Privacy Policy

Overview

AI Research Radar ("the app", "we", "us") is a research paper discovery tool. We take your privacy seriously. This policy explains what data we collect, how we use it, and what choices you have.

The app is operated as a personal project. We do not sell your data to any party.

1. Data We Collect

Locally on your device only (never sent to our servers):

• Papers you save to your reading list (stored in your browser's localStorage)
• Papers you have seen or skipped (stored in localStorage to avoid repeats)
• Your topic filter preference
• Your AI consent preference

Sent to our server when you use the AI chat feature:

• The text of the paper you are discussing (title, abstract, PDF text)
• Your chat messages and questions

Standard server logs:

• IP address, request path, timestamp, HTTP status code
• Retained for 30 days for security and debugging purposes

2. Third-Party AI Service — Anthropic Claude

What is shared with Anthropic:

• The full text of the research paper you are discussing
• Your chat messages (questions and follow-ups)

What is NOT shared with Anthropic:

• Your identity, email, or account information
• Your reading list or seen/skipped history
• Any data from sessions where you did not open the AI chat

Anthropic processes data in accordance with their own privacy policy. We recommend reviewing Anthropic's Privacy Policy to understand how they handle API data.

Your consent: The app will ask for your explicit consent before sending any data to Anthropic. You can revoke this consent at any time in the app settings, which will disable the AI chat feature.

3. How We Use Your Data

• AI paper analysis: Paper text and your questions are forwarded to Anthropic's Claude API to generate responses
• PDF extraction: When you open a paper in full, the PDF is fetched from arXiv on your behalf and text is extracted server-side for the chat context
• Security and abuse prevention: Server logs are used to detect and block misuse
• Debugging: Error logs help us identify and fix technical issues

We do not use your data for advertising, profiling, or any purpose not described above.

4. Data Sharing

We share data only with:

• Anthropic (Claude API) — only when you use the AI chat feature and have given consent
• Amazon Web Services — our servers run on AWS EC2 (us-east-1). Server logs and the paper database are stored here
• arXiv / Semantic Scholar — we fetch paper metadata and PDFs from these public academic APIs on your behalf

We do not share data with advertisers, data brokers, analytics companies, or any other third parties.

5. Data Storage & Retention

• Your local preferences (saved papers, seen list): Stored only on your device in localStorage. Deleted when you clear your browser/app data.
• Server logs: Retained for 30 days, then automatically deleted.
• Paper database: We maintain a database of scored research papers. This contains only publicly available academic paper metadata — no user data.
• Anthropic data: Governed by Anthropic's data retention policy. As of this writing, Anthropic does not use API data to train models by default. See Anthropic's Privacy Policy.

6. Your Rights & Choices

• Opt out of AI features: Use the consent toggle in the app. When disabled, no data is sent to Anthropic.
• Delete your local data: Clear your browser/app data to remove all locally stored preferences and reading list.
• Request data deletion: Contact us at the address below. We will delete any server logs associated with your IP within 7 days.
• Access your data: All your personal data (saved papers, preferences) is stored locally on your device and accessible directly.

If you are located in the EU, you have additional rights under GDPR including the right to data portability and the right to lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority.

7. Children's Privacy

This app is not directed at children under 13 (or under 16 in the EU/UK). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us and we will delete it.

8. Security

• All data in transit is encrypted via HTTPS/TLS
• Server-side storage is encrypted at rest (AWS EBS AES-256)
• API keys are stored in AWS SSM Parameter Store (not in code)
• Rate limiting is applied to all API endpoints to prevent abuse

9. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The "last updated" date at the top will reflect any changes. For material changes, we will display a notice in the app. Continued use after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.