Who we are
ShowPapers is made and operated by Nirbhay Pherwani and Ameya Kulkarni, its independent developers (“we” and “us”). You can reach us at hello@showpapers.app. ShowPapers is available for Android and iPhone; in this policy, “phone” also means a tablet or other device that runs ShowPapers. You do not need an account to use it, and we do not run a server that stores your documents.
The short version
- Your papers, the details read from them, your notes and your folders are stored on your phone in encrypted storage. We never receive them.
- Scanning, text recognition, reading with on-device AI and filing papers into folders all happen on your phone.
- A few things do leave your phone: usage analytics, crash reports and performance measurements, which are on from the first time you open the app until you turn them off in Settings; a small configuration check with Google Firebase, which happens even when analytics is off; a one-time download of the on-device AI model on supported phones; and any copy you choose to export, share, back up or send to an AI app.
- This website uses Google Analytics cookies to count visits and clicks. In the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland they are set only after you accept; anywhere, Cookie Settings at the bottom of each page turns them off.
- We do not sell your information, use it for advertising, or use it to track you across other companies’ apps and websites.
Your papers and notes
How your library is encrypted
ShowPapers keeps the files you add (scans, photos and PDFs), the text and details read from them, and your notes, folders, pins, reminders and the names of people you tag on your phone. They are encrypted with AES-256-GCM using keys that stay on the phone: on Android, keys held by Android Keystore; on iPhone, keys kept in the iOS Keychain for that device only. We do not run a cloud document vault, we never receive your library, and we do not use your papers to train AI models.
What stays inside a file
Each original is kept exactly as you added it, including information stored inside the file, such as the date or place a photo was taken if the file records it. Copies you export or share carry the same information.
Excluded from your phone's own backups
Your library is left out of your phone’s own backups. On Android, device and cloud backup is turned off for ShowPapers. On iPhone, the library is excluded from iCloud and computer backups, and its keys cannot move to another device. To move your library, make a ShowPapers backup, described below.
Settings stored outside the library
A few things are stored without the library’s encryption because they hold no document content or are needed before you unlock the app: settings such as appearance, reminder and App Lock choices; your analytics choice and the analytics details described below, such as the current visit’s random ID and the version first installed; whether you accepted the Terms; the app configuration described below and its installation ID; and your Ask an AI App preferences, including any Rules for What You Send text you write and a note of the copy you last sent (which app, when and how many items). On iPhone, these settings can be part of your device backups. While you import, export or share, ShowPapers makes short-lived working copies in its private storage and removes them when the task ends, when they expire or the next time the app starts. On iPhone, files you share to ShowPapers from another app wait in the app’s protected shared folder until you next open ShowPapers. If ShowPapers needs an update before you can keep using it, files you share to it wait in its private storage, outside the library’s encryption, until you update and they are added.
Reading papers on your phone
Scanning and text recognition
Text recognition uses PaddleOCR models included in the app and runs on your phone. On iPhone, ShowPapers’ own scanner uses the camera and finds each page’s edges on the phone. On Android, scanning uses the Google Play services document scanner, which Google may download to your phone the first time you scan; the scanned pages come back to ShowPapers on your phone. Google’s ML Kit components in the Android app, including that scanner, can send Google technical information about their own use, such as device and app details, performance measurements and error codes, for Google’s diagnostics. Google handles it under its own terms, and the analytics switch in ShowPapers does not control it.
On-device AI (Gemma)
On supported phones, with about 6 GB of memory or more (and Android 12 or later on Android), ShowPapers also uses Gemma 4 E2B, an open AI model from Google, to read papers in more detail. What it reads helps ShowPapers name each paper and file it into a folder. It also powers Write With AI and Refine With AI in Notes. The model runs entirely on your phone; what it reads and writes is not sent anywhere.
Downloading the AI model
On a supported phone, after you choose Agree and Continue, ShowPapers automatically downloads its on-device AI model (Gemma 4 E2B, about 2.6 GB) once, from Hugging Face (huggingface.co), a public model host. The download can use mobile data, and you can pause or remove it in Settings, On-Device AI. The request contains no document content and no ShowPapers identifier. Like any download, it reveals your IP address and the standard technical details your phone sends with web requests, such as its operating system and, on Android, its model. Hugging Face and its delivery network handle that request under their own privacy practices. ShowPapers checks the file’s size and SHA-256 fingerprint before using it.
