What leaves your computer.

The short version

ViceFree runs on your computer. We do not receive your screen, your browsing history, or your traffic. We do not run a server that watches you. There is nothing about what you look at for us to hand over, sell, or lose.

A few things do leave your machine. This page lists them exactly, and says what they are not.

The ViceFree Free browser extension has its own, shorter page: privacy for the browser extension. It collects nothing. The browser companion that works with ViceFree for PC is covered on this page, under The browser companion.

Who we are

ViceFree is independent software made by After Hours Technologies LLC, a California limited liability company. You can reach us at hello@bevicefree.com.

What happens on your device

• Blocking is local. The blocklist is written into the Windows hosts file on your machine.
• A policy on your machine turns DNS-over-HTTPS off in Chrome, Edge, Brave and Firefox, because a browser resolving DNS inside itself would route around the hosts file.
• The blocklist ships inside the software: 125 domains, plus a never block list of 48 health, recovery and education sites and 97 Wifi login and connectivity check addresses.
• Your gate state and your logs are stored locally, in a location only the system service can write.
• Some things are kept per Windows account, on your PC only: which apps you used recently; for the last 7 days, how long the screen layer looked at each app and how often it flagged something there, as numbers and program names; a list of recent blocks; and your reprimand recording if you made one. The first two are used to suggest apps to skip. None of these is uploaded, and none is included in diagnostics.
• When you remove ViceFree, it puts back any browser secure DNS policy that was set before ViceFree, deletes its copy of your original hosts file, and signs this PC out of your ViceFree account if it was signed in, which deletes the saved sign in and asks our server to end it.

The screen layer is on whenever ViceFree is on. The model ships in the installer. Nothing captures your screen while ViceFree is paused, and a new install starts paused. Once ViceFree is on, frames are analysed in memory on your machine and discarded. Only scores and events are logged, locally. No frame, screenshot or picture of your screen is saved or sent anywhere.

Every warning, cover, strike and Correct or Not explicit answer is recorded on your PC as numbers and an app name: what was found and how sure, what triggered it, the size and place of the region on screen, and which monitor. Never the picture. On ViceFree Free that record never leaves the PC. On Lock, a Not explicit answer also goes into the tamper events below, as a time, a kind and the app name.

The address bar check is on whenever ViceFree is on too. It reads the address bar of Chrome, Edge, Brave and Firefox on your PC and compares the site against a list stored on your PC. The full address is never recorded and nothing is sent. When a site is blocked, its name goes into the local list of recent blocks, which stays on your PC. For a site on our global block list, the cover it shows has a link to report a site blocked by mistake, which opens the unblock form with the site name filled in. Only the site name goes to bevicefree.com, in the form’s address; nothing else is sent unless you send the form. A site on your own block list gets a cover with no report link.

The browser companion

ViceFree for PC has a companion extension for Chrome and Edge. It works only with the ViceFree app on the same PC, and talks to it through the browser’s native messaging channel, which stays inside your PC. It sends nothing to us.

