Privacy

Pawse is a keyboard lock for Windows. It has no accounts, no ads, no analytics and no telemetry. This page covers exactly what the app and this website do with information about you.

Last updated 19 September 2026

The app

What it sees

Pawse uses a Windows keyboard hook, plus a mouse hook if you turn on mouse blocking. That lets it swallow input while the keyboard is locked and notice your unlock chord or lockphrase. It handles keys in memory as they're pressed, doesn't keep them and doesn't send them anywhere.

What it stores on your PC

• Your settings, in a file called pawse.json. This includes your unlock lockphrase, in plain text, so anyone who can read your files can read it. The lock popup also shows it on screen while locked, unless you switch that off in Settings.
• A log, only if you switch it on (it's off by default). It records what Pawse did. To help diagnose an unlock chord that won't complete, it also notes which keys were still held when a lock engaged. It never records your lockphrase.

A portable copy keeps both files next to Pawse.exe and writes nothing to the registry. An installed copy keeps them there too, or in %APPDATA%\Pawse when it can't write to its folder (a machine-wide install), and uninstalling it removes everything it created. The Microsoft Store build keeps them in its own app data folder, which Windows deletes when you uninstall it. None of it leaves your PC.

When it goes online

• Microsoft Store build: never. The Store installs and updates it.
• Installer and portable builds: only to check for updates. Out of the box that happens only when you press Check now in Settings → About, and you can choose a daily check instead. A check asks github.com which release is newest and fetches a small checksum file from pawse.at. If you then install the update, Pawse downloads it from GitHub. Like every web request, these carry your IP address. They also identify themselves as Pawse and its version, for example Pawse/0.13.0. Nothing else is sent: no ID, no settings, no usage data.
• If the .NET Desktop Runtime is missing, the minimal installer can install it through winget once you agree. That download comes from Microsoft.

This website

• No cookies, no JavaScript, no analytics, and nothing is loaded from other sites.
• Like most web servers, the servers behind pawse.at log every request: IP address, time, the page or file requested, browser user agent and referring page. Pawse's update checks are logged too.
• How long entries are kept depends on the server. The front server deletes its logs after two weeks. The web server behind it caps its log by size, not age, so at this site's traffic an entry can stay there for several months. Update checks are only in the front server's log.
• The logs are used to keep the site running and to block attacks. They aren't shared, and aren't used to track anyone.

Downloads

The installers and zips are hosted on GitHub Releases, and the Store build on the Microsoft Store. Their own privacy statements apply there: GitHub and Microsoft.

Questions and changes

Ask on GitHub. If what Pawse or this website does with your data changes, this page is updated with it. The date at the top says when that last happened.