Dictation
Dictation uses your phone’s on-device speech recognition. ShowPapers does not keep the audio, and it is not sent to us.
Usage analytics, crash reports and performance
Three Firebase services, on by default
To understand how ShowPapers is used and to find and fix problems, the apps use three services from Google Firebase: Google Analytics for Firebase, Firebase Crashlytics and Firebase Performance Monitoring. They are on from the first time you open ShowPapers, including on the Welcome screen before you accept the Terms, and there is no separate prompt. You can turn them off at any time in Settings, Privacy, Usage Analytics and Crash Reports.
Before you accept the Terms
On a new installation, collection starts as soon as you open the app. This includes the Welcome screen being shown, opening its Privacy or Terms links, and tapping Agree and Continue. Firebase also records its automatic first-open event (first_open), session information and the device and app information described below. Random installation and visit identifiers accompany analytics events. Crash reports and performance measurements can also be sent at this stage. Your papers and notes are not included in these usage events. Accepting the Terms does not turn analytics on; it is already on, and the Settings switch controls it.
What usage analytics tracks
Usage analytics record which screens, sheets and dialogs you open and which buttons and controls you tap; how you opened the app, for example from its icon, a reminder or a shared file, and when it goes to the background; where in the app you started something, for example from a folder, from search or from a note; whether actions such as adding, scanning, reading, saving, editing, organizing, searching, exporting, backing up or setting up on-device AI finished or failed, with a general reason, and how long they took; which AI app from the app’s list you chose in Ask an AI App; whether you allowed a permission the app asked for (camera, microphone, speech recognition, notifications or Face ID); how you moved through the first screens after installing; the kind of an earlier unexpected exit, such as a crash or a freeze; and which pages of this website you opened from the app. Each event also carries the app and component versions, a broad operating system version range, whether the phone can run the on-device AI model, a random ID for the current visit that ShowPapers creates (a visit ends after 30 minutes away from the app), and the event’s place in that visit.
What we know about your installation
We also keep a few facts about each installation: the version it was first installed with, how it was installed (for example from the App Store or Google Play), the app’s appearance, color style, font style and language, whether App Lock and reminders are on, which permissions are allowed, how far it got through the first screens, and how many days ago it was installed, as a range. On Android, when the app was installed from Google Play, we record whether the install came from one of our website’s Google Play badges, from Google Play itself or from somewhere else, and nothing more about it; Google Analytics also uses Google Play’s install information to attribute the first open.
What's never included
Every analytics value is chosen from a fixed list in the app or is a version number, a duration, a position in the visit, a random visit ID or a range; counts are never exact. ShowPapers never puts your papers or images, their titles, types, file names or contents, the text or details read from them, your notes, folder names, the names of people you tag, your searches, anything you type or dictate, dates from your papers, email addresses, your precise location or your advertising ID into analytics, crash reports or performance measurements. A crash report does include the technical error message produced by the phone’s system or a software library, which in rare cases could include part of a file’s location on the phone.
What Firebase adds automatically
Firebase adds information of its own: random identifiers for the installation (an app-instance ID for analytics, and an installation ID and a Crashlytics ID for crash reports and performance), your phone model, operating system version, language setting and screen resolution, the app version, and events such as the first open, sessions, time spent in the app, app and operating system updates and, on Android, the app being removed or its data cleared. Google derives an approximate location, such as your country, region or city, from your IP address; Google states that Google Analytics does not log or store IP addresses.
Crash reports
If ShowPapers crashes, or a task fails in a way the app handles, such as a failed save, backup or download, Crashlytics sends a technical report: where in the app’s code it happened; for a crash, the error details from the system; for a handled failure, a fixed description of what failed; the phone model, operating system version, free memory and storage, whether the app was in the background and whether the phone is rooted or jailbroken; which screen was open, the current visit’s ID, what the on-device AI was doing and the state of its model, whether App Lock was locked and a broad memory class of the phone; and a short list of the screens, controls and app states just before it. On iPhone, ShowPapers also reads Apple’s on-device diagnostics (MetricKit) only to report the kind of a previous unexpected exit; the diagnostic reports themselves are not sent.
