What FocusProof records, and what it does not.

In short

FocusProof records only while a study session you started is running. It records the names of applications and, if you set up the Chrome integration, the domain names of sites you are on — never their contents. Everything it records is stored on your Mac. There is no account, no FocusProof server, and nothing is uploaded.

Your study data stays on your Mac unless you choose to export or share it.

When FocusProof records

Recording begins when you press Start Session and ends when you finish or pause that session. There is no background mode, no all-day tracking, and no scheduled recording.

• Between sessions, FocusProof records nothing. The Today screen states this directly.
• While a session is paused, no activity is recorded and the paused time does not count towards the session.
• A Recording badge is visible on screen for the whole time a session is running.

What it records during a session

• Application names. Which app is frontmost — for example “Notes” or “Preview” — and nothing about what is inside it.
• Website domains, by name only. With the Chrome integration installed, the domain of the site you are on, such as en.wikipedia.org. Not the full address, not the page, not the query.
• Timing. When each activity started and how long it lasted, plus the session’s own start, pauses and end.
• Periods with no input. That the Mac received no keyboard or trackpad input for a stretch of time.
• Confirmed away study. Time you explicitly marked as studying away from your Mac.
• Your classifications. Whether you have marked an app or a domain as Focused, Distracted or Neutral, and any change you make afterwards.
• The subject and goal you typed, so a session can be identified later.

What it never records

These are not collected, which means they are never stored, never included in an export, and never present in a Study Receipt.

• What you type, click, or search for
• Page contents, document contents, or file contents
• Full web addresses, query strings, or file paths
• Screenshots or screen recordings
• Your clipboard
• Private messages, email, or chats
• Camera, microphone, or location
• Anything at all outside a running session

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Inactivity and uncertainty

When a session is running but your Mac receives no input, FocusProof knows only that: no input. It does not know whether you were reading a textbook, on a phone call, or out of the room — and it does not guess.

That time is held as unresolved rather than being counted as study or as distraction. You can confirm it as studying away from your Mac, in which case it counts towards Study Time, or leave it unresolved. Time the Mac itself was asleep, locked, or switched to another user is excluded rather than attributed to you.

FocusProof cannot see your phone, your tablet, your paper, or your attention. It records what happened on this Mac and what you told it.

Where your data lives

Sessions and activity records are stored in FocusProof’s own container inside your macOS Application Support folder, in a local database. Your preferences and classifications are stored alongside them.

There is no cloud sync, no telemetry, no analytics SDK, no advertising identifier, and no crash reporting service. The app has no server to talk to, so there is no account to delete and no retention schedule to describe: the data is simply on your Mac, for as long as you keep it.

If you use Time Machine, iCloud Drive backups of your home folder, or any other backup tool, your FocusProof data may be included in those backups according to that tool’s own settings. That copy is governed by whoever runs the backup — not by FocusProof.

Measurement on this website

The FocusProof app remains local-only. This website separately uses Google Analytics 4 and Vercel’s website measurement tools. When you click a direct FocusProof disk-image download link, the website sends one download_click event with only the CTA location, such as hero or download_page.

That event does not include your study data, file contents, query strings, form input or a FocusProof account identifier. The GA4 tag does not send automatic page views, advertising signals or persistent client storage. Vercel Analytics and Speed Insights remain separate from the app’s local session records.

Exports, Study Receipts and backups

FocusProof can produce files at your request: a Study Receipt as an image or PDF, and a backup of your session data. These are created only when you ask for them, and saved where you choose.

Once a file leaves the app it is an ordinary file. If you email it, post it, or put it in a shared folder, it travels wherever you send it. A Study Receipt contains a subject, an optional goal, a date, times, totals and a reference number — it does not contain application names, domains, or any activity detail.

Restoring a backup replaces the session data in the app with the contents of that file. Keep backups somewhere you are comfortable with; FocusProof cannot protect a file it no longer holds.

The Chrome integration

The optional Chrome extension exists for one reason: so that time spent in a browser can be recorded as a site name rather than as “Google Chrome”. It communicates with FocusProof through a native messaging host installed on your Mac — a local channel between the browser and the app, not a network connection.

The extension sends the domain of the active tab and nothing else. It does not read page contents, form fields, cookies, history or full addresses, and it sends nothing while no session is running. Removing the extension stops domain-level recording immediately; application-level recording continues as normal.

Safari does not have an equivalent integration. Time in Safari is recorded as the browser application.

Update checks

FocusProof uses Sparkle, the standard Mac update framework, to check whether a newer version has been published. This is the only network request the app makes on its own. It fetches the public update feed at https://kevinantoun1.github.io/focusproof-downloads/updates/appcast.xml.

The request carries no session data, no study records and no identifier created by FocusProof. As with any HTTPS request, the server that hosts the feed can see the ordinary connection information a web request carries, such as your IP address and browser-style user agent; the feed is hosted on GitHub Pages, under GitHub’s own terms.

Updates install only when you accept them, and you are shown what changed first.

Deleting your data

• A single session. Delete it from History; its activity records go with it.
• Everything. Removing FocusProof’s container removes the database and preferences together. The support page has the exact steps.
• Files you exported. Receipts and backups are ordinary files in whatever location you chose; delete them the way you delete any other file.
• Backups made by other tools. Time Machine and similar tools keep their own copies. Removing data from FocusProof does not remove it from those.

Dragging the app to the Trash removes the application but may leave its container behind. If you want the data gone as well, remove the container too.

Students and supervision

FocusProof is built for the person doing the studying. It is not a monitoring product: it has no supervisor view, no remote access, no reporting to a parent, tutor, school or employer, and no mechanism for anyone but the person at the Mac to see a session.

A Study Receipt is something a student may choose to share. It is a personal summary, not verified or certified evidence, and it should not be treated as institutional proof that studying took place.

Changes to this page

This page describes FocusProof 1.0.1 (6), released 6 August 2026. If a future release changes what is recorded, this page and the app’s own Privacy screen will change with it, and the difference will be noted in the release notes.

FocusProof is distributed independently and is not notarized by Apple. macOS requires manual approval the first time you open it.

This page describes product behaviour in plain language. It is not legal advice and it is not a contract. No published contact address, legal entity or postal address is available for FocusProof at this release, so none is stated here; questions are handled through the support page.