Privacy Policy
Effective date: June 18, 2026 · Last updated: June 18, 2026
The short version
Ahora does not collect your data. Your tasks, projects, notes, and focus sessions are stored only on your device, encrypted, and never transmitted anywhere. We have no servers holding your information because we have never received your information.
What we collect
Nothing.
Ahora has no user accounts, no registration, no login, and no backend servers. There is no database. There is no analytics. There are no advertising trackers. There is no third-party data sharing because there is no data to share.
How your data is stored
All data you create in Ahora — tasks, projects, notes, session history, settings — is stored exclusively on your device using your browser's local storage. Before being written to storage, all data is encrypted using AES-256-GCM encryption via your browser's built-in Web Crypto API. The encryption key is derived from your PIN using PBKDF2 with 100,000 iterations.
Your data never leaves your device. It is not backed up to our servers because we have no servers. It is not synced to the cloud because we have no cloud infrastructure.
Your PIN and biometric data
Your PIN is never stored. Ahora stores only a cryptographic hash derived from your PIN using PBKDF2. It is mathematically impossible to recover your PIN from this hash. Your biometric data (Face ID, fingerprint) is handled entirely by your device's operating system via the WebAuthn standard. Ahora never receives, stores, or transmits biometric data of any kind.
What happens if you delete the app
All of your data is deleted with it. Because your data exists only on your device, uninstalling Ahora or clearing your browser data permanently removes everything. There is no account to delete, no data to request, and no server-side records to purge.
Cookies and tracking
Ahora uses no cookies. Ahora uses no analytics platforms (no Google Analytics, no Mixpanel, no Amplitude, nothing). Ahora uses no advertising networks. Ahora uses no tracking pixels. There is no code in Ahora whose purpose is to observe your behavior.
Third-party services
Ahora loads fonts from Google Fonts (fonts.googleapis.com) when you first open the app. After that, fonts are cached on your device by the service worker and loaded locally. Google's privacy policy governs that initial font request. We load nothing else from third parties.
Push notifications
If you enable daily check-in notifications, Ahora schedules these locally on your device via your browser's notification system. No notification data passes through our servers. We have no servers. If you disable notifications in settings, they stop immediately.
Children
Ahora is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect data from anyone, including children, because we collect no data from anyone.
Changes to this policy
If we ever change this policy in a way that involves collecting data we do not currently collect, we will update the effective date and make the change prominent. We do not anticipate this happening — the architecture of Ahora makes data collection structurally impossible without a fundamental redesign.
Contact
Questions about this policy: hello@getahora.app
Ahora is operated by CIFA Ltd.
This privacy policy is straightforward because Ahora is straightforward. We built it this way on purpose.
Terms of Service
Effective date: June 18, 2026 · Last updated: June 18, 2026
Agreement
By using Ahora you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, do not use Ahora. These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Ohio, United States.
What Ahora is
Ahora is a free, privacy-first focus timer application designed for adults with ADHD. It is provided as a Progressive Web App (PWA) at getahora.app. Ahora is operated by CIFA Ltd, an Ohio limited liability company.
Free to use
Ahora is free. There is no subscription, no premium tier, no in-app purchases, and no advertising. We reserve the right to introduce optional paid features in the future, but core functionality will always remain free. We will never introduce advertising.
Your data
Your data belongs to you. Because all data is stored locally on your device and never transmitted to us, you have complete control over it at all times. You can export it, delete it, or walk away at any time. We have no ability to access, modify, or delete your data because we never receive it.
Your responsibilities
You are responsible for:
- Keeping your PIN secure and not sharing it with others
- Maintaining a backup of any data you wish to preserve (use the export function in Settings)
- Using Ahora in compliance with applicable laws
- Not attempting to reverse-engineer, modify, or misuse the application
No account required
Ahora requires no account, email address, or personal information to use. You are not a user in our database because there is no database.
Availability
We provide Ahora on an as-is, as-available basis. We make no guarantees about uptime, availability, or continuity of the service. Because Ahora is a PWA with offline support, the app continues to work on your device even if getahora.app is temporarily unavailable.
Data loss
Because your data is stored locally on your device, we are not responsible for data loss resulting from:
- Device loss, theft, or damage
- Clearing browser data or local storage
- Uninstalling the app
- Forgetting your PIN (which cannot be recovered)
- Operating system updates that clear app data
We strongly recommend using the export function in Settings to maintain a backup of your data.