• Pictures. While ViceFree is on, the companion blurs each picture and video on a page until the ViceFree app has checked it. It makes a small copy of the picture inside the browser, at most 256 by 256 pixels, and hands it to the ViceFree app on your PC, which checks it there and answers clean or explicit. The copy carries no web address. It carries a word for the kind of site, such as X, YouTube or other, and a short code made from the picture’s address, which cannot be turned back into the address. The app does not keep it: it is never written to disk or to a log, and the app records only scores, counts and times, as for the screen layer.
• Reading a picture. To read a picture, the companion may load it again from the server the page got it from, without your cookies; often the browser answers from its own cache. When the page will not let it read a picture at all, the companion downloads it again from that server, without your cookies and with the same referring site the page’s own request sent, and loads it once more the way the page does, to compare the two sizes. That server can see these extra requests for its own picture.
• Where things sit on screen. So that covers line up with your screen, the companion tells the app which tab is showing, and where the page and its pictures sit on the screen, as numbers. It sends no web address, no page title and no page text.
• Your answers on a cover. When you press a button on a cover, such as “Not explicit” or “Not interested”, the companion tells the app which button you pressed and whether it worked, with no web address. The app treats a “Not explicit” answer as described above for the screen layer.
• Feeds. On X, Instagram and TikTok, the companion reads the feed data the site has already sent to your browser, so it can check a post’s pictures before the post appears. That data stays in the tab. The app gets only the small copies of the pictures, as above, and the names of the signs a post matched, from the companion’s own fixed list of adult content wording or the site’s own adult label, never the post’s text or its author.
• Accounts on its lists. The companion ships with lists of accounts that post adult content on X, Instagram and Reddit, and hides their posts. The lists are part of the extension; nothing is looked up. This works whether or not the ViceFree app is running.
• Accounts that link to adult creator sites. When the feed data shows that an account’s profile links to a fan site for adult creators, the companion covers that account’s posts, and remembers the account on your PC as a coded key, not its name.
• Feed cleaning. When the companion takes a post out of your Home timeline on X, it can tell X “Not interested” for that post, and on X it mutes an account after 3 of its posts are taken out in 7 days. On Instagram it can tell Instagram “Not interested” for a suggested post from an account you do not follow. It does this in your own account, through the site’s own menu, at most 30 “Not interested” an hour and 10 mutes a day. Feed cleaning is on for X and Instagram unless you switch it off in ViceFree’s settings. The companion follows the last setting it heard from the app; if it never heard one, feed cleaning stays on for X and Instagram, including for posts hidden by the account lists. On X, the cover over a post can also show a “Not interested” or “Mute account” button, which acts only when you press it.
• Adult site checks. On each page, a small check reads the page’s tags, popups and words for an adult content age check or an adult content label. When it finds one, the companion keeps a coded key for that site (not its name) in the browser on your PC and tells the ViceFree app, which then treats the site like one on its block list. It tells the app again each time you open that site.
• YouTube. On a YouTube video page, the companion reads the video’s channel, title and description in the tab, to apply its list of trusted channels. This stays in the tab.
• Stored in the browser, on this PC: ViceFree’s last settings, the account lists, coded keys for sites found adult and for accounts whose posts it took out, the feed cleaning switches and the rate limit counts. This is kept in the extension’s own browser storage; some of it lasts only until the browser closes. None of it is synced.
• If the app stops. Pictures the companion is holding stay blurred until the app answers again. If the ViceFree app is not on the PC, the companion checks no pictures; the account lists and feed cleaning still work.
• Developer tools. The extension also holds tools for ViceFree’s own development: a log of covered accounts, a log of post text and a check of link pages. They switch on only with a developer licence signed by our server, which no customer licence carries. On your PC they do nothing.
• Never sent to us: pictures, page content, the sites you visit, your browsing history.

The use of information received by the ViceFree extensions adheres to the Chrome Web Store User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

What never leaves your device

Without exception:

• Your screen, in any form.
• Your browsing history.
• The contents of any connection.
• Decrypted traffic of any kind. No certificate is installed and we decrypt nothing.
• The domains you visited, or tried to visit, or how often you tried.

Payment

Payments are not open. ViceFree Lock is not purchasable yet.

When payments open, Paddle.com will sell ViceFree Lock to you as our reseller and Merchant of Record and will handle your card details under its own privacy notice. We expect to receive your email address and the fact that you paid. We will not see or store your full card number.

The waitlist

If you join the ViceFree Lock waitlist, we store three things:

1. Your email address.
2. Which tier you asked about.
3. A timestamp.

Nothing else. We hold it because you asked us to tell you something, and we use it for exactly that: one message when payments open. No marketing, no sharing, no selling. Ask us and we delete it.

Unblock requests

If you suggest unblocking a site on the unblock form, we store the site name, your reason if you give one (with email and web addresses removed), whether you came from the Windows app or the browser extension, the app version, and when. Requests for the same site are counted together. If you tick “Send me a reply about this request”, we also store the email address you give, only to reply about that request, and delete it 30 days after we decide on the request, or 30 days after you sent it if that is later. Your IP address is not stored; a one-way hash of it is kept for up to a day, only to stop the form being flooded. When the form opens from ViceFree’s block cover or the extension’s block page, the site name is already in its address, so bevicefree.com receives that name as the page loads. Nothing else is sent unless you press the button.

Every 10 minutes ViceFree for Windows checks the list of sites we have taken off the blocklist. That check sends nothing about you or your machine; the list is the same for everyone.

Exit survey

When you remove ViceFree (the Windows app or the browser extension), your browser opens a page with one optional question about why. The page's address says which ViceFree it was, its version, Free or Lock, and roughly how many days it was installed; the app and the extension send nothing themselves. If you answer and press Send, we store your answer, anything you type (with email and web addresses removed), your email address only if you give one so we can reply, those facts from the address, and when. Answers are kept for up to a year and are not linked to each other or to a licence. Your IP address is not stored; a one-way hash of it is kept for up to two hours, only to stop the form being flooded. If you do not press Send, nothing is sent.

