Privacy.

What the app records, and never sends

TimeWell records which app or website is in front of you and for how long, how often you return to your PC, and how many notifications each app sends. All of it is written to a single database file inside your own Windows user folder and read by the app on the same computer.

• None of this is uploaded, to us or to anyone else. There is no server that could receive it.
• For websites, the address in the browser's address bar is read and only the domain is kept, never the page or anything you type. Website activity in Settings turns this off.
• Notifications are counted, once you allow it in Windows. TimeWell takes only which app sent each one and when. Their contents are never read or stored.
• To show each website's icon, TimeWell looks in the icon caches your browsers already keep on your PC (the Favicons file of Chrome, Edge and the other Chromium browsers, and Firefox's favicons.sqlite). It opens them read-only and never changes them, looks up only the sites it has already recorded, and keeps just the icon. Nothing is downloaded.
• You choose how long history is kept, and Settings can delete every last row of it. Nothing is deleted because a trial ended; TimeWell Free shows today and the 7 days before, and Pro shows the rest again.
• Export to CSV, free in every plan, writes your activity to a folder on your PC. It sends nothing anywhere.

What the app sends over the internet

Only what the trial, selling and unlocking need, and this is every request it makes. None of them carry your screen time, app names or websites.

• Once, to register the trial. The first time TimeWell can reach our server (it tries again later if that fails), it sends three things: machine_id, a one-way hash of the ID Windows gives your PC; device_id, a one-way hash of that ID and your Windows user name, the same device identifier the licence check uses; and the platform, “windows”. Neither hash can be turned back into what it was made from. The server keeps them with the date your 7-day trial began and the last time the PC checked in, so reinstalling resumes the trial instead of starting it again. So that one network can't register endless trials, it also counts new PCs per network address for the day, under a keyed hash of the address that is kept only for that day. Because the licence check later sends the same device_id, the trial can be matched to your account if you sign in. Offline, the app decides on its own and never waits for this.
• The price on offer. The app asks which step of Pro's price is selling, to show it. The request carries nothing about you.
• Signing in, when you choose to. Your browser opens our sign-in page; the app then exchanges the one-time code it gets back for a sign-in token with Clerk, our sign-in provider, and renews that token from time to time. These requests carry only that code or token.
• The licence check, once you sign in. The app asks our licence service whether your account owns Pro, and gets back a signed note saying this PC may run for the next two weeks. That request carries your sign-in token, your device identifier, your computer's name and the platform.
• Signing a PC out from the app, this one or another: that PC's device identifier, with your sign-in token, so its slot is freed.
• When you choose to buy Pro in the app, the request that opens the checkout, with your sign-in token, your device identifier and which part of the app you pressed it in. The device identifier and that part of the app go into the payment record.
• Your gift code, for Pro owners, when Settings or the gift card is shown: the request that fetches the code and what it has earned, with your sign-in token.

What we hold, because you bought Pro or signed in

Buying and unlocking need an identity, so these are held for as long as your licence exists (see How long it's kept, below):

• Your email address: the one you gave at checkout, which is what your licence is matched against, and, once you sign in, your account with Clerk, our sign-in provider. You sign in with a code we email you or with your Google account, never a password. If you choose Google, it shares your name, email address and profile picture with Clerk.
• Your payment record, held by Dodo Payments, our merchant of record: the payment identifier, the amount and the billing details you gave them. We never see or store your card. With it, the checkout records where your first visit to this site came from (one word, see Cookies) and the gift code you used, if any, so we can tell which places bring buyers and honour the gift. A purchase made in the app records your device identifier and which part of the app you bought from.
• Your devices: for each PC you sign in on, a name (your computer's name), the platform, and the device identifier: a one-way hash of the ID Windows gives that PC and your Windows user name, which can't be turned back into either. It exists so the 2-PC limit can be enforced and so you can sign a PC out.
• When each PC last checked in. Nothing about what you did on it.
• Your gift code, if you own Pro, and how many purchases used it, so your reward can be paid. You are never shown a friend's name or email.
• Where you heard about TimeWell, if you answer the optional question after buying: the answer you tapped, and any few words you typed, kept with that payment.
• If you claim the post cashback: the email you send us, with the link to your post, the screenshot of its views and your order ID, kept to check the claim and make the refund. Your post stays yours; we may reshare it, with credit, unless you tell us not to.

Who handles it

What we hold is used only to run the trial, sell and unlock Pro, pay gift rewards and cashback refunds, learn which places bring buyers, and answer you. We don't sell it, use it for advertising or give it to anyone beyond the services TimeWell runs on. Each of these handles only what its own job needs:

• Vercel hosts this website. Like any host, it sees your network address in order to deliver each page, and tells the site which country the address belongs to (see Cookies).
• Koyeb runs our licence service. The app's requests above go to it, and so do this site's, such as the price on offer, opening a checkout and your account page.
• MongoDB is the database service that stores the licence and trial records.
• Clerk runs signing in: your account, the codes it emails you and, if you choose it, the link to your Google account.
• Dodo Payments sells TimeWell Pro to you as merchant of record: it takes the payment, emails the receipt and makes refunds. Your payment is also covered by Dodo's own privacy policy.
• Email services: one sends the single email we send after a purchase, saying your licence is ready and how to sign in, and our mailbox provider holds the messages you send us.

