Everything stays on your computer

What Memoir records

To show where your browsing time goes, Memoir keeps these in your browser:

• Which website you’re on, and for how long. It keeps the site’s name (for example youtube.com), the time you spent there and the hours of the day it was in. It doesn’t keep the addresses of the pages you visit, unless you turn on Page titles. Tabs that aren’t websites are counted under a general name only: Memoir, New Tab, Browser pages, Extensions or Files.
• Page titles and their addresses, only if you turn on Page titles in Settings (it’s off unless you turn it on). They’re kept as long as the rest of your history, and deleted with it.
• Each site’s home address (for example https://www.youtube.com), so its icon and link work.
• Your settings: your daily limit and when it changed, your reminder day and time, categories you changed, sites you never track, and your Appearance choices (the theme, the Rainbow clock and the cursor).

To know when to stop counting, Memoir asks the browser whether your computer is active, idle or locked. It only learns that state, never what you type or click.

What Memoir never records: what you type or click, what’s on the pages, passwords, form entries, cookies or your location.

Time on sites on your Never track list counts only towards one combined Private total, with no site names, titles or addresses. If you let Memoir run in private (Incognito) windows, their time is counted the same way.

Where it’s kept

• On your computer only, in the browser’s storage for the extension. It isn’t synced to your Google account or your other devices.
• Memoir makes no network requests. Site icons come from the browser’s own icon cache, so the sites themselves aren’t contacted.
• Notifications (your daily limit, the weekly reminder) are made on your computer.

Linking with Memoir for Windows

Memoir can sync with Memoir for Windows on the same computer, so both show the same week. It’s off until you press Link in Settings, under Your data, and your browser asks your permission first.

• On this computer only. The two talk through your browser’s native messaging, which starts Memoir for Windows’ own program on your computer, and a named pipe that only your Windows account can open. Nothing goes online, and there’s no server in between.
• What goes across: your daily totals (each site’s and app’s time, hour by hour), with page titles and their addresses only if Page titles is on; your rules (Never track, Page titles, Keep history, the weekly reminder, your daily limit and its history, categories you changed, whether tracking is paused, and which limit warnings you’ve had today); each site’s home address; your Appearance choices; your Windows apps’ names, categories and icons, to the browser; the icons of the sites you visit, from the browser’s own icon cache, to Memoir for Windows; the newest version of Memoir for Windows the extension knows of; and a note when you use Clear all or erase saved page titles, so the other side does the same.
• The tab in front. While linked, Memoir tells Memoir for Windows which tab is in front, so both count the same time: its site, and its title, which the app keeps only if Page titles is on. A tab in a private window counts only as Private.
• Kept apart. Each side keeps the other’s days apart from its own, and shows the two merged, so the same minutes never count twice.
• More than one browser. If you link Memoir in several browsers or profiles, Memoir for Windows passes each one’s time on to the others.
• Unlinking, in either one’s Settings, stops it, and both keep what they have. While linked, Clear all on either side clears both.

How it’s used

Your data is used only to show you your own time: in the popup, the weekly report, the limit warnings and the weekly reminder, and in Memoir for Windows if you link the two.

It is never sold or shared. It is never used for advertising, and never used to decide creditworthiness or for lending. I never receive it.

Your choices

• Pause tracking at any time, with Track browsing in Settings.
• Never track particular sites.
• Choose how long to keep history: forever, 1 year, 6 months or 3 months. Older days are deleted automatically, page titles included.
• Link or unlink Memoir for Windows, in Settings under Your data. It’s off unless you link it.
• Export everything as a file, or import a file you exported earlier. The file goes wherever you save it; Memoir doesn’t upload it.
• Clear all deletes everything at once. Removing the extension deletes everything it keeps too; if it was linked, Memoir for Windows keeps its own copy until you clear it there.

