Privacy Policy
FocusGate works entirely on your own device. This page explains exactly what it handles, why, and the single optional feature that ever contacts the internet.
Last updated: 8 August 2026
This policy applies to the FocusGate — Earn Your Distraction extension for Google Chrome, distributed through the Chrome Web Store. It is maintained by Nikhil Sinha ("we", "our", "us").
In short: FocusGate handles everything on your own device and sends nothing to us. We do not sell, share or transmit your data, and we operate no server that receives it. There is no account, no analytics, no telemetry, no advertising and no third-party trackers. The optional webcam check runs entirely on your device and never saves or uploads any image or video.
1. What FocusGate is for
FocusGate has a single purpose: it blocks websites you have chosen to treat as distracting until you have spent an amount of time you set yourself on the study websites you have chosen. Every capability described below exists only to serve that purpose.
2. What data FocusGate handles, and where it goes
Everything below is kept in your browser's own local extension storage
(chrome.storage.local) on your device. None of it is sent to us or to
anyone else.
| Data | Why it is needed | Where it goes |
|---|---|---|
| Study targets and blocked list — the websites, exact pages, YouTube channels, playlists and local file paths you add yourself | To know what should earn you time and what should be blocked | Stays on your device |
| Daily progress — time spent per target, points, streak count | To know when your goals are met and the blocks can lift | Stays on your device |
| Addresses of your open tabs | Read in the moment to decide whether a page should be blocked, or should be earning you time | Stays on your device. Never recorded as a history, never transmitted |
| Your FocusGate password | To stop you from undoing your own rules in a weak moment | Stored as a SHA-256 hash on your device. The password itself is never stored |
| Webcam images — only if you switch the camera check on | To check a face is present and eyes are on the screen while the timer runs | Processed in memory on your device and discarded immediately. Never saved, never sent |
| Your settings | To remember how you configured FocusGate | Stays on your device |
What this means for the Chrome Web Store disclosure. Google asks every extension to declare the categories of data it handles, including data that is only handled locally and never transmitted. For FocusGate those categories are: authentication information (your FocusGate password, stored only as a SHA-256 hash), web browsing activity (the addresses of your open tabs), user activity (mouse and keyboard movement, for the stillness check) and website content (whether a video is playing, for the media check). All of it is handled on your own device. None of it is transmitted, stored off your device, sold or shared.
3. Browsing activity
To block a distracting site, FocusGate has to be able to tell which page a tab is showing. It therefore reads the addresses of open tabs. This happens entirely on your device, and only to answer one question at that moment: should this page be blocked, or should it be earning time?
FocusGate does not build a browsing history, does not profile you, does not keep a log of the sites you visit, and does not transmit any address anywhere. The only addresses ever written to storage are the ones you typed in yourself as targets or blocked sites.
4. The webcam check
The camera check is off by default and only runs if you switch it on yourself. Chrome will also ask for camera permission before it can start, and you can withdraw that permission at any time from Chrome's own settings.
- Face and eye detection runs entirely on your device, using a detection model that ships inside the extension package. Nothing is sent anywhere to be analysed.
- No image, no video frame and no camera data is ever uploaded, saved to disk, or sent to us or to any third party. There is no server involved.
- The only thing kept is a yes/no answer — whether it can currently see you — used to decide whether the timer keeps running.
- The camera is released as soon as the check is no longer needed, and while you take a break.
- No face templates, biometric identifiers or recognition data are created or stored. FocusGate cannot identify who you are; it only detects that a face is present.
5. Files on your own computer
You can add a file or folder from your own disk as a study target. Chrome hides
file:/// pages from extensions until you allow it yourself in
chrome://extensions, so this is off unless you turn it on.
When it is on, FocusGate reads only the address of the local file you have open in Chrome, to tell whether it matches a target you added. It does not read, index, copy or upload the contents of any file, and your own files are never blocked.
6. The only time FocusGate contacts the internet
FocusGate makes exactly one kind of outbound network request, and only if you set it up:
Optional phone-app blocking (MacroDroid)
If you choose to connect FocusGate to the MacroDroid app on your own Android phone, you paste in your own webhook addresses. FocusGate then calls those addresses to say only whether your goals for today are met or not met.
- This feature is off by default. Nothing is sent unless you enable it and supply the addresses yourself.
- The request contains only a lock/unlock state and a timestamp. It contains no personal data, no browsing data, no site names, no file names and no camera data.
- The address belongs to you and to MacroDroid, not to us. We never see these requests and operate no server that receives them.
- Please use an
https://address so the request is encrypted in transit. - MacroDroid is a third-party app with its own privacy policy, which governs what happens to the request once it arrives on your phone.
Website icons shown beside your targets are fetched by Chrome itself, from its own local icon cache or from the public address of the site you added. FocusGate sends no information about you as part of this.
7. What FocusGate never does
- No data is sold, rented, traded or shared with anyone. Ever.
- No analytics, telemetry, crash reporting or usage tracking of any kind.
- No advertising, no affiliate links, no injected ads or promotional content.
- No account, sign-in, email address or personal detail is required or requested.
- No use of data for creditworthiness, lending or personalised advertising.
- No remotely hosted code is fetched or executed. All logic ships inside the package.
- No human ever reads your data, because your data never reaches us.
8. Why each permission is needed
| Permission | Why FocusGate needs it |
|---|---|
storage | To save your targets, blocked list, daily progress and settings on your device. |
alarms | To run the once-a-minute timer tick, the daily reset and the automatic re-lock. |
webNavigation | To notice a navigation as it begins, so a blocked site is stopped before it loads rather than after. |
favicon | To show each site's own icon beside it in your list, so the list is readable at a glance. |
contextMenus | To put the two support links on the extension icon's right-click menu. |
| Access to all sites | Because you decide which sites to block and which to study on, FocusGate cannot know in advance which addresses it will need to act on. This access is used only to show the countdown card on your study pages and to replace a blocked page with the "earn it first" page. |
9. Your control over your data
- Every setting can be changed or cleared from the extension's own settings page.
- The webcam check, the phone-blocking feature and every other check can be switched off at any time.
- Uninstalling FocusGate removes all of its stored data from your browser. Because nothing was ever sent anywhere, there is nothing left for us to delete.
10. Data security
Because FocusGate stores everything locally and transmits nothing, your data is protected by your own operating system and browser profile. Your password is stored only as a SHA-256 hash, never in readable form. The one optional outbound request described in section 6 should be sent over HTTPS.
11. Children's privacy
FocusGate is a study and self-discipline tool suitable for general audiences. It does not knowingly collect personal information from anyone, including children, because it does not collect personal information at all.
12. Limited Use
The use of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Chrome Web Store User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
FocusGate's use of any data is limited to providing the single purpose described in section 1. No data is transferred to third parties, with the sole exception of the optional lock/unlock signal you configure yourself in section 6.
13. Changes to this policy
If this policy changes, the updated version will be posted on this page with a new date at the top. Material changes to how data is handled will also be reflected in the extension's Chrome Web Store listing.
14. Contact
Questions about this policy or about FocusGate:
- Developer: Nikhil Sinha
- Email: sinhanikhil549@gmail.com
- WhatsApp: +91 76930 75429