Privacy Policy
Last updated: November 1, 2026
1. Introduction
This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and protect your data when you use our Chrome Extension ("Focus Ex") and visit our website at focus-ex.com (the "Website"). By installing and using Focus Ex, you consent to this policy and the Terms and Conditions. Visiting the Website does not require you to accept analytics: analytics only run if you allow them (see sections 5.6 and 11).
We prioritize your privacy and are committed to transparency regarding how your data is handled to enhance your experience with Focus Ex.
Data Controller
The data controller responsible for your personal data is:
2. Definitions
- Account: A unique account created for you to access the Focus Ex Chrome Extension or parts of its features.
- Personal Data: Information that identifies or can identify you, such as your email address.
- Usage Data: Data collected automatically through the extension, such as interactions and session duration.
- Device: Any device capable of accessing the extension, including computers, mobile phones, and tablets.
- Service Provider: Third-party companies or individuals processing data on our behalf to enable Focus Ex's functionality.
- Processing: Activities involving the collection, storage, and analysis of data to improve Focus Ex.
3. Product Description
Focus Ex is a Chrome Extension designed to improve online reading through features like text customization (letter size, spacing, line height, paragraph width), skimming and deep reading modes with sentence-level navigation, hiding distracting UI elements, and AI-powered features including summarization, explanation, and content search (for subscribed users). The extension also provides auto-run functionality on preferred domains and RSS feed integration for article discovery.
4. Consent Management
By installing Focus Ex, you consent to the collection and processing of data as described in this Privacy Policy. You may withdraw consent at any time by uninstalling the extension or contacting us at focus-ex@vatszdesign.com.
5. Data Collection and Usage
5.1 Types of Data Collected
We may collect the following data to provide and improve Focus Ex:
- Personal Data: Email address, first name, and last name (only if provided voluntarily during account creation).
- Account Data: User ID, authentication tokens, and subscription status for authenticated users.
- Usage Data: Automatically collected information, such as user interactions, feature usage, session duration, and website domain names where the extension is used.
- Device Data: A unique device identifier (UUID) generated locally and browser type.
- Reading Analytics (Paid Users): Character count, word count, and paragraph count of transformed text.
- Preference Data: Text customization settings, auto-run domains, and RSS feed preferences.
- Feedback Data: Email address and feedback text when you submit feedback through the extension.
- AI Usage Data (Paid Users): Number of AI requests made per billing period.
5.2 Usage Data
Usage Data is collected to analyze how you interact with the extension and improve its features. Data collected includes:
- Interactions with the extension (e.g., toggling features, using text transformations, slider adjustments).
- Time spent using the extension and engagement metrics.
- Domain names of websites where the extension is used (e.g., "nytimes.com"). We do NOT collect full URLs, page titles, or article content.
- Feature-specific events (e.g., skimming mode, deep reading mode, AI feature usage).
For authenticated users, Usage Data may be associated with your user ID to provide personalized analytics and support.
5.3 Legal Basis for Processing (GDPR)
We process your personal data based on the following legal grounds:
- Consent: When you create an account, submit feedback, or enable optional features. You can withdraw consent at any time.
- Contract Performance: To provide the extension's features and fulfill subscription services you have purchased.
- Legitimate Interests: To improve the extension, analyze usage patterns, and ensure security. Our legitimate interests include product improvement and fraud prevention, balanced against your privacy rights.
Providing personal data is voluntary. You can use basic extension features without creating an account. However, certain features (AI-powered tools, reading analytics sync) require account creation and data processing.
5.4 Analytics Data Collection
The Focus Ex extension, the Focus Reader web app and the mobile app use Mixpanel for product analytics. It is opt-in: each app asks once, and until you answer "yes" nothing is sent to Mixpanel. If you sign up or sign in before answering, that one event is kept in your device's memory only (never saved to disk) and is sent if you answer "yes", or discarded if you answer "no". You can change your answer in the app's settings at any time. If you allow it, we collect:
- Feature Usage: Which reading features you use (e.g., Skimming, Deep Reading, Dark Mode).
- Domain Names: The website domain (e.g., "nytimes.com") where you use text transformation, distraction hiding, or article card features. This helps us optimize our algorithms for popular news and journal sites. We do NOT collect full URLs, page titles, or article content.
