Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 21, 2026

Hawser is a Windows desktop application, with an optional companion browser extension, built and operated by Cook Impact Software LLC ("we," "us," "our") that helps you stay focused by quietly observing what you're doing on your computer and gently reminding you when you drift off-task. This policy explains what we collect, why we collect it, and how it's stored.

Plain-English summary: Almost everything Hawser knows about you stays on your own computer, unless you switch on sync, which is off until you turn it on and asks you first. We collect the minimum needed to run your account and your subscription. Screen awareness is on by default and disclosed during setup: when Hawser needs to look, a compressed screenshot is analyzed in the moment and never stored. You can turn it off during setup or any time in Settings, and screenshots are never written to disk either way. If you install the Hawser browser extension, it tells Hawser the name of the site you are on and how long you were there, never the address of a page, and it sends that to the Hawser app on your own computer and nowhere else. If you ask Hawser to block one part of a site, such as youtube.com/shorts, Hawser hands the extension that rule, and the extension checks the tab you are on against it inside your browser; the address is still never sent anywhere or kept. Connecting it is a card Hawser shows you on your own screen, which you accept or turn down; there is no secret to copy. The extension can also show a nudge on the page you are reading, in the corner or in the middle of the screen, as you choose in Hawser. That needs your browser's permission to reach websites: installing the extension grants that for no website at all, your browser asks you only at the moment you switch that nudge on, and switching it off hands the access straight back. If you connect an AI app of your own, such as the Claude app, Hawser shares with that app, on your computer, only what you allowed it, and a plan it makes for your days waits for your yes unless you told Hawser otherwise for that app. Connecting the Claude app is a card Hawser shows you, naming Claude and saying in plain words what it will be able to see and do, which you accept or turn down; there is no key to copy. The task log, which lists every task you write down and what became of it, is kept on your computer and never synced, until you clear it. If you rate Hawser with the stars in the app, the stars and the date appear on gethawser.com with no name, and your words only if you tick share. We do not sell your data and we do not run ad tracking.

1. What we collect

1a. Information you give us directly

1b. Information collected automatically

1c. Information collected by Stripe (payments)

Payment card data is collected directly by Stripe on Stripe-hosted pages. We never see your full card number. We receive only the Stripe customer ID, subscription status, last-four digits of the card on file, and billing email, which we use to manage your subscription.

1d. The Hawser browser extension (optional)

Hawser can see that your browser is in front of you, but not which tab, so eight hours of work and eight hours of drift look identical to it. The Hawser browser extension is the optional piece that tells them apart. We publish it in the Chrome Web Store, and it runs in Chrome and in the other browsers built on the same engine, such as Edge, Opera and Brave. It is a separate install, it does nothing at all until you connect it to the copy of Hawser on your computer, and everything in this section applies only if you choose to use it.

Everything the extension sends goes to the Hawser app on your own computer, and nowhere else. It reaches Hawser over a loopback connection to 127.0.0.1, which cannot leave the machine, and it contacts no other address at all. There are exactly two places in the extension that make a network request, one for the ordinary conversation with Hawser and one for connecting in the first place, and both of them go to 127.0.0.1 on your own machine. There is no remote server anywhere in it. Nothing about your browsing reaches us, and nothing about your browsing is ever sent to Anthropic or to any other AI. When a nudge names a site, that sentence is composed on your computer by Hawser's own code, and no AI model writes it or reads it.

How you connect it, and what that involves

Nobody types a secret. You press "Connect this browser" in the extension, it finds Hawser on your own machine and asks to be connected, and then Hawser shows you a card: it names the browser that asked and lists in plain words what that browser would be able to see and what it would not. Nothing happens unless you press Allow. Pressing "Not now", closing the card and pressing Escape are the same answer, and after a no that browser stops asking for a while. The key is issued at the moment you allow it, goes straight into the extension's own storage, and is never shown on screen. If you would rather do it by hand, Hawser's Settings can still hand you a code to paste into the extension, which is also the way in if you have moved Hawser off its usual port.

