PERRLA, LLC ("PERRLA," "we," "us") makes writing and reference software for students, researchers, and professional writers. This policy explains what information we collect, why we collect it, how we use it, and the choices you have. It applies to PERRLA Online, PERRLA for Word, PERRLA for Google Docs, the PERRLA Chrome Extension, perrla.com, and any other software or platforms we provide.

PERRLA is offered to users in the United States. We do not market or direct our software to people outside the United States, and your information is stored and processed in the United States.

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1. Information you give us

Account information. Your name, email address, and password when you create an account.

Payment information. When you purchase a subscription, you provide payment card details. We do not store full card numbers. We retain only the last four digits and the card type, so you can recognise your payment method. Payments are processed by secure third-party processor.

Your content. The papers, references, research notes, annotations, and files you create or upload while using PERRLA. This content belongs to you. Section 6 of our Terms & Conditions says so, and Section 5 below describes how we treat it.

Support communications. Anything you send us when you contact support, including attachments.

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2. Information we collect or receive another way

From your school or organization. If your access is provided under a site license, that organization gives us your name, email address, and, optionally, an internal student or employee identifier.

Usage information. When you use PERRLA we automatically collect information about how the software performs and how it is used: pages and features visited, actions taken, timestamps, device and browser type, operating system, and IP address.

Session recording. We may use software to record interactions with our website and software, including mouse movement, clicks, and scrolling, so we can see where PERRLA is confusing or slow and fix it. These recordings mask sensitive information, including anything you type into a password field. We do not use them for advertising and we do not sell them.

Error and performance monitoring. When something fails, our monitoring tools record technical details about the failure so we can diagnose it.

From services you connect. If you connect a third-party account, for example, your Zotero library, we receive the data you authorize us to import. You can disconnect it at any time.

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3. How we use your information

We use the information described above to:

• provide the software, save your work, and sync it across the platforms you use;

• process your purchase, renew your subscription, and send you receipts;

• answer your questions and provide support;

• keep the software working, including diagnosing errors, monitoring performance, and preventing abuse or fraud;

• understand which features are used and where people get stuck, so we can improve them;

• send you the emails described in Section 8; and

• meet our legal obligations.

We do not use your papers, references, notes, or uploaded files to advertise to you, and we do not use them to build a profile of you.

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4. How we share your information

We do not sell your personal information. We never share your papers, references, notes, uploaded files, or account information for anyone else's advertising or marketing.

Our website and checkout are an exception you should know about. Pages on perrla.com, including our checkout, use advertising and analytics tools provided by other companies, such as Meta (Facebook) and Google, which receive information about your visit and your purchase and may use it for their own advertising purposes. These tools are not used inside PERRLA itself, and they never receive your papers, your reference library, or the files you store with us. Section 12 explains how to limit them.

Beyond that, we share information only in these circumstances:

With service providers who work on our behalf. We use other companies to run PERRLA, to host and store files, process payments, send email, provide customer support, and monitor performance and usage.

With your school or organization, if your access is provided under a site license, and only as described in Section 10.

When you tell us to, for example, when you connect another service.

When the law requires it, or to protect the rights, safety, or property of PERRLA, our users, or the public.

Internally, we restrict access to your information to the staff who need it to service your account. Every PERRLA staff member has signed a non-disclosure agreement.

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5. Your papers and files

The papers, references, research notes, and annotations you create in PERRLA belong to you. We claim no ownership of them. We store, back up, and display them only to provide the software to you and to help you when you ask for support.

Your papers, references, and related PERRLA material are backed up onto PERRLA's servers so your work is not lost. PERRLA's file storage is not a substitute for your own backups. Please keep your own copies of anything that matters.

We will not sell your content, use it for advertising, or disclose it to anyone else, except to the service providers described in Section 4, at your direction, or where the law requires it.

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6. Automated processing and artificial intelligence

Some PERRLA features use automated tools, which may include artificial intelligence services operated by other companies, for example, identifying bibliographic information from a file you upload.

Where a file is sent to such a service, it is sent only to deliver that feature to you. PERRLA, LLC uses these services only under terms that do not allow them to use your files to train their models and that limit how long they may keep your files.

We do not use your content to train artificial intelligence models made available to anyone other than you.

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7. Your choices and your rights

Access and correction. You can view and update your account information at any time in your PERRLA settings.

Export. You can download your papers and your reference library at any time.

Deletion. You may ask us to delete your account and the information we hold about you by emailing support@perrla.com. When we receive your request we obfuscate your account, meaning the information saved to it on our servers is scrambled so it no longer identifies you, and the account is permanently deleted within thirty (30) days.