Links and email

• Links in the report, to a site or a page, open only when you click them. Those sites’ own privacy policies then apply.
• The “bug report” link in Settings opens your own email app with a new message. Its subject is Memoir’s version number and nothing else is filled in. Nothing is sent until you send it yourself.

Updates

Memoir never downloads anything or updates itself. Installed from this website, a newer version comes from here when you choose to download it. From the Chrome Web Store, your browser checks for new versions and installs them itself, as it does for all your extensions, under Google’s privacy policy. Either way, none of your Memoir data is sent along, and your records and settings stay as they are.

Changes

If this policy changes, the new version will appear here with a new date. If Memoir ever needed to send any data off your computer, it would ask you first.

Contact

Mina Vian · [email protected]

What Memoir records

To show where your time goes, Memoir keeps these on your computer:

• Which app or website is in front, and for how long. It keeps the app’s name and icon (for example Word), or the website’s name (for example youtube.com), the time you spent there and the hours of the day it was in. A website’s name is read from your browser’s address bar, using Windows’ accessibility features. Memoir doesn’t keep the addresses of the pages you visit, or anything on them.
• Page and window titles, only if you turn on Page titles in Settings (it’s off unless you turn it on). They’re kept as long as the rest of your history, and deleted with it.
• Each site’s home address (for example https://www.youtube.com), so its link works.
• Your settings: your daily limit and when it changed, your reminder day and time, categories you changed, what you never track, and your Appearance choices (the theme, the Rainbow clock and the cursor).

To know when to stop counting, Memoir checks how long it’s been since you last used the mouse or keyboard, and whether the app in front is playing sound. It only learns those, never what you type or click.

What Memoir never records: what you type or click, what’s on your screen, passwords, form entries, cookies or your location.

Apps and websites on your Never track list count only towards one combined Private total, with no names, titles or addresses. With Memoir linked in your browser, private (Incognito) windows are counted the same way, if you let it run in them.

Where it’s kept

• On this computer only, in the Data folder next to Memoir (installed, that’s AppData\Local\Programs\Memoir\Data): your history, a backup copy of it, app icons, the icons of sites a linked browser passed on, and the window’s own settings. It isn’t synced to any account.
• Memoir makes no network requests. A website’s icon comes only from a browser you’ve linked, out of that browser’s own icon cache; without one, the site shows its first letter. The sites themselves are never contacted. Memoir’s window uses Microsoft Edge WebView2, part of Windows, with its background networking turned off; Windows keeps WebView2 up to date, under Microsoft’s privacy statement.
• Memoir in your browser, once linked, passes the tab in front to Memoir over a channel that only your Windows account can open. No local web server is opened.
• Notifications (your daily limit, the weekly reminder) are made on your computer.
• Installed with Memoir Setup, Memoir is in your account’s own programs folder (AppData\Local\Programs\Memoir) and in Windows’ list of installed apps. No administrator is needed, and no other account is touched.
• Outside its folder, Memoir writes only small settings for your Windows account, none of which holds your data: one entry in Windows’ startup list while Start with Windows is on, a shortcut in your Start menu so Windows Search finds it, and the registrations that let Memoir in your browsers reach it (a folder in AppData\Local\Memoir and a registry key for each browser).

Linking with Memoir in your browser

Memoir for Windows can sync with Memoir in your browser, on this computer, so both show the same week. It works in Chrome, Edge, Brave, Opera, Vivaldi, Arc and other browsers built on Chromium. It’s off until you press Link in Memoir’s Settings in that browser, under Your data. Each linked browser then has its own row in this app’s Settings.

