Privacy Policy

Last updated: 2026-10-18

This policy covers the Before You Buy browser extension and besidesguide.com, both operated by BesidesGuide LLC, a United States limited liability company. Questions: privacy@besidesguide.com.

The short version

• The extension checks Sephora and Ulta page addresses locally for products and referral parameters.
• It does not read retailer page content, your cart, payment details or forms.
• Matching happens inside your browser. Opening a product page sends us nothing.
• We receive a product ID when you open a comparison, and retailer pause flags when you continue from the extension to our website.
• No account, no stored browsing history, no sale of your data, no ads.

What the extension reads

The extension can recognize pages on sephora.com and ulta.com, and runs a small helper on our own website (or the fixed staging site in private testing). On retailer sites it reads the address of the page you are on to find the retailer’s product ID (for example P516231), and checks it against a list of products stored inside the extension. That is how it knows whether to show a number on its icon. This check happens on your device; the address is not sent anywhere.

To avoid taking credit for another site’s or creator’s referral, the extension also checks whether you arrived at the retailer through a recognized referral parameter in the page address, including on home and category pages. If so, it records a “paused” flag for that retailer in your browser’s session storage, which is cleared when you close the browser. A timestamp in local extension storage also keeps the pause active for at least 30 minutes. The original referral address, publisher identifier and referral token stay on your device. Only the paused retailer names are shared with our website when you use its research pages through the extension.

What the extension sends us

• When you open website details from the extension: the product ID and which of Sephora/Ulta are paused. On these website visits, our helper checks the pause state on page load, focus, pause changes and before a store link is opened. It sends only the paused retailer names to our own site; it does not send retailer browsing history.
• When you open the panel: the product ID, so our server can return the alternatives and ratings. Requests are not tied to an account or identifier.
• No purchase attribution in this version: we do not provide store purchase links or record store click-throughs. Future commercial features and any related data collection will be described here before they are enabled.
• List updates: the extension periodically downloads the latest product list from besidesguide.com. This request contains no product page address or browsing history.

Like any website, our hosting provider (Vercel) processes your IP address to deliver these responses.

What the extension stores on your device

Your settings, the product index and referral pause timestamps are stored in extension storage. Comparisons you opened are cached in panel memory while the panel remains open. Uninstalling the extension removes its storage.

Retailers and affiliate networks

Product images and YouTube thumbnails load from their hosting services when displayed. Those providers receive normal image requests, including your IP address; Before You Buy does not proxy these images.

When you click through to a retailer, you are on their site and their privacy policy applies. If affiliate links are enabled after approval, the retailer or its affiliate network (Rakuten Advertising for Sephora, Impact for Ulta) may set its own cookies to attribute the sale. Those cookies are set only after you click, and are governed by their policies.

The website

Extension-origin research visits use two first-party, signed, HttpOnly cookies to preserve referral pauses: a browser-session cookie and a cookie lasting 30 minutes. These are functional controls, not affiliate or advertising identifiers. They contain the paused retailer names, an extension-visit marker and an issue time, without a unique visitor ID. Missing or invalid required context disables store links. Website search, product navigation and redirects preserve this protection. The helper reads only our own research links and checks a store action again before opening it.

besidesguide.com uses Vercel Web Analytics, which counts page views without cookies and without identifying individual visitors. We do not use Google Analytics or any advertising tracker.

How we use this data

Only to run Before You Buy: to show you comparisons, to count which links get used, and to fix problems. We do not sell or rent it, do not use or transfer it for advertising, credit-worthiness or lending purposes, and do not share it except with service providers that run our infrastructure or when required by law.

YouTube Data API Services

Before You Buy uses the YouTube Data API Services to show publicly posted YouTube comments about products in the extension’s comparison view. Comments are shown as written (or shortened, with a link to the full comment), with the commenter’s display name and a link to the video. We refresh stored YouTube data at least every 30 days and remove comments that have been deleted or made private. By using Before You Buy you agree to the YouTube Terms of Service. Google’s Privacy Policy is at https://policies.google.com/privacy. We do not use YouTube or Google sign-in and access no YouTube account data. To have a comment removed, email privacy@besidesguide.com; we remove it within 7 days.

Retention

Click records are kept for up to 24 months for commission reconciliation and then deleted or aggregated. Server logs from our hosting provider are kept for the provider’s standard period.

Children

Before You Buy is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their data.

Your rights

Depending on where you live (for example California under the CCPA, or the EU/UK under the GDPR), you can ask to access or delete data about you. Because we only store anonymous daily session codes, we usually cannot link a record to you without more information from you. Email privacy@besidesguide.com and we will respond within the time your law requires.

Changes

If we change what the extension reads or sends, we will update this page and the date above before the change ships.