Privacy Policy

Our approach to privacy

FocusDrop was built by one person with ADHD, for people with ADHD. Privacy isn't a feature we bolted on — it's how the app is designed from the ground up. FocusDrop works offline: apart from buying or restoring Pro and syncing through iCloud, it never needs the internet.

On Apple's App Store privacy label, FocusDrop is marked "Data Not Collected." This policy explains, in plain English, exactly what that means — including what changed when iCloud sync arrived.

What we collect

Nothing. FocusDrop does not collect, sell or share your personal data, and never sends it to the developer. Beyond your own devices, the only place it goes is your own private iCloud, if sync is on. There are no FocusDrop servers, and there is no FocusDrop account. Nothing you write in the app is ever sent to the developer, and no human on this end can read it.

Where your data lives

Everything you create in FocusDrop is stored on your device using Apple's SwiftData framework. This includes:

• Your tasks and to-do lists
• Your habits and habit history
• Your focus sessions and timer history
• Your stats, XP, levels, and streaks
• Your notes and any other content you enter

iCloud sync

If you're signed in to iCloud on your device, FocusDrop syncs that same data through Apple's CloudKit so your devices stay in step. It goes to your own private iCloud database, inside your personal Apple Account. The developer cannot access it, cannot query it, and never receives a copy — it is your iCloud, not our server.

Your Apple Watch doesn't use iCloud for this. It gets what it shows from your iPhone directly, through Apple's Watch connection (WatchConnectivity), and the session itself runs on the iPhone.

FocusDrop for Mac is coming soon; this is how it will work. FocusDrop for Mac uses the same private iCloud container, so your tasks, habits, focus sessions, XP, streaks and drops are shared between your Mac and your iPhone, and reach your Apple Watch through the iPhone.

Apple also delivers silent background notifications to your device to let it know when something has changed and sync should run. These carry no content and are never shown to you.

Data held in iCloud is governed by Apple's privacy policy, not ours, and is protected by whatever iCloud protections you have enabled on your Apple Account.

What never leaves the device it was made on

Some things are deliberately kept out of sync, because they belong to where you are rather than to your account:

• Today's plan (coming in FocusDrop 1.8 and in FocusDrop for Mac) — the lineup you arranged on that device.
• Parked thoughts on the Mac, until you add them to your deck or let them go.
• Your chosen focus sound and its volume.
• Your Mac settings, such as the menu bar timer, the keyboard shortcut, the completion chime and the sync switch itself.

While a focus session or a break is running

So that your other devices can show a session you started somewhere else, FocusDrop writes a small record into your own iCloud database for the length of that focus session or break, including open sessions with no timer. It holds the device type, the task title and its ID, the session type and timers, a random identifier for that installation, and — from the Mac — your computer's name, the one macOS already shows on your network. During a break it holds no task title. Nothing reads that name back: the apps only ever display “on Mac” or “on iPhone”. The record is deleted when the session or break ends, when you quit, and is swept at the next launch.

Checking sync and turning it off on iPhone

A few practical things worth knowing:

• You can see what sync is doing. Open Profile → iCloud Sync in the app for its current state — syncing, up to date, offline, or needing attention.
• You can turn it off. Go to iOS Settings → [your name] → iCloud and turn iCloud off for FocusDrop. The app keeps working normally with everything stored only on that device.
• Deleting the app does not delete the iCloud copy. This is the part people are most often surprised by. To remove the synced data as well, go to Settings → [your name] → iCloud → Manage Account Storage and delete FocusDrop's data there.

Turning sync off on the Mac

FocusDrop for Mac is coming soon; this is how it will work. The Mac app has its own switch, which the iPhone does not: open Settings from the drop in the menu bar, then Sync → Sync with iPhone & Apple Watch (iCloud). The change takes effect after FocusDrop restarts. With sync off, your data stays on that Mac; the copy already in your iCloud stays there until you remove it as described above.

No accounts, no logins

You don't need to sign up, log in, or give us an email address to use FocusDrop. There's no profile, no password, and no identity tied to the app on our side. Sync uses the Apple Account that's already on your device — you never create a credential for us.

No tracking, no analytics, no ads

FocusDrop contains no analytics SDKs, no crash reporters, no advertising, and no third-party tracking software. We do not build a profile of you, and we do not track you across other apps or websites. The App Tracking Transparency prompt isn't even relevant here — there's simply nothing to track.

Your calendar

If you grant calendar access, FocusDrop reads your events on the device only, to show what your day already looks like. It never changes your calendar, never writes to it, and never sends your events anywhere. Decline the permission and the rest of the app works exactly as before.

