Privacy Policy

1. Information We Collect

We collect the maximum scope of information permitted under applicable law, including but not limited to:

• Directly Provided Information: Names, email addresses, billing details, communications, uploaded content, metadata, and any materials submitted through forms or interactions.
• Automated Data Collection: IP addresses, browser types, unique device identifiers, geolocation data, operating systems, internet service providers, referral URLs, interaction timestamps, keystroke patterns, and telemetry.
• Third-Party & Aggregated Sources: Demographic data, credit information, social media interactions, public records, and commercially purchased marketing datasets.

2. Broad Grant of Usage Rights

By providing data or interacting with the Services, you grant Abstractus a perpetual, worldwide, irrevocable, royalty-free, transferable, and sublicensable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, and display your data across any media now known or developed in the future.

We reserve the unrestricted right to utilize all collected data for:

• Operational execution, feature delivery, and internal analytics.
• Direct, targeted, and programmatic advertising campaigns across external platforms.
• Commercial monetization, licensing, and syndication.
• Model training, algorithmic enhancement, artificial intelligence systems, and automated decision-making engines.

3. Disclosure, Sharing, and Sale of Data

Abstractus reserves full discretion to share, transfer, monetize, or sell collected data to:

• Affiliates, parent companies, subsidiaries, and joint ventures.
• Third-party vendors, data brokers, advertising networks, and analytical partners.
• Prospective purchasers, investors, or successors in the event of an acquisition, merger, reorganization, bankruptcy, or asset sale.
• Law enforcement, regulatory bodies, or private litigants where we determine, in our sole discretion, that disclosure is required or advantageous to protect our property, assets, or legal standing.

4. No Guarantees, Warranties, or Commitments

Security: While we employ baseline standard security measures, data transmission over the internet cannot be guaranteed secure. You transmit all information at your own risk. Abstractus assumes no liability for unauthorized access, data interception, breaches, or leaks caused by third-party conduct or software vulnerabilities.

Retention: We retain collected data indefinitely or for as long as deemed commercially useful by Abstractus, without obligation to purge, archive, or isolate individual records upon account termination.

5. Disclaimer of Consumer Rights and Requests

To the fullest extent permitted by governing jurisdiction:

• We provide the Services without warranties of access, deletion, porting, or correction.
• Requests to delete, restrict, modify, or export personal data are processed at our sole discretion, except where non-waivable statutory obligations explicitly compel compliance.
• Users waive any claim against Abstractus regarding the collection, retention, transfer, or monetization of their data.

6. Unilateral Modifications

Abstractus reserves the right to amend, update, or rewrite this Privacy Policy at any time without advance or direct notice. Revised policies take effect immediately upon publication. Continued use of the Services following any modification constitutes conclusive acceptance of the updated terms.

7. Abstractus Desktop Connector and Abstractus Desktop

This section applies to the Abstractus Desktop Connector browser extension (the "Connector") and to the reference library that Abstractus Desktop keeps on your computer. For them, it applies instead of Sections 1 through 6. Your Abstractus account, and anything you choose to upload to our online services, remain covered by Sections 1 through 6.

The Connector is free, open-source software, published under the GNU Affero General Public License v3 at https://github.com/Abstractus-Development/Abstractus-Workspace, so anyone can check what it does.

• What the Connector reads: the citation details (such as title, authors, journal, year, DOI and abstract) and, where you have access, the PDF of a page you choose to save. It acts on a page only when you click its button or a save option.
• Where it goes: only to Abstractus Desktop on the same computer, over a local connection (127.0.0.1). The Connector does not send your saved papers, the pages you visit or your browsing history to Abstractus servers, and it contains no analytics, advertising or error reporting.
• Publisher sessions: to download a PDF you have access to, the Connector uses your existing cookies for that publisher's site in the request to that same site. It does not store them or send them anywhere else.
• Site translators: to recognise publisher and database pages, the Connector downloads translators from the open-source Zotero repository (repo.zotero.org) about once a day. Those requests contain none of your papers or personal information.
• Stored in your browser: the Connector's settings, a random installation ID and the key that pairs it with Abstractus Desktop. Uninstalling the Connector removes them.
• Pairing: your browser and Abstractus Desktop exchange a pairing key on your computer and sign every request between them with it. Abstractus Desktop keeps its copy encrypted on your device.
• Your library: Abstractus Desktop stores your references and PDFs on your computer. They leave your device only when you choose to add papers to an online Abstractus review, which uploads the references or PDFs you selected to our services.
• Account, licence and updates: Abstractus Desktop contacts our servers to sign you in, to activate the installation (sending your computer's name, operating system and app version) and to confirm the licence about once a day. It checks for updates at startup (on GitHub and abstractus.ai). None of these include your library.
• Other services: Abstractus Desktop 1.3.2 and later include their fonts and make no requests to Google Fonts (earlier versions loaded them from Google Fonts, which received your IP address). Abstractus Desktop uses Stripe only when you make a payment or set up billing.
• No sale: we do not sell, rent or share data handled by the Connector or held in your local library, use it for advertising, use it for any purpose other than saving papers to your library, or use it to determine creditworthiness or for lending.
• Your choices: you can delete papers from your library, disconnect a browser in Abstractus Desktop or in the Connector's settings, and uninstall either at any time. Questions: https://abstractus.ai/contact.