Privacy policy
Effective October 14 2026
Yomi Focus is a browser extension that saves off-topic searches for later during a focus session you start. This policy explains what it handles and why. The short version: matching happens in your browser first, an account is optional, and your data is never sold.
What Yomi Focus handles
| Data | Where it lives | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Your focus area (for example, “Civil War history paper”) | Your browser. If you sign in, also your account. | To decide which searches fit your session. |
| Search queries you make on Google, Bing or DuckDuckGo during an active session | Checked in your browser. Saved searches are stored in your browser, and in your account if sync is on. | To show related searches and save unrelated ones to your queue. |
| Websites you open during an active session | Checked in your browser against a list of common detours (video, games, social, shopping, AI chat) and your family's or school's word lists and allowed sites. An address you type yourself is checked like a search: if it's unclear, only the site's name and the words in its address (for example "wikipedia plant cell") are sent for the same one-time relevance check as a search, and not stored. Links you click and full browsing history are never sent. Only a site that's saved for later is kept, by name, in your queue. | To save detours for later, the same way as searches. With Check sites before they open on, Yomi Focus also reads the title of a video page you open from an on-topic search, in your browser, so that video can play and an unrelated next video is saved for later. A title is sent for the relevance check only when it's unclear. |
| Badges and your weekly goal (focused minutes per day, topics you focused on) | Stored only in your browser. Never sent to our server, your parents, your teachers or your school. | To show your progress. You can turn badges off in Settings. |
| Ambiguous queries (only when signed in) | Sent to our server and to Anthropic's API for a one-time relevance check, with your focus and recent searches. When a search is still unclear, Yomi Focus reads the titles and short descriptions of its top results on the page and may send those too, so the check can see what the search is really about. If your teacher or parent added details to the assignment (a description, themes, suggested sites), or you explained how a search connects to your work, those go with it as well. What Yomi Focus keeps is described in the next row. | To avoid interrupting you when a search is actually related. |
| How each search was checked (only when signed in) | Our server, for 180 days, readable only by the Yomi Focus team (not by you, parents, teachers or schools). For everyone: whether the search was let through or saved for later, which check decided, how sure it was, and your answer to the dialog. For adults on their own sessions with Help improve matching on (Settings): also the focus and the search text, or the name of a site you typed in. Never the text for children, teens or class sessions (in this record; see the review log below). Never your notes, the pages you read, or links you click. | To find where Yomi Focus gets things wrong (a related search saved for later, or a detour let through) and improve it. Turn off Help improve matching in Settings any time. |
| Hard calls, for people to review | When a search is unclear and Yomi Focus decides from its results (the “middle band”), the focus, the search, the titles of its top results and the decision may be reviewed by people, without any name, email or account (the day is kept, not the time). Adults: only with Help improve matching on. Children and teens in a family: only after a parent says yes (asked in the family's Requests the first time it comes up; changeable in Family settings). In class: the class's teacher and the school's matching specialists see their own school's hard calls, never which student, and nobody outside the school does. Kept 180 days. | A reviewer's call becomes an example the relevance check consults for similar searches (a school's examples only for that school), and repeated mistakes can become rules every extension uses. Examples keep only the focus, the search, result titles and the right answer. |
| Searches, for the Yomi Focus team to review (only when signed in) | Our server, in a log that has no name, email, account, session or time of day (only the day), kept 180 days. Each entry holds the focus, the search, the score, the decision, which check decided and, for hard calls, the titles of the top results. Adults on their own: with Help improve matching on, as typed. Children and teens in a family: only after a parent says yes, and class sessions: only if the school's admin confirms its agreement with Yomi Focus allows it; in both cases names, emails, links, phone numbers, long numbers and street addresses are removed first, in your browser and again on our server. Otherwise a child's or student's search is kept only once at least 5 different accounts have made the same search, so nobody can be picked out; until then only a one-way fingerprint is kept (it can't be turned back into the search or the account) and the text is discarded. Everyone's checks are also counted as numbers (score and decision), without text. | So people can check whether each decision was right; their answers teach the relevance check, the same way as hard calls. Parents can change their answer in Family settings, and school admins in School settings. |
| Your companion, focus run, mystery cards and color themes | Stored only in your browser, like badges. Never sent to our server, parents, teachers or schools. | To celebrate finished sessions. A mystery card can hold a fun fact about your focus topic: then the topic (only) is sent for a one-time AI request, and not stored. Turn celebrations off in Settings any time. |
| Finished sessions, for your family (family members only) | Our server, 30 days. Parents and helpers in your family see how many minutes you focused, and the homework topic for homework they set (a session you started yourself shows minutes only). Only you see the high-fives they send back. | So your family can cheer you on. Turn off “Tell my family when I finish” in Settings. |
| Your class's focus today (class sessions) | Counted from the class's sessions: total minutes and how many students focused. Shown to the class's students and school staff, with no names and no ranking. | A team win when class ends. |
