Privacy Policy
Last updated: 2026-05-04
This privacy policy covers all GradSummit products and services, including the Mastering Research book series and the Citation Gap Finder Chrome extension. It explains what we collect, what we do with it, and what we never do.
What we never do
- Send your document content to our servers, or to any third party.
- Train AI models on your data.
- Sell, rent, or share your personal data with marketing partners.
- Store your document text anywhere outside your browser.
What we collect, by product
Citation Gap Finder (Chrome extension)
What we access: Citation Gap Finder reads the text content of your open document in Google Docs, Overleaf, or Word Online only when you click "Run Check." We do not read content automatically or in the background.
How we read your document:
- Overleaf and Word Online: we read text directly from the editor in your browser. Your document text never leaves your browser.
- Google Docs: because the modern Google Docs editor renders text to a canvas (no readable DOM), we ask Google's own plain-text export endpoint (
https://docs.google.com/document/d/.../export?format=txt) for your document text. This request is sent to Google — who already hosts your document — using your existing browser session. Your document text never reaches our servers and is never seen by any third party. This is the same operation Google offers under File → Download → Plain Text.
What we send to our servers:
- License key validation: when you have a license, we send only your license key to our validation server (a Cloudflare Worker). We do not send any document content.
- DOI validation (paid feature, opt-in): if enabled, we send DOIs you've cited to api.crossref.org for verification. We do not send any other document content.
What we store:
- Locally in your browser (IndexedDB): your license key, your trial status, and a count of issues found in your last 50 checks. No document content is stored.
- On our servers: your email address (only if you purchase a license), your license key, and your subscription status.
Payment processing: Citation Gap Finder subscriptions are processed by Stripe. When you purchase, you provide your payment information directly to Stripe — we never see or store your card details. See Stripe's Privacy Policy.
Activation emails: we send your license key to the email address you provide at checkout via Resend (our transactional email provider). The sending domain is support@gradsummit.com. See Resend's Privacy Policy.
Books (Mastering Research series)
Books in the Mastering Research series are sold and delivered by Amazon. Your purchase, billing, and delivery information is handled entirely by Amazon under their privacy policy. We do not collect or store any data about book purchases on this website.
This website (gradsummit.com)
The website itself uses Google Analytics (GA4) to count visits and understand which pages are useful. The data is aggregated and we do not associate page views with individual identities. You can opt out of Google Analytics by installing the official browser opt-out.
We do not use marketing cookies, ad-tracking pixels, or third-party trackers beyond Google Analytics.
Data retention
License records are retained for the duration of your subscription plus 12 months for accounting purposes. Aggregate analytics data follows Google Analytics' default retention.
Data deletion
For Citation Gap Finder, you can delete all locally stored data at any time by uninstalling the extension. To delete server-side data (license records, subscription history), email support@gradsummit.com with the email address on file.
Children
GradSummit's products are aimed at graduate students and academic researchers. They are not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect data from children.
International users
License records are stored in Cloudflare's global key-value storage (Workers KV), which is replicated to data centers worldwide for performance. If you are in the EU/UK and would like your data exported or deleted, email support@gradsummit.com.
Changes to this policy
If we change material aspects of this policy, we will update the "Last updated" date at the top and, for significant changes affecting paying customers, send a notification to your account email.
Contact
Questions about privacy or data: support@gradsummit.com. Replies come from a real person.