Privacy Policy
Updated: November 2, 2026 · Effective: November 2, 2026 · Version: v2.1
PerfectRefs (今日宜引文) is a product provided by Lumos Software Studio of Echeng District, Ezhou (鄂州市鄂城区路莫斯软件工作室), an individually-owned business registered in the People's Republic of China ("we", "us", "our"). When you use our services, we may collect and use information relating to you. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store, and share this information when you use our services, and the ways in which you can access, update, control, and protect it. Please read this Privacy Policy carefully and, where applicable, make the choices you consider appropriate.
This Privacy Policy applies when you use the English-language version of the service, including when you register through it, and to every purchase made on Gumroad. The Chinese-language version of the service is covered by the Chinese 《隐私政策》 instead. If you are in the European Economic Area (EEA) or the United Kingdom, Section 9 also applies to you.
Except where Section 9 applies, by using or continuing to use our services, you agree to our collection, use, storage, and sharing of your information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or related matters, contact us at support@perfectrefs.com.
1. Information We Collect
When you register an account or use the services, we collect the personal information you provide, such as your email address. If you do not provide this information, you may be unable to register or to use certain features. If you sign in with Google, Google shares your email address and name with us. If you redeem a Gumroad license key, we send the key to Gumroad to check it and record on your account the Gumroad sale it belongs to; we do not store the license key itself, the email address you used on Gumroad, or your payment details. When you access the services, our hosting provider records technical information such as your IP address and browser type, which we use to keep the services secure and to prevent abuse. We also use cookies and similar technologies to keep you signed in, remember your preferences, and understand how the services are used. You may refuse cookies through your browser settings, though some features may not function properly as a result. We also collect anonymous visit statistics (such as page views) to understand how the services are used; this information does not identify you. We use Microsoft Clarity to record page views, clicks, and scrolling behavior and to generate heatmaps and session replays, in order to improve the product; form inputs and text content are masked by default and do not include the reference content you submit. We do not load Microsoft Clarity for visitors in the EEA, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland. When you actively send us feedback (for example, by clicking "Report a problem" on a verification result), we collect the reference content you are reporting and the verification result we displayed to you at that time, in order to locate and fix the related problem; this information is retained only for the limited period necessary for diagnosis and is automatically deleted upon expiry.
2. Storage of Information
2.1 Method and duration
We store your information securely, including in databases and server logs. We retain your personal information only for the period necessary to fulfil the purposes of the services, or for the period required by laws and regulations, as follows:
| Information | How long we keep it |
|---|---|
| Account information (email address, name from Google sign-in, language preference, how you found us) | While your account exists; deleted when you delete your account. An account whose email address is never verified is deleted after 14 days. |
| The reference text you submit for a check | Not stored on our servers; it is processed during the request and kept only in your browser's local history. |
| Check reports (the result for each reference, including corrected reference data and evidence links) | 1 year, then deleted. Your history list (titles and counts) and the summaries used to avoid charging you twice for the same reference stay while your account exists. |
| Report summaries (only if you choose to generate a report number when exporting; see Section 2.4) | 1 year from generation, then deleted. Deleted earlier if you stop sharing the report, delete its history entry, or delete your account. |
| Text you submit to Source Finder, with its results | 365 days, then deleted. The list entry stays while your account exists, unless you delete it. |
| Credit and Pass records | While your account exists; deleted when you delete your account. |
| Records of redeemed Gumroad purchases | Kept after you delete your account, so that the same purchase cannot be redeemed twice; the link to your account is removed. |
| Problems you report on a result ("Report a problem") | 14 days. |
| Feedback messages | While your account exists; deleted when you delete your account. |
| Sign-in session cookie | 30 days, or until you sign out. |
| Security and abuse-prevention counters linked to your account | Up to 48 hours. |
| Server logs kept by our hosting provider | For the log retention period set by our hosting provider. |
2.2 Location
We are established in mainland China and access the information from there to operate and support the services. Our service providers store and process the information in the following countries and regions:
| Service | Where the information is processed |
|---|---|
| Hosting of the website and server functions (Vercel) | United States; our server functions run in Hong Kong SAR, Singapore, and Japan |
| Database (account, check results, report summaries, credits, and purchase records) | Singapore |
| Cache and rate limiting | United States |
| Email delivery (sign-in, account, and purchase emails) | United States |
| Payments on Gumroad | United States |
| Model providers that help parse the text you submit and find sources | Mainland China and the United States; requests may pass through a relay in Hong Kong SAR |
| Academic databases and search services we query with parts of your references (such as titles and author names) | Mainly the United States and mainland China |
| Sign-in with Google | United States |
| Analytics (Microsoft Clarity; Vercel Web Analytics) | United States |
| Internal notifications to our team (for example, about a new sign-up, which include your email address) | United States |
Section 9.4 describes the safeguards for these transfers where the GDPR or the UK GDPR applies.
2.3 Discontinuation of the services
If the services cease operation, we will notify you by push notification, announcement, or similar means, and will delete or anonymize your personal information within a reasonable period, except as otherwise required by laws and regulations.
2.4 Verification report numbers and online viewing
When you export a verification report, you can choose to generate a report number and QR code for it. This option is off by default. If you choose it, you consent to anyone who has the number or QR code viewing a summary of that report, and we keep the summary on our server for that purpose. If you do not, we generate no number and keep no summary.
The summary contains basic details of the report (such as when it was generated, the citation style and the number of entries), a count of entries under each verdict, and each entry's verdict with part of its title. It does not contain full citations or your account information. To support stopping sharing and deletion, we also keep the necessary linking information, which is shown to no one.
Anyone who has the number or QR code can view the summary on a public page without signing in. Once a report file is forwarded, whoever receives it can view the page too, so please share with care.
