1. Overview
Otterflow is maintained by Otterflow Team and provides AI-assisted research writing, manuscript editing, document workflow, citation, template, and collaboration tools.
This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, share, store, and protect personal information when you visit otterflow.ai, use Otterflow desktop or web services, contact us, or later purchase a paid plan.
Otterflow is currently in a free stage. We are preparing to enable paid web subscriptions through Stripe or another payment provider shown at checkout. When paid subscriptions become available, payment information will be processed by the payment provider shown at checkout and not stored directly by Otterflow. The applicable payment merchant, account holder, tax details, and receipt information will be shown at checkout or on your payment receipt.
2. Information We Collect
Account and Contact Information
We may collect your name, email address, account identifiers, organization or school name, login method, support messages, and communication preferences.
Product Usage Information
We may collect information needed to operate and protect Otterflow, including app version, device type, operating system, browser, IP address, approximate location, language preference, session events, basic service logs, security events, and limited diagnostic information.
User Content
Otterflow may process content you upload, create, open, edit, or generate through the product. This may include manuscripts, notes, PDFs, DOCX files, LaTeX files, references, figures, tables, comments, prompts, AI instructions, generated outputs, and related metadata.
Payment and Billing Information
Otterflow is currently free and does not charge users through the public website. If paid plans are enabled, web payments will be processed by Stripe. Stripe may collect payment method details, billing address, transaction information, fraud-prevention signals, and tax information according to Stripe's own privacy practices.
Otterflow may receive limited billing information from Stripe, such as customer ID, subscription status, invoice history, payment status, plan, amount, currency, tax status, and the last four digits or brand of a payment method where provided by Stripe.
Cookies and Similar Technologies
We may use cookies, local storage, pixels, SDKs, or similar technologies to keep you signed in, remember preferences, maintain core service operation, prevent abuse, and support payment security.
3. How We Use Information
We use personal information to:
- provide, maintain, and improve Otterflow;
- create and manage accounts;
- process files, prompts, citations, and manuscript edits;
- generate AI-assisted outputs;
- provide support and respond to requests;
- maintain reliability and troubleshoot service issues;
- protect against fraud, abuse, unauthorized access, and security incidents;
- communicate product updates, policy changes, and service notices;
- prepare and manage billing if paid plans become available;
- comply with legal obligations.
4. AI Processing and User Content
Otterflow may send relevant portions of User Content and instructions to third-party AI, transcription, document-processing, or infrastructure providers to provide requested features.
Our product commitments:
- Otterflow does not claim ownership of User Content.
- Otterflow does not use User Content to train Otterflow-owned AI models unless we receive separate permission.
- Otterflow does not intentionally authorize third-party AI providers to use User Content to train their general-purpose models.
- Where available, Otterflow uses vendor selection, contractual terms, API settings, data minimization, and retention controls to reduce the risk that User Content is used by third parties for training or long-term retention.
- Third-party providers process data according to their own policies, their agreements with you or us, and applicable law. Otterflow cannot guarantee that third-party systems will never experience unauthorized access, processing beyond agreed terms, or other activity outside our control.
- AI outputs may be inaccurate. Users remain responsible for reviewing generated content before relying on it.
This section must be reviewed against the actual provider stack before publication.
5. How We Share Information
We share information only as needed to provide, maintain, protect, and improve Otterflow, process payments, respond to requests, or comply with law.
5.1 Service Providers and Sub-processors
We use third-party service providers to operate parts of the service. We require them to use relevant information only to provide services to us and to follow appropriate confidentiality, security, and data protection obligations. The table below lists the main provider categories we use or plan to use; specific vendors may change as our product architecture and operations evolve.
| Category | Purpose | Current Primary Vendor(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Cloud infrastructure, website hosting, CDN, database, and file storage | Host the website and backend services, serve static assets, and store account data, workspace data, User Content, uploaded documents, images, compile artifacts, exports, and attachments | Tencent Cloud |
| AI inference (LLM) | Generate AI outputs from inputs and User Content, such as rewriting, summarization, polishing, citation assistance, and document-operation suggestions | OpenRouter |
| Document processing and compilation | Process DOCX, PDF, LaTeX, templates, previews, conversion, compilation, or export tasks | Otterflow local/self-hosted components; third-party document processors if used (to confirm) |
| Web payment processing | Once paid web subscriptions are enabled, process subscriptions, invoices, payments, fraud prevention, and billing events | Stripe, Inc. (planned; https://stripe.com/privacy) |
| Email, support, and communications | Send service notices and respond to support, billing, or privacy requests | Lark |
| Professional services | Legal, audit, tax, accounting, compliance, financing, or corporate governance support | Professional advisers, auditors, lawyers, and tax providers |
5.2 Other Disclosures
- Legal compliance and safety: We may disclose information when we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to comply with applicable law, legal process, or government request; enforce our terms; protect the rights, safety, or property of Otterflow, users, or the public; or detect, prevent, or address fraud, security, abuse, or technical issues.
