Privacy

Last updated: 25 October 2026.

Article links and checks

You do not need an account. Links remain in the browser page’s memory until you clear them or close it; a browser may preserve that memory when restoring a page with its Back button. Limited operational records of submitted links and interactions are retained for up to 30 days as described below.

When you press Go, your link is sent to our check endpoint and the requested publishers, archives or text-reader providers. This is necessary to look for available article text. The checking service does not log request bodies or save fetched article text. Short-lived functional caches use hashed URL keys and retain check outcomes, not article paths, query strings or article text.

Our clean reader requests public HTML without running the publisher's scripts. Its source URL initially travels in a browser fragment, which is not sent with the page request, and is removed from the address before the reader sends a POST request. Extracted text stays in page memory; there is no persistent article store. During one lookup, checked article text or discovery results may be passed to another site tab through a randomly named browser channel for up to 120 seconds. Clearing or changing the link, expiry or leaving the portal discards that transfer state. If a transfer is unavailable, the reader makes a fresh request.

Do not submit private links, password-reset links, access tokens, internal documents or URLs that contain personal information.

Technical and security information

The web host may keep ordinary access and security logs, including network addresses, request times, page paths and response codes. Article URLs are sent in request bodies rather than in the address of our check and reading endpoints. Hosting logs and their retention depend on server configuration.

For public publisher requests, the server resolves hostnames through Cloudflare DNS-over-HTTPS and verifies that addresses are public before connecting. The DNS service receives the hostname, not the article path or text. Publisher servers receive the requested article URL and our server's network information; we do not send your browser's cookies or login credentials.

When configured, automatic archive checks send the selected archive or snapshot URL to Cloudflare Browser Rendering to render the saved page. We do not send your browser's cookies or login credentials. The browser-check cache retains outcomes for a limited time, not rendered article text. Cloudflare applies its own privacy terms.

To reduce abuse, the application uses short-lived request counters identified by a hash of the connecting network address. The counters do not contain submitted article links or reading history.

The clean reader may accept publisher cookies in a temporary, server-side memory session while following redirects. They are used only for that reading request, then cleared immediately whether it succeeds or fails. They are never written to a cookie file, sent to your browser, or reused for another request. We do not click consent banners or supply subscriber credentials.

Your browser preferences

We save your light or dark appearance choice in browser local storage under the name paywall-theme. Remove it through your browser's site-data settings. The new-tab and multiple-tab checkboxes and current article options remain in page memory. We do not set an application login or advertising analytics cookie. A first-party tab-session identifier may be used for the private WebStats event stream; it is not a verified personal identity.

Your browser may independently retain browsing history and visits to services you open.

WebStats and operational analytics

PaywallRemover collects first-party usage and reliability data under its documented analytics purpose and lawful basis. Advertising consent is separate from WebStats. The private dashboard retains records for up to 30 days and uses them to understand method usage, diagnose failures and improve the reading tool.

We record page views, submitted article URLs, selected methods, completed-check outcomes, bounded timing and cache information, and reading-view renders, together with the connection IP address, capped user-agent string, approximate device category, referring URL and preferred browser language. We do not record typing or clipboard contents before submission. URL credentials and fragments are removed; query values are removed except bounded article/page IDs and language identifiers. Recognizable secret path segments and long opaque path components are redacted. A remaining article path can still reveal personal interests or contain personal information: this data is not described as anonymous.

Records are stored as daily newline-delimited files inside the project’s private runtime, outside the public web directory. Reports cover a rolling 30-day window. Expired records are removed when the statistics service next processes a request; complete site inactivity can delay physical deletion. Reports are available only to the site operator. A private dashboard and a noindex directive do not make IP addresses or submitted links non-personal information. We use the data to understand use, diagnose failures and improve reading options, not to sell visitor profiles or target advertising.

Where IP enrichment is enabled, the server sends only an IP address, never an article URL or user-agent string, to ipwho.is. Approximate country, region and city responses are cached to reduce requests. IP location can reflect a VPN, proxy, shared connection or hosting network and may be wrong. Hosting-country reports describe the resolved server’s IP location, not the nationality of a publisher. Article-language observations come from existing public-page checks where evidence is available; Unknown means it was not established.

A candidate, a rendered reading view, and qualified article-like text are different measurements. They do not establish that a visitor read a complete article, and external-tab success remains unknown.

Visitor counts based on IPs are not counts of verified people. Mobile/desktop categories are inferred from user-agent strings and can be inaccurate. WebStats reports are private to the site operator.

External services

Archives and reading services operate independently. When you open them or request a check, they may receive your article URL and technical request information. They can set their own cookies, request an account, display a browser challenge or apply usage limits. Creating a new archive capture may make the submitted page publicly accessible.

Our outgoing links use a no-referrer policy, but the article URL required by a service is still part of the destination or submission.

Review the current policies on each service before using it.

Advertising

If Google advertising is enabled, Google and its partners may process device information, network addresses, cookies and similar technologies for ad delivery, measurement and fraud prevention. Advertising preferences and consent choices are managed through the configured consent platform. PaywallRemover does not promise that third-party advertising involves no tracking.

Learn how Google uses information from sites that use its services.

Your choices

Use Clear to remove the current article from the tool, delete stored preferences through your browser, and choose whether to open external services. WebStats records follow the 30-day reporting and cleanup policy. If advertising is active, use the consent platform's privacy controls to review or change advertising choices.