Privacy Policy — OpenLeaf

Last updated: March 14, 2026

Summary

OpenLeaf does not collect, store, or transmit any personal data. Everything stays in your browser.

Document text from your Overleaf editor — read locally in the browser to extract paragraphs for citation search and paper review. This text is never sent to any server controlled by the developer.
API keys you configure in the extension options — stored locally in your browser via chrome.storage.sync. These are only used to authenticate requests to the services you choose to configure (e.g., Semantic Scholar, OpenRouter, Ollama).

When you click "Find Citations", extracted keywords (not your full document) are sent as search queries to:

Semantic Scholar (semanticscholar.org) — receives search query keywords. Subject to the Semantic Scholar API Terms.
OpenAlex (openalex.org) — receives search query keywords. Free, open academic data. Subject to OpenAlex Terms.
Serper (serper.dev) — receives search query keywords (only if you provide a Serper API key). Subject to Serper Terms.

When you use "Review Paper" or citation ranking, document text is sent to:

Your configured LLM endpoint (e.g., Ollama, OpenRouter, OpenAI) — receives paragraph text or full document content for ranking and review. This goes to whatever LLM service you choose and configure.

Important details:

The extension strips LaTeX commands and extracts only key terms before sending search queries — your raw document is not sent to search APIs.
All requests go directly from your browser to the respective APIs. The developer has no server and never sees any of this data.
If you use Ollama (the default), the LLM calls stay entirely on your machine — no data leaves your device for ranking or review.
Each third-party API is subject to its own privacy policy and terms of service.

Extension settings (API keys, model name, base URL) — stored in chrome.storage.sync (encrypted, synced across your Chrome profile)
Cached results (citation suggestions, reviews) — stored in chrome.storage.local per project, cleared when you click "Clear"

For questions about this privacy policy, open an issue at github.com/demfier/openleaf.