Privacy Policy

Effective: 7 November 2026

The short version: FocusOS has no account, no sign-in, no analytics and no advertising. Your sessions, plans and notes stay on your own device, and we can't see them. A few things do touch the internet: visiting our website, checking for updates, and the optional phone lock. Google runs the servers for these and can see your IP address when you use them. Sections 4 to 7 list all of it.

Who is responsible

FocusOS is made and run by Shikhar Shahi, known online as GGshikhar, an individual developer in India. This policy covers the FocusOS app for Windows, its browser add-on (FocusOS Guard), the FocusOS Android app and the FocusOS website.

Shikhar Shahi decides how the small amount of personal data in sections 4 to 7 is used. Some laws call this the data controller or data fiduciary.

Contact for anything in this policy, including privacy requests and complaints: royalshikher@gmail.com

What the app does on your computer

To do its job, the app handles the following. All of it stays on your computer and none of it reaches us.

Your webcam. During a locked session the app runs a phone and presence detector on your webcam, unless you turned it off on the first screen. It is on by default. Each picture is held in memory for a moment, examined, and thrown away. No picture or video is ever saved or sent anywhere, and the detector only passes the app simple signals such as "phone held" or "nobody here". It looks for phones, tablets, movement, and whether a face is in view. It does not work out who you are, keep a face template or faceprint, or estimate your age, mood or attention. The camera is only open while a session is locked. If other people may be in view, let them know the webcam is on, or turn it off.

What is open on your computer. While a session runs, the app reads the names, locations and window titles of the programs you have open, so it can tell what was on your list from what wasn't. It does not read what is inside those windows and it does not take screenshots.

Your browser tabs, only if you install the add-on. The add-on tells the app the address and title of every open tab, and whether a tab is active or playing sound. It talks only to the app, on your own computer (127.0.0.1), and only with your pairing code, which it keeps in your browser. It can close a tab or switch to one when you tell the app to, or when an unlock runs out, and it can show a small FocusOS notice on a page. It doesn't read what's on the page.

What you type. Your session goals, reasons, plans and notes are saved on your computer so the app can show them back to you.

Where it is kept

In ordinary files on your own computer:

%APPDATA%\GGshikhar\FocusOS\

That means a small database of your settings and past sessions, plus readable text files and pictures: your study log, your reasons for leaving sessions early, your certificates, your plan pages and your parked thoughts. For each session it records when it started and ended, its planned length, what you said you were working on and why, the apps and sites you allowed, how many unlocks you used, how often a phone was seen, and how long you were away.

It stays until you delete it. Nothing is encrypted beyond what your computer already does, so anyone who can use your computer account can read these files. Deleting that folder deletes all of it. Uninstalling leaves it in place, so that reinstalling keeps your history.

When the app goes online

When you press a button that says so, and while a session is running so that a phone can follow it (section 5):

Check for updates fetches one small public file from our website. Update downloads the new installer from there. The website's host can see your IP address when this happens, as with any web request. Nothing about you, your sessions or your computer is included.

Report a bug or send feedback opens our Instagram in your browser. Nothing is filled in or sent for you, and Instagram's own policy applies if you send a message.

You can check this yourself. Turn off your internet and run a whole session: everything except the phone lock keeps working. Or open Resource Monitor in Windows and watch its Network tab during a session without a phone key: FocusOS connects to nothing outside your computer.

The phone lock

The phone lock is optional. On the Getting ready screen, pressing Get a key creates a session key. If you type that key into FocusOS on an Android phone, the phone locks along with your computer. So that this works on any network, the key goes to the cloud: the computer and phone share one small document in Google Cloud Firestore, stored in the United States. This is the only part of FocusOS that keeps anything about a session on a server. From FocusOS 0.3.4 on, it doesn't exist unless you press that button. Earlier versions created one for every session while the computer was online.

What it holds: the session key, how much time is left, the session's length, whether the clock has started, which of Pengu's faces to show, and whether the phone is locked, on a break or has left the lock. It holds no name, account, email, device identifier, session goal, app list or anything you typed. Google, as the host, can see the IP address of each device that connects, as with any web request.

How long: it is deleted when the session ends. If your computer crashed or had no internet at that moment, it is deleted the next time FocusOS opens. If FocusOS is never opened again, it is deleted automatically within a few days of the session's end. This applies from FocusOS 0.3.4 and FocusOS for Android 0.1.8; a document left behind by an earlier version stays until that computer next opens FocusOS. Anyone who has the key could read or change that document, and we could read it too as the project's owner, which is why we keep your name and work out of it. A computer with no internet still locks as usual, and simply won't get a key.

What the Android app uses:

• An Android Accessibility service, to know which app is in front and to cover the screen during a session. It can't read what's on your screen or what you type, doesn't log which apps you use, and does nothing outside a session.
• Phone state, to move the lock aside when a call rings. It uses only whether a call is ringing or under way. It doesn't read the number or who is calling.
• Do Not Disturb access, if you allow it, to silence notifications during a session and put the setting back afterwards.
• Permission to install apps, used only for an update you've asked for. Check for updates fetches the same small public file as on the computer.

