Privacy policy

Stay Focused stores the following in Chrome’s extension storage (chrome.storage.local) on your device. It stays there until you delete it or remove Stay Focused. It isn’t sent to us or to anyone else except in the two cases described in section 2.

• Your settings. Your block list and allow list (sites, pages and keywords), categories (including the sites, pages and keywords you add to or remove from them, and the names and entries of categories you create), schedules, daily limits (including any amounts you set for particular days of the week), focus timer settings and daily goal, block page settings (including a custom message and redirect address, if you set them), speed-bump settings, theme and other preferences. It also includes your Stay Focused Plus preferences, such as accent colour, block-page scene, soundscape and your own quotes.
• An optional password. If you set a password, Stay Focused stores only a salted PBKDF2-SHA-256 hash of it, never the password itself.
• Statistics, kept for 120 days. For each day, Stay Focused keeps:
  • the website hostnames (for example reddit.com) you were turned away from, and how many times;
  • how many seconds the active tab spent on each hostname, if time tracking is on (you can turn it off in Settings);
  • your focus minutes and sessions;
  • a focus journal: the start and end time of each session, its length and the task label you typed, if any.

  Days older than 120 days are deleted automatically. Beyond that, Stay Focused keeps only running totals (block attempts, focus minutes and sessions, as numbers), your focus streak (its length and the day it had reached), your best streak (a number) and when Stay Focused was installed.

• Saved links. If you use “Save for later”, Stay Focused keeps the full address and page title of each link you save (up to 200) until you open or remove it.
• Stay Focused Plus records. If you start a trial or add a license key, Stay Focused keeps:
  • the dates of your trial;
  • your license key, which kind of key it is, its plan (for example “Yearly”), its status, its expiry date, and when it was last checked;
  • a random identifier for this browser, which Stay Focused makes when you activate the key.

  It also records which Plus suggestions you have dismissed, so that they never come back.

• Sync bookkeeping. If you use “Sync across browsers”, Stay Focused keeps a random identifier for this browser (it is not linked to you or your device), and the times and fingerprints (hashes) of recent syncs.
• Temporary data. While Chrome is running, Stay Focused keeps a few short-lived values in session storage, such as whether you recently entered your password (for 15 minutes) and which site is being timed. Chrome deletes them when it closes.

What Stay Focused does not collect. It never reads the content of the pages you visit and never keeps a record of your full browsing history. It records hostnames only for sites you were turned away from or that it timed, and full addresses only for links you choose to save. It does not record keystrokes, clicks or your location. To stop counting time while you are away, it asks Chrome whether the computer is idle or the screen is locked, and it keeps no history of the answers. It uses no cookies, no fingerprinting and no advertising identifiers.

Incognito. If you allow Stay Focused in Incognito windows, the same blocking rules apply there. Stay Focused never records time or block attempts in Incognito. The only exception is a link you choose to save for later.

Stay Focused contains no analytics, advertising or tracking code, and it does not load code from the internet. Its code makes network requests in one place only: the part that checks Stay Focused Plus license keys. That code contacts only our own license server.

2a License checks (only if you add a license key)

Stay Focused sends a request to our own license server, at this website’s address (stayfocusedsoftware.com):

• when you activate a license key;
• about once every 7 days after that, in the background, to check that the license is still valid;
• when you choose Check now on the Stay Focused Plus page;
• when you choose Remove from this browser, to free up that activation.

What is sent: your license key and a random identifier that Stay Focused makes for this browser. Nothing about your browsing, settings or statistics, and no name or email address.

The requests carry no cookies and no referring page. They reach us through Cloudflare, as a visit to this website does (section 5), so Cloudflare handles your IP address and your browser’s standard request headers (such as its user-agent) on the way.

What the license server keeps: a random license ID, the plan, Stripe’s reference numbers for the purchase (the checkout, the payment or subscription, and the customer), and for each browser its random identifier and when it was first and last seen. It keeps no names, no email or postal addresses and no IP addresses, and it writes no log of requests. It runs on a computer that we operate ourselves.

What comes back: whether the license is still good, its plan and end date, how many browsers it is active in and, after a renewal, a new key that replaces the old one. Stay Focused keeps the status, the end date and the new key, and nothing else from the answer.

If you never add a license key, Stay Focused never contacts the license server. Starting the free trial happens entirely on your device, with no request.

2b Sync across browsers (only if you turn it on)

“Sync across browsers” is off by default. If you turn it on, Stay Focused saves a copy of your settings with Chrome’s sync storage (chrome.storage.sync). Chrome then stores them in your Google account and copies them to the other Chrome browsers where you are signed in. Google handles this data under the Google Privacy Policy. We never receive it.