Disclaimer of warranties
Ahora is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including but not limited to warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that Ahora will be error-free, uninterrupted, or meet your specific requirements.
Limitation of liability
To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, CIFA Ltd shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, including but not limited to loss of data, loss of profits, or loss of goodwill, arising from your use of or inability to use Ahora.
Intellectual property
Ahora, including its name, logo, design, and source code, is the intellectual property of CIFA Ltd. The name "Ahora" and the Ahora logo are proprietary. You may not reproduce, distribute, or create derivative works from Ahora's design or branding without written permission.
Medical disclaimer
Ahora is a productivity tool, not a medical device or therapeutic intervention. While Ahora's design is informed by research on ADHD and executive function, it is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. If you have concerns about ADHD or any other medical condition, consult a qualified healthcare professional.
Changes to these terms
We may update these terms from time to time. We will update the effective date at the top of this page when we do. Continued use of Ahora after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated terms.
Termination
You may stop using Ahora at any time. We may discontinue Ahora at any time, with or without notice. Because your data lives on your device, discontinuation of the service does not result in loss of your data — it remains on your device until you delete it.
Governing law
These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Ohio, United States, without regard to conflict of law principles. Any disputes arising from these terms shall be resolved in the courts of Ohio.
Contact
Questions about these terms: hello@getahora.app
Ahora is operated by CIFA Ltd.
Design Methodology
How science shaped every decision in Ahora
Ahora was designed for adults with ADHD. Every meaningful decision — the colors, the timer, the animations, the task list, the way notifications are worded — is grounded in peer-reviewed research. This page documents that evidence base.
01Time blindness
The foundational insight behind Ahora comes from Russell Barkley's work establishing ADHD not as a motivation disorder but as a disorder of time blindness. ADHD impairs prospective memory and temporal ordering — the ability to sequence tasks by time and importance. A tool for ADHD must externalize time perception rather than assume the brain can track it internally.
Barkley, R.A. (2015). Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: A Handbook for Diagnosis and Treatment (4th ed.). Guilford Press.
Barkley, R.A. (1997). Behavioral inhibition, sustained attention, and executive functions. Psychological Bulletin, 121(1), 65–94.
Toplak, M.E., Dockstader, C., & Tannock, R. (2006). Temporal information processing in ADHD. Journal of Neuroscience Methods, 151(1), 15–29.
02The two-mode timer
Stopwatch mode creates an external working memory scaffold — the ADHD brain cannot perceive time passing but it can see a number on a screen. Countdown mode leverages artificial urgency: a deadline that the brain treats as real, triggering the norepinephrine response that ADHD medication also targets. Overtime tracking continues past a countdown target because losing track of effort is one of the most demoralizing ADHD experiences.
Barkley, R.A. (2015). Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: A Handbook for Diagnosis and Treatment (4th ed.). Guilford Press.
03Amber as primary color
The amber color #F5A623 was not chosen aesthetically. Yellow-orange wavelengths activate the locus coeruleus-norepinephrine (LC-NE) system — the brain's primary arousal and attention network. This is the same system targeted by stimulant medications commonly prescribed for ADHD. The warm dark background #12100F avoids blue-shifted darks because short-wavelength blue light suppresses melatonin and worsens sleep — already a significant ADHD comorbidity. Red is restricted exclusively to irreversible destructive actions because it activates amygdala threat-detection circuits unnecessarily.
Berridge, K.C., & Waterhouse, B.D. (2003). The locus coeruleus–noradrenergic system. Brain Research Reviews, 42(1), 33–84.
Cajochen, C., et al. (2011). Evening exposure to LED-backlit computer screen affects circadian physiology. Journal of Applied Physiology, 110(5), 1432–1438.
Gruber, R., et al. (2012). Contributions of circadian tendencies to sleep onset problems of children with ADHD. BMC Psychiatry, 12, 212.
LeDoux, J. (1996). The Emotional Brain. Simon & Schuster.
Healey, C.G. (1996). Choosing effective colours for data visualization. Proceedings of the 7th Conference on Visualization, 263–270.
Berlin, B., & Kay, P. (1969). Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution. University of California Press.