What we cannot delete. Your payment and transaction records are held by our payment processors and by the financial institutions involved in your purchase. Those records are not ours to remove, and they are kept according to those companies' own practices and the record-keeping the law requires of them. We can act only on the information saved to your account on our servers.

Deletion on request is different from what happens when a subscription simply expires. Section 5 of our Terms & Conditions covers that case, where your files are kept for at least ninety (90) days so you can download them.

Marketing email. Every newsletter has an unsubscribe link. Unsubscribing does not stop service messages such as renewal notices and receipts, which are part of your subscription.

Connected services. You can disconnect any third-party service you have connected, at any time, from your settings.

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8. Emails we send

We contact you only when there is a reason:

• a monthly customer newsletter, with an unsubscribe link at the bottom;

• a notice before your subscription renews or expires;

• a follow-up if you register for a free trial; and

• service messages about your account, your purchase, or a problem.

• Any other necessary PERRLA-related communication

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9. Security

We maintain electronic, physical, and procedural safeguards designed to protect your information, consistent with industry standards for companies of our size and type. These include encryption of data in transit, restricted staff access, and confidentiality obligations on every employee.

We do not store full payment card numbers. When you make a purchase, your card details pass through our systems only to reach a secure third-party payment processor. We retain only the last four digits and the card type so you can recognise your payment method. PERRLA maintains PCI DSS compliance for the systems that handle payment card data.

No system can be guaranteed completely secure, and we do not claim otherwise. If we become aware of a breach affecting your personal information, we will notify you and any required authority as the law requires, without undue delay.

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10. Students and institutional access

If your access to PERRLA is provided by a school or other organization, that organization may receive information about your use of PERRLA as described in its agreement with us, and that agreement may place additional obligations on how we handle your information.

We do not sell student information, we do not use it for advertising, and we do not build advertising profiles from it. Where we handle education records on behalf of an institution, we do so under that institution's direction and only for the purposes it authorizes.

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11. Children

PERRLA is intended for students in higher education, researchers, and professional writers. It is not marketed to children under thirteen (13), and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. If we learn we have collected personal information from a child under thirteen, we will delete it and close the account.

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12. Cookies and similar technologies

We use cookies and similar technologies for three purposes:

To make PERRLA work, keeping you signed in and remembering your preferences. These are necessary and cannot be turned off.

To understand how PERRLA is used, which features people use and where they run into trouble, so we can improve them.

To advertise. Our website and checkout may carry advertising tools from companies such as Meta (Facebook) and Google. These let us show PERRLA ads to people who have visited our site and measure whether those ads work. The companies providing them receive information about your visit and your purchase, and may use it for their own purposes. These tools do not run inside PERRLA Online, PERRLA for Word, PERRLA for Google Docs, or the Chrome Extension.

You can limit advertising cookies through your browser settings, through Meta's and Google's own ad preference controls, or by using a browser that blocks them.

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13. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy. When we make a material change we will update the date at the top and notify you by email or through the software before it takes effect.

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14. Contact us

Questions, concerns, or requests about this policy: support@perrla.com, or write to PERRLA, LLC, 115 Main Street South, Suite E, Carthage, TN 37030.

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15. Google Docs

Data Accessed. PERRLA can access the content and structure of Google Docs documents where the PERRLA add-on is used, including text, paragraphs, and formatting.

Data Usage. PERRLA reads document content to identify existing citations and references. PERRLA writes to documents to insert, edit, and format citations and references according to APA/MLA style guidelines.

Data Sharing. Google Docs data is not shared with third parties.

Data Storage & Protection. Google Docs Content: All communications between the PERRLA add-on and PERRLA servers are encrypted using HTTPS/TLS. Document content is processed in real-time within Google's secure infrastructure and is not stored on PERRLA servers. PERRLA does not have access to your Google account credentials - authentication is handled securely through Google's OAuth system.

Reference Library Data: Your PERRLA reference library (citations and references you create) is transmitted between the add-on and PERRLA servers using HTTPS/TLS encryption. This data is stored securely on PERRLA servers to enable syncing across devices and platforms. Access to stored data is protected by your PERRLA account credentials and industry-standard security measures.

Data Sale Prohibition: PERRLA does not sell, rent, or trade Google user data to any third parties.

Limited Use: PERRLA's use of Google user data is limited solely to providing the citation and reference formatting features described above.

Data Retention & Deletion. Since PERRLA does not store Google Docs document content on our servers, there is no retained data to delete. To revoke PERRLA's access to your Google account, visit your Google Account permissions (myaccount.google.com/permissions) and remove PERRLA.