FocusDrop for Mac is coming soon; this is how it will work. On the Mac, FocusDrop never asks at launch. The request comes only when you click Allow next to “Show today's calendar events” in the Today tab. It then reads from now until the end of today, keeps those events in memory, and stores nothing. You can change your mind in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Calendars.

The keyboard shortcut on the Mac

FocusDrop for Mac is coming soon; this is how it will work. Control-Option-F (⌃⌥F) is registered with macOS as one key combination, so FocusDrop only ever hears that combination. It does not read or record anything else you type, and it needs no Accessibility or Input Monitoring permission — which is the permission an app would need in order to see your keystrokes. You can turn it off in Settings → Mac. While the island at the top of your screen is open, FocusDrop also notices clicks outside it, only so that it can close; nothing about them is kept.

Notifications

FocusDrop's notifications are created and scheduled on your device; none are sent from a server. On iPhone, FocusDrop asks for permission only when you choose to turn notifications on: from the gentle-nudges card during onboarding, or the Notifications switch in Profile. It can then tell you when a focus session or a break ends, and send a morning nudge, an evening habit check and an evening streak reminder. The daily ones are held back while you're in a focus session.

Once it's released, FocusDrop for Mac asks the first time you start a focus session, never at launch, and sends at most three kinds: your session ending, your break ending, and a gentle suggestion to rest after two hours.

Declining simply means you don't get them.

The network connections FocusDrop makes

There are two, and neither one reaches a server we operate — because we don't operate any:

• Apple's App Store, via StoreKit, when you buy or restore FocusDrop Pro. This verifies your purchase and subscription status. It sends no personal data and no app content.
• Apple's CloudKit, for the iCloud sync described above, into your own private database.

On-device AI

FocusDrop's AI Task Breakdown splits a big task into smaller steps, and Co-Focus keeps you company through a focus session. AI Task Breakdown and Co-Focus's personalised coaching lines are generated by Apple Intelligence's on-device foundation model, on iPhones that support it. Co-Focus's built-in prompts are part of the app and need no AI.

That means the text these features work with is processed right on your iPhone. There's no cloud AI service, no API key and no external server involved: nothing you type is sent to an AI service or to the developer.

Settings stored on your device

FocusDrop stores your preferences in Apple's standard app-settings storage on the device. Per Apple's required-reason disclosures, our declared reasons are CA92.1 and, on iPhone, 1C8F.1 for the settings the app shares with its own widget — both meaning the app reads and writes only its own settings, and only on your device.

Children's privacy

FocusDrop is rated 4+ and is not directed at children. Because the app collects no data at all, it collects no data from children either.

Your rights and choices

Privacy laws like the GDPR and CCPA give you rights to access, export, correct, and delete your personal data. With FocusDrop, those rights are honored by design:

• Access & export: Because we hold nothing on any server, there's nothing for us to export to you — your data is already entirely in your hands, on your device and in your own iCloud account.
• Deletion: There's nothing for us to delete remotely, because we never hold it. Deleting the app removes what's on that device — but if iCloud sync was on, it does not remove the copy in your iCloud. To delete that too, go to Settings → [your name] → iCloud → Manage Account Storage and delete FocusDrop's data.
• Subscriptions: Purchase records are held by Apple. You can manage them on your iPhone in Settings → [your name] → Subscriptions, or on a Mac in the App Store: click your name at the bottom of the sidebar, click your name again, then click Subscriptions.

About this website

The points above describe the FocusDrop apps for iPhone and Apple Watch (and FocusDrop for Mac, once it's released), which collect nothing. This marketing website (focusdrop.app) uses Simple Analytics — a privacy-first, cookieless analytics service that helps us understand aggregate visits (like page views and referrers, and clicks on outbound links, email links and downloads) without cookies, without cross-site tracking, and without collecting any personal data. Data is aggregated and anonymous, and is processed in the EU.

The site's font, Nunito, is loaded from Google Fonts, so your browser connects to Google's servers to fetch it, and Google receives your IP address with that request. The free focus timer remembers the mode, length and sound you picked in your browser's local storage, which never leaves your browser. The site sets no cookies, so there's no cookie banner.

Changes to this policy

If FocusDrop ever changes how it handles data, we'll update this page and revise the "Last updated" date above. Any future changes will be reflected here before they take effect in the app.

Contact

Questions about privacy? You can reach the founder directly at kirylapps@gmail.com. For step-by-step help with deleting your data, iCloud sync or a subscription, see FocusDrop support.

See also our Terms of Use.