Privacy Policy for Plagiarism Detector, the desktop plagiarism checker for Windows and macOS, including the Mac App Store edition.

Privacy Policy for the Plagiarism Detector desktop apps

Plagiarism Detector for Windows and Plagiarism Detector for Mac - last updated 12 October 2026

Scope

This policy covers the Plagiarism Detector desktop applications: Plagiarism Detector for Windows, and Plagiarism Detector for Mac, both the version downloaded from our website and the Mac App Store edition. It explains what the apps send over the internet, why, and what we keep.

Plagiarism Detector runs on your own computer: your documents are opened, compared and turned into Originality Reports there, and the reports are saved on your computer. To find matching sources, however, the app has to search the internet and our own index, so parts of your text do leave your computer. The sections below explain exactly what is sent.

Who we are

Plagiarism Detector is developed and operated by Yurii Palkovskii. If you have questions about this policy, or about data we hold, write to us at: plagiarism.detector.support@gmail.com

What the app sends when you check a document

• Search phrases. The app selects short passages from the text of your document and sends them as search queries. The Windows app sends them from your computer directly to public search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo) and, when those are not available, to our search relay. The Mac app sends them only to our search relay. The relay forwards the phrases to serper.dev, a search service that returns Google results; it does not pass on your licence or any other part of the document.
• Search result cache. Search phrases and the addresses of the pages found for them are stored in our search result cache, so that the same search does not have to be run again.
• Web pages. The pages found by the search are downloaded and compared with your document. The Windows app downloads them from your computer, or through our page-fetch service; the Mac app downloads them through our page-fetch service. The page-fetch service receives the page addresses, not your document.
• Scientific papers. When you choose a check against scientific papers (SciPap), the text of the document and its file name are sent to our own index of scientific papers, which returns the matching papers.
• AI-writing detection. For documents in English, Spanish, French, Romanian and Ukrainian, the text is sent to our AI detection service, which marks the passages that look machine-generated. You can switch AI detection off in the check wizard.
• Report header. When a check finishes, the report data (results, matched sources and passages, the document name, and your licence and install identifiers) is sent to our report service, which returns the header of the Originality Report. A copy of the generated header may be kept for a limited time for support.
• Text extraction (Windows only). If none of the text extractors on your computer can read a file, the Windows app may send the file to our text-extraction service, which returns its text.

All these connections are encrypted (HTTPS). We use the text we receive only to carry out the check you asked for. We do not publish it, sell it, or use it to train AI models.

Our servers record the IP address of every connection in standard web-server logs, which are kept for security and abuse prevention.

Originality Reports

Reports are created and stored on your computer, in the folder you choose. They are not uploaded unless you use one of the features below.

• Share online: when you share a report, it is uploaded to our report-sharing service and published at a link that anyone holding the link can open. Shared reports stay online so that the links keep working. To have a shared report removed, e-mail us its link.
• Save as PDF (Windows): the report is sent to our PDF conversion service, which returns the PDF file.

Licensing

To activate the app and check your licence, the app sends our licence server: the licence (order) number, an install identifier created when the app is first run, a fingerprint of your computer's hardware (a hash, together with the hardware details it is computed from, such as the processor and computer model and the system serial number and hardware identifiers), the app version and the operating system version.

We use these details to bind a licence to the number of computers it allows, to restore an activation after a hardware change, and to count the free checks of the demo version.

Usage statistics and error reports

While it runs, the app sends usage and diagnostic events to our statistics server: for example the app starting and closing, a check starting and finishing, the file name, type, length and language of each checked document, the result percentages, the number of sources found and failed, and error messages with technical details. These events carry the install identifier, the hardware fingerprint hash, the app version and the operating system version. We use them to fix errors, measure performance and improve detection, never for advertising.

When it starts, the app also uploads its debug log (the last three sessions). The log records what the app did, and may contain the names and folders of the documents you checked. Our support team uses it to diagnose the problems you report.

Purchases

Purchases on our website are processed by PayPro Global, our reseller. PayPro Global collects your payment details. We receive the order data needed to issue and support your licence, such as your name, e-mail address, country, the product and the order number, but never your card details.

Purchases in the Mac App Store are processed by Apple. We receive only Apple's signed transaction data (the product, transaction identifiers, purchase and expiry dates, renewals and refunds) and link it to the licence of your app. Apple does not share your name, e-mail address or payment details with us.

How long we keep data

Licence and order records are kept for as long as the licence exists and as long as tax and accounting law requires. Each debug log upload replaces the previous one, and a debug log is deleted two years after the app last uploaded one. Other data is kept only as long as it is needed to provide the service and the licence, and then deleted.

What we do not do

• We do not sell, rent or trade your personal data or your documents.
• The apps contain no advertising and no third-party advertising, analytics or tracking code, and they do not track you across other apps or websites.
• The apps do not require an account or a sign-in.

Third parties and hosting

Our services run on servers rented from Hetzner Online in the European Union. The only third parties that receive data from the apps are serper.dev (search phrases only), PayPro Global (website purchases), Apple (Mac App Store purchases, under Apple's own privacy policy) and, for the Windows app, the public search engines it queries directly.

Your rights

You can ask what data we hold about your licence or installation, and ask us to correct or delete it, by e-mailing us with your order number. We reply within 30 days. Deleting licence data ends the licence's activations. plagiarism.detector.support@gmail.com

If you are in the EEA or the UK: our legal basis for processing the text you check is performance of a contract - you asked us to check it; for licence and purchase records it is performance of a contract and our legal obligations; for statistics, debug logs and security logs it is our legitimate interest in keeping the software working and secure. You have the right to access, correct, export or erase your data, to object to processing, and to lodge a complaint with your national data-protection authority.

Children

The apps are not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect data from them.

Changes to this policy

We update this page whenever the apps' data handling changes, and revise the date shown at the top.