Privacy

Stayaway simulates activity on your computer. It does not watch you doing it.

Last updated 25 September 2026.

Every time the app contacts us, and what it sends

This is the complete list. If you inspect the app’s network traffic you will find these and nothing else. Outside these moments the app does not contact us at all. It runs, and checks your licence, entirely on your computer.

When you sign in

Your email address, the six-digit code from the email, the machine ID your operating system assigns to this computer, this computer's name, whether it is Windows or macOS, and whether you ticked "keep me signed in"

The computer's name is what your device list shows, so you can tell your machines apart when you deactivate one. It is whatever Windows calls this PC: often something like DESKTOP-4K2M9QX, sometimes your own name.

When your licence is issued or renewed

This computer's machine ID and your sign-in session

To check what your account is entitled to and send back a signed licence the app then verifies on its own, offline. While you are signed in this happens by itself every few days, a little before the licence would expire (at most once an hour if it cannot connect), and when you press Repair licence.

When you sign out

This computer's machine ID and your sign-in session

So the session stops working on the server too, not only on this machine, and the computer stops counting against your plan.

When Stayaway checks for updates

Whether it is Windows or macOS, the processor type, and the version you have installed

To answer whether there is a newer build for your machine. It checks once a day by itself, and whenever you press Check for updates. If there is one, it tells you with a notification; installing is always your choice.

Once a day, for messages from Stayaway

Nothing that identifies you or this computer: the request is the same from every copy of Stayaway

To fetch any news we have, such as a new version or a change you should know about. It is asked for once a day, in the 11 o'clock hour, only while you are at the computer. Which messages you then see, and how often, is decided on your computer. You can turn them off in Settings, under Notifications and data.

Usage data, unless you turn it off

Which event happened: Stayaway started or stopped, and whether the last session crashed; signing in worked or failed, with the error code; or a message was shown, opened or closed, with its id, where it appeared and its link. Each event carries this computer's machine ID, whether it is Windows or macOS, and the version of Stayaway.

So we can see whether Stayaway starts and signs in reliably, and whether messages are wanted. It is sent at most every fifteen minutes and when Stayaway quits, and a batch that fails is dropped, not retried. It never carries your account or email, and nothing you do on your computer. It is on unless you turn it off in Settings, under Notifications and data; turning it off also drops anything not yet sent.

On every one of the above

The version of Stayaway you are running

So a server change can tell an old build from a new one rather than breaking it.

What it never sends

  • Mouse coordinates, movement paths, or clicks
  • Keystrokes, or which keys were pressed
  • Window titles, the names of apps you run, URLs, or anything on your screen
  • Screenshots: Stayaway never captures your screen
  • Your location, contacts, or files
  • Your settings, including which time tracker you selected during setup
  • Your account or email address with usage data. Usage data is tied to this computer, never to you

On macOS, Stayaway asks for the Screen Recording permission. It uses it only to read which application is focused, so Screen Rotation knows whether it is looking at a browser. It never reads pixels and never captures the screen. That permission is named badly by the operating system, not by us, and we would rather explain it than let you wonder.

Report a problem

The app’s Report a problem button writes a short file on your own computer and shows you exactly what is in it before you do anything with it: things like the app version, your operating system, your plan, whether a run was going and any error the app is showing. It sends nothing. It reaches us only if you attach it to an email yourself.

The website

Signing in on stayaway.app sends your email address and the code, and keeps you signed in with a cookie. To stop sign-in codes being requested in bulk, we keep a one-way fingerprint of the network address that asked. It is enough to recognise the same address asking again, and not enough to recover it. The address itself is not stored.

If you join the waitlist, we keep your email address and when you joined, and nothing else. It is used for one email, on the day downloads open, and the list is deleted after that email goes out. Joining the waitlist does not create an account or sign you up for anything else. To be taken off it sooner, write to hello@stayaway.app.

Counting visits to this site

We count page views on stayaway.app with Vercel Web Analytics, the analytics built into the service that hosts the site. It sets no cookies and stores nothing on your device. For each page view it records the page, the site that linked you here, your country and region, and your browser, operating system and type of device. To tell one visit from the next it uses a one-way fingerprint of the request, which is discarded after 24 hours, so it cannot follow you from one day to the next or across other sites.

We send it less than it could record: no query strings, and nothing at all from the sign-in page, your account page, the page shown after an account is deleted, unsubscribe links or our internal admin pages. The one query we keep is a ref naming where a link came from, and only when it is one of a fixed list of places we post links (alternativeto, saashub, slant, producthunt, softpedia, majorgeeks, filehorse, uptodown, reddit, youtube); any other value is dropped.

When you click the download button we also send one event, “Download”, with the version of the installer and nothing else, because the file comes from our release page on GitHub and the click would otherwise not be counted. The desktop app's usage data is a different thing, and is listed above with the rest of what it sends.

Emails we send

Email goes out through Resend, which receives your address and the message to deliver it. These are all of them:

  • Sign-in code: each time you ask for one.
  • Welcome: once, when your account is created.
  • Pro is active: when a purchase goes through.
  • Payment failed: when a subscription payment fails, at most once per billing period.
  • Subscription cancelled: when you cancel.
  • Pro ended: when a subscription runs out.
  • Refund processed: when we refund a purchase.
  • Trial ending: once, up to two days before your trial ends, unless you have bought or turned reminders off. Every one has an unsubscribe link.
  • Product news: only if you ask for it. Every one has an unsubscribe link.

What we keep

Your account (your email address and your trial and plan dates), one record per computer you have signed in on (its machine ID, its name and whether it is active), and your sign-in sessions until they expire or you sign out. Also your email preferences, and a note of which account emails we have sent you and when (not what they said), so the same one is never sent twice. The people who run Stayaway can see these records through an internal page, to answer support questions; every change made there is logged. Payment details are held by our merchant of record, not by us. Stayaway never sees your card.

Your data, and asking about it

You can delete your account and its data yourself, under Delete your account on your account page. You can also ask for a copy of what is held about you, ask for it to be corrected, or ask us to do the deleting. Email hello@stayaway.app and we will answer.