Privacy policy

Last updated 31 October 2026

rauntruth.com is a free research tool for viewing and analysing microscopy images, run by Ariel (ariel@rauntruth.com). It runs in your browser. The site has no server of its own: no account database and no store of anything about you. This policy says what stays on your device, and what reaches other services, and when.

Your images and results

Images are analysed on your own computer, inside your browser. They are never uploaded to us or to anyone else by the site. The results stay in your browser unless you download them yourself or choose to submit ground truth (below).

What stays on your device

To start faster, to work without the internet and to remember your choices, the site keeps these in your browser's storage on this device:

• a copy of the site's own pages and code, so it opens without the internet;
• Python and its packages, so the page starts without downloading them again, including those of the studies you make available offline;
• images you opened from Google Drive (unless you untick Auto-save images), the ones you choose in you keep when making a study available offline, small pictures of them, and Drive folders' preview files;
• your settings, such as the theme, the tips you closed and your last Google Drive links;
• your work on each image, such as your selections and corrections;
• when you are signed in, your name, email address and picture, and Google's sign-in token for about an hour (see below).

The avatar menu's Manage storage lists all of it, with sizes, and deletes any of it. None of it is sent to us.

Services the page reaches

• Cloudflare serves the site's files, and counts visits with Cloudflare Web Analytics. It sets no cookies, stores nothing on your device, and doesn't follow you across sites. It receives the page's address, the page that linked to it and your browser's details, never your images or results. See Cloudflare's privacy policy.
• jsDelivr (cdn.jsdelivr.net) delivers Python and its packages to your browser on the first visit, then again every 30 days, and when you make a study available offline, which also asks it how large each package is. See jsDelivr's privacy policy.
• Google answers when you open a Google Drive link you pasted (through the Drive API), when making a study available offline lists, or downloads, the images in its Drive folder, when you sign in with Google, and, while you are signed in, when the page reads or saves your settings file (see below). Your profile picture and Drive's small pictures of images are loaded from Google's image servers. See Google's privacy policy.
• GitHub is reached only when you click a link to it, for example to submit ground truth or propose a study. What you post there is public, under GitHub's privacy statement.

Signing in with Google

Signing in is optional; everything else works without it. When you sign in, Google asks your permission for the site to:

• see your name, email address and profile picture, to show who is signed in in the avatar menu;
• see, create and change its own settings file in a hidden folder in your Google Drive (the app data folder), to keep your settings the same on every device you sign in on.

The site can't see, open or change anything else in your Google Drive. The settings file holds only the settings listed in the avatar menu's Settings.

How this data is handled:

• Accessed and used: your name, email address and picture are shown in the avatar menu. Your settings file is read when you sign in and on later visits, and replaced when you change a setting. Nothing else is done with either.
• Stored: your name, email address, picture and Google's sign-in token (which expires after about an hour) are kept in your browser on this device until you sign out. The settings file stays in your own Google Drive. We keep no copy of any of it, anywhere.
• Shared: with no one. Google user data goes only between your browser and Google, never to us or to any third party. It is not used for advertising, sold, or used to train any model.

rauntruth.com's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

To remove it: Sign out in the avatar menu forgets your details and the token on this device. To delete the settings file, open Google Drive's Settings, then Manage apps, find this site's app (named as on Google's sign-in window) and choose Delete hidden app data. To withdraw the site's access entirely, remove it at your Google Account's third-party connections.

Ground truth

Submitting ground truth is something you do yourself: you download the file and attach it to an issue you open on GitHub, where it and your GitHub username are public.

Changes and contact

If this policy changes, this page will say so, with a new date at the top. Questions, or requests about your data: ariel@rauntruth.com.