Peel is a browser extension for Chrome and Microsoft Edge, and an app for Mac and Windows (see The desktop app), for saving sources and quotes and copying references. It’s made by KanBananza.
What stays on your computer
Your library (projects, sources, quotes, notes, tags and highlights), your PDF copies, your settings and the list of what Pip did are kept only in your browser’s storage for Peel. Peel has no account and no analytics, and your library is never stored on a server of ours. We never see, collect, sell or share your library or how you use Peel.
Reading a page happens on your computer, and only when you click Peel’s button, use its right-click menu or press one of its shortcuts. Files you import (RIS, BibTeX or CSL JSON) and PDFs you open are read on your computer and never uploaded, except by sync, encrypted, if you turn it on.
If you turn on the passcode lock (Settings → Privacy), your library, PDF copies, keys, sync’s key and backups you download are encrypted on your computer. Your settings stay readable, so the lock screen keeps your reading settings. Peel locks when the browser closes and, unless you change it, after 5 minutes unused. Your passcode is never stored or sent anywhere.
When Peel uses the internet
Only for features you choose to use. Your browser asks your permission for each website the first time.
Looking up a source
- A DOI or ISBN, or Fill the gaps: only the DOI, the ISBN, or the title and first author are sent to Crossref (api.crossref.org) or Open Library (openlibrary.org), to fetch the source’s details.
- Find a free copy: only the DOI is sent to OpenAlex (api.openalex.org). The copy you pick is then fetched from its own website.
- A PDF from the web is fetched from its own website only when you open it in Peel, with your browser’s permission for that website.
- Open PDFs in Peel (Settings → PDFs, off until you turn it on) asks your browser to let Peel see the pages you open and read secure websites, so it can open each PDF in Peel’s reader. Peel only looks for PDFs, and keeps nothing about the other pages.
Pip, the AI helper
- Only when you press a Pip button: Peel sends what that job needs to our AI server at ai.kanbananza.com. A note says what before each helper is first used, and Settings → Pip lists them: tidying sends the source’s names, title and publisher; explaining a rule sends your question, your style’s name and Peel’s own examples; a summary sends the words on the pages you chose and the title; the paraphrase coach sends the quote and your own version; finding sources sends only your question.
- Where it goes: our AI server runs on Cloudflare’s network. It passes what you sent to our AI provider, a company in the United States, to work out the answer, and sends the answer back. Under its commercial terms, our AI provider doesn’t train its models on it and deletes it within 30 days. The one exception: if its own safety checks flag a request as breaking its usage rules, it can keep that request for up to 2 years to look into it. Sending it to the United States is covered by our AI provider’s data processing terms, which use the EU Standard Contractual Clauses with the UK International Data Transfer Addendum.
- What we keep: not what you send: we keep no copy and no logs of it. To count Pip’s actions, the server stores a one-way hash of your licence key (or, in the free week, a random ID made by your browser) with a count, and, for free limits and to limit how often keys are checked, a one-way hash of your internet connection that changes every month. When a licence key is checked, the server also remembers what it unlocks and when it was checked, for up to 7 days. We also keep daily totals of how much each kind of action was used, with nothing about who used it.
- Pip’s safety check: before answering, Pip checks whether a request asks for help with something harmful (see the terms). If it does, the server pauses Pip by storing the same hashes with when the pause ends and how many pauses in a row there have been. It doesn’t store what you sent or why, and this is deleted a month after the pause ends.
- Your licence key, if you have one, goes with each request, so the server can check it includes Pip. It checks the key with Lemon Squeezy, our payment provider.
- Finding sources: Pip’s search words (or your own) are sent to Crossref and OpenAlex for the results. Nothing else is sent.
- What Pip did (Settings → Pip) stays on your computer, for you to copy or download.
Sync (optional, free, off until you set it up)
- What’s stored: an encrypted copy of your library and PDF copies, in a hidden app folder in your own Google Drive or OneDrive, so your other computers can sync with it.
- Encrypted first: it’s encrypted on your computer with a sync passphrase you choose, before it leaves. Neither Google, Microsoft nor KanBananza can read it. PDFs are named by a keyed hash, so the service can’t tell which PDFs they are. Your passphrase is never stored or sent.