Asking, and then coming back to see whether you have answered, are the only two things Hawser's local connection will do without a key, because a browser that has never been connected has no key to offer. All that asking can do is leave the request for you to answer. It reads nothing about you, changes nothing, and answers with a request number and a clock and nothing else: not your mission, not your tasks, not your browsing totals, not whether anything else is connected. It also answers only to your own machine and to our own extension, so a website cannot put a card on your screen. If you turn a browser away, Hawser writes that down on your computer so it stops asking: a count and two timestamps against the random number that browser made up for itself, kept in Hawser's own config file alongside its settings, never sent anywhere. Settings has a button that clears it and lets browsers ask again.

Each browser is its own connection. Install the extension in two browsers and each one gets its own key, its own browsing totals, its own nudges, and its own entry in Hawser's Settings, where you can rename or disconnect either one on its own. A code from Hawser belongs to the first browser that uses it: a second browser presenting the same code is turned away rather than quietly sharing, or taking over, the first browser's connection.

What it collects

What it never collects

The permissions it asks your browser for, and what each one is for

It asks for nothing else. In particular it does not ask for the history permission, so it cannot read where you have been: it only ever sees the tab you are looking at now, and only the site name of it, apart from the on the spot check against a part of a site you blocked. It has no access to your bookmarks, and no ability to change anything on a page. The only thing it can put in a page is its own card, and only while you have that switched on; the only thing it can do to a tab is send it to a Hawser page, and only when that tab is on a part of a site you asked Hawser to block.

Nudges, going the other way

Hawser cannot reach into your browser, so the extension asks it whether it has anything to say, and tells it what became of the last thing it said. That happens about once a minute while you are in the browser, less often when Hawser is quiet or you are away, and about twelve seconds after you land on a different site, which is the moment Hawser is most likely to have something to say. A nudge shows up as a mark on the toolbar icon, with the words in the panel behind it, and, if you have switched that on, on the page you are reading. Those words are Hawser's, written on your computer, and the extension keeps them only while the nudge is on screen: closing it clears them.

How the card appears is your choice, and you make it in Hawser, under Settings, About and advanced, Agent access, so there is one setting rather than two that could disagree. It can start as a small card in the corner and come to the middle of the screen if you have not closed it after a while, arrive in the middle every time, or stay in the corner. A card in the middle dims the page behind it and holds it until you close the card, which is the point of it: Escape always closes it, so does clicking the dimmed area, and so does the button on the card itself. None of that is website blocking. The extension cannot stop a page loading, cannot redirect you, and asks for no permission that would let it: what it can do is put its own card in front of a page you have already opened, until you close it.

The card is the only thing the extension ever puts in a page, it is put there only when Hawser has something to say, and it is never put there at all unless you ticked "Show Hawser's nudges on the page I am on" and your browser granted the access. Some pages cannot take it, such as the browser's own pages, the Chrome Web Store, local files and PDFs, and on those the toolbar icon carries the nudge instead.

Your own quiet settings still decide, so away mode, a pause, and quieted nudges hold a nudge back here exactly as they do on the desktop. Turning nudges off in the extension's options page stops it asking at all.

Where it is kept, and how to get rid of it

Limited Use. Our use of information received from the Hawser browser extension adheres to the Chrome Web Store User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. The extension collects only what its single purpose needs, uses it for nothing else, transfers it to nobody, and sends it nowhere but the Hawser app on your own computer.

Installing the extension is between you and Google. Google tells us how many people have it installed, as a count, and nothing about who they are.

1e. Optional: things you can share

Settings, Privacy & data, Privacy has a group called "Optional: things you can share." Everything in it is off until you switch it on, everything in it is there to help us build Hawser rather than to make Hawser work, and nothing in it changes how the app behaves either way. Nothing in it ever prompts you: the switches sit there, and leaving them alone costs you nothing. The group is built to grow; today it has one member.