The key and the time left are stored on the phone during a session, and the apps you choose to allow stay on the phone. To offer that choice, the app can see which apps are installed. That list is never sent anywhere. The reason you type to leave a lock early isn't saved or sent. The computer is told only that the phone left. Uninstalling the Android app removes everything it stored.

The website

The website is hosted on Firebase Hosting, run by Google. Google receives your IP address and the pages you request, uses them to detect abuse and give us usage reports, and says it keeps IP data for a few months.

The home page reads a public download count from Google Cloud Firestore each time it opens, so Google also sees your IP address there. Pressing the Windows download button adds one to that count. It holds a single number and nothing about who pressed it.

Your browser keeps two small notes on your own device, in its local storage: one that it has already been counted (focusos.counted) and one that it has seen the support message (focusos.asked). They are never sent to us, and you can clear them at any time. The site sets no cookies and runs no analytics or advertising.

If you choose to support FocusOS by UPI, that payment happens in your own UPI app. Your payment provider handles it under its own terms. We see what a payment normally shows the person being paid, such as your name, UPI ID and the amount, and keep it in our payment records for as long as tax and other laws require.

If you email us, we receive your address and whatever you write, and our email provider handles it. We use it only to answer you and delete it once it's no longer needed, unless the law requires us to keep it.

Who receives data, and where

• Google runs the website, the download count and the phone lock document, as our service provider.
• Instagram, your UPI app and bank, and our email provider receive data only if you choose to use them. Each has its own privacy terms.
• Authorities or courts, if the law truly requires it.

We don't sell or share your data, use it for advertising, build a profile of you or make automated decisions about you. We can't see your sessions, your webcam, your tabs, your plans or your reasons, and for the same reason we can't recover them if you lose them.

International transfers: we are in India. The phone lock document is stored in the United States, and Google may process website data in any country where it has facilities. These places may have different privacy laws from yours. Google states that it is certified under the EU-U.S. and Swiss-U.S. Data Privacy Frameworks and the UK Extension.

Why we may use personal data

Some laws, including the GDPR and UK GDPR, ask us to give a legal reason:

• The phone lock document and update files: to provide what you asked for.
• Website and server logs: our legitimate interest in running a secure website and knowing it works.
• The download count: our legitimate interest in knowing roughly how many people download FocusOS.
• Emails: to answer you, which is what you asked for.
• Payment records: complying with our legal duties.

Where a law such as India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act relies on your consent, you give it by choosing to use the feature, and you can withdraw it by no longer using it and asking us to delete anything we hold. FocusOS works without giving us anything: if you don't use the phone lock, the only data involved comes from visiting the website.

How long it is kept

• Files on your device: until you delete them.
• The phone lock document: as described in section 5.
• Google's IP data for the website: a few months, according to Google.
• Emails: until no longer needed, unless the law requires us to keep them.
• Payment records: as long as tax and other laws require.

Security

The website and updates use encrypted connections, and each update is checked against a published checksum before it runs. No system is perfectly secure. The add-on needs your pairing code, and the phone lock document can be opened by anyone who has its key, so don't post your key publicly. If a breach affects personal data, we will tell the authorities and post a notice on the website as the law requires. We hold no contact details for most people, so the website may be our only way of telling you.

Your rights

Wherever you live, you can email royalshikher@gmail.com to ask what we hold about you, or to have it corrected or deleted. We will answer within one month, or sooner if your local law requires. We have no accounts, so we may not be able to connect server logs or a phone lock document to you. Giving us the session key helps. We can't delete Google's logs ourselves, but we will help where we can. Asking is free, and using your rights won't affect your use of FocusOS. Data on your device is already yours to read, change or delete.

Depending on where you live, you may also have these rights:

• EU, UK, Switzerland: access, correction, deletion, restriction, portability and objection, and complaining to your local data protection authority.
• India: access, correction and erasure, nominating someone to act for you, and having a grievance answered, after which you can go to the Data Protection Board of India.
• California and other US states: knowing, correcting and deleting personal data, and opting out of its sale or sharing. We don't sell or share it, for money or for targeted advertising.
• Brazil, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, South Africa and others: similar rights under local law, and complaining to your local regulator.

If you are unhappy with an answer, please tell us first. You can still go to your regulator or court at any time.

Your choices

Turn the webcam off on the first screen, under "Webcam and browser add-on", and it is never opened. Turn sound off in the same place. Don't install the add-on, or remove it at any time. Delete the folder in section 3 whenever you like. You never have to enter a session key on a phone, and you can uninstall the Android app at any time.

Children

FocusOS is not aimed at children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect personal data from children. The age at which you can agree to this yourself depends on where you live: it ranges from 13 to 16 in the EU and UK, and it is 18 in India. If you are under that age, ask a parent or guardian before using FocusOS. They should decide whether the webcam feature is all right, even though what section 2 describes stays on your computer. A parent or guardian who thinks we hold a child's data can email us and we will delete it.

Changes

If this policy changes, the new version will be on the website with a new date, and it will come with the next release of the app. If a change matters, we will say so in the changelog. This policy is written in English.