The next-morning email

On Lock, the tamper events above are gathered into one short email, sent the next morning to the address on your licence. It goes to you and nobody else: there is no accountability partner. On a day with nothing to report, nothing is sent.

What it carries: events and times, such as “service stopped at 01:14”, and a count of the times you answered Not explicit to a screen-layer warning, with the app that was on screen. What it never carries: images, screenshots, browsing history, connection contents, or anything you looked at.

This website

bevicefree.com is served by Cloudflare Pages. Cloudflare keeps standard server logs as part of serving the site.

Analytics on this website

bevicefree.com uses Google Analytics 4, but only if you say yes. The first time you visit, a small banner asks. Until you press Accept, no Google script loads, nothing is sent to Google, and no analytics cookie is set. If you press Decline, that stays true. The same Accept also turns on Microsoft Clarity, described below; until you accept, no Clarity script loads either.

bevicefree.com also counts page views and whether a real browser interacted with the page, as daily totals. This uses no cookies and nothing that identifies you: no IP address, no visitor ID. It runs for every visitor, because it cannot tell who you are.

This is the website only. The ViceFree app and the browser extensions never use Google Analytics, or any other analytics. Nothing in this section applies to them.

If you accept, Google Analytics records:

• Which pages of bevicefree.com you open, and roughly how long you stay.
• The site you came from, if your browser says.
• Your browser, operating system, screen size and language.
• An approximate location (country and city), worked out from your IP address.

It does not record anything about the ViceFree software on your computer, and it cannot see anything outside bevicefree.com.

Cookies. Google Analytics sets _ga and _ga_<id> cookies on bevicefree.com. They hold a random identifier so repeat visits count as one visitor. They are only set after you accept.

Your IP address. Google Analytics 4 uses it to estimate location and then discards it. It does not log or store IP addresses.

No ads. Advertising storage, ad personalisation and Google signals are switched off. We do not use analytics data for advertising and we do not share it with anyone to advertise to you.

Retention. Analytics data is kept for two months, the shortest setting Google offers, and then deleted.

Changing your mind. Use Cookie settings at the bottom of any page. Declining after accepting stops analytics and removes the _ga cookies. Your choice is remembered in your browser; clearing site data resets it, and the banner will ask again. You can also block Google Analytics in every site with Google's opt-out browser add-on, or with any content blocker.

The unblock form, the exit survey and the support-resources page never show the banner and never load analytics.

Microsoft Clarity

If you accept, bevicefree.com also uses Microsoft Clarity to see how the pages are used. It records clicks, scrolling, mouse movement and the pages you open, along with your browser, device and rough location, and turns them into replays and heatmaps. Like Google Analytics, it loads only after you press Accept, and never on the three pages named above.

What you type stays hidden. Every form and field on bevicefree.com is masked, so an email address or anything else you type never reaches a recording. Masked text is not sent to Microsoft.

Cookies. Clarity sets _clck and _clsk cookies on bevicefree.com. They hold a random identifier so the pages of one visit join into one recording. They are only set after you accept. Declining later stops Clarity and removes them.

Where it goes. Clarity data goes to Microsoft, which runs the service. Ad storage is off, so Clarity shares nothing with Microsoft Advertising. Recordings are kept for 30 days; Microsoft may keep a small random sample for up to 9 months.

The website only. The ViceFree app and the browser extensions never use Clarity.

Your ViceFree account

Not open yet. ViceFree accounts are built but not switched on, so nobody can make one yet. When they open, everyone who installs ViceFree, Free included, will be asked to make one during setup. This section says what an account holds.

What it holds. For your account, we store your email address, your name if your sign in gives one, when you made the account and when you last signed in, which ViceFree licences you linked to it, the random install id of each PC you are signed in on, and a role, which is “user” for every customer. While you are signed in, we also keep a record of each sign in, in a browser or on a PC: when it started, when it ends, and when you last actively signed in with the sign in provider. For a sign in in a browser we also keep a reference to the sign in provider’s session, so that signing out ends that too; signing out of the app removes the app’s token and that PC from your account. These records go when you sign out, or when they expire: 30 days in a browser, a year on a PC. While a sign in is in progress we hold short records, for at most 10 minutes, that link the browser step to the app step; they are deleted when used or when they expire. Nothing else.

The account never receives your screen, the sites you visit or try to visit, what ViceFree detected or blocked, or which apps you use. Those stay on your PC.

Signing in with Google. Google tells us your email address, your name, whether your address is verified, and a link to your profile picture, which we do not keep. We ask for nothing else: no contacts, no Drive, no Gmail. Google’s sign in page and the sign in service see your IP address and browser, as any website does.

