Privacy

Your focus is not our data.

sift’s Mac blocker makes enforcement decisions on your Mac. While a lockdown is active, it may read open browser-tab URLs solely to replace blocked pages with the sift screen. Those URLs are not stored, logged, or transmitted.

Local data

Your blocklists, reminder, theme, and active-session state are stored locally on your devices. iPhone app selections use Apple’s Screen Time framework and remain on the iPhone.

Your Alca account

An Alca account stores the email address and profile information needed to sign you in, and which products you are subscribed to. It is shared across Alca products so one login works for all of them. An Alca account is optional for Apple purchases. When you connect devices, selected website domains, session timing and Pomodoro schedules are sent to our service so those devices can share a session. Selected iPhone apps remain local.

Mobile updates

If you sign up for mobile updates, we store your email address and signup date to send you news about sift for mobile. This does not create an account or start a subscription. We also briefly retain a hashed network identifier to limit automated signups. To leave the list or request deletion, contact us through the support page.

Payments

Payments are processed by Stripe, which acts as our payment processor. When you subscribe, Stripe receives your email address and the card details you enter directly into their checkout page. We never see or store your full card number. From Stripe we keep customer and subscription references, subscription status, payment-event timing, and the current period end. Apple handles purchases made in the iPhone app. We verify Apple transaction and original-purchase identifiers, product, purchase environment, subscription status and expiry with Apple. A random purchase token and a protected purchase key let an Apple subscription connect devices without an Alca login. When a purchase key is unavailable, recovery sends Apple’s signed app-download record and a device-verification identifier to verify the same Apple account’s purchase. We do not persist that device-verification identifier. The key stays in Apple Keychain on your device, can travel with a device backup, and can sync through iCloud Keychain when enabled; our service stores its hash. We do not receive your Apple password or card details. We do not sell personal data.

Licensing

Your Mac app holds a short-lived license key that it renews automatically. A renewal sends that key and a random identifier for this installation of sift, so that one subscription cannot be used on an unlimited number of Macs. That identifier is generated by the app itself and is not derived from your hardware — it is not a serial number, and is associated with your Alca account or an Apple-purchase access group so you can manage your installations. We store its first and last use and whether you revoked it. A renewal carries no browsing data, no blocklist, and no session history. The app also checks for signed updates and downloads them through Sparkle. These requests disclose your IP address to the hosting service. Connected devices can be managed in the app; Alca account devices can also be managed through the dashboard. Disconnecting is restricted while a shared focus session is active.

Local services

sift runs local HTTP services on your Mac to display its blocked page and provide browser integration. They accept connections only from your Mac. Enforcement diagnostics contain operational errors, not a browsing history.

Feedback and optional device sync

If you send feedback, we store your message, any contact address you provide, the page path, browser information, and your account identifier if signed in. Messages are used for support. Abuse protection stores a hashed request identifier and short-lived request counters. When you connect devices, we store installation identifiers, device names, pairing approvals, recent-contact timestamps, selected blocked domains, session times and Pomodoro schedules, tamper reports and push tokens. A device can operate on its own while its peer is offline. Apple-only connections belong to a purchase access group rather than an Alca login.

Retention and deletion

Local preferences and session records remain on your device until replaced, reset or removed. Server connection and session records remain until replaced or deleted; they are not automatically erased when the timer ends. Disconnecting revokes that installation’s access and push registration; it does not cancel a subscription or delete every associated server record. You can request account or Apple-purchase-group data deletion through support. Deleting an Alca login applies across Alca products. If web billing or checkout records exist, in-app deletion stops and preserves the account until support reconciles billing, so you keep access to subscription management. Cancel Apple subscriptions separately in Apple’s settings. Limited purchase ownership records are retained to prevent a deleted or refunded purchase from being claimed by someone else. Payment providers may retain their own billing records. Support can explain which records remain when processing a deletion request.

Analytics

The Mac app ships no analytics or advertising trackers at all. This website uses Vercel Web Analytics to count page views and interactions with trial, download, and save-link buttons — it is cookieless, sets no cross-site identifier, and does not build a profile of you. We use it to see whether people find the site useful, not who you are.

Questions

Read the setup and recovery guide on the support page, email erik@alcahq.com, or use the feedback form for account, billing or privacy questions. Public bug reports can also go to the GitHub tracker. Do not post passwords, private browsing history, or other sensitive information.

Last updated September 24, 2026.