FOCAL
Privacy Policy
1. Introduction
Focal (“Application,” “we,” “us,” “our”) is a focus and accountability app for iPhone, with a companion Mac menu bar app. Focal is operated by Kaushik Dontula, a sole proprietor doing business as Focal.
Focal is not a medical device, medical service, or mental health service. It is not a diagnostic, treatment, or therapy tool for ADHD or any other condition. It is not a guarantee of any productivity outcome.
Focal is a tool that uses Apple’s Screen Time and Family Controls to block distracting apps during a session you start. It is a place to log reflections on what you got done and, if you choose, share that with mutual friends. It is a stats and streak tracker based only on your own completed sessions.
The in app disclaimer already shown to users states: “Focal helps you protect focused time. It is not a medical or mental health service.” That statement governs this entire policy.
By using Focal, you acknowledge you have read and understood this policy. If you do not agree, do not use the app.
2. Data we collect
2.1 Account and sign in
| Data | Purpose | Retention |
|---|---|---|
| Email address (if you use email sign in) | Account identity, authentication, password reset | Until account deletion |
| Password (hashed, handled by Supabase Auth) | Secure login | Until account deletion |
| Apple sign in identifiers | Authentication via Sign in with Apple | Until account deletion |
| Session tokens | Keep you signed in on your device | Stored locally on your device |
Password reset emails are sent through Supabase Auth and return you to the app through the link focal://reset-password.
We do not collect government IDs, Social Security numbers, or bank account numbers.
2.2 Profile
Stored in our profiles table:
| Data | Purpose | Retention |
|---|---|---|
| Username, display name | Identify you to friends | Until account deletion |
| Avatar image | Shown on your profile. Stored as a JPEG in a public storage bucket at avatars/{your user id}/avatar.jpg. Anyone with the direct file URL can view it. | Until you remove it or delete your account |
| Invite code (also your referral code) | Referral discounts | Until account deletion |
| Weekly hour and day goals | Your stated focus goal | Until account deletion |
| Onboarding complete flag | App state | Until account deletion |
| Notification preference toggles | Control what you are notified about | Until account deletion |
| Trial start timestamp | Managing your 7 day trial | Until account deletion |
| Referral discount unlocked flag, who referred you | Referral pricing | Until account deletion |
| Lifetime unlocked flag | Whether you have purchased Lifetime | Until account deletion |
| Automatic mood emoji setting | Whether on device mood detection is turned on | Until account deletion |
2.3 Focus sessions and reflections
Stored in our sessions table:
- Start time, end time, duration, and status (active, completed, or discarded)
- Optional reflection text you write after a session
- An optional mood emoji, generated on your device from your reflection text using on device word matching. This is not sent to OpenAI, Anthropic, or any other model provider, and you can turn this feature off.
- Whether you marked the session visible to friends or private to you
Sessions shorter than 60 seconds are not saved. You can edit a reflection, change a session’s visibility, or delete a session at any time.
Weekly, monthly, and yearly focus summaries are also generated entirely on your device from your own sessions and saved to a focus summaries table. You can share a summary image using the system share sheet if you choose to.
Who can see a session: a private session is visible only to you. A friends visible session is visible to your accepted, mutual friends, and is hidden if either of you has blocked the other. Focal does not have a public internet feed.
2.4 Friends and moderation
| Data | Purpose | Retention |
|---|---|---|
| Friend requests and accepted friendships | Social features | Until account deletion or you remove the friend |
| Blocks | Hide content from a specific person | Until you remove the block |
| Reports on a profile, session, or comment | Moderation review | Until addressed by us |
| Comments on sessions | Social interaction | Until deleted by you or removed for a violation |
| Reactions on sessions | Social interaction | Tied to the session |
| Leaderboard standing | Based on completed sessions of 60 seconds or more, calculated in weeks starting Monday | Recalculated live, not separately stored |
2.5 Notifications
Stored in the notification inbox: friend requests, friend accepts, a friend starting or finishing a session, comments, likes, referral notices, focus reminders, and weekly summaries.
Your inbox rows are automatically deleted after 7 days, and the app only displays the last 7 days.
Notifications may also be delivered through Apple Push Notification service. Your device token is stored (user id, token, platform, last updated time). You can turn off individual notification categories in Settings. If your trial has ended, tapping a notification keeps you on the paywall rather than opening the main app.
2.6 Screen Time (iPhone only)
After you approve Apple’s own Screen Time permission prompt, Focal uses Apple’s Family Controls and Managed Settings frameworks to shield the apps you have selected while a lock in session is active. Phone and emergency functions stay available at all times, consistent with Apple’s own Family Controls design.
The list of shielded apps and the current shield state stay on your phone. Focal’s servers do not receive your app list, your browsing history, or your Screen Time history.
The Mac companion app can start and end the session record, but it cannot start, stop, or change Screen Time shields. If your iPhone is locked, a session may end in our database, but the shield stays in place until you unlock your phone and open Focal again.