Performance measurements
Performance Monitoring measures how long the app takes to start and draw its screens, its time in the foreground and background, and how long its main tasks take: scanning, reading a paper and its pages, saving, exporting a collection, backing up and restoring, Write With AI and Refine With AI, downloading the AI model, and opening and showing your library, with the number of pages or papers involved. It records the response time, size and result of the AI model download, the only network request it measures. Firebase adds the phone model, operating system, app version, network type (such as Wi-Fi or mobile) and carrier, a country derived from your IP address, and short processor and memory samples. While it runs, Performance Monitoring also fetches its own settings from Firebase.
Identifiers and advertising
This information is not linked to your name, email or an account. ShowPapers does not collect the advertising ID on Android or the advertising identifier (IDFA) or vendor identifier (IDFV) on iPhone, never sets a user ID, and keeps Google signals, advertising features and ad personalization off. It is not used for advertising, not shared for advertising, not sold, and not used to track you across other companies’ apps or websites. We copy the analytics and crash data into our own Google Cloud project (BigQuery) to analyze them.
Turning analytics off
Turning the switch off stops collection at once. It erases analytics data and crash reports not yet sent from your phone, replaces the analytics identifier, ends the current visit and keeps Firebase from starting on later launches. Performance Monitoring cannot erase measurements it has already queued, so a few taken before you turned the switch off may still be sent. While the switch is on, Reset Analytics Identifier erases unsent analytics data and crash reports and gives the installation a new random analytics identifier. Turning analytics off does not limit any feature.
App configuration
What the configuration check controls
ShowPapers checks for a small configuration file from Google Firebase Remote Config. It says whether an update is required or recommended; whether on-device AI, the automatic model download, Ask an AI App or Report a Problem is temporarily switched off; how the iPhone scanner starts; which AI apps Ask an AI App lists; and whether to show a short notice from us. To fetch it, the app uses a random Firebase installation ID created only for this purpose. It is not your advertising ID or a hardware identifier, it is not linked to usage analytics, and Reset Analytics Identifier does not change it.
What the request contains
The request also carries technical details Firebase needs: the app’s identifier, version and build, the Firebase software version, your phone’s language, region setting, time zone and operating system version, and, on Android, the app’s signing certificate fingerprint. While usage analytics is on, Firebase may add when the app was first opened, rounded to the hour. Like any internet request, it reveals your IP address. It never includes your papers, notes, names, titles, file names, searches or anything you type.
How often it checks
The app checks after it starts, including on the Welcome screen, and when it returns to the foreground, at most once every 12 hours (after a failed attempt, at most once an hour). This happens whether or not usage analytics is on, because it is how we can require a critical update or pause a feature that misbehaves. Without a connection, ShowPapers works normally with its built-in settings.
Sharing, AI apps and backups
Exporting and sharing papers
Your papers leave ShowPapers only when you choose to send them. Export Papers saves or shares a .showpapers file with the papers, notes and folders you select, or shares copies of the original files. A selected note brings its linked papers, and a selected folder brings the papers in it. You choose the destination through your phone’s share options, the Files app or another file location. Add or share another person’s information only when you have authority to do so. A recipient keeps their own copy, which your later changes or deletions do not affect and which we cannot delete.
What a .showpapers file contains
A readable .showpapers file holds the original files you selected and can also hold the text and details read from them, your notes and folders, and related information such as dates, reminders, pins and the people you tagged. Anyone who gets a readable file can open it and read everything in it. Protect This Copy encrypts the file with a separate recovery key; anyone with both the file and its key can open it, so keep and send them separately. A .showpapers file never holds your settings, keys or analytics choice, and it is not a backup.
Ask an AI App
Ask an AI App sends a copy you review to the AI app you choose. Everything in your library starts selected; use Choose What to Include to send less. The first time, ShowPapers explains that the copy leaves its protection. The copy holds the papers, notes and folders you selected as a readable .showpapers file. So that more AI apps can read it, it may also include a PDF of the originals and a plain-text summary of the papers’ titles and types, the end dates you confirmed, your notes and your folders. Your question and any Rules for What You Send text go with it. On Android you can pick an installed AI app directly; if none can accept the file, you can save the copy and open an AI website in your browser to attach it yourself. On iPhone, the share sheet lists the apps that accept it. That AI service can read the copy and handles it under its own terms, privacy and retention practices. ShowPapers does not connect to an AI service itself, and this is separate from reading on your phone.
