Privacy

Effective Oct 22, 2026. Covers the Hard to Wait browser extension, the Hard to Wait phone app, and hardtowait.com.

The short version

The extension writes down Harbor Freight's prices and coupons as you look at them and sends those to Hard to Wait. It doesn't know who you are, doesn't watch any other site, and nothing it collects is sold or shared.

What the extension collects

Only on harborfreight.com product and category pages, and only after you agree on the welcome screen:

• For each product the page shows: item number, name, brand, category, product link, product image link, regular and sale price, the name-brand price HF compares it to, whether it's in-store only, and any coupon or Inside Track Club deal the page lists (price, code, end date, limit).
• The address of the page it came from, with anything after a "?" or "#" removed.
• Your selected Harbor Freight store: its store number and its city and state as HF names it (for example "Benton Harbor, MI"), along with the prices HF shows for that store. The extension reads these from Harbor Freight's own page: the store record the site keeps in your browser, or HF's store-number cookie. You can turn this off with "Send my store's prices" in the popup.
• The extension's version number.

Each install gets a random key when it's added. That key is how Hard to Wait counts your pages and lets you into the site. It isn't tied to your name, email, Google account, or anything else about you.

What it never collects

• Anything from a site other than harborfreight.com.
• Your Harbor Freight account, cart, checkout, orders, wish list, or Inside Track Club membership details.
• Your address, your location, or your distance from the store, even though HF's store record includes some of that.
• Your search terms, browsing history, form entries, or passwords, or any cookie other than HF's store number.

The extension skips Harbor Freight's cart, checkout and account pages entirely.

What happens to it

Reports go to Hard to Wait's server on Cloudflare, are picked up by a home server, checked against other contributors' reports, and become the price history you see on the site and in the extension. Store prices become each store's own history, which records the store and its prices but not who reported them. The network address your browser or phone connects from is used to limit sign-ups, sign-in attempts, new app installs, and how much one network can send or look up in a day. It's never stored as is: the counts are kept under a scramble of it made with a secret key only the server has, so they can't be turned back into the address, and each day's counts are thrown away within three days. Raw reports, the only place your install key and your store appear together, are deleted within about a week. A shelf tag scanned with the app keeps which install scanned it for two weeks, so two people scanning the same tag can back each other up; after that the record of who scanned it is wiped, on the server and the home server alike. Prices that pass the checks stay as part of each item's history.

Hard to Wait doesn't sell, rent or share this data, doesn't use it for ads or credit decisions, and doesn't let anyone read it except to run the service. The use of information received from the extension follows the Chrome Web Store User Data Policy, including its Limited Use requirements.

Your controls

• Pause sending at any time with the switch in the extension's popup. The stamps and tags still work while paused.
• Removing the extension stops everything. Its key goes with it.
• To have the page count and reports tied to your key deleted, email admin@hardtowait.com with the contributor ID shown in the popup.

Your store on the site

When the extension sends your store's prices, Hard to Wait remembers which store it last reported, next to your contributor ID, so the site and the phone app can show you that store's prices without asking. Turn off "Send my store's prices" and it stops updating. To have it erased, ask the way "Your controls" above describes. Picking a different store on the site is saved only in your browser.

Price alerts

Alerts are optional. If you set one up, Hard to Wait keeps the email address you give, the items and prices you're watching, and when an alert last went out. If you tell it what you paid for something, it keeps the item, the price and the day you give, to tell you once if it gets cheaper in the next 30 days; that's deleted a week after the 30 days end, or when you remove it. The address is used only to send your alerts, a confirmation link, and a note if your alerts are about to pause or have paused because the extension hasn't counted enough pages lately. It's never sold, shared or used for anything else.

The emails are sent through Resend, an email delivery service, which handles the address only to deliver them. Every email has a link that stops all of them at once, and the alerts page lets you change the address or stop the emails. Stopping deletes the address.

Feedback

If you use "Something wrong?" in the extension or on an item page, Hard to Wait keeps what you wrote, the address of the page you were on (only if it's a Harbor Freight or Hard to Wait page; in the extension's popup, only if you leave that box ticked, and from the form on an item page, always that item page's address), the extension's version, and your contributor ID so a question can be traced back to the right install. Notes are read only to fix the service. Don't put personal details in them.

The phone app

The app uses the camera only to read the code on a Harbor Freight shelf tag or box. No pictures are kept or sent.

The app is free, and the free version shares two things for everyone's price history. Shelf tags you scan: the app sends what the tag's code holds, which is the item number, the price on the tag, the base price, and the store number printed in it. And Harbor Freight pages you open from the app, which open inside it: it reads them the way the extension does, so item numbers, names, prices and coupons, which page they came from, and your picked Harbor Freight store's number and prices. Never your cart, checkout, account, orders or sign-in, on any page. It asks before it reads the first page; say no and the page doesn't open, nothing is read, and the app offers the private version. Nothing else about you or where you are goes with any of it (requests do say whether the phone is Android or iPhone, and which version of the app), and shared prices become price history without saying who sent them.

The private version ($9.99, once) shares nothing unless you turn "Shelf tags I scan" or "Harbor Freight pages I open in the app" on in its settings.

The app signs in with a random token, not tied to your name, email or any account. Purchases (the private version, and the yearly supporter subscription) go through Apple or Google and RevenueCat, a purchase service, which give Hard to Wait a random purchase ID to check against. Hard to Wait never sees your name, email or payment details from a purchase. If you're a supporter and give a first name for the thanks page, it's kept with your supporter record and shown there while your support is current; a new name after the first is looked at before it shows. Take it off in the app's settings and it's gone. When a supporter year ends or is refunded, the name comes off the page, and it's deleted a week later at most; the supporter record itself (the random purchase ID and the date your year ends) stays so a renewal or restore picks it back up, until you delete your account.

If you allow notifications, the app sends Hard to Wait a push address for your phone, used only to deliver your price alerts through Expo's notification service. Your member setting and saved coupons stay on the phone. Your store choice does too, except that when a Harbor Freight page opened in the app reports your picked store's prices, the store's number and name are kept with the app's account so the website can show your store; the next report replaces it, and deleting the account deletes it. Signing out deletes the app's sign-in token on the server.

The site

hardtowait.com sets a sign-in cookie when the extension signs you in, or when you type a code from the app. Without one, the site sets a second cookie that counts how many item pages you've opened this month, so it knows when to ask you to help by sharing prices; it holds only the month, that count and the last 20 item numbers you opened (so opening one again doesn't count twice), and it stays in your browser. Every page is open either way. The site has no ads and no third-party trackers. Pages load fonts from Google Fonts.

A referral link (hardtowait.com/r/ and a code) sets a cookie holding only that code, for 30 days. If you add the extension in that time, its sign-up sends the cookie, so whoever shared the link gets the credit; the app asks you to type the code instead. Hard to Wait keeps which account brought in which, to give that credit, and nothing about you goes to the person who shared the link: they see only how many people it brought in.

Changes

If this policy changes, the new version goes here with a new date, and anything that widens what's collected will ask you again in the extension before it takes effect.