Privacy and your data
In short: SciNodes stores your account details and the content you create so it can run the service. It sends the relevant text to an AI provider only when you use an AI feature. It doesn't use advertising cookies or third-party analytics. Your projects, notes, chats and uploaded PDFs are private unless you share a project. The authoritative version is the SciNodes Privacy Policy. This page summarizes how things work in the product today.
What SciNodes stores
| Data | Examples |
|---|---|
| Account details | Name, email, profile photo, sign-in methods, preferences |
| Your content | Projects, corpora, folders, uploaded PDFs and reference exports, notes, highlights, research objects, chats and attachments |
| Usage records | Which features you use, AI credits spent, storage used |
| Project activity history | Who changed what in a project, including undone changes |
| Publication interactions | When project members last interacted with each publication |
| Organization | Detected from your email domain using ROR (Research Organization Registry) |
Who can see what
| Who | What they see |
|---|---|
| You | Everything in your account |
| Project collaborators | The shared project's content, plus your name, email and photo. The activity history shows who made each change. |
| AI providers | When you use an AI feature: your prompt, the chat history, the project context you selected and the text from PDFs or files needed for the answer |
| Other SciNodes users | Nothing of yours. Some outputs are cached by content, not by person (see below). |
| Anyone with the link | Map preview images (see below) |
Private notes, chats, annotations and projects are never shared with other users.
Shared caches
To avoid repeating work, SciNodes reuses some results across users. These are linked to the content, not to you:
- Text extracted from an identical file.
- AI-generated definitions of scientific terms.
- Translations of publications.
Other users can't find out who uploaded a file.
PDFs
- PDFs you upload stay private to you.
- Open-access PDFs that SciNodes fetches when you click Fetch PDF are shared copies. Any user who fetches the same publication gets the same file.
See Fetching and uploading PDFs.
Map preview images
SciNodes saves preview images (snapshots) of your maps from time to time. Anyone who has the exact image URL can open the image. The map itself and the project stay private.
AI features
When you use an AI feature, SciNodes sends the text needed for the task to the AI provider handling it. Which providers SciNodes may use on this device is set in User Preferences → Model providers. See Preferences.
AI output can be wrong, including invented citations, and isn't professional advice. Check important answers against the publications.
Cookies and local storage
SciNodes uses no advertising cookies and no third-party analytics. Your browser's local storage holds preferences such as language, model provider and theme choices. See the Cookie Policy.
Where your data is stored
Your data is stored mainly with Amazon Web Services in Stockholm, Sweden (EU). Some storage is in Mumbai, India.
Age requirement
You must be at least 13 to use SciNodes. If you're under 18, you need a parent or guardian's consent.
Delete, export or correct your data
Self-service account deletion, data export and a "Help improve SciNodes" opt-out aren't available in SciNodes yet. Until then, contact Support.
To ask for your account to be deleted, a copy of your data, or a correction:
- Go to support.scinodes.com and sign in with your SciNodes account.
- Click New ticket.
- Choose the category Account.
- Say what you want: account deletion, a data export, or a correction (for example, a wrong organization).
- Click Submit ticket.
See Contact Support.
What you can delete or download yourself today
| What | How |
|---|---|
| A publication | Select it in the Library and click Remove from corpus |
| A note | Click Delete this note on the note |
| A chat | Click Delete this chat in the Research Assistants tab |
| A map | Click Delete map on the map |
| A project | Project Settings → Delete project. It goes to the Bin, where you can restore it or delete it. |
| Your uploaded PDF | Choose Remove PDF in the publication's ⋯ menu |
| Notes | Download as Markdown |
| Citations | Cite → Download as .bib, .ris, .rtf or .txt |
| Maps | Download as PNG, JPEG, WEBP, SVG or PDF |
See Recycle bin.
FAQ
Can other people see my projects?
Only people you invite to a project. They see its content and your name, email and photo. See Collaboration.
Are my uploaded PDFs private?
Yes. PDFs you upload are private. Only open-access PDFs that SciNodes fetches are shared copies.
What does the AI provider receive?
Only when you use an AI feature: your prompt, the chat history, the project context you selected and the text from PDFs or files needed for the answer. For current terms on how providers handle data, see the Privacy Policy.
How do I delete my account?
Self-service deletion is coming soon. Until then, contact Support with the category Account.
My organization on my profile is wrong. How do I fix it?
SciNodes detects it from your email domain. You can't edit it on the profile page yet, so contact Support with the category Account.
Does SciNodes sell my data or show ads?
SciNodes uses no advertising cookies and no third-party analytics. For the full commitments, see the Privacy Policy.