- Business transfers: If Otterflow is involved in a merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization, bankruptcy, asset sale, or similar transaction, your information may be disclosed or transferred as part of that transaction. Where required by law or reasonably practicable, we will notify users of material changes to ownership or personal-information use through the website, product, or email.
- With your consent or direction: We may share information when you ask us to do so, or when you authorize an integration, workspace member, collaborator, institutional account, or other service to access relevant content.
5.3 What We Do Not Do
- We do not sell your personal information for monetary consideration.
- We do not knowingly use your User Content for third-party cross-context behavioral advertising.
- We do not use User Content to train Otterflow-owned AI models unless we separately obtain your explicit permission.
- We do not intentionally authorize third-party AI providers to use User Content to train their general-purpose models; however, third-party providers still process data according to their own policies, contracts, and legal obligations, and Otterflow cannot control every risk within their systems.
- CCPA/CPRA defensive note: California's CCPA/CPRA defines "sale" and "sharing" broadly. If disclosures to AI, payment, communications, or infrastructure providers are interpreted as a "sale" or "sharing" under applicable law, we will provide opt-out methods where legally required and technically feasible, and honor applicable opt-out preference signals such as Global Privacy Control (GPC).
6. Stripe and Payment Processing
When paid subscriptions are enabled, Otterflow expects to use Stripe to process web payments. Stripe may collect and process payment-related personal information directly. Stripe's privacy policy is available at https://stripe.com/privacy.
If you use Stripe Checkout, Stripe Elements, or another Stripe payment flow, Stripe may collect information you enter into the payment form, including when a checkout is not completed, according to Stripe's policies and applicable law. Stripe may also collect payment-page interaction information, such as IP address, device and browser information, cookies or similar technologies, payment components you view or use, transaction status, subscription status, refund information, and dispute information. This information may be used to process payments, issue invoices, calculate taxes, prevent fraud, maintain security, handle disputes, and improve Stripe services.
Unless we clearly provide the relevant choice at checkout and obtain any consent required by applicable law, Otterflow does not use payment information collected through Stripe Checkout to send you marketing emails.
7. Cookies, Tracking Technologies, and Optional Notifications
We may use cookies, local storage, pixels, SDKs, and similar technologies to keep you signed in, save preferences, maintain core service operation, prevent abuse, and support payment security.
Stripe or another payment provider shown at checkout may use cookies, IP addresses, device and browser information, payment-page interaction data, and fraud-prevention signals during checkout.
Otterflow does not currently use third-party product analytics cookies or marketing/advertising cookies on the public website. If this changes, we will update this Policy and provide consent or opt-out controls where required by law.
You can control cookies through your browser settings. Blocking some cookies may affect login, checkout, security, or product functionality.
If Otterflow later enables desktop or mobile push notifications, we may collect device push tokens or system permission status only to send service notifications, security alerts, task-completion notices, or product updates that you choose to receive. You can disable these notifications through system settings or product settings.
Before publication, confirm whether Otterflow actually uses push notifications, which notification provider is used, and whether any marketing notifications are sent.
8. Data Retention
We retain personal information for as long as needed to provide the service, maintain accounts, comply with law, resolve disputes, enforce agreements, prevent abuse, and maintain backups.
User Content is generally retained until you delete the content, delete your account, or request deletion, subject to backup cycles, legal obligations, security needs, and service-provider retention limits.
Billing, invoice, tax, and transaction records may be retained as required for accounting, tax, fraud prevention, dispute handling, chargeback handling, and legal compliance once paid billing is enabled.
Basic service logs, security records, and abuse-prevention records are retained only for as long as reasonably needed to troubleshoot issues, protect the service, prevent abuse, maintain reliability, and comply with law.
De-identified or aggregated information may be retained for longer where it cannot reasonably identify an individual.
If you request deletion, we will process the request after verifying identity and according to applicable law. Some information may not be deleted immediately because of legal obligations, accounting records, security, fraud prevention, dispute handling, service-provider retention limits, or backup cycles.
9. Security
We use reasonable technical and organizational measures designed to protect personal information, including access controls, encryption in transit where appropriate, monitoring, and least-privilege operational practices.
No system is perfectly secure. Users should protect their account credentials and contact us immediately if they believe their account has been compromised.
10. International Data Transfers
Otterflow and its providers may process information in the United States and other countries. These countries may have data protection laws different from those in your location. Where required, we use appropriate safeguards for cross-border transfers.
We should not publish a statement implying all regional certifications or contractual mechanisms are already completed unless that is true. Recommended publication wording:
- For users in the EEA, UK, and Switzerland: where GDPR, UK GDPR, or Swiss data protection law applies, we rely on appropriate legal mechanisms, such as standard contractual clauses, data processing agreements, transfer impact assessments, encryption, access controls, or other lawful transfer mechanisms.
