Privacy Policy

Marginalia Labs ("we", "us", "our") operates BookCatalyst and ResearchCatalyst (the "Apps"). This page informs you of our policies regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information when you use our Apps.

The Short Version

Our apps are local-first. Your data stays on your device. We don't collect your writing, your research, your annotations, or your personal files. We don't have accounts, telemetry, or analytics. We can't see what you do because we've designed it that way.

Information Collection

Data We Do Not Collect

Our Apps are designed with privacy as a core principle. We do not collect:

• Your documents, manuscripts, or writing
• Your PDF files or annotations
• Usage analytics or telemetry
• Device identifiers or hardware information
• Location data
• Personal information beyond what's described below

Data That Stays On Your Device

All your content — manuscripts in BookCatalyst, PDFs and annotations in ResearchCatalyst — is stored locally on your device. We have no access to this data. Your work is yours.

• BookCatalyst stores projects as Markdown files in folders you choose.
• ResearchCatalyst stores annotations in .rcanno JSON sidecar files alongside your PDFs, with project metadata in .rcproj files and a local SQLite database for search and filtering.

Licence Validation

Both Apps are distributed through the Microsoft Store. Licence validation is handled entirely by Microsoft's Store infrastructure. We do not receive or store any payment information, licence keys, or purchase records.

Trial System

The 15-day free trial period is tracked locally on your device using the Windows registry. No information about your trial status is sent to any server.

Crash Reports

If either App encounters a fatal error, a crash log is written to a local file on your device. This log contains only technical information (stack traces, exception messages) and is never transmitted to us or any third party. You may choose to include crash log contents when contacting support — this is entirely voluntary.

Microsoft Store

Our Apps are distributed through the Microsoft Store. Microsoft may collect information as described in their privacy policy. We encourage you to review the Microsoft Privacy Statement for details about data Microsoft collects through the Store.

Third-Party Services

Our Apps do not integrate with third-party analytics, advertising, or tracking services. We do not use cookies, beacons, or similar technologies within our Apps. No data is sent to external servers during normal use.

Data Portability

Because all data is stored locally in open formats, you always have full control over your information:

• BookCatalyst projects are standard Markdown files — readable by any text editor.
• ResearchCatalyst annotations are human-readable JSON files (.rcanno) stored alongside your PDFs. You can read, move, or back up these files at any time without our software.

If you uninstall either App, your project files remain on your device exactly where you saved them.

This Website

This website (marginalialabs.com) is a static site. It does not use cookies, analytics, or tracking scripts. We do not collect any information about visitors to this website.

Children's Privacy

Our Apps do not address anyone under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. Changes will be posted on this page with an updated "last updated" date. We encourage you to review this page periodically.

Contact Us

If you have questions about this privacy policy, please contact us at support@marginalialabs.com.