QuirenPrivacy
Stowo Privacy Policy
Last updated: September 15, 2026
Stowo is a Windows app that helps you focus by hiding and restoring desktop and Start Menu shortcuts. This policy explains exactly what information Stowo handles, why, where it is kept, and what leaves your computer.
Stowo has no servers of its own. It does not use analytics or telemetry, and it does not collect usage statistics.
The website download is currently the only version we ship. Anything this policy says about the Microsoft Store version applies from the moment that version becomes available.
1. Information Stowo handles
1.1 Information that leaves your computer
Stowo talks to the internet in exactly two situations: Pro licensing, and — in the website version only — checking whether an app update exists. Nothing else about you, your apps, or your use of Stowo is sent anywhere. What each connection unavoidably reveals to the service on the other end is described in section 1.2.
When you activate, verify, or deactivate a Pro license, Stowo sends the following to Lemon Squeezy, our licensing and payment provider:
| Sent | When | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Your license key | On activation, verification, and deactivation | To identify the license being used |
| An activation ID issued by Lemon Squeezy | On verification and deactivation | To identify this specific device's activation |
Stowo does not send your computer's name or your Windows user name. Lemon Squeezy's API requires a label for each activated device; Stowo sends the fixed text Stowo (Windows), which is identical on every installation and describes neither you nor your computer.
Until you activate Pro there is no license key stored, so Stowo makes no automatic licensing requests. A request is sent when you start an activation yourself.
Verification schedule. After activation, Stowo re-checks the license with Lemon Squeezy when the app starts, roughly every 4 hours while it is running, and when your computer wakes from sleep. This is how a refunded or expired license stops granting Pro features. If your computer is offline, Stowo keeps Pro working for up to 14 days before requiring a successful check.
1.2 Connection information
Any program that contacts a server over the internet reveals the connection itself to that server. When Stowo contacts Lemon Squeezy for licensing — or, in the website version, GitHub for updates — standard network and request information can be automatically transmitted to, or observed by, that third-party service: your IP address, the time of the request, the address requested, and the user-agent string identifying the app. Those services handle that information under their own privacy policies (see section 4).
Stowo does not read your IP address, and it does not separately record or persist your IP address in its local application data.
More precisely:
- The Microsoft Store version never checks GitHub for updates (see section 4). Windows updates it through the Store instead.
- While Pro is not activated, Stowo performs no automatic license re-verification. The startup, periodic, and wake-from-sleep checks described in section 1.1 begin only once a license is active.
- If you start an activation yourself — by entering a license key, or by opening a
stowo://activation link — Stowo contacts Lemon Squeezy at that moment, whether or not Pro was active beforehand.
1.3 Payment
Stowo does not process payments and never receives your card details. Choosing to buy Pro opens Lemon Squeezy's checkout page in your normal web browser, outside of Stowo. Everything you enter there — card details, billing address, email — is handled by Lemon Squeezy under their own privacy policy, and Stowo has no access to it.
1.4 Information kept only on your computer
Stowo stores the following locally. None of it is transmitted anywhere.
- The apps you register — the display name you give them and the full file paths of their shortcuts (for example
C:\Users\<your name>\Desktop\Example.lnk). Because file paths normally contain your Windows user name, this data can identify you. - Groups, timers, and settings — your groups, any scheduled restore times, your chosen hide method, restore delay, and interface language.
- Your license key and activation ID, if you have activated Pro.
- Shortcut files Stowo has hidden, when the "move" hide method is used (see section 3).
1.5 Information Stowo reads but does not keep
To avoid hiding a shortcut for a program you are currently using, Stowo checks the list of programs running on your computer at that moment. This list is read locally, used immediately, and never stored or transmitted.
Stowo also reads the locations of your Desktop and Start Menu folders in order to find shortcuts. These paths stay on your computer.
1.6 Logs
Stowo does not write log files. Diagnostic messages exist in the code for development, but a normal installed copy does not record them anywhere.