- For users in Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Canada, and other regions: where local law requires, we provide required disclosures, obtain required consent, or use reasonable contractual and security measures for cross-border processing.
- Third-party providers may be located in different countries or regions. By using Otterflow, you understand that your information may be processed outside your location as described in this Policy.
11. Minors
Otterflow is not directed to users under 18 or under the age of majority in their location.
If we learn that we have collected personal information from a user who does not meet this age requirement, we will take reasonable steps to delete the information or the account, unless retention is required by law, security, dispute handling, or other legitimate reasons.
12. Your Privacy Rights: Global Overview
Depending on your location, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, export, restrict, or object to certain processing of your personal information.
To make a privacy request, contact support@otterflow.ai with the subject line "Privacy Request". We may need to verify your identity before fulfilling a request.
You may unsubscribe from marketing emails by using the unsubscribe link in those emails. Transactional, security, billing, and account-related messages may still be sent when needed.
We generally respond to verifiable requests within the time required by applicable law. Complex requests may require more time, and we will explain where allowed or required by law.
To protect your information, we may verify your identity through your account, contact email, or other reasonable methods. If an authorized agent submits a request for you, we may require proof of authorization and may confirm your identity or authorization directly, unless applicable law provides otherwise.
If we deny or limit a request as permitted by law, we will explain the reason where required by applicable law and provide available appeal or complaint options. You may also submit an appeal through support@otterflow.ai.
13. Region-Specific Rights and Notices
This section applies only where the relevant law applies to Otterflow's processing activities and any applicable thresholds or conditions are met. It does not expand the scope of any law by itself, and rights may be subject to legal exceptions. If a region requires more specific notices, consent, opt-out mechanisms, or a separate page, we will supplement this notice when we actually offer the service to that region.
13.1 EEA, UK, and Switzerland
Where the GDPR, UK GDPR, or applicable Swiss data protection law applies, Otterflow Team is the controller, or the party with equivalent responsibility, for the processing described in this Policy. You can contact us at support@otterflow.ai.
| Topic | Notice | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Identity and contact | The public operator name is Otterflow Team, and privacy requests are handled through support@otterflow.ai. We do not currently state that we have appointed a data protection officer, EU representative, or UK representative. If our actual processing activities trigger a mandatory appointment requirement, we will add the relevant information. | support@otterflow.ai |
| Legal bases | Legal bases may include performance of a contract or pre-contractual steps, legal obligations, consent, and legitimate interests in keeping the service secure, reliable, abuse-resistant, and improved. Where we rely on consent, you may withdraw it. Where we rely on legitimate interests, we consider necessity, your impact, and safeguards. | See Section 3. |
| Core rights | You may access and receive a copy of your personal information, correct it, delete it, restrict or object to processing, exercise data portability, withdraw consent, and object to direct marketing where applicable. | Submit a request under Section 12. |
| Cross-border processing | Personal information may be processed outside your location. We will use applicable mechanisms or safeguards based on the actual recipients and transfers, such as data processing agreements, standard contractual clauses, transfer assessments, encryption, access controls, or other lawful mechanisms. This Policy does not state that any unconfirmed mechanism has already been completed. | See Section 10. |
| AI and automated decisions | Otterflow uses AI to help generate content, but we do not currently make decisions based solely on automated processing that produce legal or similarly significant effects for you. | If this changes, we will provide notice and appropriate safeguards. |
| Complaints | You may complain to a supervisory authority in your habitual residence, place of work, or place of the alleged infringement. | EEA authorities, UK ICO, or Swiss FDPIC |
13.2 California
This section applies only if the CCPA/CPRA applies to Otterflow and the relevant thresholds are met. The categories below describe personal information we may process in the past 12 months or after future paid features launch. See Sections 2, 3, 5, and 8 for sources, purposes, recipients, and retention.
| Category | Examples | Main sources | Main purposes | Sale / sharing | Retention approach |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Identifiers | Name, email, account identifier, IP address | You, your device, or browser | Account, login, security, support | No / No | See Section 8 |
| Internet or network activity | Browser, device, session events, basic service logs | Device or browser | Running the service, troubleshooting, abuse prevention | No / No | See Section 8 |
| Commercial or billing information | Subscription status, invoices, payment status, plan, amount | Payment provider, you | Subscriptions, invoices, and dispute handling after paid features launch | No / No | See Section 8 |
| User content | Documents, prompts, uploaded files, generated content, and metadata | You and the features you use | AI, document processing, collaboration, and export features | No / No | See Section 8 |
| Approximate location | General region inferred from IP address | Device or browser | Security, fraud prevention, service diagnostics, compliance checks | No / No | See Section 8 |
| Sensitive personal information | Account credentials; sensitive user content you choose to submit; payment security information handled by the payment provider | You, payment provider | Login and security, features you request, payment safety, and compliance | No / No | See Section 8 |
We do not use sensitive personal information to infer unrelated characteristics about you or for purposes outside providing and protecting the service and other legally permitted purposes, unless we provide additional notice and any required choice.