This is deliberately separate from the anonymous app usage counts in section 1b, and the two are not interchangeable. Those carry a random per-installation number and can never be traced back to you, which is the point of them. This one is stored on your account on purpose, because a version that is not attached to an account cannot answer the question it exists for. They are two switches, and you can have either, both, or neither.

1g. Star ratings, and what gethawser.com shows of them

gethawser.com has a Reviews page, and a short "What people say" block on the homepage, that list the ratings people give inside the app. Every rating is listed, high and low, because a page that only showed the good ones would not be telling the truth.

1f. Your own AI apps, connected to Hawser (optional)

Hawser can let AI apps you run yourself, such as Claude Desktop or Claude Code, work with it on your computer. This is off until you switch on agent access in Settings, About and advanced, Agent access (pressing Connect Claude or Set up Claude Desktop there switches it on for you, and says so), and each app you connect gets its own key there, which you can switch off or revoke on its own at any time. Connected apps reach Hawser over a loopback connection to 127.0.0.1, which cannot leave the machine. Nothing about this goes to our servers. The one way any of it reaches them is sync, if you turned it on: what a plan puts on your days syncs like anything you plan yourself.

Connecting the Claude app. Connect Claude opens Hawser's extension for the Claude app, a file that comes with Hawser, and the Claude app asks you whether to install it. The first time the extension talks to Hawser it has no key, so it asks for one, and Hawser shows you a card naming Claude and saying, in plain words, what it will be able to see and do. Nothing is connected and no key is made unless you press Allow on that card. Any program on your computer could ask Hawser for that card, which is exactly why only you can answer it, in Hawser; if you did not just connect Claude, choose Don't allow. Closing the card is the same answer. If you choose Don't allow, Hawser remembers it and does not ask you again for six hours, and for longer each time you say no again, unless you press Connect Claude again. The extension talks only to Hawser, on your computer, over 127.0.0.1, and never to us.

What a connected app can read. Only what its key allows, as its entry in Settings lists it. The Claude app's key allows everything Hawser can do, including planning your days, whichever way you connect it; Claude Code's allows everything apart from planning. No connected app's key reaches the two things only the Hawser browser extension does: reporting where your browsing time went, and collecting the nudges meant for your browser. With everything allowed, an app can read your status today (your mission and why, your tasks and whether each is done, your focused and distracted minutes, how many nudges, finished tasks and focus sessions the day has had, whether you are away or paused, the time block running now and the next one, and any wind-down under way); your notes and captures, with what you wrote in them; a short list of what you have been doing for the last 25 minutes or so, which names the apps and window titles you were in, what Hawser noticed on your screen and the nudges it gave; and the parts of websites you asked Hawser to block. An app you let plan your days can also read your planning brief and your days. The brief is your name, what you told Hawser you are focused on and your longer term goals as you wrote them at setup, the hours and days you gave for being at your computer, how many focused hours a day you said are realistic, whether starting or stopping is harder for you, your best work time, whether you are a morning person, when you tend to drift, the apps and sites you named as distractions, and your coaching style and strictness; your goals with their dates, progress and steps; for the last 14 days, each day's mission, how many tasks you planned and finished, your focused minutes, the tasks that stayed undone on two days or more, and how many tasks are waiting from earlier days; your rhythm, which is your best focus hours and days, your hardest day, how much you focus on each weekday, the hours you drift and the apps drift goes to; and what is already on the next 14 days: reminders with their words, alarms, block schedules, rule windows, time blocks, the missions and tasks already planned, and goals due. Your days are each day's mission and why, tasks, reminders, alarms, time blocks, block schedules, rule windows and goals due, as the Calendar shows them, including what became of each task and how long you focused on days gone by, up to 62 days at a time. Planning is never switched on by itself: an app gets it only when you tick its "plan my days" switch on its entry, when you press Set up Claude Desktop, or when you press Allow on the card Hawser shows when the Claude app asks to connect, each of which says so before you use it. If you narrow what the Claude app may do on its entry, pressing Set up Claude Desktop or Allow again gives it everything plus planning again, as both say.