For sensitive papers, review the recipient’s privacy and retention practices and share only what is needed. You can instead use a trusted local AI setup configured to keep document content on your device, including any connected tools. Installing a tool or workspace skill locally does not make a cloud assistant local.
Backups
Back Up Library, in Settings, Backup and Recovery, saves your whole library as one encrypted file where you choose: originals, the details read from them, notes, folders, pins, reminders, the people you tagged, and your appearance and reminder settings. It is protected by a recovery key that only you hold, saved as a key file or written down as a code, and an optional passphrase. Without the key, nobody can open the backup, including us. We cannot recover a lost key or passphrase, or papers that were never backed up. Restoring a backup replaces the library on that phone. A storage or messaging service you use for a backup has its own privacy practices.
Permissions and notifications
Permissions
ShowPapers asks for access only when a feature needs it: the camera to scan on iPhone (on Android, the Google Play services scanner handles the camera), the microphone and speech recognition to dictate, notifications for reminders, and Face ID, Touch ID, your fingerprint or your screen lock for App Lock. Photos and files are chosen through your phone’s own picker, so ShowPapers receives only what you pick.
Reminders and App Lock
Reminders are scheduled on your phone as local notifications. They say only that a reminder is ready, without the name or details of a paper. App Lock uses your phone’s own screen lock and biometrics; we never receive biometric information.
Help pages in the app
Pages on this website that the app opens, such as Help and Feedback, the Terms, this policy and Report a Problem, open in an in-app browser: a Custom Tab from your browser on Android, and Safari View Controller on iPhone. They are ordinary pages of this website and follow the next section, including its separate analytics choice. The app’s own usage analytics can record which of these pages you opened, not what you do on them. Report a Problem adds the app version, the platform and the operating system version to the page address after a “#”. Browsers do not send that part of an address to our server; the page uses it only to fill in the report, and it reaches us only if you send the report.
This website and messages to us
Website analytics
This website and our protocol site at protocol.showpapers.app use Google Analytics 4, a service provided by Google, to understand how visitors find and use it: which pages are opened, how far down a page visitors scroll, which sections come into view, which links, buttons, store badges and theme or gallery controls are used, and on Report a Problem, whether Copy Template or Email Report was used and whether the app filled in its details. The protocol site also records navigation, downloads and whether a validation run succeeds or fails. Each event uses fixed names and labels that we define. The validator and file viewer process selected files in your browser; their contents are not uploaded or included in analytics. We do not send anything you type, the text of a problem report or the app details it contains, email addresses, the address of a page that was not found, or the parts of a web address after “?” or “#”, except standard campaign labels such as utm_source that a link to this site may carry. Of the site that sent you here, only its address, such as google.com, is used.
What Google Analytics adds
Google Analytics also records your browser and device type, screen size, language and an approximate location, such as your country, region or city, that Google derives from your IP address; Google Analytics does not store the IP address itself. It uses the first-party cookies described below. We keep Google signals, advertising features and ad personalization off, never set a user ID, and do not combine website analytics with other information about you. Our Google Analytics settings keep event data for 14 months.
Cookie consent
If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, Google Analytics does not set or read cookies until you choose Accept in the cookie banner. Until then, the only thing sent is a page view signal without cookies or an identifier. Elsewhere, analytics cookies are on unless you turn them off. Cookie Settings, at the bottom of every page, lets you accept or decline at any time. If you decline, the site deletes its Google Analytics cookies, sends nothing more to Google Analytics and stops loading Google’s analytics script; the site works the same either way. Google determines your region from your IP address, so a VPN or travel can change which default applies. Google’s privacy policy describes its processing.
Our hosting provider
Our hosting provider, Cloudflare, processes connection information such as IP addresses, request metadata, and browser information to deliver and protect the site. See Cloudflare’s privacy policy. Cloudflare also hosts our protocol site. Its analytics follow the same rules described here. Each website stores its own analytics choice, so you can manage it separately through Cookie Settings on that site.
Emailing us
If you email us, including a problem report, we receive your email address and whatever you include. We use it to respond and handle the issue, retaining it only as needed for that purpose or legal obligations. The report page prepares the email in your own email app; the website does not upload or store it. Please do not email personal papers, recovery keys, passphrases, or screenshots that show personal details.