• What syncs: your block and allow lists, list mode, categories (including your changes to the built-in categories and the categories you create), when blocking runs, schedules, daily limits (including amounts for particular days of the week), focus timer settings (including your daily goal and soundscape), block page settings (including your custom message and redirect address), speed-bump settings, theme, the day your week starts, accent colour, block-page scene and your own quotes. Stay Focused also stores the random browser identifier described in section 1, the time of the change and the Stay Focused version, so that it can tell which copy is newest. If you sync with a profile you name, its name is stored with the synced copy. If you sync with your Stay Focused Plus profile, the copy is stored under a short fingerprint (a hash) worked out from your license key, not the key itself.
• What never syncs: your password, the Extensions-page block and any running lock or focus session; statistics and the focus journal; saved links; your license key and trial; the on/off switch; and device preferences such as notifications, the toolbar badge, the right-click menu, time tracking and the weekly summary.

If you are not signed in to Chrome, or Chrome sync is off, the copy stays in this browser only. You can turn sync off at any time in Stay Focused’s Settings, and choose to delete the synced copy when you do.

2c Pages you choose to open

Some buttons open a web page in a new tab, and that website’s own privacy policy applies there. Stay Focused does not add any information about you to these addresses. They are:

• Buy, which opens the payment provider’s checkout page;
• Manage purchase, which opens Onelink, the provider’s site for buyers;
• Refund policy, Terms and Privacy policy, which open pages on this website (section 5).

Stay Focused Plus is sold through a merchant of record: a payment company that sells to you on our behalf and handles payment, tax, receipts and refunds.

Purchases are processed by Stripe, whose checkout and receipts carry the name Onelink. Stripe collects what you enter at checkout, including your payment details, name, email address and billing address, under the Stripe privacy policy. Your card number goes to Stripe and never passes through this website. Stripe shares your order with us, including your name, email address and billing address, what you bought and when, and an outline of how you paid (for a card, its type, last four digits and expiry date).

Our license server (section 2a) keeps Stripe’s reference numbers for your purchase, not your name or email address. To email you your key, it reads your email address from Stripe for that one message and hands it to our mail service, Resend. It does not keep the address.

We use these order details only to provide your license, answer your questions, process refunds, and keep the records that tax and accounting law require. We do not add you to a mailing list or contact you with marketing unless you ask us to.

If you email us at support@stayfocusedsoftware.com, we receive your email address and whatever you include in your message. We use it only to reply to you, and we delete support emails 24 months after the conversation ends, unless we need them for a refund or a legal obligation.

Email sent to that address is forwarded to our mailbox by Cloudflare Email Routing, so it passes through Cloudflare on its way to our email provider, Google.

This section is about https://stayfocusedsoftware.com, the website you are reading, and not about the extension.

No accounts, no forms, no tracking. The site is a set of plain pages. It has no accounts and no forms, so it never asks you to type in anything about yourself. We set no cookies and store nothing in your browser, and the site has no analytics, advertising or tracking code. Every page, style sheet, script, font and image comes from this site’s own address. Nothing is loaded from another company’s servers, and there are no embedded videos, maps or social media buttons.

How the pages reach you. The site runs on a computer that we operate ourselves, and it reaches you through Cloudflare, a network company that carries the traffic between you and us. To deliver a page and to keep abusive traffic away, Cloudflare has to process the technical details of each request: your IP address, the address of the page you asked for, the date and time, and the standard headers your browser sends, such as its user-agent. Cloudflare does this on our behalf. It also uses network data to protect its own service, as the Cloudflare privacy policy explains.

What we keep and what we see. Our own computer keeps no access logs: it makes no record of who asked for which page. Cloudflare’s dashboard shows us overall figures, such as how many requests arrived and from which countries. For requests that its security systems blocked or checked, it can also show us a sample of the technical details above, including the IP address, for a limited time. We use this only to keep the site working and safe. We don’t copy it anywhere, and we don’t try to work out who a visitor is.

Security checks. If Cloudflare suspects that a request is part of an automated attack, it may show a brief security check before the page. Passing it sets a strictly necessary Cloudflare cookie (cf_clearance), so that you are not checked again straight away, and the check itself may set others whose names begin cf_chl_. Those are the only cookies this address could give you, and in normal use none is set.

The thank-you page. After you buy Stay Focused Plus, Stripe sends your browser to our thank-you page, with the reference number of your checkout in the page’s address. A small script on the page, served from this site, sends that reference to our license server (section 2a), which checks the payment with Stripe and answers with your license key. Like a license check, the request and its answer pass through Cloudflare. The page shows the key with a Copy button, and stores nothing in your browser. The script moves the reference to the part of the address after the #, which a browser leaves out when it asks for a page. Reloading the page asks our license server again and shows the key again. Your browser keeps the address, with the reference in it, in its own history, as it does for any page you open. Anyone who has that address can see the key.

