Privacy
Effective July 12, 2026 - free public beta. This page describes what actually happens to your data, in plain language.
What happens to a document you check
- Transmission. When you paste text or upload a PDF/DOCX, the document is sent over HTTPS to our server, where citations are extracted. If you run CiteLedger from its open-source code on your own machine, extraction happens entirely on that machine.
- What leaves our server. Only the extracted citations themselves (for example, "550 U.S. 544") are sent to the Free Law Project's CourtListener API for verification. The text of your document - arguments, facts, client information - is never sent to CourtListener or anyone else.
- Retention. Your document is processed in memory and discarded when the check completes. We do not store uploaded documents or pasted text. Verification results are returned to your browser; the exportable ledger lives in your browser, not on our server. The server keeps only a per-check receipt (an id, a timestamp, and a hash of the result rows - no content) so exported ledgers can be verified later. Candor note: this describes our operational practice during the free beta, not a contractual warranty - firm-grade data processing agreements will come with paid tiers.
- No AI training, no AI at all. CiteLedger contains no machine-learning model. Your documents are not used to train anything, and no LLM ever sees them.
What we log
Operational counters only: number of citations checked, verdict counts, timing, and errors - never document text or citation-to-document associations. We keep a per-connection daily counter (based on IP address) to enforce beta limits; it resets daily.
Subprocessors
- Cloudflare - network proxy and TLS for citeledger.com. Traffic transits Cloudflare's network.
- Free Law Project (CourtListener) - receives extracted citations only, per their terms.
No analytics trackers, no advertising pixels, no cookies beyond what the browser needs to function.
Questions
This is a beta run by a small team. Write to the address on the terms page and a human will answer.
