Privacy policy
Out of Frame is a browser extension that shows likely noise sources near vacation-rental listings, and noise complaints from their reviews. It has no accounts, no analytics and no advertising.
What it reads
Only on Airbnb, Vrbo and Booking.com, it reads what those sites show you:
- the listing's map location (the approximate pin the site displays), title, description, photo captions and stay dates in the page address,
- the listing's guest reviews. On Airbnb these are read through the same review request Airbnb's own page makes.
To find the same place on another of these sites, it reads that site's search results for the area around the listing, and the matching listing's page and reviews. On Vrbo search results, which don't include locations, it reads each result's own listing page to find where it is. These are ordinary page requests to Airbnb, Vrbo and Booking.com, as your browser would make if you opened the pages.
All of this is analyzed inside your browser. Description, review and photo text never leaves your device.
What it sends, and to whom
Map tiles. To find nearby highways, rail lines, airports, bars and similar places, it downloads OpenStreetMap map tiles for the area around each listing from OpenFreeMap (tiles.openfreemap.org), a free public map service. A tile request names a square of the map, so it reveals the general area of the listings you look at, the same way any online map does. It contains nothing about you, your account or your searches. As with any web request, the service sees your IP address, and its own privacy policy applies to that.
The Out of Frame server (out-of-frame.outofframe.workers.dev) is used for two things:
- Events on your dates. When a listing's page includes your stay dates, the extension asks the server for concerts and games near the listing on those dates. The request contains the area rounded to about 1 km and the dates. The server passes it to Ticketmaster's event service and stores nothing.
- Reports from travellers. To show what other travellers reported, the extension sends the first four characters of a one-way code (a SHA-256 hash) made from the listing's ID. The server answers with reports for every listing whose code starts with those characters, and the extension picks out the one it needs. The server never learns which listing you're looking at.
Your post-stay rating, if you choose to share it
If you tell Out of Frame you booked a place, it asks after your check-out date how quiet the stay was. Your answer is saved on your device.
If you tick “Share anonymously”, these are sent to the Out of Frame server:
- the one-way code for the listing,
- your answer (quiet, some noise or noisy) and the causes you picked,
- the month of your stay,
- a random ID created when the extension was installed. It lets you change your answer and stops one person counting twice.
Your name, account, email, the listing's address or title and your exact dates are never sent. The server doesn't store IP addresses. It uses a salted hash of the address, which changes every day, only to limit how many reports can be sent, and deletes it after a day. Shared reports appear, combined with others, on that listing's card and search badge for other Out of Frame users. You can turn sharing off in Settings, and untick it for any single rating.
What it stores on your device
On your device only, in the browser's extension storage:
- map tiles for areas you have viewed, kept for up to two weeks so revisits are instant,
- the location of listings it has looked up, and short summaries of their reviews, so they don't need looking up again,
- your settings: sleeper profile, noise you don't mind, whether ratings are shared by default, and display choices,
- your shortlist and the stays you chose to track, with your ratings,
- a drafted message to a host, for up to 30 minutes, while it is carried to the site's message page.
Removing the extension deletes all of it.
Messages to hosts
The extension can draft a message to a host. It places the draft in the site's own message box only when you click to do so, and never sends anything. Sending is always your action on the site.
What it does not do
- It does not collect or sell personal information.
- It does not track you across sites or keep a browsing history.
- It does not use analytics, advertising or tracking services.
- It does not run on any site other than the listing sites named above.
The use of information received by this extension complies with the Chrome Web Store User Data Policy, including its Limited Use requirements.
Changes and questions
If this policy changes, the date at the top changes with it. For questions, email out.of.frame.ext@gmail.com.