• On this computer only. The two talk through your browser’s native messaging, which starts Memoir’s own program on your computer, and a named pipe that only your Windows account can open. Nothing goes online, and there’s no server in between.
• What goes across: your daily totals (each site’s and app’s time, hour by hour), with page titles and their addresses only if Page titles is on; your rules (Never track, Page titles, Keep history, the weekly reminder, your daily limit and its history, categories you changed, whether tracking is paused, and which limit warnings you’ve had today); each site’s home address; your Appearance choices; your Windows apps’ names, categories and icons, to the browser; the icons of the sites you visit, from the browser’s own icon cache, to Memoir for Windows; the newest version of Memoir for Windows the extension knows of; and a note when you use Clear all or erase saved page titles, so the other side does the same.
• The tab in front. While linked, Memoir in your browser tells this app which tab is in front, so both count the same time: its site, and its title, which this app keeps only if Page titles is on. A tab in a private window counts only as Private.
• Kept apart. Each side keeps the other’s days apart from its own, and shows the two merged, so the same minutes never count twice.
• More than one browser. If you link Memoir in several browsers or profiles, Memoir for Windows passes each one’s time on to the others.
• Unlinking, in either one’s Settings, stops it, and both keep what they have. While linked, Clear all on either side clears both.

How it’s used

Your data is used only to show you your own time: in Today, the weekly report, the limit warnings and the weekly reminder, and in Memoir in your browser if you link the two.

It is never sold or shared. It is never used for advertising, and never used to decide creditworthiness or for lending. I never receive it.

Your choices

• Pause tracking at any time, with Track screen time in Settings, or Pause in Memoir’s menu in the notification area.
• Start with Windows or not: Memoir starts when you sign in unless you turn this off in Settings or in Windows’ Startup apps.
• Never track particular apps or websites.
• Choose how long to keep history: forever, 1 year, 6 months or 3 months. Older days are deleted automatically, page titles included.
• Link or unlink Memoir in your browser: link it from its Settings in your browser, and unlink it from either one’s. It’s off unless you link it.
• Export everything as a file, or import a file you exported earlier. The file goes wherever you save it; Memoir doesn’t upload it.
• Clear all deletes everything at once. Uninstalling Memoir, from Windows’ Settings under Apps, removes everything it put on your computer: its files, its history (unless you choose to keep it), its Start menu shortcut, Start with Windows and its link with your browsers. Browsers you linked keep their own copy until you clear it there.

Links and email

• Links in the report, to a site or a page, open in your own browser, and only when you click them. Those sites’ own privacy policies then apply.
• The “bug report” link in Settings opens your own email app with a new message. Its subject is Memoir’s version number and nothing else is filled in. Nothing is sent until you send it yourself.
• Uninstalling shows my email address, in case Memoir did something wrong. Copying it, or clicking it to write, sends nothing by itself.

Updates

Memoir for Windows doesn’t check for updates or download anything. If Memoir in a linked browser knows of a newer Memoir for Windows, Settings tells you, with a link to this website; only that version number is passed, on this computer. New versions come from this website, or from the Microsoft Store, when you choose to get them, and the new one updates Memoir in place. Your records and settings stay as they are.

Changes

If this policy changes, the new version will appear here with a new date. If Memoir ever needed to send any data off your computer, it would ask you first.

Contact

Mina Vian · [email protected]

Nothing to track you

• No cookies, no analytics, no ads and nothing that follows you to other sites. This website doesn’t ask for anything about you: there are no forms and no accounts.
• Everything on it, its fonts included, comes from this website. No other site is contacted while you’re here.
• It keeps nothing in your browser between visits.

The live demo

• The demo runs Memoir in this page, on a made-up week. It never looks at your own browsing, and nothing you do in it is saved or sent. Reloading starts afresh.

Hosting

• Cloudflare hosts this website. Like any host, it handles each visit’s technical details, such as your IP address and your browser’s name, to deliver the pages and keep the site safe, under Cloudflare’s privacy policy.
• Its dashboard shows me only overall numbers, like how many visits a day. I never see who you are, and downloading Memoir doesn’t ask for your email or anything else.

Writing to me

If you email me, I use your address and what you write only to reply, and never add you to any list.

Contact

Mina Vian · [email protected]