Privacy Policy for Respite for Chrome
Last updated:
Respite: Screen Time Control is the browser extension of Respite, for Chrome and other Chromium browsers. The iPhone app has its own policy.
Developer: MD Sadakat Hussain Fahad, publishing as Intently · Contact: support@liveintently.app
Respite is a browser extension that pauses you before the websites you choose and shows you how much time you spend on them. Everything it records stays in your browser, on your device, unless you sign in to sync it or choose to share anonymous usage statistics.
The short version
- You don’t need an account. Without one, nothing leaves your device except the usage statistics you can choose to share.
- Signing in, with Google or Apple, is optional. It syncs your goals, daily totals per site, journey progress and, if you join them, leagues and friends to our server. What syncs is listed below.
- Usage statistics are off until you switch on “Share anonymous usage statistics” (You → More settings).
- It records time only for the sites you add to it.
- You can export everything Respite has stored, or delete it all, and delete your account if you made one.
- Removing the extension deletes everything it stored.
What Respite stores, and where
All of this is kept in your browser’s extension storage on this device.
| What | Why |
|---|---|
| The sites you chose and the daily limit for each | To know where to pause and what your goals are |
| Sessions on those sites: start, end, and active time by hour | Today’s progress, streaks and the Stats page |
| How you responded to each pause (went back, continued, snoozed, how long you took, whether the timing was good) | To learn which kinds of pause help you, and when |
| Why a pause was shown or held back (a short log, kept 90 days) | So Respite’s timing can be explained and checked |
| Your answers to the optional ten questions | To choose which pauses to try first |
| Streaks, streak freezes and daily totals | Goals and progress |
| How many Shorts, Reels or TikTok videos you watched today, and the ids of the ones already counted (only if you switch that limit on; today’s only) | To hold you to the daily number you chose, counting each video once |
| Your first-week progress and which one-time notes you have already seen | So the quest and the celebrations on the Today page are shown once |
| Reminder settings, and which reminders were shown and when (kept 90 days) | To keep to three reminders a day and never show the same one twice |
| Your settings | Theme, pause length and so on |
Respite keeps sessions, daily totals and pause responses for 90 days, then deletes them. Your sites, limits, streaks and settings are kept until you remove the extension.
What Respite can see, and what it does with it
The address of the tab you are viewing. Respite needs it to tell whether you are on one of your sites. If you are not, nothing is recorded. To make “go back” work, Respite remembers the last few pages of each open tab in the browser’s memory; that list is never written to disk and is gone when the browser closes.
Whether you are at the computer. Respite asks the browser whether the device is idle or locked so that time away is not counted.
The pages of your chosen sites. Respite draws its pause, its lock and its Shorts/Reels block on top of those pages. It does not read what is on them, with one narrow exception: if you switch on the video limit for TikTok, a small script runs on TikTok and notes when another video starts playing (the video’s id, nothing else), because TikTok’s feed shows every video under one address. It runs on no other site and is removed when you switch that limit off.
Pages of a site you have locked. If you switch on locking for a site, then once its daily limit is used up the browser itself refuses to load that site’s pages until midnight, and Respite shows its own lock page instead. The rules that do this name only the sites you chose to lock, stay in your browser, and are removed when the lock ends. Respite does not use them to block ads, trackers or anything else.
Your browsing history, once, if you allow it. During setup you can let Respite estimate where your last seven days went. It asks the browser only about a fixed list of popular sites (YouTube, Instagram, Reddit and similar), counts visit times on this device, shows you the estimate, and then gives the permission back. The estimate is not saved. You can skip this step.
Account and sync (optional)
You don’t need an account. Without one, everything above stays in this browser and Respite talks to no server of ours.
If you sign in (You → Account and devices), Respite backs up your goals and keeps them the same on your phone and your other browsers.
Signing in. You can sign in with Google or with Apple, in a window from Google or Apple that Respite opens through the browser. We receive your email address (with Apple it can be a private relay address if you choose “Hide My Email”) and an account id from that provider, and your name and profile photo if the provider shares them. Respite never sees your password.
What syncs to our server while you are signed in:
- Your sites and their goals: each site’s address (for example
example.com), or the matching phone app’s id when Respite knows it, the daily limit, how it is held to it (pause, lock, Shorts/Reels limit), and your streaks. - Settings that are shared between your devices.
- A daily total for each of your sites for the last 14 days: minutes, number of visits, pauses shown and the longest visit. Not individual visits, not pages, and nothing about sites you haven’t added.
- This browser as a device on your account: a name (“Chrome on macOS” unless you rename it), the platform and when it last synced.
What comes back. Your goals from your other devices, and, if you have the sync subscription (bought in the phone app; there is no purchase in the extension), your other devices’ daily totals so you can see them together and, if you choose, count them toward your limits.
Journey. While you are signed in, the acorns you earn for days kept, quests, shop items, streak freezes and badges are kept on our server, so they are the same on every device. Respite sends the days you kept and the actions that earn or spend acorns.