Where it goes from there. Hawser hands this only to the app you connected, on your own computer. That app is yours, not ours, and it may send what it reads to its maker in order to answer you: Claude Desktop sends it to Anthropic under your own Claude account and Anthropic's terms, not under our arrangement with Anthropic, and we have no part in it. Connect only apps you would tell these things to.

What a connected app can change. If its key allows it, the same things the in-app companion can, under the same rules and the same confirmations; with everything allowed it can also add captures to your brain dump. It cannot report time spent on websites: only the browser extension does that. A plan it sends for your days (setting a day's mission, adding tasks or taking them off, reminders once, daily or on weekdays, one-time alarms, a day's time blocks and steps toward your goals) waits for you on the Calendar and changes nothing until you press Confirm, unless you switched on "change my plans without asking" for that one app. Either way Hawser tells you, lists the change in Companion activity with the name of the app that made it, and lets you undo the whole plan in one press, apart from anything you have changed since and days already gone. A plan never touches your settings or your blocking.

What Hawser keeps. A plan waiting for your answer, and what became of it, is kept in a file on your computer, encrypted with your other files if you turned on local encryption, for a day if nobody answers, and Hawser deletes it once two days have passed since it arrived. "Download my data" includes that file while it is there. A plan you confirm becomes part of your days like anything you plan yourself, and Companion activity keeps one line about it, with what Undo needs to take it back, among the last 300 changes the companion and connected apps made, in a plain file on your computer. Each connected app's entry in Hawser's own settings file holds its name, what it may do, whether it is switched on, whether it may plan without asking, when it was made and when it last called; its key is kept in Windows Credential Manager, or in Hawser's own settings file on a PC where Credential Manager will not take it, and never goes into an export of your settings. If you turn an app away, Hawser's settings file also keeps which app it was, a count and two timestamps against the random number that copy made up for itself, so it stops asking, until that wait is well past. When you connect the Claude app with Connect Claude, the extension keeps its own copy of its key in one file on your computer, connection.json, in AppData\Local\Hawser\Claude in your Windows user folder (the Microsoft Store version of the Claude app may keep that folder inside its own private copy of AppData). Beside the key, that file holds a random number that identifies that copy of the extension, a sentence saying what the file is, and the names, descriptions and inputs of Hawser's tools, so Claude can tell you what is wrong when Hawser is closed; it holds nothing you wrote and nothing about your day. Revoking Claude, or switching it off, in Hawser makes that key useless at once; the next time Claude tries to reach Hawser, the extension deletes the key from the file and asks to connect again, so Hawser shows you the card again, and Don't allow keeps Claude out. Removing the extension from the Claude app leaves the file behind; deleting that folder removes it. The manual way, Set up by hand instead, shows you lines to add to Claude Desktop's own settings, and those lines include its key. Hawser writes them into Claude Desktop's settings file only if you press "Add it for me" and then "Write it" after seeing exactly what will be written, and it keeps a copy of that file, as it was just before, beside it. For Claude Code, Hawser copies a command for you to run that carries its key, and Claude Code keeps the key in its own settings from then on.

2. Where your data lives

International transfers. Our infrastructure and the vendors above are based in the United States. If you use Hawser from the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, your personal data is transferred to the US under the Standard Contractual Clauses or another lawful transfer mechanism. If you would rather none of what you are working on go to an AI provider, use Fully local mode in Settings: chat, screenshots and dictation are then processed entirely on your own machine, and nothing is sent to Anthropic or OpenAI. The features that only cloud AI can do say so and stay off in that mode. Hawser still contacts our own servers to check your account and licence, and for sync or anonymous usage counts if you turned those on.

3. Why we collect what we collect

We do not sell personal data. We do not use it for advertising. We do not run ad-network tracking pixels on this website.