2. Where your data is stored
The location depends on which version of Stowo you installed.
| Version | Location |
|---|---|
| Microsoft Store | Inside the app's own storage area, managed by Windows |
| Downloaded from our website | %APPDATA%\Stowo |
The website version also keeps the shortcut files it hides under that same folder, in %APPDATA%\Stowo\backups.
The Microsoft Store version uses a recovery folder instead:
C:\Users\<your name>\Stowo RecoveryThis folder holds shortcut files Stowo has moved out of the way, plus a plain-text record (recovery-index.json) of where each one belongs. Its purpose is described in section 3.
3. The Stowo Recovery folder, and why it stays (Microsoft Store version)
This section applies to the Microsoft Store version only. The website version keeps hidden shortcuts in %APPDATA%\Stowo\backups and does not create a separate recovery folder.
When Stowo hides a shortcut using the "move" method, the shortcut file itself is moved into the recovery folder. That file is the only copy. The recovery folder also records the original location of each moved shortcut so it can be put back.
This folder is deliberately kept outside the app's own storage, and it is not removed when Stowo is uninstalled. If it were deleted along with the app, any shortcut still hidden at that moment would be lost permanently. Keeping it is a safeguard against losing your files.
You can delete this folder yourself at any time. Before you do, restore everything you have hidden, so that no shortcut is left only inside it. Once Stowo shows nothing as hidden, the folder contains nothing you need and can be deleted like any other folder.
If you reinstall the Microsoft Store version and shortcuts are still hidden, Stowo will notice this folder and offer to put them back.
4. Third parties
Lemon Squeezy — licensing and payment. Our licensing and payment provider, and the Merchant of Record for Stowo Pro. Receives the information listed in section 1.1 when you activate, verify, or deactivate a license, plus whatever you enter at their checkout page in your browser. Lemon Squeezy's own privacy policy states that it may also automatically collect your IP address and standard technical information about the request. See the Lemon Squeezy Privacy Policy.
GitHub — update checks, website version only. The version downloaded from our website asks GitHub whether a newer release exists, at startup and roughly every 4 hours, and downloads the update file from GitHub when there is one. Stowo sends no account, license, or usage information with these requests. As the service hosting those files, GitHub may process your IP address, device, and request metadata under its own privacy statement. The Microsoft Store version never makes these requests — Windows updates it through the Store instead.
Microsoft — Store distribution. If you installed Stowo from the Microsoft Store, Microsoft distributes and updates the app. Any information Microsoft collects in doing so is Microsoft's own processing, governed by the Microsoft Privacy Statement rather than by this policy. Stowo itself does not send Microsoft information about you or about how you use the app.
We do not sell your information, and we do not share it with anyone beyond what is described here.
5. Your choices
- Deactivate Pro on this PC — in Settings. This removes your license key and activation ID from your computer and releases the activation with Lemon Squeezy so you can use it on another PC. If the license has been disabled on Lemon Squeezy's side, their server can refuse this request. Stowo then tells you so and, only if you confirm, removes the license information stored on this PC — but the activation recorded on their server may remain in use, and Stowo cannot release it for you.
- Remove a registered app — in the app list. Stowo restores any shortcuts it hid for that app first, then forgets it.
- Delete the recovery folder — see section 3.
- Uninstall Stowo — see section 6.
6. What happens when you uninstall
| Version | Removed | Kept |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Store | The app's storage area, including registered apps, settings, and your license key | The Stowo Recovery folder |
| From our website | The program files | %APPDATA%\Stowo |
If you want nothing left behind, restore all hidden shortcuts first, then delete the folders listed under "Kept" after uninstalling.
Deactivating your license before uninstalling also removes it from your computer and frees the activation for another PC — except where the license has been disabled on Lemon Squeezy's side, as described in section 5. Records held by Lemon Squeezy about your purchase are governed by their privacy policy, not this one.
7. Children
Stowo is not directed at children and does not knowingly handle information from them.
8. Contact
Questions about this policy or about your data:
9. Changes to this policy
If this policy changes, the updated version will be published at this same address with a new "Last updated" date. Changes that affect what information Stowo sends or stores will also be noted in the app's release notes.