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How to hide a website from your time record on a Mac

· 6 min read

Some sites are nobody’s business: your bank, a health portal, a job search you have not mentioned at work. The surest way to keep one off a time record is to make sure the record never reads it, and with Punchcard that means a private window, which is never read. If a site is already recorded, Punchcard’s “Hide a website…” keeps it off receipts, streaks and the past-days list, but the record stays in the local file until you delete it. Here is each option in order, and exactly what it leaves behind.

First, decide what “hidden” has to mean

“Hide” can mean three different things, and the options below do not all do the same one:

  1. Never recorded. The site’s name is never read, so there is nothing to find later.
  2. Not printed. The site may be in the record, but it does not appear on the receipt you look at, post or share.
  3. Deleted. Something that was recorded is removed from the Mac.

With Punchcard, a private window gives you the first and Hide a website gives you the second. Only a delete gives you the third. If you post your receipts or share them with a team, the second may be all you need. If the worry is someone with access to your Mac, you want the first or third.

Option one: a private window, so the address is never read

Open the site in a private window: Incognito in Chrome, InPrivate in Edge, a Private window in Brave or Vivaldi. Punchcard never reads any of them. Before it asks a browser for an address, it asks for the window’s mode, and it requests the address only when the browser answers “normal”. Brave’s Private window with Tor, Brave’s Guest window and Edge’s Guest window report as private too, and we tested each of them.

The time is not lost. It stays on the browser’s own line, with no site attached.

You can check what your own window reports. In Terminal:

osascript -e 'tell application "Google Chrome" to get mode of window 1'

Window 1 is the browser’s front window. With a private window in front it prints incognito; with a normal one, normal. For the other browsers, replace the name with “Brave Browser”, “Microsoft Edge” or “Vivaldi”. The first time, macOS asks whether Terminal may control that browser; you can switch that off again afterwards in System Settings, Privacy & Security, Automation.

Two limits. A private window is private from Punchcard because of how Punchcard asks; other software on the same Mac may read the browser another way. Chrome extensions, for example, are off in Incognito windows unless “Allow in Incognito” is turned on for that extension, so check what yours are allowed. Does your time tracker see incognito windows? walks through how to check any tool. And a private window forgets its history and cookies when you close it, so you sign in every time.

Option two: Hide a website in Punchcard

If you want itemized browsing for work and only certain sites kept off the paper, hide them. With “Itemize websites” on, Punchcard’s Settings has a “Hide a website…” menu:

  1. Open Punchcard’s Settings and click “Hide a website…”.
  2. Pick the site from the list. The menu shows sites Punchcard has seen recently, so one you have been using is often right there.
  3. If it is not listed, choose “Type a website…”, enter it, and click Hide.

You can type the site name (bank.com), paste a full address, or use a wildcard (*.bank.com). Hiding bank.com also hides its subdomains, such as secure.bank.com, so the short name is usually the one to use. If what you typed is not a site, Punchcard says “That doesn’t look like a website. Try something like bank.com.” When nothing at all is hidden, Settings says “Everything gets printed. Add an app or a website to keep it off the receipt.”

The short name works because Punchcard only ever keeps the host part of an address, lower-cased and without a leading www. An address like https://www.Bank.com/accounts?id=123 is kept as bank.com. There is no path, search term or page title to hide, because none was ever stored. What a site name reveals, and what a full URL would give away explains why that difference matters, and what a site name on its own still says about you.

What hiding does, and what it does not

Hiding changes what Punchcard shows. It does not change what Punchcard stored.

  • Off receipts. The site is left off the receipt that prints at closing time, which is also what you export as a PNG or copy as text.
  • Off streaks and the past-days list. It does not surface there either.
  • Still in the local file. The record stays in Punchcard’s one SQLite file, ~/Library/Application Support/Punchcard/punchcard.sqlite, until you delete it. Anyone who can sign in to your Mac account and open that file could find the site name.
  • Not in copies you already made. A receipt exported or copied before you hid the site is a separate file that hiding does not reach.

The CSV export has one row per session, with the site when itemized browsing is on. Before you send an export to anyone, open it and read the site column.

To take things out of the file, “Burn the roll” deletes everything Punchcard has recorded. Export anything you want to keep first, and remember that the export is now the copy to look after. How to delete everything an app knows about you covers the rest of a full removal: the app itself, its preferences and its permission grants.

Hide a whole browser, or stop itemizing

Sometimes a site is the wrong unit. If you keep one browser for personal life, hide the browser itself: with it open, choose it from “Hide an app…” in Settings. Hiding an app that is a browser hides every site seen in it, so you can itemize work in Chrome while, say, Brave stays off the receipt entirely.

If you would rather Punchcard not read addresses at all, there are two switches:

  • Turn off “Itemize websites” in Settings. From then on, browser time is one line per browser, the way Punchcard works out of the box. Sites already recorded stay in the file until you delete them.
  • Revoke one browser. In System Settings, Privacy & Security, Automation, find Punchcard and switch off the browser in question. Automation is stored per pair of apps, so revoking Chrome leaves Brave as it was. Punchcard’s Settings then shows that browser as Blocked, with a Fix in Settings button if you change your mind.

If you want macOS to ask again from scratch, tccutil reset AppleEvents app.punchcard.mac in Terminal resets Punchcard’s Automation decisions.

Which option fits

  • A site you visit now and then and never want recorded: a private window.
  • A site you use for work but do not want printed or posted: Hide a website.
  • A whole side of your life that runs in its own browser: Hide an app, on that browser.
  • No browser addresses at all: leave “Itemize websites” off. It is off by default.
  • Something already recorded that must leave the Mac: Burn the roll, after exporting what you want to keep.

Questions

Does a private window hide the site from everything on my Mac? No. Private browsing stops the browser keeping history and cookies after you close the window. It does not stop other software on the same Mac from asking the browser what is open. Punchcard checks the window’s mode first; other tools may not.

If I hide bank.com, does that cover secure.bank.com? Yes. Hiding a site covers its subdomains, so the shortest name is usually the right one to type.

Can I just use Safari for private errands? As far as Punchcard goes, yes. It does not itemize Safari at all, so Safari time is one line with no sites. Screen Time is a separate record, though, and its website list covers Safari. You can see what it holds in System Settings, Screen Time, App & Website Activity.