Cookies and browser storage on our websites
Apart from the two Google Analytics cookies below, our websites set no cookies. It stores:
- _ga, a Google Analytics cookie: a random identifier that lets Google Analytics recognize your browser on later visits. It expires 13 months after your last visit.
- _ga_ followed by our measurement ID, a Google Analytics cookie: the number and timing of your current visit. It expires 13 months after your last visit.
- showpapers-consent-v2, in your browser’s storage: your Accept or Decline choice and when you made it. We keep a choice for 13 months, then ask again where consent is required.
- showpapers-theme, in your browser’s storage for the current tab: the light or dark theme you picked, until you close the tab.
The browser storage entries are never sent to us or to Google. The Google Analytics cookies are set only as described above and never before you accept in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland. Some browsers delete them sooner. You can also remove cookies and site data in your browser’s settings at any time.
Who else handles information
Two service providers process information for us, under their terms with us:
- Google, for Google Analytics for Firebase, Firebase Crashlytics, Performance Monitoring, Remote Config and Firebase Installations in the apps, Google Analytics on both websites, and BigQuery in our own Google Cloud project. See the Firebase privacy information.
- Cloudflare, which hosts this website and the protocol site.
Others handle information under their own policies, not on our behalf: Hugging Face, which hosts the on-device AI model and receives the download request from your phone (see Hugging Face’s privacy policy); Google, for the Google Play services document scanner on Android; Apple and Google, for the App Store, Google Play and your phone’s own services; and any person, AI app or service you choose to send a copy to.
Keeping and deleting information
On your phone
Papers and notes stay on your phone until you delete them in the app or uninstall ShowPapers. Deleting a paper removes it, its details, pins and reminders from the app. Uninstalling removes the app’s storage from the phone. Backups, collections and copies you saved or sent elsewhere stay where you put them; we cannot reach or delete them. You can remove the on-device AI model at any time in Settings, On-Device AI.
Information that leaves your phone
Information that leaves your phone or reaches us is kept for these periods:
- Usage analytics in Google Analytics, from the apps and from this website: 14 months, our Google Analytics data retention setting. Google Analytics’ aggregated reports, which do not identify an installation or a browser, are not affected by that setting.
- Crash reports in Firebase Crashlytics: 90 days, after which Google starts deleting them.
- Performance measurements in Firebase Performance Monitoring: Firebase’s standard retention, which is 30 days for data associated with an IP address and 60 days for other performance data.
- The app configuration’s installation ID: Firebase keeps it until it is deleted through Firebase. On your phone it stays until you uninstall ShowPapers or clear its data.
- The copies of analytics and crash data in our Google Cloud project (BigQuery): until we delete them.
- Emails: only as long as needed to respond and follow up, or as the law requires.
Why we can't delete individual records
ShowPapers has no accounts, and the random identifiers Firebase uses are not shown in the app, so we cannot find the analytics, crash or performance records that came from your phone or delete them one by one. Turning the switch off erases what has not been sent and replaces the analytics identifier. What was already sent can be associated with a random installation identifier, but we do not associate it with your name or email address. It is deleted when the periods above end or, for the copies in our Google Cloud project, when we delete them. You can still ask us about your information by email; please do not send identity papers with a request.
Your choices and rights
Your controls in the app
In the app, you can turn usage analytics, crash reports and performance monitoring off, reset the analytics identifier, remove the AI model and delete your papers and notes at any time. On this website, Cookie Settings turns website analytics on or off.
Your legal rights
Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, restrict, or object to processing of information we hold, to receive a copy of it, to withdraw consent, or to complain to a privacy authority. Contact us to make a request. We will not treat you differently for using these rights. We do not sell your personal information or share it for cross-context behavioral advertising.
Using ShowPapers in different countries
ShowPapers can be used in many countries. The services described here, including Google’s Firebase and Google Cloud, Cloudflare and Hugging Face, may process information in the United States and other countries under the safeguards in their own terms.
Children, changes, and questions
Age requirement
You must be at least 13 years old to use ShowPapers. It is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. Adults may keep papers about family members, including children, when they have the authority to do so. If you believe a child under 13 has sent us personal information, contact us and we will delete it.
Changes to this policy
We will update this page and its dates when our practices change. For significant changes we will give additional notice, such as in an app update, a notice in the app or on this site, and ask for your agreement where the law requires it. Questions and requests: hello@showpapers.app.
Read the security notes for practical limits and the Terms for your responsibilities.