MathLiveThe short version
- The plugin has no analytics or tracking. It only talks to our servers when you scan, draw or edit a formula, turn a PDF into notes, search for a formula, or it checks your plan.
- We never store the images, drawings, voice recordings or PDF pages you send, or the formulas and notes that come back. We keep a record that a scan happened, without its content.
- We don't sell your data or show ads, and the website uses no tracking or advertising cookies.
Who we are
MathLive is run by Dan Zilberman, an independent developer ("we"). To ask about your data, email [email protected].
What we collect
| Data | Why |
|---|---|
| Your email address, name and profile picture link from Google when you sign in | To create and identify your account |
| Your email address, and whether you unsubscribed from our emails | To send notices about your account, getting-started tips (one a day for your first week after you sign up), a note when you run out of free scans (at most once a month) and, now and then, news about major updates. Every one of these emails has an unsubscribe link, and we stop sending them once you use it. |
| Your plan, scan balance and purchase records (amount, date, and the order or subscription ID from Polar, or from PayPal for older payments) | To give you what you paid for and answer billing questions |
| API keys, stored only as a one-way fingerprint, with when each was created, last used and last checked your plan (at most once a day), and for keys made by connecting Obsidian, the device name the plugin sent (your vault's name and operating system) | To let the plugin scan with your account, and to show you which device is which |
| For trial scans before you sign in: a key with no account attached, and a one-way keyed fingerprint of your IP address, never the address itself | To limit how many free trials one network can start |
| For each scan, drawing, magic edit and PDF page: the time, whether it worked, how long it took, the size of the image or recording in bytes (and pixels for images), which model read it, what that cost us, and which key sent it | To count scans, charge only successful ones, and keep the scanner reliable |
| The text of formula searches that found nothing, and of requests to write a formula with AI, with the time. Never with your key, account or IP address. | To see which formulas the library is missing and add them. Kept for 180 days. |
| When you open the pricing or checkout page from an upgrade link (in the plugin or one of our emails), which link it was, and your account if you're signed in. The same label goes with a checkout to Polar and comes back with the payment. | To see which upgrade prompts help and which don't. The plugin itself still sends nothing extra. |
| IP addresses in short-lived server logs and rate limits | To keep the service secure and stop abuse |
We don't receive or store card or bank details: Polar handles payments. We don't use your data to train AI models.
What happens to a scanned image
When you choose to scan, the plugin sends that one image to our scanner over an encrypted connection. The scanner may first ask a small classifier whether the image is printed or handwritten, then sends it to an AI vision model to read the formula, and returns the LaTeX to you. The image and the result exist only in memory while the scan runs and are not saved by us. If you scan with your own self-hosted server instead, images never reach us at all.
What happens to a drawing
Draw formula opens a short drawing session on our server. While you draw, on the computer or on a phone that scanned the QR code, each drawing goes to our scanner and handwriting models to show you a preview. The link in the QR code carries a one-time token that only your phone sees; we keep only a fingerprint of it, and the first phone to open the link is the only one that can use it. The session, its latest preview and the drawings exist only in memory, and end when you close the window or after a few idle minutes.
What happens to a magic edit
Magic edit sends the formula's LaTeX and what you typed to our server, which asks Anthropic's Claude to make the change and sends back the new formula. If you speak instead, the plugin records only while the microphone button is on, and sends that recording, which goes first to a speech model through OpenRouter to be written down. We don't store the formula, your instruction or the recording.
What happens to a PDF you turn into notes
The plugin turns each page you choose into an image on your computer and sends the pages to our scanner one at a time, where an AI vision model writes each as Markdown. The note is written into your vault by the plugin. We don't store the PDF, its pages or the text that comes back. With your own self-hosted server, pages never reach us.
What happens to a formula search
When you use Find a formula, the plugin sends what you type to our server, which searches the formula library there and sends back the matches. Searching needs no account and sends no key. The search runs entirely on our server, including the AI model that matches formulas by meaning, so your search goes to no one else. We keep only the searches that found nothing, as described above. If you choose Write it with AI, the text you typed goes to Anthropic's Claude, which writes the formula, and the plugin sends your key so the scan can be counted.
The library is built from Wikidata's formulas (public domain, CC0) and entries written and checked with Claude. Each formula from Wikidata links back to its source.
Services that help us
These companies process data for us, only as needed to provide the part of the service listed:
- Google: signing in with your Google account.
- Polar: selling plans as our merchant of record, which includes taking payments, sales tax and receipts. Polar gets your email address and the plan you buy, and its checkout sets its own cookies on its pages.
- PayPal: monthly plans started before we moved to Polar.
- Resend: sending our emails. Resend gets your email address and, for tips and update emails, whether you opened them or clicked a link.
- Cloudflare: carrying traffic to our servers securely.
- OpenRouter, and the AI model providers it connects us to, and Anthropic: reading formulas from scanned images and drawings, and reading PDF pages. Anthropic also writes formulas when you choose Write it with AI and makes magic edits, and OpenRouter writes down spoken magic edits.
- TypeSafe: telling printed from handwritten images, so each goes to the model that reads it best.
Their own privacy policies apply to the data they process. Our servers and databases are run by us.
Cookies
The website sets one cookie, mathlive_session, to keep you signed in. It is removed when you sign out. There are no analytics or advertising cookies.
How long we keep data
Account, balance and purchase records are kept while your account exists, and purchase records as long as tax and accounting rules require. Scan records contain no images, recordings, pages or formulas. Formula searches that found nothing are kept for 180 days. Server logs are rotated automatically and kept only briefly.
Your choices and rights
You can see your plan, scans, keys and purchases on your account page, and remove API keys there at any time. To get a copy of your data, correct it, or delete your account, email [email protected] and we'll do it within 30 days. Depending on where you live, you may also have the right to complain to your data protection authority.
Children
MathLive is not meant for children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect their data.
Changes
If we change this policy, we'll update the date at the top. For important changes we'll say so on this site before they take effect.