2.7 Mac companion app
The Mac app is a menu bar application that signs in with the same Focal account using email and password. It reads and writes the same session and profile records as the iPhone app. After a session ends, you can save or skip a reflection from the Mac app. It caches your trial date locally on your Mac. It does not run Screen Time and cannot block apps.
2.8 Siri and Shortcuts
You can set up phrases such as “Locking in now” or “End session” using Apple’s Shortcuts app and App Intents. These run entirely through Apple’s own frameworks on your device. Focal does not receive any voice recordings.
2.9 Apple Workouts (optional, off by default)
If you turn this on in Settings, Integrations, Focal reads your workout start times from HealthKit for one purpose: to ask whether you would like to start a Focal session after your workout. Focal does not write any data to HealthKit, and does not upload your workout data to our servers. The app includes the required usage strings for reading and writing Health data, but the writing permission is unused.
2.10 Other device permissions
Photo library access is requested only so you can attach a screenshot to an in app feedback ticket or choose an avatar image. Focal does not request camera access as a separate feature, and does not request contacts or microphone access.
2.11 Feedback and Focal Link survey
- Feedback tickets: category (bug, feature, or general), your message, your app version, and an optional screenshot stored as a JPEG in a feedback attachments storage bucket, with the image URL saved on the ticket.
- Focal Link survey (optional): whether you would buy a hardware device, your price comfort, and any free text notes. This survey is not a pre order and does not promise a ship date or price. Dismissing the survey card only hides it on that device.
2.12 Purchases and referrals
- Your 7 day free trial is managed by Focal, not by Apple’s introductory offer system, and is not a subscription. The trial clock is set once and cannot be reset by signing out, reinstalling, or using a second device.
- After the trial, Lifetime access is a one time, non consumable purchase through Apple’s StoreKit 2, at full price or at a referral price if a valid invite code was used. Apple is the merchant of record and processes your payment. Focal does not collect or store your card number. We store only a yes or no Lifetime unlocked flag, read from your StoreKit entitlement.
- Restoring a purchase uses Apple’s own purchase history.
- Each account has one invite code, which doubles as a referral code. If someone enters your code, or you enter someone else’s, both accounts receive a discount on the Lifetime purchase, one time, with no stacking. Using a referral code does not start or extend a trial and does not create a friend connection. You cannot use your own code. Sharing your code only happens when you tap Share, using the system share sheet.
3. How we use your data
- Operating your account, sign in, and session state
- Running lock in sessions, Screen Time shields, and the wrap up flow
- Calculating your streaks, weekly time, calendar, and leaderboard position
- Delivering notifications you have chosen to receive
- Processing your Lifetime purchase and any referral discount through Apple
- Responding to feedback tickets and Focal Link survey responses
We do not run advertising, and we do not use any third party analytics or crash reporting vendor. Because Focal does not track you across other companies’ apps or websites, it does not show an App Tracking Transparency prompt.
4. Third party processors
4.1 Apple
Apple provides Sign in with Apple, Screen Time and Family Controls, Apple Push Notification service, HealthKit (for the optional Workouts integration), Apple Shortcuts and App Intents, and the App Store and StoreKit purchase system. Apple’s own privacy practices govern its handling of this data.
4.2 Supabase
Supabase provides our authentication, database, and file storage, hosted on AWS in the ca-central-1 region, in Canada. All access is over HTTPS, and Row Level Security is enabled so that, by default, you can only read and write your own data.
We do not sell your personal data, and we do not share it with any party for advertising purposes.
5. Data sharing and disclosure
We do not sell or rent your personal data.
| Scenario | Data shared | Recipient | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Friends visible session | Session details, reflection, mood emoji | Your accepted, mutual friends (unless either of you has blocked the other) | Core social feature |
| Comments and reactions | Your comment text or reaction | Friends who can see that session | Core social feature |
| Referral | That a discount was applied | The two accounts involved | Referral pricing |
| Notification delivery | Device token, notification content | Apple Push Notification service | Delivering your notifications |
| Purchases | Purchase and entitlement data | Apple, as the payment processor | Processing your Lifetime purchase |
| Legal requests | Account data, if legally required | Law enforcement or courts | Responding to a valid legal request |
| Infrastructure | Data needed to run the app | Supabase | Hosting and storage |
We may disclose account information if required by law, court order, or a valid government request. Where legally permitted, we will attempt to notify you before disclosure, and we will push back on requests we believe are overbroad.
6. Data retention and deletion
| Data | Retention |
|---|---|
| Account, profile, avatar | Until account deletion |
| Sessions, reflections, summaries | Until account deletion, or until you delete an individual session |
| Notification inbox | Maximum 7 days |
| Comments, reactions, friendships, blocks, reports | Until account deletion, or until you remove them |
| Device tokens | Until account deletion or sign out |
| Feedback tickets | Ticket content is kept, and the link to your account is removed on account deletion. Screenshot files attached to feedback tickets are not automatically deleted from storage when you delete your account. Your avatar file is deleted. Email us if you want those screenshots removed. |
| Focal Link survey responses | Kept for product planning, or until you ask us to delete them |
| Local data on your device (trial date cache, integration toggles, dismissed cards) | Stays on the device until you delete the app or sign out |
How to delete your account
Open Focal, go to Settings, choose Delete account, and confirm.