Subject to legal exceptions, you may have rights to know, access, correct, delete, and receive a copy of personal information; opt out of legally defined "sales" or "sharing"; limit the use or disclosure of sensitive personal information where applicable; submit requests through an authorized agent; and not be unlawfully discriminated against for exercising these rights. Under California's "Shine the Light" law, we do not disclose personal information to third parties for their direct marketing.
As described in Section 5.3, we do not sell personal information for monetary consideration. If a particular service-provider disclosure is considered a "sale" or "sharing" under applicable law, we will provide opt-out methods where legally required and technically feasible, and we will honor applicable opt-out preference signals such as GPC.
13.3 Other U.S. States
Some U.S. comprehensive privacy laws apply only when processing volume, revenue, business type, or other statutory thresholds are met. Subject to your state and legal exceptions, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, or export personal information; opt out of legally defined sale, targeted advertising, or certain profiling; and withdraw consent or limit sensitive data processing where required by law.
Submit requests under Section 12. If we deny a request and your state law provides an appeal right, you may appeal through support@otterflow.ai and explain the original request and why you seek review. You may also complain to the competent authority in your state.
13.4 Japan
Where Japan's Act on the Protection of Personal Information (APPI) applies:
| Topic | Notice |
|---|---|
| Purposes | We process personal information only within the purposes described in Section 3. |
| Third-party provision and cross-border transfers | When providing personal data to third parties outside Japan, we will provide required information, obtain required consent, or use another permitted arrangement based on the actual recipient, country or region, safeguards, and legal requirements. We do not provide sensitive personal information or user content you submit through APPI's opt-out third-party provision mechanism. |
| Rights and complaints | You may request disclosure of retained personal data or third-party provision records, correction, addition, deletion, suspension of use, erasure, or suspension of third-party provision. You may also contact or complain to Japan's Personal Information Protection Commission. |
13.5 South Korea
Where South Korea's Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) applies:
| Topic | Notice |
|---|---|
| Purposes and retention | Information categories and purposes are described in Sections 2 and 3. Retention is described in Section 8. |
| Outsourcing and cross-border processing | If outsourced processing, overseas storage, or transfer to overseas recipients triggers special requirements, we will provide the legally required notice, consent, or choice based on the actual production data flow, including recipients, country or region, purposes, information categories, transfer timing and method, retention period, and consequences of refusal. |
| Rights and contact | You may access, correct, delete, request suspension of processing, or withdraw applicable consent. Privacy requests are handled at support@otterflow.ai. If law requires us to formally appoint a personal information protection officer, we will add that information. |
| Complaints and incidents | You may contact or complain to South Korea's Personal Information Protection Commission or KISA. If a notifiable security incident occurs, we will notify affected individuals and authorities as required by applicable law. |
13.6-13.9 Hong Kong, Taiwan, Canada, and Other Regions
| Region | Rights and notice where applicable | Complaint or contact |
|---|---|---|
| Hong Kong | We handle personal data under the data protection principles of the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance. You may access and correct personal data. We use personal data only for the service-related purposes described in this Policy. If we conduct regulated direct marketing in the future, we will provide the required notice, consent, or opt-out method. | You may complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data or contact support@otterflow.ai. |
| Taiwan | We will provide required notice about the collecting party, purposes, categories of personal data, period, area, recipients, methods of use, and the possible effect of not providing data. You may inquire, review, request a copy, supplement or correct, request suspension of collection, processing, or use, and request deletion. If international transfer restrictions, statutory consent, or authority requirements apply, we will handle them under applicable rules. | You may seek relief from the competent authority or contact support@otterflow.ai. |
| Canada | You may access and correct personal information and, where applicable, withdraw consent or complain. We remain accountable for personal information under our control and use contracts or other means to require appropriate protection by service providers outside Canada. Information processed outside Canada may still be subject to local laws and government requests. | You may complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada or a competent provincial regulator, or contact support@otterflow.ai. |
| Other regions | If your local data protection law gives you additional rights, such as access, correction, deletion, withdrawal of consent, or complaint rights, we will handle verifiable requests under applicable law. | support@otterflow.ai |
14. Third-Party Links and Integrations
Otterflow may link to or integrate with third-party services. Their privacy practices are governed by their own policies, not this Privacy Policy.
15. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. If changes are material, we will provide notice through the website, product, email, or another reasonable method. The "Last updated" date shows when this Policy was most recently revised.
16. Contact Us
If you have any questions, requests, or complaints about privacy, please contact support@otterflow.ai.