside your browser as you browse, using Chrome's navigation and network-request features. On YouTube it also runs a small script that hides recommendations and enforces Focus Mode.
While adult-content protection is on, Hook Block also:
• Checks sites against a built-in list of adult websites. The list (about 27,000 sites) is part of the extension itself. Nothing is downloaded or looked up online while you browse; the list only changes when Hook Block is updated.
• Turns on strict SafeSearch. It adds the strict SafeSearch setting to the address of Google, Bing and DuckDuckGo searches (safe=active, adlt=strict and kp=1). Your search still goes to that search engine as usual; Hook Block only changes this one setting.
• Reads a page's content rating. On each page you open, a small script looks for the page's content-rating tag (<meta name="rating">) to spot pages that label themselves as adult. For a page whose address looks like help with quitting or blocking adult content (for example, a search for "how to quit porn"), it also reads the page's title before showing it. This happens on your device: the script only tells Hook Block itself, and only when it finds an adult label. Nothing else on the page is read, and nothing is sent anywhere.
All of these checks happen on your device. The addresses, titles and ratings of pages you visit are not saved, except for the entries listed above (for example, a site you chose to block, or an adult site you chose to unlock), and the extension never sends them anywhere.
THE "HOW IT WORKS" PAGE
When you first install Hook Block, it opens a short "How it works" page in a new tab. You can open it again from the "How it works" link in the popup. It is part of the extension, loads nothing from the internet, and collects nothing.
INFORMATION SHARED WITH THIRD PARTIES
FOCUS MODE SEARCH SUGGESTIONS
As you type in the Focus Mode search box, what you have typed so far is sent to Google (YouTube's public suggestions service at suggestqueries.google.com), a moment after each pause in typing and before you press Enter, together with your browser's language. Google returns suggested searches, which are shown to you and not saved. These requests are made signed out, without your Google or YouTube cookies. Google handles them under its own privacy policy, linked below.
FOCUS MODE SEARCH
When you search in Focus Mode, Hook Block asks YouTube directly from your browser: it loads YouTube's own search results page for your words (and, for more results, YouTube's own "next page" request), the same requests youtube.com makes when you search there. If you choose a length filter, that filter is part of the request. When you open a playlist, it loads that playlist's page from YouTube in the same way. It asks signed out, without your YouTube cookies.
While adult-content protection is on and not paused, it also asks in YouTube's Restricted Mode; otherwise it doesn't. Adult-content protection counts as on whenever the Hook Block popup shows it on, which includes while Focus Mode keeps it on.
YouTube receives your search words and the ordinary details every browser request carries; Hook Block adds nothing about you. The titles, channels, view counts, dates, descriptions and channel pictures it reads from the page are shown to you and not saved, except for the video IDs of a playlist you open, described above.
Opening the Focus Mode search page also opens connections to YouTube and to Google's suggestions service, so your first search is quicker. Nothing about you or your searches is sent over them until you type or search.
If YouTube or Google asks your network to slow down, Hook Block stops sending these requests and suggestion requests for a few minutes, and uses the options below for searches in the meantime.
Only if that doesn't work (for example, if YouTube can't be reached or has changed its page) does Hook Block use one of the two options below.
FOCUS MODE SEARCH FALLBACK (YOUTUBE API SERVICES)
If you added your own YouTube API key (Focus Mode → Advanced), the search goes straight from your browser to the YouTube Data API (a Google service); our search service is not used at all. Otherwise it goes to Hook Block's own search service, a small Cloudflare Worker we run, which asks the YouTube Data API and returns the results. The service exists so that no API key has to be shipped inside the extension.
What the service receives:
Your search words and your random install ID. Nothing else is added by Hook Block; like any website, the service also sees the ordinary details every browser request carries, including your IP address.
What the service keeps:
• Your search words, together with their results, for up to 12 hours, so the same search by anyone doesn't have to be sent to YouTube again. This is not linked to your install ID.
• Your install ID, with a count of how many searches that copy of Hook Block made today, for up to 36 hours, so one user can't use up the shared daily allowance. This is not linked to what you searched for.
• Nothing about your IP address. It is used only to slow down an address sending too many searches in a short time (about 30 a minute); that count is kept by Cloudflare, our hosting provider, for that minute, and is not stored by us.
The service keeps no other records and writes no logs of searches.
Your own API key, if you add one, stays in your browser.
In every case, result thumbnails and channel pictures load from YouTube's servers, and choosing a result opens that video or playlist on youtube.com. Hook Block does not sign you in to YouTube and never accesses your YouTube or Google account.
Hook Block uses YouTube API Services for the fallback. By using Focus Mode search, you agree to be bound by the YouTube Terms of Service:
https://www.youtube.com/t/terms
Google handles this information under the Google Privacy Policy:
https://policies.google.com/privacy
SITE ICONS
To show a site's icon in the popup and in your list of blocked sites, Hook Block requests it from Google's favicon service, which sends Google that site's name (for example, reddit.com). In the popup, that includes the sites suggested under the search box and, once you pause typing, the website you typed. The suggestions themselves are worked out on your device. The icon of the site in your current tab is loaded from that site.
PAGES YOU CHOOSE TO OPEN
A search you make from one of Hook Block's feed pages opens that site's own search results (Reddit, X, Facebook or YouTube). If you choose to unlock an adult site, Hook Block opens the page you were trying to visit.
The "Powered by NoBeep" links open nobeep.app, the website of NoBeep's phone app; the link only tells that site it came from Hook Block (a utm_source=hookblock tag) and carries nothing about you. These are ordinary visits to those websites and are covered by their own privacy policies.
All of these requests use HTTPS.
PERMISSIONS
Access to all websites
You can block any site, so Hook Block has to be able to act on whichever sites you choose. Adult-content protection and the content-rating check also need to work on every site. Focus Mode search uses it to load YouTube's results and playlist pages, and search suggestions from Google.
declarativeNetRequest
Blocks or redirects the sites you've chosen, blocks adult sites from the built-in list, and turns on strict SafeSearch, before a page loads. It also removes one header (Origin) from Hook Block's own requests for more YouTube search results or playlist videos, which YouTube otherwise refuses; no other request is changed.
webNavigation
Notices when a tab opens a blocked page, including in-page navigation on YouTube, Reddit, X and Facebook.
scripting
While adult-content protection is on, runs the small script that checks a page's content-rating tag (and, on pages that look like help with quitting, its title).
storage
Saves your settings on your device.
alarms
Runs the Focus Mode, break, Commitment Lock and protection-pause timers.
Incognito access (optional; you turn it on)
Adult-content protection only switches on once you allow Hook Block in incognito, so a private window can't be used to get around it.
CHROME WEB STORE USER DATA POLICY
Hook Block's use of information complies with the Chrome Web Store Developer Program Policies, including the User Data Policy's Limited Use requirements.
https://developer.chrome.com/docs/webstore/program-policies
CHILDREN
Hook Block does not collect personal information from anyone, including children.
CHANGES TO THIS POLICY
If Hook Block starts handling information differently, this policy will be updated and the date at the top will change.
CONTACT
Questions about this policy: hooksblocker@gmail.com