Our sign in provider. Sign in is run by WorkOS, Inc. (USA) as our processor. WorkOS holds your email address, your name, how you signed in, and your sign in sessions, for the purpose of signing you in. See WorkOS’s privacy policy.

How long WorkOS keeps sign in records. WorkOS records each sign in session as an event, including the IP address and browser it came from. Its developer documentation says these events can be read back for 90 days (WorkOS events documentation). WorkOS does not publish when it deletes them: its privacy policy says it keeps personal data “for the period necessary” for its purposes, and its data processing addendum says backup copies are deleted under a retention schedule it does not publish.

WorkOS’s own service providers. WorkOS uses service providers of its own, all in the United States. Among them are Amazon Web Services and Vercel (hosting), Cloudflare (network security), Postmark and SendGrid (email delivery, such as sign in and verification codes), and Datadog and Sentry (logging and error reports). The full list is on WorkOS’s subprocessor page.

Cookies. Two strictly necessary cookies, on api.bevicefree.com only, and only when you sign in: __Host-cocloc_session keeps you signed in on the website for 30 days, and __Host-cocloc_login finishes a sign in and lasts 10 minutes from the last step of it. They need no consent banner; we list them anyway.

A note in your browser. After you press Log in, or when your account page finds you signed in, bevicefree.com keeps one entry in your browser’s local storage, named cocloc-account and holding only “1”, so other pages know to ask api.bevicefree.com whether you are signed in. It holds no name, no email and no id. It is removed when you sign out, when you delete the account, or when the server says you are signed out. Without it, no page on bevicefree.com contacts api.bevicefree.com, except the account page itself, which asks who is signed in.

The app. When you sign in from the app, it stores a sign in token on your PC, encrypted for your Windows account. It sends that token only to api.bevicefree.com, and only when you use the account panel (opening it refreshes your account details, at most once a minute): never at startup and never on a timer.

Keeping and deleting. We keep the account until you delete it. Delete it on your account page or in the app: we delete your user at WorkOS and everything we hold, at once. WorkOS’s own sign in records and backups (above) are not ours to delete; if you want them removed too, write to hello@bevicefree.com and we will ask WorkOS. Deleting the account does not cancel a subscription or remove your licence. Billing records are kept by Paddle as the law requires.

Your IP address. It is not stored with your account. As with the other forms, a one way hash of it, keyed with a secret and changed every day, is kept for up to two hours to stop floods.

Children

ViceFree is for adults. You must be 18 or over. It is not a parental-control or monitoring tool, and we do not knowingly sell it to or collect data from anyone under 18.

Retention

• Local data stays on your machine until you remove the software. Removing it does not yet delete the per-account files (your reprimand audio, recent apps and recent blocks) in %LOCALAPPDATA%\cocloc; you can delete that folder yourself.
• Tamper events (Lock) are kept for 30 days.
• Account data is kept until you delete the account. Sign in records go when you sign out, or when they expire: 30 days in a browser, a year on a PC.
• Diagnostics and install failure reports are kept for 30 days.
• Waitlist data is kept until payments open, or until you ask us to delete it, whichever is first.
• Website analytics, if you accepted them, are kept for two months (Google Analytics).
• Clarity recordings, if you accepted them, are kept for 30 days; Microsoft may keep a small random sample for up to 9 months.
• Support email is kept as long as we need it to answer you and keep a record of the request.
• Purchase records, once payments open, are kept while you are a customer and afterwards for as long as tax law requires.

Your rights

You can ask what we hold about you, ask for a copy, ask for it to be corrected, or ask for it to be deleted. Email hello@bevicefree.com. We aim to answer within 30 days.

Given the list above, the answer is usually short.

Security

On your machine, configuration and gate state are held where only the system service can write them. ViceFree updates itself, and every update is verified before it runs: it must carry our release signature, match the size and file contents that signature covers, and be newer than the build you have. An update can only replace ViceFree’s own programs, so it cannot change your settings or your gate, and a build that fails to start is rolled back.

Separately, and worth saying here because it looks alarming if you meet it cold: the current installer is not code signed, so Windows shows a SmartScreen warning and names the publisher as unknown. The steps past it are on the support page.

We will never ask you for screenshots, because we cannot receive them.

Changes

If this policy changes in a way that affects what leaves your machine, we will say so here, and tell customers before it takes effect.

Contact

After Hours Technologies LLC, maker of ViceFree
hello@bevicefree.com