Tailquill Privacy Policy

Effective October 25, 2026

Tailquill is a Google Docs™ add-on that converts footnotes to endnotes and back, styles footnotes to match the body text, adds repeat references to notes, lists notes for review, and turns the footnotes in a .docx file into Microsoft Word endnotes. It is published by Front Porch Puzzle Press ("we"). It runs entirely inside Google Apps Script under your Google account, and its .docx tool runs in your browser. We do not operate a server for Tailquill, have no user accounts, and never receive your document content.

Google user data Tailquill accesses

Tailquill requests four Google OAuth scopes and nothing else:

The content of the document you open it in, and only that document (scope https://www.googleapis.com/auth/documents.currentonly): its text and footnotes, text formatting (font, size, bold, italic, links, highlighting), paragraph styles and line spacing, the cursor position, and the invisible named ranges, bookmarks and document properties Tailquill itself added. Tailquill cannot open, list or read any other file in your Google Drive™ through this scope.
Files you use with Tailquill (scope https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.file), used only by Restore real footnotes. Google's built-in document service can't create footnotes, so Restore uses Google's Docs API, which needs this scope. It covers only files you open or pick with Tailquill; the first time you restore, Google may ask you to confirm the current document in a Google file picker. Tailquill uses it to read the open document's structure and write the rebuilt footnotes back into that same document. It cannot see, list or open your other Drive files.
Permission to show its menu, sidebar and dialogs inside Google Docs (scope https://www.googleapis.com/auth/script.container.ui). This gives no access to data.
Permission to make one kind of outside request (scope https://www.googleapis.com/auth/script.external_request), used only to check a Tailquill Pro license key with Gumroad. No Google user data is included in that request, and the add-on's manifest allows no address other than api.gumroad.com.

Tailquill does not access your name, email address, profile, contacts, Gmail, Calendar, or any Drive file you haven't used it with.

How Tailquill uses Google user data

Tailquill uses the document content above for one purpose only: to carry out the command you choose, at the moment you choose it. Specifically, it reads the document in order to:

move footnote text into a Notes section, put numbered markers in its place, number and link them, and rebuild the Notes section when you convert again or update the numbers;
turn Tailquill endnotes back into real footnotes (Restore);
read the body text's font, size and line spacing and apply them to footnotes;
insert and update repeat references ("see note 3"), list notes in the sidebar, move the cursor to a note you click, and highlight or un-highlight note markers.

It then writes the result back into the same document, or shows it to you in the sidebar. It does not read your document in the background, does not keep a copy of its content, and does not use it for any other purpose: no advertising, no analytics, no profiling, no credit or lending decisions, no building of user databases, and no training or improving of AI or machine-learning models (generalized or otherwise).

The .docx fixer (Pro) reads a .docx file you choose from your computer and writes a new one, entirely in your browser. The file is not uploaded to Google, to us or anywhere else.

How Google user data is stored

Document content is not stored by Tailquill anywhere. It is processed in memory inside Google Apps Script while the command runs and discarded when it finishes. The only changes to your document are the ones you asked for.
Inside your document: invisible named ranges (names starting "tq_") that mark each note marker, note and Notes section; bookmarks that make markers and notes link to each other; and a small document property that records how the endnotes were made (for example, "restart in each chapter"). These contain no copy of your text, stay with the document, and are covered by its normal Google sharing permissions. Restore removes them.
Your preferences (marker style, Notes heading, footnote font choices) and, if you bought Tailquill Pro, your license key and the date it was last checked, are kept in Apps Script user properties. These are stored by Google in your own Google account; we have no access to them.
Error reports. If a command fails, Google Apps Script records the error message (for example "Click in the text where the reference should go") in our project's Google Cloud error log so we can fix bugs. These messages never contain your document text, and Google deletes them automatically after its standard log retention period (30 days).

How Google user data is shared

We do not share, sell, rent, transfer or disclose Google user data to anyone. Tailquill has no servers of ours to send it to. The only third party Tailquill contacts is Gumroad (api.gumroad.com), our payment provider, and only to confirm a Tailquill Pro license key when you activate it and about once a week after; that request contains the license key and Tailquill's product ID, never any document content or Google account data. Gumroad's own privacy policy covers your purchase and payment details, which Tailquill never sees. The Restore file picker is Google's own (loaded from apis.google.com) and talks only to Google.

Tailquill never needs your document to be shared with anyone, and never asks you to make it "anyone with the link can edit".

How we protect your data

Least privilege. Tailquill uses the narrowest Docs scope Google offers (documents.currentonly) for everything except Restore, and Restore uses drive.file, which reaches only files you use with Tailquill, rather than access to all your documents or all of Drive. Its outside-request permission is locked by its manifest to api.gumroad.com.
No copies, no servers. All processing happens inside Google's Apps Script environment under your own account, or in your own browser for the .docx fixer. Your document never reaches us, so there is no copy of it for us to lose or for anyone to breach.
Encryption. Data moving between Google Docs, Apps Script and Google's storage is protected by Google's infrastructure, which encrypts data in transit and at rest. The license check to Gumroad is sent only over HTTPS (TLS).
Isolation and no human access. Your preferences and license key live in Apps Script user properties, which only your own account can read. No person at Front Porch Puzzle Press can view your documents, preferences or license key.
Secure development. Tailquill's code contains no third-party trackers or analytics libraries, its sidebar loads no remote scripts, and it is tested before each release.

Retention and deletion

Document content is never retained by Tailquill outside your document; it exists only for the moment a command runs.
Endnotes, markers, named ranges and bookmarks stay in the document until you change them, run Restore, or delete the document. Edit > Undo and File > Version history reverse any change.
Preferences and a license key stay in your account's add-on storage, which only Tailquill running under your own account can read; they contain no document content. To stop all access, uninstall Tailquill from Extensions > Add-ons > Manage add-ons, then remove its access at myaccount.google.com/permissions. After that Tailquill can no longer run under your account or read any document.
If a license key fails a check (for example after a refund), Tailquill deletes it from storage automatically.
Because we hold no copy of your data, there is normally nothing on our side to delete. You can email hello@frontporchpuzzlepress.com to ask about deletion and we will reply within 30 days.

Google API Services User Data Policy

Tailquill's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. Google Workspace™ API data is not used to develop, improve or train generalized AI or machine-learning models.

Changes and contact

If this policy changes, the new version will be posted on this page with a new effective date. Questions or deletion requests: hello@frontporchpuzzlepress.com

Google Docs™, Google Drive™ and Google Workspace™ are trademarks of Google LLC. Microsoft Word is a trademark of the Microsoft group of companies. Tailquill is not affiliated with or endorsed by Google or Microsoft.