Privacy Policy

Last updated: 2026-08-26 · Effective immediately

Focusly is a personal screen-time and focus app for adults. The Focusly desktop app measures how long you spend in each application and on each website. The Focusly Blocker Chrome extension is a small companion that redirects blocked sites to a local block page. Neither product collects, stores, transmits, or sells your data. This page explains exactly what each one does, what it sees, and what it doesn't.

The short version

• All your data lives on your machine. A single SQLite file you can back up, move, or delete at any time.
• No accounts. No login. No "anonymous usage data" that isn't actually anonymous.
• No keystroke logging. No clipboard capture. No screenshots. No microphone. No webcam.
• No background network calls in v1. The app does not phone home. Ever.

What the desktop app does

The desktop app reads the title of the currently focused window (so it can tell that you're in Slack vs VS Code) and, when a supported browser is focused, the URL the browser's address bar shows (so it can break down browsing time by site, e.g. github.com vs youtube.com). It uses Microsoft's UI Automation API for both — the standard Windows accessibility interface, not a keylogger or a clipboard sniffer.

It does not read the contents of any window. It does not take screenshots. It does not read your keyboard input, your clipboard, your files, or your browsing history (other than the URL currently in the address bar, which is the only thing needed to attribute the time you're spending to the site you're on).

What the Chrome extension does

When you type a blocked site (for example youtube.com) into Chrome's address bar, the extension intercepts the navigation and redirects the same tab to Focusly's local block page (http://localhost:<port>/?site=…). No new tab is opened, no separate window is created, and no data is sent to any remote server. The block page lives on your own machine, served by the Focusly desktop app.

The extension needs the Focusly desktop app to be running to do this. If Focusly is not running, the extension is a no-op — it cannot read your blocklist, cannot redirect you, and cannot do anything else.

What data the extension handles

The extension reads only the URL of the navigation you are making in your own tab. That's it. It does not:

• Read the content of any web page.
• Read your browsing history.
• Read your cookies, form data, or saved passwords.
• Take screenshots.
• Record keystrokes.
• Track you across other websites.
• Send any data to any remote server.

The URL is checked against a blocklist that lives in the Focusly desktop app on your machine. That blocklist is fetched by the extension from http://localhost — your own computer, not a cloud service. The fetched blocklist is held only in the extension's short-lived in-memory state and is gone when the service worker stops.

Where data is stored

The extension stores nothing persistently. No localStorage, no IndexedDB, no chrome.storage. The blocklist and the active-unblock list live in the service worker's memory and are rebuilt from the local Focusly server every time the worker starts or wakes up.

The Focusly desktop app stores the blocklist and your usage data locally on your machine (%APPDATA%\com.focusly.app\ on Windows, ~/Library/Application Support/com.focusly.app/ on macOS). That data never leaves your device unless you explicitly turn on cloud sync (an opt-in feature, off by default, not available yet).

Who data is shared with

Nobody. Neither product shares data with any third party, because neither product collects any data to share.

Your rights and choices

Because Focusly does not collect your data, most privacy rights (access, deletion, portability, objection) are satisfied by default — there's nothing stored about you outside of what lives on your own device. If you want to exercise any right formally, or if you are a resident of a jurisdiction with specific privacy laws (GDPR, CCPA, LGPD, UK GDPR, etc.), email privacy@focusly.so and we will respond. Common requests we get and how we handle them:

• "Delete my data." Quit the Focusly app and delete the SQLite file at %APPDATA%\com.focusly.app\ (Windows) or ~/Library/Application Support/com.focusly.app/ (macOS). Uninstall the Chrome extension from chrome://extensions. There is no server copy, so deletion is immediate and complete.
• "Export my data." The same SQLite file is your export. Copy it anywhere. The schema is documented in docs/ARCHITECTURE.md.
• "Stop the app from reading the browser URL." Disable the Address-bar reading toggle in Focusly Settings → Privacy. After that, the desktop app no longer asks Windows for the focused browser's address bar; your time-on-site per app is still tracked, but not the per-site breakdown.
• "Stop the extension from seeing any URLs." Uninstall the extension. The blocklist in the desktop app still applies to locally-spawned browsers and to the hosts-file based blocklist the desktop app maintains; only the same-tab redirect for HTTPS sites in Chrome requires the extension.

Children's privacy

Focusly is a personal productivity app for adults. The extension does not knowingly collect any information from children under 13. Because neither product collects any information at all, this applies to all users regardless of age.

Changes to this policy

If we ever add a feature that changes what either product handles (for example, opt-in cloud sync), we will update this page first and announce the change in the release notes. The Last updated date at the top of this page reflects the current version.

Contact

Questions, concerns, or a privacy request? Email privacy@focusly.so. We answer every email.

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