Privacy Policy

What we collect

When you submit a link, our server records the article URL you paste, your IP address, your browser's User-Agent, the referring page, a short-lived session identifier, and a timestamp. This is standard web-server logging used to operate the service, prevent abuse, and understand usage.

We also log the outcome of each request at the domain level (e.g. "nytimes.com — reader view — success") along with how long it took, so we can measure and improve reliability. If you tap 👍/👎 on a result, we store that vote with the URL.

We keep an aggregate, per-day count of page visits to gauge traffic. Once per visit we also record where you arrived from — the referring website, the entry page, any campaign tags in the link (UTM), and your browser's language — so we can understand which sources and languages our visitors come from. This is associated with the short-lived session identifier, not with your identity, and search-engine crawlers are excluded.

Cookies & local storage

We set one functional cookie: a PHP session cookie used for security (CSRF protection) and rate-limiting. It is not used for advertising or cross-site tracking.

Your reading preferences (text size, reading width) are stored locally in your browser (localStorage) and never sent to us.

Analytics

We use Google Analytics 4 to understand aggregate traffic. It runs with Consent Mode v2, IP anonymization enabled, and advertising signals denied. Because our audience commonly uses ad/track blockers, analytics captures only a fraction of real traffic.

Advertising

The site is not currently monetized with ads. If we add advertising (e.g. Google AdSense) in future, third-party ad cookies may be used, and visitors in the EU/EEA and UK will be shown a consent choice before any such cookies are set. This policy will be updated before ads go live.

Third-party pages and archives

To show an article, we fetch it server-side and, for the reader view, extract the text; for the full-page view we display a script-stripped copy in a sandboxed frame. We also query public archives (archive.today, the Internet Archive / Wayback Machine). Those third parties have their own privacy practices, which we don't control.

How we use and share data

We use the data above only to operate, secure, and improve RemovePaywall. We do not sell personal data. We may disclose information if required by law.

Data retention

To operate and protect the service we log requests, then prune them automatically: your IP address is anonymized after 30 days, and raw request logs are deleted after 12 months. Domain-level outcome statistics (which power our live per-site success rates) and aggregate daily visit counts contain no personal data and may be kept longer.

Your choices

You can browse with an ad/tracker blocker (analytics and any future ads will be blocked), clear the session cookie by closing your browser, and reset reading preferences by clearing site data. You may contact us to ask what we hold about a given request.

Children

RemovePaywall is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their data.

Changes & contact

We may update this policy; material changes will be reflected here with a new date. Questions or requests: hello@removepaywall.co.