Privacy Policy

Our Commitment to Your Privacy

At CiteWise, we believe your data belongs to you. This privacy policy explains our commitment to keeping your information private and secure.

Data Storage

CiteWise stores all user data locally in your browser using IndexedDB and localStorage. This includes:

• Practice exercise progress and scores
• Saved citations
• Annotated bibliographies
• Project organization
• Practice history

Important: We do NOT store any of this data on our servers. Everything stays on your device.

What We Do NOT Collect

• We do NOT require registration or login
• We do NOT collect personal information (name, email, phone, etc.)
• We do NOT track your citations or annotations on our servers
• We do NOT sell or share any user data
• We do NOT use third-party tracking cookies

Analytics

We use Ahrefs Web Analytics to understand how visitors use our site. This analytics service:

• Collects anonymous usage data (pages visited, time on site, browser type)
• Does NOT track you across other websites
• Does NOT collect personally identifiable information
• Respects Do Not Track (DNT) browser settings

Google AdSense

Our site may display advertisements through Google AdSense. Google may use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this website or other websites. You can opt out of personalized advertising by visiting Google's Ads Settings.

Your Data Rights

Because all data is stored locally in your browser, you have complete control:

• Access: Your data is always accessible to you in the browser
• Delete: Clear your browser data or use our in-app clear storage feature
• Export: Use our export feature to download your data as JSON
• Transfer: Your data can be moved to another browser by exporting and importing

Data Retention

Your data is retained in your browser until:

• You clear your browser storage
• You use our in-app clear storage feature
• Your browser automatically clears data (based on browser settings)

We implement automatic limits to prevent excessive storage:

• Maximum 200 saved citations (oldest auto-deleted)
• Maximum 500 annotations
• Maximum 50 projects
• Maximum 500 practice history records

Third-Party Links

Our site may contain links to partner websites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of these external sites. We encourage you to review their privacy policies.

Children's Privacy

CiteWise is suitable for students of all ages. Because we do not collect any personal information, there is no special data collection for children under 13.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. Changes will be posted on this page with an updated "Last updated" date.

Security

Because your data never leaves your browser, it's protected by your device's security. We recommend:

• Using a password-protected device
• Keeping your browser updated
• Using secure networks when accessing the site
• Regularly backing up important work using our export feature

Contact

If you have questions about this privacy policy, the data we collect, or how we handle your information, please review this policy carefully. Remember: we don't collect your personal data, so all your practice and annotation work stays private in your browser.