| Fundraising (donation codes) | Our server. If you enter a donation code, we keep which fundraiser you chose and when, so 20% of what you pay goes to it for a year. The fundraiser sees only how many people use their code and the amounts raised, never who you are. If you run a fundraiser, we keep its page, its code, and where to send payouts (a payee name, mailing address and email, and an optional tax ID), seen only by you and the Yomi Focus team. | To give part of your subscription to the school group you chose, and to pay them. |
| Your answers to the “saved for later” dialog | Your browser. If signed in, your account, without the search text. | To measure and improve how often Yomi Focus interrupts correctly. |
| Notes you save (highlighted text and your comments) and sources (page titles, links and citation details) | Your browser only. They are not sent to our servers in this version. | To build your notes, citations and bibliography. |
| Projects (adults): names, why they matter, steps, parked ideas, and time put in. Homework you add yourself after turning on “I’m a student”. | Your browser. If you sign in, also your account, so they're the same on each of your computers. Only you can see them: not parents, helpers, teachers or your school. | To help you work through your projects and homework one step at a time. |
| Email address (only if you sign in) | Your account. | To sign you in with a one-time code and sync your queue. |
Yomi Focus reads search results pages during a session. It reads another page only when you ask it to: when you right-click and choose a Yomi Focus menu item on that page, or click “Look up details” for a saved source (Chrome asks your permission for that site first). On Google's home and search pages it also adds a Focus button next to your account picture (you can hide it in Settings); the button reads only the search in the page address, to use as your focus when you turn focus on. It does not check searches when no session is running or a session is paused, and does not use advertising or tracking cookies.
Service providers
- Supabase hosts accounts and synced data.
- Stripe processes payments for paid plans, on Stripe's own pages. Yomi Focus never sees or stores card numbers; it keeps only whether a plan is active, how many people it covers, and when it renews.
- Resend delivers invitation emails when a parent or school admin invites someone. It receives the recipient's email address and the invitation text only.
- Google handles sign-in when a student or teacher chooses “Sign in with Google.” Yomi Focus uses only the email address.
- Anthropic processes the focus area and ambiguous queries to build your Focus Graph and run relevance checks, under its commercial API terms.
We do not sell or share your data for advertising, and we do not use it for anything other than Yomi Focus's single purpose.
Your choices
- Use Yomi Focus without an account. Everything then stays in your browser.
- Turn off queue sync in Settings.
- Export or delete everything stored in your browser from Settings → Your data.
- To delete your account and all synced data, email [CONTACT EMAIL]. We delete it within 30 days.
School mode
Schools can turn on School mode for student Chromebooks they manage. It runs only on devices where the school's Google Admin policy turns it on, never on personal devices. In School mode:
- The school provides a class roster (names, school email addresses, classes and periods) and bell schedules. Teachers set each class's daily topic.
- During class, Yomi Focus focuses on that class's topic. Students sign in with their school Google account or an emailed code.
- A teacher can let a search through or pause Yomi Focus for the rest of the period, with their PIN or by approving a request. The school keeps a log of these overrides: who, for which student, which class, when, and how. The log never contains the search itself.
- If a student sends a request, the teacher sees the search the request is about, so they can decide. That text is erased as soon as the request is answered or expires (10 minutes).
- Teachers and school admins see class-level totals (for example, focus minutes per class). They cannot see a student's searches, saved queue or notes.
- The school decides how long the override log is kept (365 days by default) and can delete a student's School mode records at any time. Schools sign a student data privacy agreement with us; we act on the school's behalf under FERPA, and the school provides consent for students under 13 as COPPA allows.
Family mode
Families and other non-school groups can use Family mode. A parent creates the family and invites people by email. Nothing about a person is shared until they accept the invitation, and the invitation shows exactly what will be shared first.
- Parents set homework routines, assignments and rewards. During homework time, Yomi Focus focuses on the next assignment.
- Parents and helpers see focused time, sessions, homework progress, requests (including the search a request is about, erased once answered), PIN overrides, earned breaks, and whether Yomi Focus is running during homework time.
- They do not see browsing history, notes or sources. They see a member's saved-for-later searches only if that member shares them; for children under 13, the parents decide. Helpers never see saved searches.
- If a member connects Google Classroom, Yomi Focus reads their own classes, assignments, whether they turned each one in, and their classes' announcements (read-only), about every hour and when homework time starts, until they disconnect. Only the assignments on their Homework list are kept, and recent announcements are kept on their computer only (never on our servers); the Google access is held in memory and forgotten when the browser closes, the member disconnects, or signs out. Parents see when Classroom last synced.
- Removing someone from a family deletes their routines, homework, requests and activity. Requests are deleted after 30 days and the activity log after 400 days.
Children
On their own, Yomi Focus is intended for users 13 and older. Children under 13 use it only through School mode, under their school's agreement and consent, or through Family mode, where a parent sets up the family and the child joins it.
Changes
If this policy changes, we'll update the date above and describe material changes on this page.