Privacy Policy

Last updated: September 2026. RemovePaywall is a free tool with no accounts, no logins, no ads, and no cross-site tracking. We collect the minimum needed to run and improve the service, and we don't sell your data.

What we collect

When you submit a link, our server records the article URL you paste, your IP address, your browser's User-Agent, the referring page, a short-lived session identifier, and a timestamp. This is standard web-server logging used to operate the service, prevent abuse, and understand usage.

We also log the outcome of each request at the domain level (e.g. "nytimes.com — reader view — success") along with how long it took, so we can measure and improve reliability. If you tap 👍/👎 on a result, we store that vote with the URL.

If the page hits a script error, we record the error message and where in our code it happened (file and line, and the page path such as /search) so we can fix it — cleaned of links, numbers and quoted text, and never including the article or its address.

We keep an aggregate, per-day count of page visits to gauge traffic. Once per visit we also record where you arrived from — the referring website, the entry page, any campaign tags in the link (UTM), and your browser's language — associated with the short-lived session identifier, not your identity. Search-engine crawlers are excluded.

Browser extension, Shortcut & share button

Our browser extension, iPhone Shortcut and Android share button are launchers: when you use one, it sends the address of the page you chose to our reader, exactly as if you had pasted it, and we note which launcher it came from. The extension makes no other requests and keeps no browsing history. When the extension is installed or removed it opens a page on this site, which we count (no identifier beyond the usual session cookie); the optional "why did you remove it" buttons record only the reason you tap.

Cookies & local storage

We set one functional cookie: a PHP session cookie used for security (CSRF protection) and rate-limiting. It is not used for advertising or cross-site tracking. We may also set a first-party cookie to keep you in a consistent version during an A/B test — no tracking, purely which layout you see.

Your reading preferences (text size, reading width) and your list of recent reads (the last few articles you opened here, so you can get back to them) are stored locally in your browser (localStorage) and never sent to us. "Clear" on the homepage empties the list.

A first-party cookie, rp_seen, holds only the date of your first visit — not an identifier — so we can count what share of visits are returning visitors. It is used for nothing else, never shared, and expires after 13 months.

Analytics

We use privacy-friendly, first-party analytics only: aggregate counts kept in our own database — page views, per-domain success outcomes, and a once-per-visit acquisition source. We do not use Google Analytics or any third-party analytics or advertising SDK, we set no cross-site tracking cookies, and we build no personal profiles.

Advertising

The site is not monetized with ads, and there is no ad tracking. If that ever changes, this policy will be updated first, and visitors in the EU/EEA and UK would be shown a consent choice before any advertising cookies are set.

Third-party pages and archives

To show an article, we fetch it server-side and, for the reader view, extract the text; for the full-page view we display a script-stripped copy in a sandboxed frame. We also query public archives (archive.today, the Internet Archive / Wayback Machine). Those third parties have their own privacy practices, which we don't control.

How we use and share data

We use the data above only to operate, secure, and improve RemovePaywall. We do not sell personal data. We may disclose information if required by law.

Data retention

To operate and protect the service we log requests, then prune them automatically: your IP address is anonymized after 90 days, your browser user-agent is cleared after 90 days, and raw request logs are deleted after 12 months. Domain-level outcome statistics (which power our live per-site success rates) and aggregate daily visit counts contain no personal data and may be kept longer.

Your choices

You can browse with an ad/tracker blocker, clear the session cookie by closing your browser, and reset reading preferences by clearing site data. You may contact us to ask what we hold about a given request.

Children

RemovePaywall is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their data.

Changes & contact

We may update this policy; material changes will be reflected here with a new date. Questions or requests: hello@removepaywall.co.