- Account Information: For logged-in users, your Focus Ex user ID is associated with usage data. Your email address and name are not sent to Mixpanel.
- Device Identifier: A randomly generated ID to understand usage patterns across sessions.
We use this data solely to improve Focus Ex. We do not sell your data or use it for advertising purposes.
5.5 Browser Permissions
Focus Ex requires the following browser permissions to function:
- Tabs: To track which tab is active and apply extension features per-tab.
- Storage: To save your preferences, settings, and authentication tokens locally.
- Active Tab: To access the currently active tab for text transformation features.
- Alarms: To schedule periodic tasks such as token refresh and subscription status checks.
- Bookmarks: To display your bookmarks on the new tab page when RSS feed feature is disabled.
- Search: To provide browser search functionality on the new tab page.
- Host Permissions (All URLs): To enable text transformation features on any website you visit.
5.6 Website Analytics (focus-ex.com and onboarding.focus-ex.com)
The Website uses Google Analytics 4 to understand how visitors find and use the page. It uses Google's Consent Mode. Until you press "Allow analytics" in the notice that appears on your first visit, and if you press "Decline", it runs in a restricted mode: it sets no cookies and stores no identifier on your device, but Google still receives the basic technical data of each page request (page address, referring site, browser, language and your IP address, which Google Analytics does not store) so that visits and clicks can be counted in aggregate. In this mode your visits cannot be linked together into one visitor's journey. If you allow it, we collect:
- Visit data: Pages viewed, how you arrived (referring site or search), approximate location (country and city, derived from your IP address, which Google Analytics does not store), device type, browser, operating system and language.
- Interaction data: Which links and buttons you click (their visible label and destination, without query strings), how far you scroll, which sections of the page you view, how long you keep your pointer on or look at a card (used to estimate whether it was read), how you use the live demo, and which FAQ answers you open. On the extension's onboarding pages: which onboarding step you reach and whether you created an account (without your email address).
- Technical data: Page performance measurements (loading speed and responsiveness) and script errors on the page.
We do not collect your name or email address through Website analytics, and we do not read what you type. The Website analytics are not linked to any Focus Ex account. We use this data only to improve the Website and the product. We do not sell it and do not use it for advertising.
6. Data Storage and Security
Your data is processed securely. We use encryption and industry-standard security measures to protect your information. Access is restricted to authorized personnel only.
Third-Party Services
- Mixpanel: Used for product analytics to improve the extension. Only used if you allow analytics in the app. Data sent includes device ID, user ID (if authenticated), feature usage events, your plan (free, trial or Supporter), and website domain names (not full URLs, page titles, or article content) where the extension is used. We do not use Mixpanel for advertising purposes.
- Google Analytics 4 (Website only; cookies only with your consent): Used to measure how the Website is used, as described in section 5.6. Provided by Google; sets the cookies listed in section 11 only after you allow analytics, and otherwise runs in the restricted, cookie-free mode described there. We do not use Google Analytics for advertising and do not share this data with third parties.
- Firebase Authentication: Handles user account creation, login, and authentication securely.
- Firebase Firestore: Stores user preferences, authentication data, reading analytics, auto-run domains, feedback, and subscription information securely.
- OpenAI: Processes text for AI-powered features (summarization, explanation, and content search). Article text and user prompts are sent to OpenAI for processing. No data is stored or retained by OpenAI after processing.
- Stripe: Handles secure payment processing and subscription management. When you start a subscription, your email address and Focus Ex user ID are sent to Stripe to create your customer record; card and bank details are entered on Stripe's own pages and never reach Focus Ex. Stripe keeps your billing records as required by law; when you delete your account, we delete your Stripe customer record.
- Brevo (Sendinblue SAS, France): Sends the emails Focus Ex sends about your account, such as a reminder before your free trial ends, and manages the newsletter list if you sign up for it on the Website. For account emails we send only your email address and the text of the email; the newsletter list holds the email address you entered and your confirmation. Brevo processes this data in the EU.
- Google reCAPTCHA (Google Ireland Ltd.): Checks that a sign-up for the newsletter list on the Website comes from a person, not a bot. It loads only when you start filling in that form, and Google receives technical data about your browser and how you use the check.