What happens:
- Your avatar file is deleted from storage
- Any active Screen Time shields on that phone are cleared
- Your authentication account is permanently deleted
- Your profile, sessions, friendships, comments, reactions, blocks, reports, notification inbox, device tokens, feedback ticket links, survey responses, and summaries are deleted along with it
- Referral links pointing at your account are cleared. If you had referred someone else, their discount flag is not removed, and they keep the discount they already received.
Signing out only clears your local session. It does not delete your cloud account or data.
To request deletion by email instead, or to ask us to remove feedback screenshots, contact us using the details in Section 13.
7. Security
- Passwords are hashed by Supabase Auth. We never store a plain text password.
- All traffic between the app and our backend uses HTTPS.
- Row Level Security on our database restricts you to your own data by default.
No app is completely secure. If you believe your account has been compromised, contact us right away using the details in Section 13.
8. Your rights and choices
- Access and correct your data in the app: Settings for your profile, session history for your sessions, and Friends for your social graph.
- Delete a session or remove a friend at any time.
- Delete your entire account as described in Section 6.
- Turn off notification categories individually in Settings.
- Turn off automatic mood emoji detection in Settings.
- Request an export of your data by contacting us. Focal does not currently have a built in export button. We will provide your data in a readable format within 30 days of a verified request.
9. Children’s privacy
Focal is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from children under that age. The app does not ask for a birthdate and does not otherwise verify age at sign up. If you believe a child under 13 has created an account, contact us and we will delete it.
10. International and regulatory notes
10.1 GDPR (European users)
If you are located in the EU or EEA, Kaushik Dontula, operating as Focal, is the data controller for the personal data described in this policy. Supabase acts as a data processor for backend hosting, in Canada. You have the rights to access, correct, delete, restrict, port, and object to the processing of your data. To exercise these rights, contact us using the details in Section 13. We aim to respond within 30 days.
Because Focal’s backend is hosted in Canada rather than the EU or EEA, using the app involves an international transfer of your data. We rely on Supabase’s own security and compliance safeguards for this.
10.2 CCPA and CPRA (California users)
We do not sell or share your personal information for cross context behavioral advertising. California residents have the right to know what personal information we hold, to request deletion, to request correction, and to be free from discrimination for exercising these rights. Contact us using the details in Section 13. We aim to respond within 45 days.
11. Cookies and tracking
Focal is a native iOS and Mac application, not a website that tracks you inside the product. The app does not use browser cookies, tracking pixels, or cross app identifiers such as the IDFA, and it does not show an App Tracking Transparency prompt because it does not track you across other companies’ apps or websites.
12. Third party links
Focal may link out to Apple’s own pages, such as the App Store or Screen Time settings. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of any site or service outside of Focal itself.
13. Contact us
For privacy questions, data requests, or complaints:
Kaushik Dontula, doing business as Focal
153 Norfolk St, Apt 0G
New York, NY
United States
Email: kdontula0@gmail.com
We aim to respond to all privacy requests within 30 days.
If you are in the EU or EEA and believe we have violated your privacy rights, you may lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.
14. Not medical advice
Focal helps you protect focused time. It is not a medical or mental health service, and it does not diagnose, treat, or cure ADHD or any other condition. If you have concerns about your attention, focus, or mental health, speak with a qualified professional.
15. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy as Focal changes. The “Last updated” date at the top will reflect the most recent revision. For material changes, such as a new category of data collection or a new third party processor, we will make a reasonable effort to notify you inside the app.
Your continued use of Focal after a change takes effect means you accept the updated policy.
Appendix A. Summary
| Data | Collected | Shared with | Retention |
|---|---|---|---|
| Email, hashed password, Apple sign in identifiers | Yes | Supabase Auth | Until deletion |
| Username, display name, avatar, invite code | Yes | Friends. The avatar file URL is public. | Until deletion |
| Weekly goals, onboarding flag, notification preferences | Yes | Not shared | Until deletion |
| Sessions, reflections, mood emoji, summaries | Yes | Friends, only if you mark a session visible to friends | Until deletion |
| Friendships, blocks, reports, comments, reactions | Yes | Friends and moderation | Until deletion or removal |
| Notification inbox | Yes | Apple push, for delivery | 7 days |
| Device token | Yes | Apple push | Until deletion or sign out |
| Trial start date, Lifetime flag, referral flags | Yes | Apple, for purchase processing | Until deletion |
| Feedback tickets and screenshots | Yes | Not shared for advertising | Kept. Account link removed on deletion. Screenshot files may remain until you ask us to delete them. |
| Focal Link survey responses | Yes | Not shared for advertising | Kept for product planning |
| HealthKit workout start times | Only if you enable it | Not uploaded | Not stored on our servers |
| Location, contacts, microphone, camera | No | ||
| Card numbers or bank details | No |