What we collect, why, who else sees it, and how to make us delete it.
This policy explains how GoatPeer, LLC (“GoatPeer”, “we”) handles information when you use G.O.A.T Peer at goatpeer.com. It forms part of the Terms of Service.
The short version. What you upload is usually somebody's unpublished manuscript, and we treat it that way. We do not sell your data, we do not advertise, we do not use your uploads to train our models, and we do not show your material to other users. Uploads are encrypted in transit and at rest, kept until you delete them, and — only on plans whose AI checks you actually run — sent to a third-party AI provider to perform that check. You can delete any analysis, or your whole account, whenever you like.
GoatPeer, LLC is the controller of the personal data described here. Contact us about anything in this policy at [email protected].
| Category | What it is | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Account | Username, password (stored only as a salted hash, never in readable form). If you use third-party sign-in: your email address, name and profile picture URL. | You, or the identity provider when you choose that sign-in |
| Uploads | The figures, images, PDFs, manuscripts and code you submit for analysis, plus anything they happen to contain. | You |
| Results | Detection output, evidence crops, thumbnails, reports and the notes you write. | Generated by the Service |
| Usage & technical | IP address, request times and paths, browser user agent, error logs, and counts of analyses and AI tokens used (for quotas and billing). | Automatically, when you use the Service |
| Support | Support tickets and any messages you send us. | You |
| Payment | Your customer and subscription identifiers, plan, and billing status. We never receive or store your card number — the payment processor handles card data directly. | The payment processor |
We do not use advertising trackers, third-party analytics, or social-media pixels. We set only the cookies in clause 8.
Please do not upload personal or sensitive data. The Service is designed for scientific figures and manuscripts, not for identifiable patient data, protected health information, biometric or government identifiers, or the special categories of data defined by the GDPR. See clause 5 of the Terms.
| Purpose | Data used | Legal basis (GDPR) |
|---|---|---|
| Run the analysis you asked for and show you results | Uploads, results | Performance of a contract |
| Keep your account, history and notes | Account, results | Performance of a contract |
| Take payment and manage subscriptions | Account, payment | Performance of a contract |
| Send service email (welcome, analysis finished, support replies) | Account | Performance of a contract |
| Keep the Service secure; prevent abuse, fraud and brute-force attacks | Usage & technical | Legitimate interests |
| Fix bugs, and understand aggregate load and reliability | Usage & technical | Legitimate interests |
| Comply with law and enforce our Terms | As necessary | Legal obligation / legitimate interests |
We do not carry out automated decision-making that produces legal or similarly significant effects about you. Detection results describe uploaded images, not people, and a result is a screening signal that a human evaluates — see clause 3 of the Terms.
We do not sell personal information, we do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising, and we do not disclose your uploads to other users. We use the following categories of service provider (“sub-processors”), each under contract and only to run the Service:
| Category of recipient | What it does | What it can see |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting and storage provider | Runs the servers and stores the data (United States) | Everything stored, as encrypted data at rest |
| Network and security provider | DNS, TLS, and protection at the network edge | Request metadata and traffic in transit |
| Payment processor | Payments and subscriptions | Your email, card data (directly, never via us), billing records |
| Identity provider | Optional third-party sign-in, if you choose it | That you signed in; your verified email, name and picture come to us |
| AI model provider | The language- and vision-model checks, on plans that include them | The specific figure images and article text sent for a check you ran |
| Email provider | Sending service email | Your email address and the message |
We will tell you which specific companies sit behind these categories if you ask — write to [email protected].
This is the disclosure most worth reading. On plans that include AI features, running one of those checks sends the relevant figure images and article text to a third-party AI model provider for processing, where it is handled under that provider's terms for the service. The pixel-forensics detector does not do this — it runs entirely on our own infrastructure. The free Alpine plan runs no AI checks at all, so nothing you upload on Alpine is sent to an AI provider.
We may disclose information if we are legally required to, or where we believe in good faith it is necessary to comply with law, enforce our Terms, or protect the rights, safety or property of anyone. Where we are permitted to tell you about such a demand, we will.
If GoatPeer is involved in a merger, acquisition or sale of assets, your information may transfer as part of it. We will give notice before your information becomes subject to a materially different privacy policy.
Traffic is encrypted with TLS. Stored objects are encrypted at rest with per-object keys. Passwords are salted and hashed, never recoverable. The database is not exposed to the internet: nothing listens on a public port, administrative access is restricted to a single address, and the operator console is behind a second, independent authentication layer. Access to production is limited to people who need it. Credential endpoints are rate-limited against brute force.
No system is perfectly secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. If a breach affects your personal data we will notify you and any regulator as the law requires.
Whoever and wherever you are, you can:
You have the right to access, rectify, erase, restrict and object to processing, and the right to data portability, under the GDPR. Where processing rests on consent you may withdraw it at any time. You may also complain to your local supervisory authority, though we would rather you told us first.
Under the CCPA/CPRA you may request the categories and specific pieces of personal information we hold, request deletion or correction, and not be discriminated against for exercising those rights. We do not sell personal information and we do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising, so there is nothing to opt out of — but you are welcome to ask.
Email [email protected] from the address on your account, or from the account itself. We respond within 30 days (45 days for CCPA requests, extendable where the law allows). We may need to verify your identity before acting, and cannot act on a request that would expose someone else's data.
We use two cookies, both strictly necessary, and no others:
Because both are strictly necessary for a service you asked for, no consent banner is required. We set no advertising, analytics or tracking cookies.
We operate in the United States, and our providers process data there. If you use the Service from outside the US, you understand that your information is transferred to and processed in the US, where data-protection law differs from your own. Where required for EEA or UK data, transfers rely on the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses or another lawful mechanism operated by the provider concerned.
The Service is not for anyone under 18, and we do not knowingly collect data from children. If you believe a child has given us personal data, write to [email protected] and we will delete it.
We may update this policy; the version and effective date at the top change when we do. For material changes we will give notice by email or in the Service before they take effect.
GoatPeer, LLC — [email protected]
Privacy requests, access requests and deletion requests all go to the same address.