04Typography
Legge & Bigelow's mobile readability research established 17px as the minimum for comfortable reading — most apps use 16px. Approximately 25–40% of ADHD individuals also have dyslexia, making dyslexia-friendly typography a mainstream accommodation for this audience. Rello & Baeza-Yates (2013) found that increased letter spacing significantly improves reading speed and accuracy. The timer uses JetBrains Mono because proportional fonts cause micro-layout-shifts as digit widths change — unexpected visual motion activates the superior colliculus involuntarily, pulling attention away from the task.
Legge, G.E., & Bigelow, C.A. (2011). Does print size matter for reading? Journal of Vision, 11(5), 8.
Rello, L., & Baeza-Yates, R. (2013). Good fonts for dyslexia. ASSETS '13.
Germano, E., Gagliano, A., & Curatolo, P. (2010). Comorbidity of ADHD and dyslexia. Developmental Neuropsychology, 35(5), 475–493.
Posner, M.I., & Petersen, S.E. (1990). The attention system of the human brain. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 13, 25–42.
05Animations
All animation durations in Ahora are compressed approximately 30% from Material Design defaults. Toplak et al. (2006) established that ADHD impairs time perception specifically in the 300ms–3000ms range — the range standard UI animations occupy. Animations that feel normal to neurotypical users feel slow to ADHD users. The completion celebration is front-loaded: peak visual impact occurs within the first 600ms. Mikami et al. (2007) established that reward delay devaluation occurs rapidly in ADHD populations — a celebration that takes 2 seconds to reach its peak has already lost reinforcing power.
Toplak, M.E., Dockstader, C., & Tannock, R. (2006). Temporal information processing in ADHD. Journal of Neuroscience Methods, 151(1), 15–29.
Mikami, A.Y., et al. (2007). Social skills differences among ADHD types. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 35(4), 535–546.
06Completion celebration
Skinner's variable ratio schedule produces the highest and most persistent response rates of any reinforcement schedule. Ahora's three-tier celebration system (standard ~70%, enhanced ~20%, peak ~10%) implements this directly. ADHD brains have measurably lower dopamine receptor density in the prefrontal cortex — the completion celebration is designed to overdeliver on reward because it is compensating for a neurological difference, not decorating an interaction. The pulse animation fires exactly once: WCAG 2.3.1 prohibits content that flashes more than 3 times per second in a large area.
Skinner, B.F. (1957). Schedules of Reinforcement. Appleton-Century-Crofts.
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1. W3C Recommendation, 2018.
07Task initiation
Gollwitzer's research found that forming a specific "when-then" plan reduces initiation failure by up to 300% in experimental conditions. This is why Ahora's daily check-in notification asks "When will you work on [task] today?" — the specificity of time commitment is the mechanism, not the reminder itself. Brown (2005) documents initiation failure as the most functionally impairing aspect of ADHD executive dysfunction. The Now Screen exists because of this: it answers one question — what am I doing right now — rather than presenting a list that triggers overwhelm.
Gollwitzer, P.M. (1999). Implementation intentions: Strong effects of simple plans. American Psychologist, 54(7), 493–503.
Brown, T.E. (2005). Attention Deficit Disorder: The Unfocused Mind in Children and Adults. Yale University Press.
08Priority system
Zelazo & Müller (2002) established that categorization uses different and less impaired neural pathways than sequencing. Asking an ADHD user to rank tasks within a tier requires exactly the cognitive function most impaired by their condition. Ahora uses three tiers — Top, Normal, Someday — with no within-tier ordering. Three tiers is the research-supported sweet spot: two is too coarse, five or more overwhelms ADHD decision-making per Schwartz's Paradox of Choice and Hick's Law.
Zelazo, P.D., & Müller, U. (2002). Executive function in typical and atypical development. In Blackwell Handbook of Childhood Cognitive Development, 445–469.
Schwartz, B. (2004). The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less. HarperCollins.
Hick, W.E. (1952). On the rate of gain of information. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 4(1), 11–26.
09No streaks
Dodson's clinical review documents Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria (RSD) in ADHD adults — a heightened emotional response to perceived failure. Many ADHD individuals carry significant shame from years of being labeled lazy. A streak counter is a shame machine: "Your 14-day streak is broken" delivers exactly the failure signal that triggers RSD and causes app abandonment. Ahora shows no streaks, no completion percentages, no comparative metrics. Only cumulative effort: total time spent, total tasks completed. Kahneman and Tversky's prospect theory reinforces this — losses feel approximately twice as large as equivalent gains.
