Google account permissions

When you sign in to Paperpile with your Google account, you're asked to grant access to certain Google services. This article explains what each permission is for and why Paperpile needs it.

Paperpile uses the standard OAuth 2.0 protocol for authentication and never has access to your Google password. For general information about managing third-party access to your Google account, see Google's account permissions help. For more detail on how Paperpile handles your data, see our Privacy Policy.

Web app

When you sign in to the Paperpile web app, you'll be asked for the following permissions:

• View your email address and basic profile info — Your email address is used to identify your account and to contact you as described in our Privacy Policy. Your name and profile picture are used to personalize your experience and to identify you to others when you share content.
• View and manage Google Drive files and folders that you have opened or created with this app — Paperpile uploads PDFs and other files to your Google Drive. It cannot access any other files or documents in your Drive.

The following permission is optional and only requested when you use sharing features:

• View your contacts — Lets you share content with colleagues, for example by inviting them to a shared folder.

Chrome extension

The Chrome extension is required for several functions: importing articles from external databases, finding and downloading PDFs automatically — whether browsing a database or from within your library — automatic metadata updates via Auto-update, and the Google Docs integration for citing. The rest of the web app works without it. For more details, see Install and use the Chrome extension.

The extension requires the following permissions:

• Read and change all your data on the websites you visit — Lets Paperpile import bibliographic data and PDFs from sites like PubMed or Google Scholar. Only the data you choose to add to your library is transmitted to Paperpile's servers.
• Read your browsing history (tabs) — Lets Paperpile manage the workflow between tabs, for example switching between the web app and the PDF viewer or interacting with databases like PubMed. Your browsing history is never transmitted to Paperpile's servers.
• Modify data you copy and paste — Lets you copy citations from Paperpile and paste them into other applications. This data stays on your computer.
• Web request access — Lets Paperpile download bibliographic data and PDFs from publishers' websites.
• Storage and unlimited storage — Lets Paperpile save application settings and store downloaded PDFs locally for fast access. You can clear locally saved files in Settings.
• Context menus — Lets you import papers by right-clicking a hyperlink.

Google Docs integration

The Google Docs integration uses an Apps Script — a small program that runs on Google's servers — to format citations and bibliographies in your documents. It requires the following permissions:

• View and manage your Google Docs documents — The script needs access to your document to read your citations and insert a bibliography.
• Connect to an external service — Bibliographies are generated on Paperpile's servers, so the script sends citation codes externally. Paperpile also saves the document identifier and name to keep track of manuscripts you manage. The content of your documents is never sent to Paperpile's servers.

The Google Docs sidebar add-on provides additional features and requires two additional permissions:

• Display and run third-party web content in prompts and sidebars — Required to show the add-on in your sidebar.
• View and manage the files in your Google Drive — The add-on can export documents with BibTeX or EndNote-formatted citations, which it saves to your Google Drive. It only creates new files and never reads your existing Drive files.