Permissions for third-party accounts and browser extensions

A central goal of Paperpile is to improve your productivity by showing up where you already spend time doing real research work—whether that’s in the browser, on a mobile device, or more recently, working with AI assistants and agents.

That's why Paperpile connects to your Google or Microsoft accounts, provides mobile apps for your phone or tablet, and interacts with a variety of external systems to help you in your daily research.

Paperpile adheres to the principle of least privilege when requesting permissions through our browser extensions in Chrome, Safari, Edge and other compatible browsers.

If a permission requested by Paperpile seems overly broad, it is usually the case that the host system or product does not support a more narrowly-defined permission that would support the user experience required for Paperpile to function correctly.

Privacy policy

We only access information from your Google Account or other external systems as described in our Privacy Policy.

We limit the access to your identity provider as much as technically possible and only access information with a well defined purpose.

Sign-in and passwords

Users may sign in to Paperpile via their Google or Microsoft account. Paperpile follows the guidelines provided by Google and Microsoft for the secure OAuth 2.0 authentication and authorization protocol. At no time does Paperpile have access to, or store, any passwords associated with your upstream identity provider.

Google Accounts

If you choose to sign-in to Paperpile via your Google account, you will be asked explicitly to grant permission to access certain information and services associated with this Google account. Paperpile never has access to any of your account information unless you give us access at this point. You can review the permissions and choose to deny access. Also, you can revoke the access at any later point here: https://www.google.com/settings/account.

For general information about third party access to your Google account, see: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/14012355

Permissions for different Paperpile services

Web application

You can use our web application at https://paperpile.com to organize your academic literature. You will be asked for the following permissions:

• View your email address and basic profile info: We use your email address to identify you and to communicate with you as outlined in the Privacy Policy. We use your name and profile picture to personalize the experience for you and identify you to others when you choose to share content. Of course we do not share your email with anyone.
• View and manage Google Drive files and folders that you have opened or created with this app: Paperpile uploads PDFs of articles and other files to your Google Drive. Paperpile cannot access any other of your personal Google Docs or Files except those you have uploaded with Paperpile.

Optional and asked separately only when you are using our sharing features:

• View your contacts: It helps you to share content with your colleagues (for example, by quickly sending them an article by email or inviting them to shared folders). We never transfer your contacts on our servers (they remain on your local computer) and we never send emails to your contacts unless explicitly initiated by you.

Browser extension

Paperpile works best when you also install the Paperpile browser extension. This integration provides critical functionality for the web application (for example, downloading PDF articles from websites and storing files locally for fast access). Our browser extension requires the following permissions:

• Read and change all your data on the websites you visit (http://* and https://*). One of Paperpile's core functions is to import bibliographic data and PDF files from websites (e.g. PubMed or Google Scholar). That's only possible if Paperpile can read the information on websites you are visiting. No information other than the bibliographic data you want to add to your library is accessed or transmitted to our servers.
• Read your browsing history (tabs): To manage the workflow between tabs, Paperpile needs access to the URLs opened in your tabs (for example, switch between the Paperpile web app and the PDF viewer; interact with databases such as PubMed or Google Scholar). Your browsing history remains on your computer and is not transferred to our servers.
• Modify data you copy and paste (clipboardWrite): Enables you to copy and paste citations from the Paperpile web application to other applications. The information you copy and paste remains on your computer and is never transferred to our servers.
• webRequest and webRequestBlocking: Enables Paperpile to download bibliographic data and PDF files from publishers' websites.
• storage: Enables Paperpile to save various application settings.
• unlimitedStorage: Enables Paperpile to save your library of downloaded PDFs locally for fast access. You can always clean up locally saved files in Settings.
• contextMenus: Enables Paperpile to import papers via a right-click on hyperlinks.

See Save to Paperpile with the extension popup for more information.

Google Docs citations

Our Google Docs integration allows you to format citations and bibliographies in your Google Documents. When you first use this integration, you are asked to grant the following permissions to your Google Drive account:

• View and manage your Google Docs documents: Paperpile needs access to your document so it can read the citations you added and insert a bibliography.
• Connect to an external service: The bibliography is created on Paperpile's server, so the integration sends citation codes to our servers (which from Google’s perspective is an external service). We also save the identifier and name of the document to keep track of your manuscripts you manage with Paperpile. We never store the contents of your documents on our servers; they remain private to you.

See Get started with Paperpile and Google Docs for more information.

Paperpile also has a sidebar add-on for Google Docs, which serves as a backup to the primary Google Docs integration. It offers a few more functions and requires the following additional permissions:

• Display and run third-party web content in prompts and sidebars inside Google applications: That's the permission to show our add-on in your sidebar.
• View and manage the files in your Google Drive: The add-on allows you to export your documents with BibTeX and EndNote formatted citations. It writes those files to your Google Drive. The add-on only creates new files and never reads any of your existing Google Drive files.

Google Drive sync

Paperpile can sync PDFs from your library to your Google Drive account, providing easy access to your full-text articles from anywhere. When you turn on Google Drive sync, Paperpile will request the following permissions:

• See, edit, create, and delete only the specific Google Drive files you use with this app: this allows Paperpile to create and modify files within your Google Drive account. Importantly, this permission only allows Paperpile to interact with files created by our system. Paperpile cannot access or modify any data other than the PDF files that are synced with your library.

See Sync with Google Drive for more information.

OneDrive sync

Paperpile can sync PDFs from your library to OneDrive, providing easy access to your full-text articles from anywhere. When you turn on OneDrive sync, Paperpile will request the following permissions:

• Read your profile: We use your Microsoft profile information to identify your account and connect OneDrive sync to your Paperpile account.
• Maintain access to data you have given Paperpile access to: This allows Paperpile to keep OneDrive sync working in the background after you connect your Microsoft account. It does not give Paperpile any additional permissions.
• Have full access to the application’s folder: This allows Paperpile to read, create, update, and delete files in its application folder in your OneDrive. Paperpile uses this folder to sync PDFs from your library and does not need access to your personal OneDrive files outside the application folder.

See Sync with OneDrive for more details.

Mobile apps

Paperpile can also be accessed from your phone or tablet running iOS or Android.

Both mobile apps request a minimal amount of information upon installation:

• Personal info (name, email address, User IDs): Paperpile handles this information in order to associate your installed mobile app with your Paperpile profile information stored in our servers.
• App activity: Paperpile handles data about your app interactions in order to improve our product and respond to support requests.
• Diagnostic and crash data: this data helps us resolve support inquiries and resolve any problems you may encounter while using our services.