Reader — Privacy Policy

Last updated: 22 September 2026. This policy covers the paper reader at saurav717.github.io/reader/ — “the app” below — and nothing else on this site.

The short version

The app is a static web page. There is no server behind it, no account to make and no database anywhere holding your library. Your papers, highlights and settings are stored by your own browser, on your own device. If you connect Google Drive, the app writes copies into your Drive — and no one else, myself included, can see any of it.

What the app stores, and where

In this browser. The papers you collect, your highlights and notes, your reading progress and your settings are kept in the browser’s own storage (IndexedDB and localStorage) on the device you are using. They are not synced anywhere by default and they are not sent to me. Clearing this site’s data in your browser deletes all of it.

In your Google Drive, only if you connect it. Each paper you add is saved as a PDF plus a JSON file of its details and your highlights, under My Drive/Paper Reader/<collection>/. These are ordinary files in your own Drive: you can read, move or delete them yourself at any time, and deleting them there does not need this app.

In a Git repository, only if you configure one. The app can optionally mirror your notes and bibliography to a repository you name, using a token you supply. The token is stored in this browser like every other setting and is sent only to GitHub.

What the app receives from Google

Signing in is optional; the app works without it. There are two separate consents, asked at different times:

Access tokens live in the page’s memory and are gone when the tab closes. The app has no backend, so it cannot hold a refresh token and cannot act on your account when you are not using it. Sign out revokes the token; you can also withdraw access at any time at myaccount.google.com/permissions.

Limited Use. The app’s use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. Google user data is used only to provide the features described above. It is never sold, never used for advertising, never used to train any model, and never transferred to anyone except as needed to provide those features or as required by law.

What the app sends elsewhere

Searching and opening papers means talking to the places papers live. Your search terms and the identifiers of papers you open are sent to whichever of these answers the request:

• arXiv, OpenAlex, Semantic Scholar, Crossref and Unpaywall, for search results and metadata;
• Google (accounts.google.com, googleapis.com), for sign-in and Drive;
• Google Fonts, for the typefaces the page uses;
• a PDF proxy, only if you configure one in Settings — the fetching of a paper’s file is passed through it because publishers’ servers refuse a browser directly;
• GitHub, only if you configure the mirror above.

Each of these has its own privacy policy and I have no control over what they log. Beyond those requests, the app sends nothing anywhere. It carries no analytics, no advertising and no third-party trackers of any kind, and it sets no cookies.

Deleting your data

• From this browser: clear site data for saurav717.github.io, or use the app’s own controls to remove papers and highlights.
• From Drive: delete the Paper Reader folder; nothing in the app is needed to do it.
• The connection itself: revoke it at myaccount.google.com/permissions.

There is nothing on my side to delete, because nothing about your use of the app reaches me.

Children

The app is not directed at children under 13 and collects nothing from anyone knowingly.

Changes

If this policy changes, the date at the top changes with it, and the history of every edit is public in the repository for this site.

Contact

Questions about this policy, or about the app’s use of Google user data: es16btech11007@gmail.com.