Fermentory — Privacy Policy
Effective date: 5 June 2026 · Updated: 26 September 2026
Your recipes, journal, inventory, and settings stay locally in your browser. Fermentory has no analytics or tracking. Pro checkout uses Payhip before version 1.0.6 and Polar in version 1.0.6 and later. Recipe data is never sent to either.
What Fermentory handles, and where it stays
When you visit a web page, Fermentory reads the page's text in your browser to detect whether a homebrewing recipe is present. This processing happens entirely on your device and the page content is not sent anywhere. If no recipe is found, nothing is kept.
When you choose to save a recipe or use a feature, the following is stored
locally using the browser's chrome.storage.local
API (on your device only):
- Saved recipes and their ingredients
- Your settings (e.g. metric/imperial preference, default batch size)
- Brew journal entries (gravities, dates, notes) — Pro feature
- Ingredient inventory — Pro feature
- Your Pro license key, if you have activated one
You can view, edit, and delete any of this from within the extension at any time.
What Fermentory does NOT do
- It does not send recipes, page content, journals, inventory, or settings to us or any third party.
- It has no analytics, telemetry, tracking pixels, or advertising.
- It requires no account and no sign-in.
- It does not read or store data from pages where no recipe is detected.
Permissions, explained
- Host access (all sites): required so the extension can read the text of the page you are currently viewing in order to detect a recipe. Detection runs locally; no page content leaves your device.
- Storage: used to save your recipes, settings, and preferences locally in your browser.
Pro licenses and external links
The free version is fully usable. Before version 1.0.6, a new Pro purchase
opens Payhip. In version 1.0.6 and later, it opens Polar checkout inside an
extension tab. Polar receives the payment details and email you enter there
and emails a recovery key. Fermentory sends a short-lived customer
session token to Polar to verify the paid Fermentory Pro order, then stores
Pro status locally without keeping that token. Entering a Polar recovery
key sends the key and public Lucency organization ID to Polar for validation.
Older Payhip FERM- keys validate entirely on your device.
Tips still open Payhip when clicked.
Polar privacy policy ·
Payhip privacy policy.
Data retention and deletion
Because all data is stored locally, you control it entirely. Removing a saved recipe deletes it and its brew journal. "Clear all saved recipes" in Settings removes all recipes and journals, while your settings and Pro license stay on this device. You can download a local backup of recipes, journals, and inventory from Settings. Uninstalling the extension removes its locally stored data. We keep no copies of your recipes because we never receive them. Payhip or Polar retains purchase records under its own policy, depending on where you bought Pro.
Children
Fermentory is a tool for homebrewers and is not directed at children.
Changes to this policy
If this policy changes, the updated version will be published at this URL and the updated date above will be revised.
Contact
Questions about privacy? Contact: fermentory@proton.me