3a. Legal basis for processing (GDPR)

If you are in the EEA or UK, our legal bases under Article 6 GDPR are:

4. Third-party services

We rely on a small number of vendors to operate Hawser. Each has its own privacy practices:

The first seven act as our data processors: each processes personal data only on our instructions, and may engage its own subprocessors as described in its policy; HeyCatch lists its own at heycatch.ai/subprocessors. Google and Apple are different. We have no arrangement with them for this and give them no instructions: when you press Talk in the phone app, your own browser hands your voice to its maker's speech recognition under that company's terms, the same as the mic key on your keyboard does, and the only thing that ever reaches us is the text you go on to save. We do not sell personal data to any of them. esm.sh, which serves the analytics code to your browser, is not one of our vendors and processes nothing on our behalf. A current list of subprocessors is available on request from support@gethawser.com.

5. How long we keep your data

6. Your rights

You can, at any time:

If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or California, you have additional rights under GDPR and CCPA, including the right to object to processing, the right to data portability, and the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority. Email support to exercise any of these.

7. Security

Passwords are hashed with PBKDF2 (salted, many iterations) before storage - we cannot read your password. All connections between Hawser and our backend use HTTPS. Session tokens are stored in Windows Credential Manager on your device. For extra protection you can turn on at-rest encryption of your local Hawser data in Settings, Privacy & data, Privacy (note: if you lose access to your Windows account, encrypted local data cannot be recovered). Scheduled encrypted backups are protected by the password you choose for them instead of by that key, so one can be restored on another computer, and anyone who has the password can read it. Despite this, no system is perfectly secure. If we ever become aware of a breach affecting your account, we will notify you by email without undue delay.

8. Children

Hawser is not directed at and is not intended for use by anyone under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe we have inadvertently collected data from a child, contact us and we will delete it.

9. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. When we do, we will update the "Last updated" date at the top. If a change materially affects how we handle data from the Hawser app or your account, we will also tell you by email. A change that only affects the website, such as how gethawser.com measures its own visits, is marked by that date alone. Continuing to use Hawser after changes take effect means you accept the updated policy.

10. Cookies & tracking

Hawser uses no advertising or cross-site tracking cookies. The website (gethawser.com) sets one cookie, and only if you allow it: the first time you visit, a card asks whether the site may use analytics, which is HeyCatch, and only after you press Allow does HeyCatch set its cookie, which holds a random ID and lasts a year, along with a few entries of its own in your browser's local storage. Your answer is kept in local storage so the card does not ask again. No thanks is as easy as Allow, and if your browser sends a Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control signal the card never appears and nothing is measured. Section 1b says exactly what HeyCatch records.

Everything else the website keeps is in local storage, not cookies: if you sign in, your session token is kept in your browser's local storage to keep you signed in, and the desktop app stores its session token in Windows Credential Manager on your device. If you use the phone capture app at gethawser.com/app, that page also keeps your own content in local storage: anything you capture is written there before it is sent, so a dead zone cannot lose it, and a copy of your notes and recent captures is kept so the app still works with no signal. It stays on your device, it is only ever sent to your own Hawser account, and signing out of that page deletes it. The Hawser browser extension sets no cookies either, and its nudge card sets nothing in the pages it appears on: what it keeps, meaning its key, any seconds it has not sent yet, any nudge on screen, the random number that identifies that copy of it, and your switches, lives in the extension's own storage and is deleted when you disconnect it or remove it. Section 1d lists that storage in full. The analytics card is the only place the website asks. The website usage counts described in section 1b are cookieless: they store nothing in your browser and identify no one.

11. Contact & data controller

Hawser is operated by Cook Impact Software LLC (Idaho, USA), the data controller for the personal data described in this policy.

Questions about this policy, or to exercise any of your rights (access, deletion, portability, objection), email support@gethawser.com with the subject "Data Rights Request." We respond within 30 days. If you are in the EEA or UK and are not satisfied with our response, you may lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.