u/Historical-Gap8940

I've been working on a small privacy project called Retentia, and I've now brought it to Firefox.

The idea came from something that annoyed me about browser history management: the options are usually either keep everything or delete everything after X time.

I wanted something in between.

Retentia lets you give specific parts of your browsing history their own expiration date.

For example:

• Keep normal browsing history for 90 days
• Delete history from a specific website after 24 hours
• Remove certain URLs immediately
• Keep selected websites protected from automatic deletion
• Use domain or URL

Before a rule actually removes anything, you can use the dry-run/simulator to see what it would affect.

One thing that was important to me from the start: Retentia doesn't need to know what you're browsing.

There are no accounts, no analytics, no cloud processing and no remote database containing your history. The retention rules and processing stay on your device.

I'm not trying to build another "privacy cleaner" that just gives you a big DELETE button. The goal is closer to having an actual retention policy for your browser history.

The Firefox version is still something I want to improve based on real-world use, so feedback is genuinely useful — especially bugs, weird Firefox-specific behaviour, or features that would make retention rules more useful.

If you're a Firefox user and give it a try, I'd be interested to hear what you think.

Retentia — your history, your retention policy.

https://addons.mozilla.org/nl/firefox/addon/retentia/

Retentia is now live on the Chrome Web Store. It’s a Chrome extension that lets you set retention rules for browsing history per site, so old history entries can be cleaned up automatically instead of staying forever. It works locally and does not rely on a cloud account or external processing. If you’re interested in privacy or browser cleanup, I’d appreciate any feedback or testing.

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/retentia/gdjfhmeenikdefhnbpceggahdmdlhdng

I built Retentia because Chrome’s standard history controls are fairly all-or-nothing. I wanted more control over how long different parts of my browsing history remain available, without having to clear everything manually.

Retentia lets you create retention rules for individual domains, exact URLs, wildcard patterns, or regular expressions. For example, you can keep history from one domain for seven days, delete visits to another domain after an hour, or preserve selected websites indefinitely.

Privacy was the main priority:

• Everything runs locally inside the browser.
• There are no analytics or remote services.
• No account or registration is required.
• The extension requests no host permissions.
• Your browsing data is not transmitted anywhere.
• The source code is available for inspection.

It also includes a dry-run simulator, protected websites, an activity log that doesn’t store deleted URLs, and configurable cleanup intervals.

I’d really appreciate feedback, especially about the rule system, usability, and any privacy features you think are missing.

Chrome Web Store: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/retentia/gdjfhmeenikdefhnbpceggahdmdlhdng
Privacy policy: https://maximau5-1989.github.io/Retentia/privacy/

Full disclosure: I’m the developer of Retentia.