Dodson, W.W. (2016). Rejection sensitive dysphoria and ADHD. ADDitude Magazine (clinical review).
Kahneman, D., & Tversky, A. (1979). Prospect theory: An analysis of decision under risk. Econometrica, 47(2), 263–291.
10Gestures & touch
Wobbrock et al. (2009) found that 7±2 is the learnable gesture set for intuitive interfaces. Ahora's gesture inventory contains exactly 7 distinct gestures with no conflicts. Fitts' Law establishes the mathematical relationship between target size, distance, and movement time — on mobile screens under distraction, precise positional drag creates errors. This informed removing within-tier drag reordering and setting 64px minimum touch targets for primary actions.
Wobbrock, J.O., Morris, M.R., & Wilson, A.D. (2009). User-defined gestures for surface computing. CHI '09, 1083–1092.
Fitts, P.M. (1954). The information capacity of the human motor system. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 47(6), 381–391.
11Habit formation
Bouton's research on context-dependent learning established that environmental cues become associated with behavioral states through repetition. Every time a user opens Ahora and successfully focuses, the amber-on-dark visual identity gains associative power as a conditioned stimulus. Internal cues — remembering to check your task list — require working memory, exactly the cognitive resource ADHD impairs. External cues are not a design convenience; they are a neurological necessity. This is the rationale for home screen install, daily check-in notifications, and re-engagement notifications at 5 days.
Bouton, M.E. (2004). Context and behavioral processes in extinction. Learning & Memory, 11(5), 485–494.
Zeigarnik, B. (1927). Über das Behalten von erledigten und unerledigten Handlungen. Psychologische Forschung, 9, 1–85.
Kleitman, N. (1963). Sleep and Wakefulness (revised ed.). University of Chicago Press.
Ariga, A., & Lleras, A. (2011). Brief and rare mental breaks keep you focused. Cognition, 118(3), 439–443.
Evidence summary
Timer as primary experience — Barkley 2015 — time blindness
Stopwatch mode — Barkley 1997 — external scaffolding
Countdown mode — Barkley 2015 — artificial urgency
Amber #F5A623 primary color — Berridge & Waterhouse 2003 — LC-NE activation
Warm dark background #12100F — Cajochen et al. 2011 — blue light
Red restricted to destruction only — LeDoux 1996 — threat arousal
8 project colors maximum — Healey 1996 — pre-attentive discrimination
17px minimum body text — Legge & Bigelow 2011 — mobile readability
0.05em body tracking — Rello & Baeza-Yates 2013 — dyslexia/ADHD
JetBrains Mono for timer — Posner & Petersen 1990 — superior colliculus
Animation durations compressed ~30% — Toplak et al. 2006 — ADHD temporal processing
Front-loaded celebration (600ms) — Mikami et al. 2007 — reward delay devaluation
Variable 70/20/10 celebration tiers — Skinner 1957 — variable ratio reinforcement
Single completion pulse (not 3) — WCAG 2.3.1 — photosensitivity
"When will you work on X?" notification — Gollwitzer 1999 — implementation intentions
Now Screen answers one question — Brown 2005 — initiation failure
Three-tier priority (not ranked) — Zelazo & Müller 2002 — categorization vs sequencing
No streaks anywhere — Dodson 2016 — rejection sensitive dysphoria
No task count on projects — Kahneman & Tversky 1979 — loss aversion
Accumulated time on paused tasks — Zeigarnik 1927 — tension and motivation
90-minute session maximum — Kleitman 1963 — ultradian rhythms
25-minute default preset — Ariga & Lleras 2011 — break effectiveness
7 gestures maximum — Wobbrock et al. 2009 — learnable gesture set
64px primary touch targets — Fitts 1954 — motor precision under distraction
Home screen install encouraged — Bouton 2004 — conditioned stimulus
This methodology was developed collaboratively drawing on cognitive neuroscience, behavioral psychology, UX research, interaction design, and clinical accessibility standards. Every design decision has a scientific rationale traceable to peer-reviewed literature.
Ahora is free because focus shouldn't cost anything. The research is cited because the claims should be verifiable.