Ridley Privacy Policy
What Ridley collects
On your device only (never sent to TurtleTech)
- Zotero credentials: your Zotero username and API key, stored in Android SharedPreferences. Used to sync your library directly with api.zotero.org. TurtleTech never receives these credentials.
- Library metadata: titles, authors, tags, and notes from your Zotero library. Stored in a local SQLite database on your device.
- Cached PDFs: downloaded PDF files stored in the app's private directory.
- Reading position and statistics: which page you last read, page counts. Stored locally in SharedPreferences.
- Annotations: highlights, underlines, comments. Stored in a local SQLite database. Optionally synced to your Zotero account (directly to api.zotero.org).
- Search index: full-text search index of your PDFs, built and stored entirely on your device.
On-device processing
- OCR (text recognition): scanned PDFs run through Google ML Kit Text Recognition. This runs entirely on your device. No images or text leave your phone. The ML Kit model downloads once from Google Play services; after that, all processing stays local.
Optional: TurtleTech account
- If you subscribe to Ridley Storage or Ridley Mobile, you provide a TurtleTech API key. This connects to my.turtletech.us to verify your subscription and fetch storage credentials.
- Storage subscribers' PDF files sync directly between the app and EU-hosted storage (S3-compatible). TurtleTech operates the storage infrastructure but does not access file contents.
- See the TurtleTech Privacy Policy for full details on server-side data handling, sub-processors, and GDPR compliance.
What Ridley does not do
- No advertising. No ad SDKs.
- No analytics or tracking in the app. (The ridley.turtletech.us website uses Antics, our privacy-first analytics. The Android app sends no analytics.)
- No data shared with third parties.
- No cloud-based OCR. All text recognition runs on-device.
- No access to contacts, camera, microphone, or location.
Third-party services
| Service | Purpose | Data sent |
|---|---|---|
| Zotero (api.zotero.org) | Library sync, file download | Your Zotero API key (direct connection, not through TurtleTech) |
| Google ML Kit | On-device OCR | None (runs locally; model downloaded from Play services) |
| OokCite API | Citation formatting | DOI strings only (no personal data). Optional TurtleTech API key for rate limit tracking. |
| TurtleTech Storage | EU-hosted file storage (subscribers only) | PDF files via S3 protocol. See main privacy policy. |
Data deletion
Clear the app's data in Android Settings > Apps > Ridley > Clear Data. This removes all local data: credentials, library cache, annotations, search index, and cached PDFs.
To delete your TurtleTech account and stored files, email info@turtletech.us.
Children
Ridley targets researchers and academics. The app does not knowingly collect data from children under 13.
Changes
Updates to this policy will appear on this page with a revised date. For material changes, we'll note them in the app's release notes.
Contact
TurtleTech ehf., Reykjavik, Iceland. Email: info@turtletech.us
For the full TurtleTech privacy policy covering server infrastructure, sub-processors, and GDPR: turtletech.us/legal/privacy