Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy applies to CheckReference, including its website, citation-verification features, accounts, checkout, and support interactions (the “Service”). The operator of the Service is referred to as “we”, “us”, or “our”.

The Service verifies bibliographic metadata for references that users already have. It does not write, generate, rewrite, or submit essays, papers, theses, assignments, or other academic work for users.

• Citation submissions. The references, DOI values, titles, author names, years, and other bibliographic text you submit for verification.
• Account information. If sign-in is enabled and you choose to sign in, we may receive your name, email address, profile image, and an account identifier from the sign-in provider.
• Usage and entitlement data. We may keep counts of citation checks, purchased verification allowances, checkout identifiers, and the information needed to enforce free and paid usage limits.
• Device and service data. Hosting and security systems may process IP address, browser information, timestamps, request metadata, error information, and cookies or similar session identifiers.
• Support information. We process the content and contact details you include when you ask for help, request a refund, or exercise a privacy right.

Citation verification is not performed entirely on your device. Your submitted references are transmitted to our server, where the Service parses the citation and prepares searches for scholarly records.

Our server sends citation queries, which may include a DOI, title, author information, year, or other portions of the submitted reference, to Crossref, OpenAlex, and Semantic Scholar when that optional provider is enabled. Those providers also receive ordinary network and request metadata and process it under their own terms and privacy policies.

Do not submit confidential, embargoed, personally sensitive, or unpublished material unless you are authorized to send it to these external services.

• Provide, score, stream, and improve citation-verification results.
• Operate accounts, usage limits, and one-time citation-check packages.
• Prevent abuse, secure the Service, diagnose errors, and maintain availability.
• Respond to support, privacy, billing, and refund requests.
• Meet legal, accounting, fraud-prevention, and dispute-resolution obligations.

If Google sign-in is enabled, Google processes the authentication request and shares the account information described above. When paid billing is enabled, this build uses Paddle Checkout. Paddle acts as the Merchant of Record or authorized reseller for eligible purchases and processes the payment details presented at checkout. We do not receive or store your complete payment-card number.

These providers operate under their own privacy notices. Transaction identifiers and purchase status may be returned to us so that we can grant access, keep records, handle refunds, and investigate payment issues.

When configured, the Service can use Google Analytics to understand aggregate visits and product usage, and Google Ads to measure whether an advertisement led to a confirmed purchase. These are separate optional purposes in our privacy choices. Personalized advertising is not enabled by this Service.

Non-essential analytics and advertising storage is denied by default. Google measurement tags are loaded only for a purpose you allow. Analytics events can include the page or feature used, whether a verification was resumed, and aggregate citation counts. They do not include submitted citation text, titles, authors, DOI values, or linked scholarly records. A purchase event is sent only after our server confirms the payment and can include the transaction identifier, order value, currency, and a generic citation-check package name. It does not include complete card details or submitted citations.

You can decline, allow, or separately choose these purposes in the consent panel. After saving a choice, use the Privacy choices control at the bottom of any page to change or withdraw it at any time. Withdrawal stops future optional events; we also attempt to remove Google measurement cookies accessible to this site. Google may retain information already received under its own retention rules and privacy notice.

The verification endpoint does not intentionally write raw citation submissions to the application account store. It processes them transiently to produce results. However, our hosting, security, and external scholarly-data providers may retain request or error logs according to their own configurations and policies.

Account, usage, billing, and support records are kept only for as long as reasonably needed to provide the Service, protect it, comply with law, resolve disputes, and keep necessary business records. Retention periods can differ by record type and provider.

We may share information only as reasonably necessary with:

• the scholarly-data, authentication, payment, hosting, and security providers described above;
• professional advisers and service providers bound by appropriate obligations;
• authorities or other parties when required by law or needed to protect rights, safety, and the Service; or
• a successor in a merger, financing, reorganization, or sale of the Service, subject to applicable law.

We do not sell submitted citations or personal information for money.

The Service and its providers may process information in countries other than your own. Privacy laws can differ between jurisdictions. Where required, we will use an available lawful transfer mechanism and apply reasonable safeguards.

Depending on your location, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, restrict, or object to certain processing, receive a portable copy, or complain to a regulator. You may also clear optional browser cookies, sign out, or choose not to submit a citation.

To make a request, contact fadedfate54@gmail.com. We may need to verify your identity before acting on a request. Some records may be retained where law or legitimate security, billing, or dispute needs require it.

We may update this policy as the Service, providers, or legal requirements change. The date at the top identifies the latest version. Material changes will be presented in a reasonably prominent way when required.

Privacy questions can be sent to fadedfate54@gmail.com.