Privacy Policy
Last updated: June 2025
1. Information We Collect
CitationShield collects minimal information necessary to operate the service. When you create an account, we collect your email address. When you use the iOS app, Apple provides us with a pseudonymous subscriber ID for subscription management. We do not collect your name, address, or payment information — all billing is handled by Apple.
2. Document Processing
When you upload a brief or document for citation verification, the document is transmitted over TLS 1.3 encryption to our processing servers. The document is processed in an isolated, ephemeral compute environment. Upon completion of verification, the document and all extracted citation text are permanently deleted from our systems. We do not store, log, or retain any document content after the verification session ends.
3. AI Model Training
We do not use your documents, citations, or any content from your briefs to train, fine-tune, or evaluate AI models. Your legal documents are never used as training data. This is a hard architectural constraint, not a policy subject to change.
4. Data We Retain
We retain: your email address (for account management and support), your subscription status (received from Apple), aggregate usage statistics (number of verifications, not content), and verification result summaries (citation count, pass/fail counts — not the citations themselves). We do not retain: document content, citation text, extracted case names, or any content from your briefs.
5. Apple In-App Purchases
All subscription billing is handled by Apple through the App Store. CitationShield does not process, store, or have access to your payment card information. Apple's Privacy Policy governs the collection and use of payment information.
6. Data Security
All data in transit is encrypted using TLS 1.3. All data at rest is encrypted using AES-256. Our processing infrastructure is hosted on SOC 2 Type II certified cloud providers. Access to production systems is restricted to authorized personnel and logged.
7. Third-Party Services
CitationShield queries CourtListener and Westlaw APIs to verify citations. These queries contain only the citation text (e.g., '556 U.S. 662') — never your document content or identifying information. We also use Loops.so for email communications if you opt into our mailing list.
8. Your Rights
You may request deletion of your account and associated data at any time by emailing privacy@citationshield.com. We will delete your account and all associated data within 30 days. Because we do not retain document content, there is no document data to delete.
9. Contact
For privacy questions or data deletion requests, contact: privacy@citationshield.com