Privacy Policy

DistillBrief("we," "us," or "our") helps professionals turn long business, technical, and research PDFs into clear briefs and summaries. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, and the choices you have.

By using DistillBrief, you agree to the practices described here. If you do not agree, please do not use the service.

When you upload a PDF, the file is processed temporarily in memory on our servers. We do not permanently store your original PDF files after processing is complete.

We extract text from your document — from selectable text in digital PDFs, or via OCR for scanned and image-based PDFs. That extracted text may be sent to OpenAI APIs to generate summaries and related output. OpenAI processes this content according to its own terms and privacy policies.

Important: Do not upload highly sensitive, confidential, regulated, or personal documents unless you understand and accept this processing flow. You are responsible for deciding whether a document is appropriate to upload.

If you create an account, we use Clerk to handle authentication. Clerk may process information such as your email address, sign-in method, and session data. Cookies and similar technologies may be used to keep you signed in and protect your account.

We do not operate our own password system for Google sign-in. Authentication is managed through Clerk according to their security practices.

When you are signed in, we may store your extraction history in our Neon PostgreSQL database so you can revisit past results. This typically includes:

• Uploaded filename
• Extracted text
• Generated summary
• Timestamp of the extraction

Anonymous uploads (without signing in) are not saved to your account history, though they are still processed as described above.

If you subscribe to Pro, billing is handled securely by Stripe. We do not store your full payment card number on our servers. Stripe collects and processes payment information according to its own privacy policy.

We may store subscription-related identifiers (such as your Stripe customer ID and plan status) in your account metadata so we can manage access to Pro features. You can manage or cancel your subscription through the billing page and Stripe Customer Portal.

We may collect basic analytics and operational data to understand how the service is used and to keep it running reliably. This may include:

• Pages visited and features used
• Approximate usage counts (such as extractions per month)
• Browser type, device type, and general technical logs
• IP-based rate limiting data to prevent abuse

We use this information to improve the product, enforce fair usage limits, and diagnose errors — not to build advertising profiles.

• We do not sell your personal data
• We do not permanently store uploaded PDF files
• We do not use your document content to train our own AI models

Third-party providers (OpenAI, Clerk, Stripe, Neon, and our hosting provider) process data only as needed to deliver the service.

Uploaded PDFs are discarded after processing. Saved extraction history remains linked to your account while your account is active. We may retain limited logs for security, billing, and troubleshooting for a reasonable period.

If you want account-related data removed, contact us and we will handle reasonable requests in accordance with applicable law.

We take reasonable measures to protect data in transit and at rest, including HTTPS, access controls, and reputable infrastructure providers. No online service can guarantee absolute security, and you use DistillBrief at your own risk.

DistillBrief is not intended for children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will revise the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. Continued use of the service after changes means you accept the updated policy.

For privacy questions or data requests, email support@distillbrief.com.