Links to other sites. Some buttons and links lead to the Chrome Web Store, which Google runs, and to Stripe’s checkout and Onelink’s pages for buyers. We don’t add any information about you to those links. Once you follow one, that site’s own privacy policy applies.

Getting in touch. The Support page has no contact form, only an email link that opens your own email app. Section 4 covers the emails you send us.

We use information only to provide Stay Focused’s features and to support your purchase. We do not sell it, rent it or use it for advertising, and we do not use it to decide creditworthiness or for lending. The technical data described in section 5 is used only to deliver and protect this website.

The only parties that receive any information are:

• the payment provider (Stripe), for purchases, as described in section 3;
• Google, through Chrome Sync, only if you turn on “Sync across browsers”;
• Cloudflare, which delivers this website and carries license checks to our license server, as described in section 2a and section 5, and forwards the emails you send us, as described in section 4;
• our email provider, Google, which stores the emails you send us and our replies;
• our mail service (Resend), which delivers the email with your license key, as described in section 3;
• authorities, if the law requires us to share information we hold, such as purchase records.

Where information is handled. We are based in the United Kingdom. Stripe and Cloudflare operate in many countries, so the information they handle may be processed outside the country you live in, including in the United States. Cloudflare takes part in the EU–US Data Privacy Framework and its UK Extension. Each company’s privacy policy describes the safeguards it uses.

The use of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Chrome Web Store User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

The Chrome Web Store shows us overall numbers, such as how many people installed Stay Focused. These are compiled by Google and don’t identify you. Apart from the license checks in section 2a, Stay Focused itself sends us nothing. Chrome also checks the Chrome Web Store for Stay Focused updates, as it does for every extension.

Everything on your device is under your control:

• Export. Options → Settings → Backup & restore saves your settings, statistics and saved links as a file. The file never includes your password or license key.
• Delete statistics or everything. Options → Settings can reset your statistics, or reset everything. “Reset everything” keeps your license and the trial record, so that a purchase isn’t lost by accident. To remove the license from this browser, choose Remove from this browser on the Stay Focused Plus page.
• Remove Stay Focused. Removing the extension makes Chrome delete everything Stay Focused stored on this device.
• Synced settings. When you turn sync off in Stay Focused, you can choose to delete the synced copy. You can also clear all Chrome sync data from your Google account in Chrome’s sync settings.
• Purchase records. We and the payment provider keep order records for as long as tax and accounting law requires. To ask about the order details and license records we hold, or to have them corrected or deleted where the law allows, email support@stayfocusedsoftware.com. You can also ask Onelink to delete what it holds about you; that cancels any subscription bought through it.

Stay Focused’s data is protected by Chrome’s own storage. Your password is stored only as a salted hash. After activation, your license key is shown only as its last four characters, and it is never exported or synced. The synced copy of a Stay Focused Plus profile is stored under a fingerprint of the key, not the key itself (section 2b). License checks use encrypted HTTPS connections. Stay Focused contains all of its code in the extension package. It does not download or run code from the internet. This website is served only over encrypted HTTPS connections.

Stay Focused is a general productivity tool. It is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children. Stay Focused Plus purchases are handled by the payment provider under its own terms, and our terms of sale ask that buyers be adults.

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, delete or export personal information about you, and to object to how it is used. For information on your device, you can do all of this yourself in Stay Focused (section 7). For order details, license records and support emails that we hold, email support@stayfocusedsoftware.com and we will reply within one month.

Why we are allowed to use it. For data protection law in the UK and the EEA, Matthew Greengrass is the controller of the order details, license records, support emails and website data described in this policy. We process order details to fulfil our contract with you (your license) and to meet legal obligations (tax records). License checks are part of providing the license you bought. Sync happens only when you turn it on. We handle support emails, and the technical data involved in delivering and protecting this website, because we have a legitimate interest in answering people who write to us and in running a safe website.

Your right to object. You can object at any time to our use of information that rests on a legitimate interest. Email support@stayfocusedsoftware.com.

Complaints. If you think we have handled your information wrongly, please tell us first, at support@stayfocusedsoftware.com. We will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days and tell you the outcome without undue delay. You can also complain to a data protection authority. In the UK that is the Information Commissioner’s Office (ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint, 0303 123 1113). In the EEA it is the authority in the country where you live.

If a new version of Stay Focused handles information differently, we will update this policy before releasing it, and change the effective date at the top. The same goes for any change to how this website works. Ask us by email if you would like to see an earlier version.