Privacy Policy — Focus4Life
1. Data stored on your device
Everything you create or configure in Focus4Life is stored only in the app's local storage on your device (a local SQLite database, preferences and app files). This includes:
- tasks, projects and recurring-task settings,
- pomodoro/focus session history and statistics,
- app settings and timer presets,
- Zen Garden and puzzle progress,
- photos you choose for garden mosaics,
- focus-interruption logs (see section 3).
The app never transmits any of this to us or to anyone else. We never see it — we don't operate any server it could be sent to.
2. The only network activity: garden artwork
Focus4Life makes outbound network requests for exactly one purpose: fetching Zen
Garden artwork. When you open the Garden screen, the app automatically — at most once
every 7 days — downloads a small artwork catalog from GitHub
(raw.githubusercontent.com/ZinZinTech/focus4life-garden-assets) and then
the images it lists, which are served from the same place by default (catalog entries
may point to another content-delivery host operated for this catalog; every image is
verified against a checksum before use).
These requests carry no personal data, no account information and no device identifiers. As with any web request, the server (GitHub) sees your device's IP address — see GitHub's privacy statement. The fetch only happens when you open the Garden screen, and if you are offline or the download fails the app simply keeps working with its bundled artwork. The app makes no other network requests of any kind.
3. Focus Lock and Usage Access (Android)
Focus Lock can help you stay off distracting apps during a focus session. Its "block
distractions" feature is off by default and requires a double opt-in
from you: you must turn the switch on in the app's settings, and you must
grant Android's Usage Access permission
(PACKAGE_USAGE_STATS) on the system settings screen — the app can never
acquire it silently.
When enabled, Focus4Life uses Usage Access only to detect which app is in the foreground while a focus session is actively running, so it can remind you to return to your task and record the interruption in your local statistics. Interruption events are stored only on your device (briefly in a private app file, then in the app's local database), are never transmitted anywhere, and are used for no other purpose. You can revoke Usage Access at any time in Android's system settings; the app keeps working without it.
4. Photos
You can pick photos from your library to turn into garden mosaics. Selected images are copied into the app's private storage on your device and tracked only in the app's local database — the app contains no upload code of any kind. On iOS, photo-library access is the only system permission the app requests a usage description for, and it is used solely for this picking step.
5. Device backups
Like other apps' data, Focus4Life's local data (including photos you added and your local statistics) may be included in your device's operating-system backup — for example iCloud backup on iOS or Google backup on Android — if you have backups enabled. Those backups are performed and controlled by your device and your Apple/Google account, not by this app, and they are covered by Apple's and Google's privacy policies. The app itself never transmits your data.
6. Permissions the app declares
Android (you may see these on the Play Store listing):
| Notifications | Timer alerts and session reminders. |
|---|---|
| Exact alarms | Ring exactly when a focus or break interval ends. |
| Run at startup | Restore scheduled reminders after the device reboots. |
| Foreground service & wake lock | Keep the timer running reliably while the screen is off. |
| Vibration | Haptic feedback for timer events. |
| Do Not Disturb access | Optionally silence notifications during focus sessions. |
| Usage access | Optional Focus Lock distraction detection — see section 3. |
| Display over other apps | Show the gentle "return to focus" overlay when Focus Lock is on. |
| Internet / network state | Only used for the garden-artwork download — see section 2. |
Some additional entries appear in the app's technical manifest because of third-party
components it is built with, not because the app uses them:
QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES and REQUEST_DELETE_PACKAGES are declared
by the app-list plugin that powers Focus Lock's "choose apps to block" picker, and
Google push-notification (FCM/c2dm) receivers and services are bundled by
the iOS Live Activities plugin. The push-notification components are
present but never configured or used — no Google services are set up
in the app, so they cannot send or receive anything.
7. Deleting your data
Inside the app you can delete individual items: tasks can be deleted, projects can be archived or permanently deleted once empty, and photos you added can be removed (which also deletes the image files from the app's storage). The app currently offers no one-tap "erase everything" button, no data export, and no way to delete completed focus-session history from within the app.
To remove all of your data, uninstall Focus4Life (or clear its storage in your device settings). This permanently deletes the local database and all stored files — and because nothing is ever uploaded, no copy exists on any server. If you use OS backups (section 5), manage those through your Apple/Google account.
8. Children
Focus4Life is a general-audience productivity tool and is not directed at children under 13. The app collects no data from anyone, including children.
9. Your rights (GDPR)
ZinZinTech (KVK 42059149, Netherlands) is the data controller for this policy. Since no personal data leaves your device for our systems, there is essentially no processing by us to exercise rights against — but you can always contact us at phan.business.nl@gmail.com with any privacy question, and you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Dutch data protection authority, the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens.
10. Changes to this policy
If a future version of the app changes what data is handled (for example, an optional cloud-backup feature), we will update this policy before that version ships and adjust the dates at the top of this page.
11. Contact
ZinZinTech · KVK 42059149 · Netherlands
phan.business.nl@gmail.com