Leagues and friends. These use a display name you choose. Respite may suggest one from your sign-in name, and nobody sees it until you save it. Other people in your weekly league, and friends you accept, see that name, your outfit, your streak, how many days you kept this week, your acorns this week and the time you saved. They never see your sites, your limits, your email or your devices. You can hide yourself from leagues at any time, and remove a friend or report a name. Friends are added only with a code you share.
Where it is kept. On our server, run on Cloudflare (Cloudflare, Inc.), reached over HTTPS. Google and Apple handle sign-in only. We don’t sell this data, use it for advertising, or share it with anyone else unless the law requires it.
Signing out (You → Account and devices, or Delete everything) leaves your synced data on the account so you can sign in again. Delete account (You → Account and devices) removes your account and everything synced to it, from every device. It doesn’t cancel a subscription; do that in the App Store or Google Play.
Usage statistics (off unless you switch them on)
Respite can send anonymous statistics about how it is used, to help improve it. This is off when you install Respite and stays off until you switch on “Share anonymous usage statistics” in You → More settings. On Firefox, the browser asks you as well. You can switch it off again at any time, here or in Firefox’s own add-on settings.
While it is off: nothing is collected for sending, nothing is sent, and no identifier exists. If you are not signed in either, Respite makes no network requests.
While it is on, Respite sends:
- What happened inside Respite, as counts and choices: a pause was shown, you went back or continued and how long that took, a lock or a Shorts/Reels block was shown, a goal was met or missed, a streak grew or ended, a setting was changed, which Respite page was opened, a reminder was shown or clicked.
- A summary of each day from the day you switched it on: minutes and sessions per tracked site, your limit, and how many pauses you had. Earlier days are never sent.
- A few broad facts about your setup, in buckets: how long you have had Respite, how many sites you track, light or heavy use and how often you kept to your limits over the last seven days, your most-used tracked site (named only if it is a well-known one), your streak, your pause mode, whether strict mode and reminders are on, and which permissions Respite has.
- A random id made when you switch statistics on. It is not linked to you, your Respite account, your browser account or anything else, and it is deleted when you switch statistics off. Switching them on again makes a new one.
How sites are named. A well-known site from Respite’s built-in list (YouTube, Instagram and similar) is named. Any other site, including every address you typed in yourself, is sent only as “other”. Its address never leaves your device.
Never sent: addresses of pages, page content, what you type, your answers to the ten questions, or your browsing on sites you have not added.
Where it goes. To Google Analytics (Google LLC), directly from your browser, over HTTPS, marked as not for ad personalisation. Google receives your IP address as part of any connection; Respite does not send it as data and does not use Google’s advertising features. Statistics are sent in small batches about a minute after they happen.
Switching it off sends one last message saying so, then deletes the id and anything not yet sent. What was already sent cannot be recalled from here; it carries only the random id, which no longer exists on your device.
The full list of events and their fields is in the extension’s source code.
What Respite does not do
- It does not send anything anywhere unless you sign in or switch on usage statistics.
- It does not record sites you have not added.
- It does not read page content, forms, passwords or messages.
- It does not sell data, show ads or build a profile of you.
Permissions
| Permission | Used for |
|---|---|
| Access to websites | Showing the pause on the sites you choose, whichever they are |
| Tabs, web navigation | Knowing which site the tab you are viewing is on |
| Scripting | Putting the pause, the lock or the Shorts/Reels block on the page; the video counter on TikTok when you switch its limit on |
| Block content on pages (declarativeNetRequestWithHostAccess) | Refusing to load a site you have locked once its daily limit is used up. Used for nothing else, and only on sites Respite already has access to |
| Idle | Not counting time when you are away |
| Alarms | Timekeeping while the browser is open, and the midnight rollover |
| Storage | Keeping your data on this device |
| Identity | Opening the Google or Apple sign-in window when you choose to sign in. Not used otherwise, and it gives Respite no access to your browser’s own Google account |
| History (optional) | The one-time seven-day estimate during setup |
| Notifications (optional) | Reminders, asked for only when you switch them on in Settings and handed back when you switch them off |
Your data: a copy, or gone
Export. You → More settings → Your data → Export saves everything Respite has stored in this browser as one file on your device (JSON, readable in any text editor). Nothing is uploaded. The file does not include the short in-memory list of recently open pages used for “go back”, which is never stored.
Delete. You → More settings → Your data → Delete everything removes your sites, limits, history, streaks, answers and settings from this browser, takes down anything Respite had set up because of them (locks, reminders, the video counter), hands back the optional permissions, and starts Respite over as if newly installed. If usage statistics were on, the random id and anything not yet sent are deleted without sending anything. If you are signed in, it signs this browser out; your synced data stays on your account until you delete the account. This cannot be undone.
Remove a single site on the Sites page to stop tracking it. Removing the extension from your browser also deletes everything Respite stored.
Children
Respite is not directed at children under 13. Without an account it collects no personal information from anyone.
Changes
If a later version changes what can leave your device, this policy will be updated first, and anything new will be off until you switch it on or sign in.
Contact
Questions or problems: support@liveintently.app