Privacy policy

Who we are

MapsPage is a Chrome extension published by Square Media, LLC. This policy covers the MapsPage extension and the mapspage.com website.

When you install MapsPage, it replaces the page Chrome shows when you open a new tab.

Information kept on your device

Your settings, shortcuts, backgrounds and the choices you make in MapsPage are saved in your browser’s extension storage (chrome.storage.local) on your own computer. They are never sent to Square Media, LLC.

Removing MapsPage from Chrome deletes that storage, and everything in it, from your browser.

Search

The search box uses your browser’s own default search engine (through chrome.search) unless you choose another provider. You can choose Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, or a partner-powered Yahoo search.

When you search with Google, Bing or DuckDuckGo, your query goes straight to that provider, and its own privacy policy applies.

When you choose Yahoo, your query is sent to our search partner at search.pdf2docs.com together with a partner identifier, and the partner returns Yahoo search results.

While Yahoo is selected, the text you type in the search box is sent to suggest.finditnowonline.com once it reaches three characters, so that suggestions can appear as you type.

Like any website, these services also receive what your browser sends with every request, such as your IP address and browser type.

• Yahoo search privacy
• Microsoft privacy statement
• Google privacy policy

Places and directions

When you look up a place or a route, MapsPage opens the map service you chose, such as Google Maps, Bing Maps or MapQuest, in a new tab, with the place or route text you entered. That service receives the text and applies its own privacy policy.

Your saved places, saved routes and custom quick finds stay in your browser’s extension storage and are never sent to Square Media, LLC.

Optional permissions

MapsPage can show your most visited sites and website icons. Chrome asks for each of these permissions only when you turn the feature on, and the information they provide stays on your device.

Usage measurement

When you install MapsPage, the extension creates a random install identifier, opens a welcome page on mapspage.com, and sends the website that identifier and its version number. The website answers with a device identifier, which the extension keeps and sends with later reports. Neither identifier is tied to your name, your email address or any account.

Once a day the extension sends counts: how many new tabs you opened, how many searches you made with each search provider, and how many shortcuts you clicked. It never sends the text of your searches or the addresses of the pages you visit.

You can turn usage statistics off in MapsPage’s settings. The extension then stops sending the daily counts.

When you remove MapsPage, Chrome opens a page on mapspage.com with the install identifier, and the website records the removal. That page offers a short, optional survey asking why you left.

If you send feedback from MapsPage’s settings, the extension sends mapspage.com your message, the kind of feedback you chose and the extension’s version, and, only while usage statistics are on, its install and device identifiers, so we can tell which install it came from. It sends an email address only if you enter one, and we use that address only to reply to you.

The MapsPage extension and its new tab work without these reports. If a report cannot be sent, nothing you see or use is affected.

Website visits and advertising

The mapspage.com website sets a first-party cookie named ntp_vid, holding a random identifier for your browser, which lasts 400 days. With it, the website records your visits to its pages: the page you arrived on, the site that referred you, any campaign tags in the address, and any advertising click identifier, such as Google’s gclid or Microsoft’s msclkid. It also records your browser’s version, whether you are on a computer, phone or tablet, the version of the page it showed you when it is testing more than one, and clicks on its Add to Chrome buttons with the page they were on. When the website is served through a content delivery network that reports it, a visit record also keeps the country the visit came from.

We link an install to the visit and button click that led to it, using that cookie, or, when the cookie is not available, the IP address and browser type of a button click in the two hours before the install. When an install is linked, its record keeps a copy of the visit it is credited to — the linked visit, or the earlier visit from an advertisement whose click identifier it is credited with: its campaign tags, the website address and page it landed on, the page variant it showed, its channel tag, the site that referred it and its advertising click identifiers. The record also keeps the browser details the extension’s first request sent.

We report installs to the advertising platform a click identifier came from, Google Ads or Microsoft Advertising, so that the platform can measure which of our advertisements led to an install. We also report later use as separate conversions: each day the extension was used, each day it was used to search, and reaching a number of searches over a number of days. Only installs linked by that cookie to an Add to Chrome click are reported; installs linked only by IP address are never reported.

The mapspage.com website also sets the cookies it needs to work, such as a session cookie.

IP addresses

The mapspage.com website stores the IP address of every request it records: page visits, button clicks, the welcome and removal pages, the extension’s reports, and feedback. We use IP addresses to prevent fraud and abuse, and to link an install to the advertisement or page that led to it when the cookie is not available. An IP address is never used to decide that two installs are the same device. In our own reports we mark an install as a possible reinstall when an install from the same IP address and browser type was removed in the 30 days before; that mark changes nothing else about the install.

Retention

Website visit records, their advertising click identifiers and button clicks are deleted 13 months after the visit, and the browser identifier behind the ntp_vid cookie 13 months after its last visit. The copy kept on an install’s record — campaign tags, landing website address and page, page variant, channel tag, referring site and advertising click identifiers — is kept for as long as that install record exists. IP addresses are erased from install, removal, usage and feedback records, and browser details from install records, 13 months after they were recorded. Written survey answers, and feedback messages with their email addresses, are erased 13 months after they were sent. Records of advertising conversions we reported are deleted 13 months after they were sent.

Selling and sharing

Square Media, LLC does not sell your personal information. We share an advertising click identifier with the advertising platform it came from, together with the install and later use it led to, for the purpose of measuring our advertising, and your searches with the search partner described above while you have Yahoo selected.

• Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information

Children

We do not knowingly collect or maintain personal information from children under the age of 13. If you believe your child has provided us with personal information, please contact us at [email protected] and we will make reasonable efforts to delete it.

Your rights

You can ask us to access, correct or delete personal information we hold about you by writing to [email protected]. Removing MapsPage deletes everything it kept on your device.

You also have the right to file a complaint with the relevant supervisory authority where we have not addressed your concerns.

Changes to this policy

We may revise this privacy policy from time to time. The current version is always the one posted on this page.