We keep the summary for 1 year from when the number is generated. You can stop sharing at any time; the report's numbers then stop working and the summary is deleted. The summary is also deleted when you delete the history entry or your account. Report files already sent cannot be recalled, but once the summary is deleted, their number no longer shows anything.
3. Information Security
We use a variety of security technologies and procedures to prevent the loss, misuse, or unauthorized access or disclosure of information. For example, in certain services we use encryption technologies (such as SSL) to protect the personal information you provide. Please understand, however, that owing to technical limitations and the existence of possible malicious means, in the internet industry no security measures can guarantee that information is one hundred percent secure, even with best efforts. The systems and communication networks you use to access our services may also experience problems due to factors beyond our control.
4. How We Use Information
We may use the information collected in the course of providing the services for the following purposes:
- to provide the services to you;
- for identity verification, customer service, security protection, fraud monitoring, archiving, and backup in the course of providing the services, ensuring the security of the products and services we provide to you;
- to help us design new services and improve our existing services;
- to better understand how you access and use our services, so as to respond to your preferences, such as language settings, or to respond to you and other users in other ways;
- to invite you to participate in surveys relating to the product (with your consent).
5. Information Sharing
Except as described in this Policy, we do not provide your information to third parties. We operate the platform through a third-party hosting provider (Vercel) and for this purpose provide collected information to that provider, which serves you from the relevant data centers. We also use the other service providers listed in Section 2.2, each only for its part of the services. We use a third-party analytics provider (Microsoft Clarity) to record page views, clicks, and scrolling behavior; the provider independently collects and uses this data in accordance with its own privacy statement, as described in the Microsoft Privacy Statement. Form inputs and text content are masked by default. We use third-party payment channels (such as Gumroad) to process your payments and exchange with them the information necessary to do so (such as order numbers and license keys). We engage a third-party technical service provider to help parse the text information you submit, and for this purpose provide the necessary text excerpts to that provider, which completes the parsing and provides the service to you on that basis. We will not separately store these text excerpts for this purpose. The provider's handling of the text is governed by its own privacy policy and its data processing agreement with us.
In accordance with laws and regulations, we may share, transfer, or disclose personal information without your prior consent in the following circumstances: matters involving national security, public security, public health, or significant public interest; matters involving criminal investigation, prosecution, trial, or the enforcement of judgments; protection of major lawful rights and interests of you or others where consent is difficult to obtain; information you have disclosed to the public yourself; and personal information collected from lawfully disclosed sources, such as lawful news reports or government information disclosure.
6. Your Rights
You may query, correct, or delete your personal information, or withdraw your consent. You may also contact us at any time to delete your account; after deletion, we will delete or anonymize your personal information, except as otherwise required by laws and regulations. To exercise the above rights or to make a complaint, contact us at support@perfectrefs.com. Section 9.3 lists further rights for users in the EEA and the United Kingdom.
7. Changes
We may revise the terms of this Privacy Policy from time to time. When changes occur, we will present the new Privacy Policy to you upon the version update and indicate its effective date. Please read the revised Privacy Policy carefully; except where Section 9 applies, if you continue to use our services, you are deemed to have agreed to our processing of your personal information in accordance with the updated Privacy Policy.
8. Minors
We encourage guardians to guide minors under the age of eighteen in using our services, and recommend that minors obtain the consent of their guardians before submitting personal information.
9. Users in the EEA and the United Kingdom
If you use the services from the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, this section applies in addition to the rest of this Policy and prevails where they differ. We are the controller of your personal data. We do not treat your use of the services as your consent.
9.1 Legal bases
| Purpose | Legal basis |
|---|---|
| Creating and running your account, running checks and Source Finder, handling purchases and Gumroad redemptions, and sending you service emails | Performance of our contract with you (Article 6(1)(b) GDPR) |
| Keeping the services secure and preventing abuse and fraud (for example, rate limits and abuse detection) | Our legitimate interest in keeping the services secure and available to all users (Article 6(1)(f)) |
| Handling problem reports and feedback you send us | Our legitimate interest in fixing errors and improving the services (Article 6(1)(f)) |
| Anonymous visit statistics | Our legitimate interest in understanding how the services are used, without identifying you (Article 6(1)(f)) |
| Keeping purchase and accounting records | Our legitimate interest in meeting the accounting and tax obligations that apply to us under the law of China (Article 6(1)(f)) |
| Inviting you to product surveys | Your consent (Article 6(1)(a)), which you may withdraw at any time |
| Making a report summary viewable by anyone with the report number or QR code, when you choose that option on export (Section 2.4) | Your consent (Article 6(1)(a)), which you may withdraw at any time by stopping sharing |
We do not load Microsoft Clarity for visitors in the EEA or the United Kingdom.
9.2 Whether you must provide your data
You need to provide an email address to create an account; without it, you cannot create an account or use the features that need one.
9.3 Your rights
You have the right to access your personal data, to have it corrected or erased, to restrict its processing, to object to processing based on our legitimate interests, to receive the data you provided to us in a portable format, and to withdraw any consent at any time without affecting processing carried out before the withdrawal. To exercise these rights, email support@perfectrefs.com. We will reply within one month of receiving your request; where a request is complex, we may extend this by up to two further months and will tell you why. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority, in particular in the country where you live or work or where you believe the infringement took place; in the United Kingdom, you may complain to us and to the Information Commission.
9.4 International transfers
As described in Section 2.2, your data is processed outside the EEA and the United Kingdom. For transfers that require a safeguard under the GDPR or the UK GDPR, the data processing terms of our providers of hosting, database, caching, email delivery, and the model provider in the United States include the standard contractual clauses adopted by the European Commission, with the UK addendum. To ask about these safeguards, email support@perfectrefs.com.
10. Language
This Privacy Policy is written in English, and the English text is the governing text.