International Data Transfers
Your data may be transferred to and processed in countries outside the European Economic Area (EEA), including the United States, where our third-party service providers (Mixpanel, Google Analytics, Firebase/Google, OpenAI, Stripe) operate. Brevo processes data in the EU. These transfers are protected by:
- Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) approved by the European Commission
- The service providers' compliance with applicable data protection frameworks
- Additional technical and organizational security measures
By using Focus Ex, you acknowledge and consent to the transfer of your data to these countries.
7. Data Retention
We retain anonymized data only as long as necessary for improvement and analysis purposes. Personal Data, if provided, is retained until you request deletion or withdraw consent. When you delete your account, the analytics events in Mixpanel stay, linked only to your Focus Ex user ID, which no longer points to you once your account and email address are deleted; we use them only in aggregate. Upon request, all data (including these events and anonymized data) will be deleted, unless required by law. Website analytics data in Google Analytics is kept for 14 months and then deleted automatically.
8. User Rights
Under GDPR and other applicable privacy laws, you have the following rights regarding your data:
- Right of Access: Request a copy of your personal data we hold.
- Right to Rectification: Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete data.
- Right to Erasure: Request deletion of your personal data ("right to be forgotten").
- Right to Restrict Processing: Request limitation of how we process your data.
- Right to Data Portability: Request your data in a structured, machine-readable format.
- Right to Object: Object to processing based on legitimate interests or for direct marketing.
- Right to Withdraw Consent: Withdraw consent at any time where processing is based on consent.
- Right to Lodge a Complaint: File a complaint with your local data protection authority (for EU residents, this includes the Hungarian National Authority for Data Protection and Freedom of Information - NAIH).
To exercise these rights, contact us at focus-ex@vatszdesign.com. We will respond to your request within 30 days.
9. Children's Privacy
Focus Ex is not intended for children under the age of 16 (or 13 in the United States). We do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has provided us with personal data, please contact us at focus-ex@vatszdesign.com, and we will delete such information.
10. Compliance with Privacy Laws
Focus Ex complies with global privacy regulations, including:
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): Provides rights to EU residents regarding their data, including access, rectification, erasure, and data portability.
- California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA): Offers California residents the right to know what personal information is collected, request deletion, and opt out of data sales. We do not sell your personal data.
- Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA): We do not knowingly collect data from children under 13.
11. Cookies and Similar Technologies (Cookie Policy)
11.1 The Chrome extension
Focus Ex does not use cookies directly. Only if you allow analytics, a locally generated device identifier (UUID) is stored in the extension's local storage for analytics purposes; the Focus Reader web app keeps Mixpanel's identifier in your browser's local storage on the same condition. If you answer "no", the identifier is deleted.
11.2 The Website (focus-ex.com and onboarding.focus-ex.com)
The Website sets no analytics cookies and stores no analytics identifier on your device until you allow analytics. Google's analytics script is loaded on every visit but, until you allow analytics, runs in a restricted mode (Google Consent Mode) in which it stores nothing on your device. The following are used:
- fx.analyticsConsent (your browser's local storage, kept until you clear it): remembers whether you allowed or declined analytics, so that we do not ask on every visit. Strictly necessary.
- _ga (cookie from Google Analytics, up to 2 years): distinguishes visitors. Only set if you allow analytics.
- _ga_2L13BMXH8B (cookie from Google Analytics, up to 2 years): keeps the state of your visit. Only set if you allow analytics.
Each of the two hosts asks on its own and keeps its own choice and cookies: allowing analytics on onboarding.focus-ex.com sets these cookies for that host only, not for focus-ex.com.
To change your choice, clear the data this website has stored in your browser (in Chrome: Settings, Privacy and security, Third-party cookies or Site settings, then delete the data for focus-ex.com and onboarding.focus-ex.com). The notice will then appear again on your next visit. To remove existing Google Analytics cookies, delete cookies for focus-ex.com. You can also use the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on.
12. Changes to this Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy periodically. Changes will be posted on this page with a new "Last updated" date. If significant changes are made, we will notify you via email or a prominent notice in the extension.
13. Contact
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or wish to exercise your data rights, contact us: