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Privacy Policy

How we protect your privacy and data

Last Updated: November 5, 2025

Our Privacy Commitment

CiteFast is built with privacy as a core principle. We believe your academic work and citation data should remain private and under your control.

Data We Collect

Short answer: None.

CiteFast does not collect, store, or transmit any personally identifiable information (PII) to our servers.

How Your Data is Stored

All citation data, including:

  • Generated citations
  • Citation history
  • Bibliography entries
  • Form inputs

...is stored exclusively in your web browser using:

  • IndexedDB for bibliography and citation history (via Dexie)
  • sessionStorage for temporary form data

This means:

  • ✅ Your data never leaves your device
  • ✅ We cannot access your citations
  • ✅ Your data is not backed up to cloud servers
  • ✅ Clearing your browser data will delete all saved citations

Auto-Fill Features

When you use our URL/ISBN/DOI auto-fill features:

  • We fetch publicly available metadata from the source URL or public APIs (Google Books, CrossRef, etc.)
  • These requests are made server-side to avoid CORS issues
  • We do not log or store the URLs, ISBNs, or DOIs you look up
  • The fetched metadata is sent directly to your browser and not retained

Third-Party Services

Analytics: We use Ahrefs Web Analytics to understand how our site is used. This service does not track individual users or collect PII.

No AI Processing: CiteFast does not send your citation data to any AI services. All citation formatting is done client-side in your browser using open-source formatting rules.

Cookies

CiteFast does not use cookies. We use browser IndexedDB and sessionStorage instead, which provides similar functionality without tracking across websites.

Data Retention

Since all data is stored locally in your browser:

  • You control retention: Data persists until you clear it or delete browser data
  • No server-side retention: We don't store any user data on our servers
  • History limit: Citation history is automatically limited to 50 entries (oldest entries are removed)

Your Rights

Since we don't collect your data, there's nothing for us to:

  • Delete (it's already only on your device)
  • Export (you can copy citations anytime)
  • Correct (you have full control in your browser)

Security

While we don't store your data, we still take security seriously:

  • All connections use HTTPS encryption
  • Our site is hosted on Vercel with enterprise-grade security
  • Regular security updates to our codebase

Shared Computers

⚠️ Important:

If you use CiteFast on a shared or public computer:

  • Your citations will be stored in that browser
  • Other users of that computer could access your citation history
  • Always clear your browser data when finished, or use private/incognito mode

Changes to Privacy Policy

We will update this policy if our data practices change. The "Last Updated" date at the top will reflect any modifications.

Compliance

CiteFast complies with:

  • General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) - No data collection means no GDPR obligations
  • California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) - We do not sell user data (because we don't collect it)
  • Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) - No data collection from users of any age

Summary

  • What we collect: Nothing
  • What we store: Nothing
  • What we sell: Nothing
  • What you control: Everything (in your browser)

CiteFast is designed to be a simple, fast, privacy-respecting citation generator. Your academic integrity and privacy matter to us.