Beyond these, we would disclose anything only if the law required it.

How it's kept safe

• Every request the app and this site make over the internet is encrypted with HTTPS (TLS).
• The app's sign-in tokens are sealed with Windows' own data protection (DPAPI) to your Windows user, so the file they are kept in is useless copied to another PC or another account.
• The licence check's answer is signed by our server and names your PC, so it can't be forged or carried to another PC.
• There is no password to leak: you sign in with an emailed code or with Google. Your card goes only to Dodo Payments, never to us.
• Your activity is an ordinary SQLite database file in your user folder, protected by your Windows sign-in like the rest of that folder. TimeWell doesn't encrypt it, so anyone who can sign in to Windows as you, or an administrator of the PC, could open it.
• Only the developer has access to the licence service and its records.

How long it's kept

• Your activity: on your PC, for as long as you set in Settings › Keep history for, from one month to two years. Older activity is removed automatically, and you can delete all of it whenever you like.
• Your licence record (your email, your PCs, your payments, your gift code and any answer about where you heard of TimeWell): for as long as your licence exists, which is until you ask us to delete it, because it is what unlocks Pro whenever you reinstall. A refunded licence's record is kept as the record of that refund.
• Trial records: with no end date, because their only job is to remember that a PC has had its trial. They hold the one-way hashes, the platform, the date the trial began and the last check-in, and nothing that names you.
• The daily count of new PCs per network address: deleted automatically once the day is over.
• Your sign-in account with Clerk: until you ask us to delete it.
• Payment records: Dodo Payments keeps them for as long as tax and accounting law requires.
• Emails you send us, cashback claims included: in our mailbox, as a record, until you ask us to delete them.

Cookies

Clerk runs only on the account pages (your account, signing in, and the page Google hands you back to), and sets the cookies it needs to keep you signed in there. Besides those, this site sets three small cookies of its own, none of which names a person:

• tw-country: the two-letter country code our hosting provider reports for your connection, kept for a week and used only to decide whether to show India's regional price.
• tw-src: where your first visit came from, as one word such as “reddit”, “google” or “direct”, never a web address. Kept for 90 days and sent only with a checkout. It is never set for visitors in the EEA, the UK or Switzerland (by the country above, or else the time zone), where it would need your consent first.
• tw-gift: the gift code from a friend's link, if you opened one. Kept for 30 days and sent only with a checkout.

There are no analytics scripts, no advertising and no tracking on this website; the checkout notes where your first visit came from (tw-src, above).

Your choices, and a copy of your data

• A copy of your activity: Settings › Export your data writes everything TimeWell has recorded on your PC as CSV files, in a dated TimeWell export folder in your Documents. It is free in every plan.
• A copy of what we hold: write to [email protected] from the email on your licence, and we will send you everything we hold under it. Your account page also lists your PCs.
• Turn Website activity off, or pause tracking, from Settings at any time, and take back notification access in Windows' privacy settings whenever you like.
• Delete your activity at any time, from Settings inside the app. It is your file.
• Sign a PC out from your account page, or from the app.
• Clear this site's cookies in your browser to forget the first visit and any gift code.
• Ask us to correct anything we hold, or to delete your account, your licence record and the trial records of your PCs, by writing to [email protected]. Note that deleting the licence record means it can no longer unlock Pro.
• We answer every request within a month. If you are unhappy with the answer, you can also complain to the data protection authority where you live.

The legal basis, in plain words

Data protection law, such as the GDPR in the EU and the UK, asks for a reason behind each use. These are ours:

• To give you what you bought. Your email, your sign-in, your PCs, the licence checks and the payment record exist to sell and unlock Pro: our contract with you.
• A legitimate interest, kept small. Registering the trial and the daily count per network address stop endless trials by reinstalling, using one-way hashes that name no one. The first-visit cookie tells us which places bring buyers, and is never set where it would need your consent.
• Your choice. Signing in with Google, answering where you heard of TimeWell and claiming the cashback are all optional: your consent, which you can withdraw at any time.
• The law. Payment records are kept because tax and accounting law requires it.

Your activity needs none of these: it never reaches us, so we never process it at all.

Where it's handled

TimeWell is run from India, and the services above keep their servers in several countries, the United States among them, so what we hold may be stored or handled outside the country you live in. Where your country's law asks for safeguards when data leaves it, as the EU's and the UK's do, we rely on the ones those services commit to in their data processing terms, such as the European Commission's standard contractual clauses. Your activity stays on your PC, so none of this applies to it.

Children

TimeWell is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly hold data about them.

Changes

If this policy changes, the date at the top changes with it. Material changes will be announced on this site before they take effect.

Who to write to

TimeWell is made and run by an individual developer in India. Questions, requests and complaints all go to the same place: [email protected].