Privacy policy
Last updated 22 October 2026
FocusBerry is a Mac app that keeps your Mac on one thing for a set time. It works on your Mac: it has no analytics or tracking, and an account is optional. This policy explains what the app, this website and FocusBerry's server handle, why, for how long, and what you can do about it.
Who is responsible
Amir Afianian, the developer of FocusBerry, is the controller of the personal data described here. Write to friends@focusberry.app about anything in this policy.
What stays on your Mac
To do its job the app looks at the apps that are running and their windows, and, only for a browser you choose and after macOS asks you, the titles and addresses of that browser's tabs. If you turn on real previews (macOS asks for Screen Recording), it takes window thumbnails that stay in memory and are never saved. It never reads page content, form fields, passwords, cookies or history.
It keeps your settings, a log for troubleshooting (with addresses cut down to the site), crash reports, and, if you have Pro or sign in, your license key and account in your Mac's Keychain. None of this is sent anywhere. Diagnostics are only shared if you export them and send them yourself.
What leaves your Mac, and only when
| When | What | Where |
|---|---|---|
| You send feedback, a feature request or a bug report | What you wrote, your rating, a screenshot if you attached one, your email if you switched on "reply", the app and macOS versions, your language and region, and your Pro plan | FocusBerry's server, which posts it to the team's Slack |
| You sign in with Apple or Google | Apple's or Google's identity token: an ID for you in this app, your name and email address as they share them | FocusBerry's server |
| You're signed in | Your session token; your Pro license key, so it reaches your other Macs | FocusBerry's server |
| The Pro window is open; you have Pro | A request for prices; your license key and the app version, about daily, to pick up renewals and refunds | The FocusBerry store |
| You buy Pro | Nothing from the app: your browser opens the checkout | Paddle, the merchant of record |
Your account
An account is optional and only exists so FocusBerry Pro follows you to every Mac you sign in on. Apple's or Google's own window asks you to sign in; FocusBerry never sees your password. With Apple you can hide your email address: Apple then gives FocusBerry a private address that forwards to you.
The server keeps: the ID Apple or Google gives you for this app, your name and email as they shared them, your Pro license key once you're Pro, and for each Mac you're signed in on a session (the app's name and version as it identifies itself, and when it was last used). It keeps only a hash of each session token. Sign out ends this Mac's session. Delete account, under Sign out in the app, deletes your account, its sign-ins and its sessions at once.
Feedback
Feedback you send is kept on the server and posted to the team's Slack so we can read and answer it. Your email is only included if you switch on "Add your email if you want a reply", and is only used to reply. Messages are deleted from the server 180 days after delivery; a screenshot is deleted as soon as it has reached Slack.
Abuse protection
To limit how many messages or sign-in attempts one sender can make, the server keeps a salted hash of the network address the request came from, never the address itself, for a day. Each sign-in's one-time value is kept until the identity token it belongs to expires, so a token can't be used twice. The server's logs don't contain your network address.
This website
focusberry.app sets no cookies, has no analytics, loads nothing from other sites, and doesn't keep access logs.
Purposes and legal bases
- Your account, sessions and Pro on all your Macs: to provide the service you asked for (GDPR Art. 6(1)(b)).
- Feedback: to answer and act on what you sent us, at your request (Art. 6(1)(b)), and our legitimate interest in improving FocusBerry (Art. 6(1)(f)).
- Rate limits and one-time sign-in values: our legitimate interest in keeping the service secure and available (Art. 6(1)(f)).
- Payments, taxes and invoices: Paddle processes these as merchant of record under its own privacy notice.
Who else handles data
| Service | Role | Where |
|---|---|---|
| DigitalOcean | Hosts FocusBerry's server and this website | Frankfurt, Germany |
| Slack | Where the team reads feedback | United States, under the EU–US Data Privacy Framework and standard contractual clauses |
| Apple, Google | Sign in with Apple and Sign in with Google, under their own privacy policies | Their own services |
| Paddle | Checkout, payment, tax and invoices for Pro, as merchant of record | Paddle's services |
Nothing is sold, and nothing is shared for advertising.
How long it's kept
- Account data: until you delete your account.
- Sessions: until you sign out, or 180 days without use, and never more than 365 days; the record of an ended session is removed 30 days later.
- Feedback: 180 days after it reached the team.
- Rate-limit records: a day. One-time sign-in values: until the token expires.
Your rights
You can ask for access to your data, a copy of it, its correction or deletion, to restrict or object to its processing, and to take it elsewhere. Write to friends@focusberry.app. You can delete your account yourself at any time in the app. You also have the right to complain to a data protection authority, for example the Bavarian State Office for Data Protection Supervision (BayLDA) or the authority where you live.
Children
FocusBerry isn't directed at children under 16, and we don't knowingly create accounts for them.
Changes
If this policy changes, the new version will be here with a new date. Significant changes will also be announced in the app.