Rowan

Rowan is a browser blocker for people with health anxiety. It interrupts reassurance-seeking across search engines, YouTube, browser AI tools, and the health sites you choose to block.

For many people with health anxiety, symptom searching becomes a reassurance loop. One search turns into another. One AI prompt becomes five reworded versions of the same question. Rowan is designed to add friction at that point.

When Rowan detects reassurance-seeking or symptom research, it blocks the search before results load, the prompt before it sends, or the chosen site before it opens. You can close the tab, delay the search with a timer, or open help options.

WHAT IT COVERS

• Search: Google, Bing, Brave, DuckDuckGo, and YouTube search
• Browser-based AI tools where Rowan can detect prompts before they send
• Image prompts inside supported browser AI tools
• Sites you choose to block, including health sites, forums, pages, and subreddits

WHAT IT DOES NOT COVER

• Clear emergency-action searches, such as CPR, EpiPen, overdose, or choking instructions
• Mental health crisis support, such as crisis lines, suicide hotlines, and self-harm help
• Standalone desktop apps
• Mobile browsers
• Individual YouTube videos opened directly, unless you block YouTube yourself

HOW IT WORKS

Rowan uses a local rules engine, not AI. Detection runs locally in your browser, with no account, no server, no analytics, and no third-party tracking.

Because Rowan is built for people with health anxiety who are actively trying to stop using the internet for reassurance, it leans heavily towards blocking anything that appears to be symptom searching or reassurance seeking. This means false positives can happen.

Rowan keeps a small local event log so you can see your own patterns on the Data page. It stores broad themes, not the full search or prompt text. You can clear this activity any time.

The block screen gives you three choices: close the tab, start a delay timer, or open help options. The timer is 5 minutes by default and can be changed in settings.

WHY THERE IS A TIMER

Rowan is built on principles from CBT for health anxiety. Reducing reassurance-seeking is one of the core mechanisms. The timer puts a delay between wanting to search and acting on it, long enough that the need to check may pass.

Rowan is a blocker, not therapy. It does not replace seeing a doctor or mental health professional.

PRICING

Rowan is £9.99 one-time. There is no subscription and no recurring charge. One licence includes 2 activations, one per browser install.

PRIVACY

Nothing leaves your device during detection. Rowan has no account system, no analytics, no server, and no third-party trackers. The only permissions requested are the ones needed to run the blocker, save your settings locally, close a tab when you ask it to, and validate your licence key.

English only for now. The detection engine works on English text regardless of location.

Links:
• Help & FAQs: https://getrowan.app/help
• Privacy policy: https://getrowan.app/privacy
• Terms: https://getrowan.app/terms
• Support: support@getrowan.app