FocusText Privacy Policy

Last updated 17 October 2026

FocusText is made by Ben Dansby. This policy covers the Mac app.

The short version

FocusText reads and writes the text you’re editing, on your Mac, and nowhere else. It has no analytics, no telemetry, no account and no identifier. What you type never leaves your Mac.

What FocusText reads

To open a larger editor beside a field and put your text back afterwards, FocusText uses macOS Accessibility to read the field you’re typing in: its text (or, in a long document, the paragraph you’re in), your selection, its position on screen and its font size. It reads a field only when it’s about to open the loupe or write your text back.

Password fields are never read. FocusText skips them entirely.
Drafts stay in memory. The text in the loupe, and a draft kept for Reopen Last Draft or for when you switch apps, lives only in memory while FocusText runs. It isn’t saved to disk and is gone when you quit.
Your clipboard is borrowed, not kept. When an app won’t accept text any other way, FocusText pastes it: it puts your text on the clipboard for a moment, presses ⌘V, then restores what was there. That brief item is marked as temporary so clipboard managers skip it.

What stays on your Mac

Your settings: when the loupe opens, its size, the apps it stays out of, and your shortcuts. These live in your local preferences and are never transmitted.

When FocusText uses the network

Only for these, and neither carries anything you’ve typed:

Update checks. FocusText asks bendansby.com for its update feed. That request carries your app version and macOS version, which is what any updater needs to answer the question.
Licensing. If you buy a license, activating it sends your license key to Lemon Squeezy, who handle the purchase and validation. Their handling is covered by the Lemon Squeezy privacy policy. FocusText stores the resulting receipt locally and rechecks it occasionally. If you never buy a license, this never happens.

Permissions

FocusText needs Accessibility access, which macOS asks you to grant in System Settings. It’s what lets FocusText see which field you’re typing in, read its text and write your edit back. It also watches for the first key you press in a field, so it can open the loupe and carry that keystroke into it. It requests no other permissions: no screen recording, files, contacts, camera or microphone.

Children

FocusText is a writing utility. It is not directed at children and collects nothing from anyone.

Changes

If this policy ever changes, the updated version will appear on this page with a new date.

Contact

Questions about privacy, or anything else: ben.dansby@gmail.com.