- Only its own files: Peel uses KanBananza’s Google and Microsoft sign-in apps, so its files sit in the same hidden app folder as KanBananza’s sync, and each app only touches its own files. It can’t see your other files, and it doesn’t ask for your name or email address.
- Straight to your Drive or OneDrive: the data goes from your computer to Google or Microsoft. KanBananza never receives any of it.
- Turning it off: Settings → Your data → Turn off or sign out. You can also choose to delete Peel’s copy in the cloud. Turning sync off signs you out.
- A forgotten passphrase can’t be recovered, but you can start again with a new one: Peel deletes its copy in the cloud first, and the library on your computer is kept.
Peel’s use of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
Peel’s use of information it receives complies with the Chrome Web Store User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. Your information is used only for the features you choose, and is never sold, used for advertising, or read by a person.
With KanBananza
If you also install KanBananza, our planning app, KanBananza and Peel share some details with each other on your computer, so one free week and one Pip key cover both: the free week’s dates, a random ID used to count Pip’s free week, and a licence key that gives Pip. If you link a board’s sources with a Peel project, the two apps pass those sources (their details, reading status and Peel’s quotes) between them on your computer, to keep both copies the same. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Buying Peel Plus
When you buy Peel Plus, the purchase itself (your name, email address and payment details) is handled by Lemon Squeezy (lemonsqueezy.com) under its own privacy policy, not by Peel.
Permissions
- Storage and unlimited storage: to keep your library, settings and PDF copies in your browser, without the browser’s size limit.
- Context menus, active tab and scripting: for the right-click menu, the popup and the shortcuts. When you use them, Peel reads that page’s title, authors, date and publisher from the page’s own tags, any words you selected, and the start of its text for identifiers like a DOI, on your computer. Nothing on a page is read otherwise.
- Side panel: to show your project beside the page you’re reading.
- api.crossref.org, openlibrary.org and api.openalex.org (asked for the first time you look something up): to fetch a source’s details, a free copy, or sources for a question.
- ai.kanbananza.com (asked for the first time you use Pip): to send Pip’s requests, as described above.
- A website’s PDFs (asked for one website at a time, when you open a PDF from it in Peel), or every secure website and seeing pages open (asked for only if you turn on Open PDFs in Peel).
- Identity, and Google Drive or OneDrive (asked for only when you set up sync): to sign in and read and write Peel’s files in the hidden app folder.
Your choices
You can export your whole library at any time (Settings → Your data), and removing the extension deletes everything it stored on your computer. If you use sync, you can turn it off and delete the copy in the cloud at any time.
The desktop app
Everything above applies to the app too, with these differences:
- Where your library is kept: in the app’s own folder on your computer, not in a browser: on a Mac, ~/Library/Application Support/com.kanbananza.peel, and on Windows, %LOCALAPPDATA%\com.kanbananza.peel. Removing the app doesn’t delete it by itself: on Windows, tick Delete the application data when you uninstall it; on a Mac, delete that folder too.
- PDFs: PDFs you open from your computer stay where they are. A PDF from the web is read by the app from its own website, only when you open it in Peel.
- No permission prompts: the app sends Pip’s requests, licence key checks and look-ups itself, to the same places as the extension, only when you use those features. It can reach only those places.
- Sync: the app opens Google’s or Microsoft’s sign-in in your web browser, and keeps what it’s given (a key to Peel’s hidden app folder only) in your Mac’s Keychain or Windows Credential Manager, so sync keeps working without signing in again.
- Updates: when it starts and once a day, the app downloads a small file from GitHub (github.com), which keeps the app’s downloads, to see if there’s a new version. Like any download, GitHub sees your internet address; nothing about you or your library is sent. The app installs only updates signed by KanBananza.
This website
This website (peel.kanbananza.com) has no cookies, no analytics and loads nothing from other websites. The reference builder on each guide works in your browser: nothing you type leaves the page. Reading comfort settings are saved in your browser only.
Contact
Questions about this policy: [email protected]