Your documents are the whole point, so it helps to know exactly where they live and who can reach them. livedocuments stores documents on Cloudflare infrastructure behind an authenticated API, never in a third-party analytics product, and you keep control of them whether you sign in or stay a guest. This page explains how it works; the Privacy Policy, which covers every liveworkspace app, is the formal statement for the hosted service.
Where your documents live
Documents are saved through a single Cloudflare Worker API. The browser never talks to storage directly.
- Durable storage is one Cloudflare Durable Object per document, reached only through the API: the document's tabs, pages, comments and the images it places are stored there. Where it is filed, its folders, share links and its Timeline events are kept by liveworkspace's index, the shared library behind every liveworkspace app.
- Real-time state (who is in the room, live cursors, in-flight edits) is handled by the same Durable Object, the document's room. It also keeps a working record of collaborative input (such as comments), so that saves made at the same moment can be merged.
- Images you add are kept by liveworkspace's media service, and a cached picture of each document, used for its thumbnail and live image, in Cloudflare R2 object storage; both are served back through the same API. Location and camera details are stripped from a JPEG before it is stored.
Or nowhere but your own machine. A document created in Offline Mode lives only in this browser's IndexedDB. It is never stored by the API, so none of the storage above holds a copy of it, and it stays that way until you choose Sync Document to move it to the cloud.
livedocuments runs on Cloudflare. Your document content goes to another company only when you use a feature that needs one:
- Emails about your work go through the email provider. They name the document, and a mention or an assigned action quotes a little of the comment or action (see Email Notifications).
What is stored, and who can read it
A document is owned by an identity. That identity is either a signed-in account or, for guests, a guest identity that liveworkspace gives your browser, which is the same in every liveworkspace app. Only the owner, people holding a valid share link, and the members of the team whose library the document is in can read a document. Opening a document you cannot access returns a plain "not found", so its contents and name are never revealed.
Staying in control
- Guest by default. You can build and share documents without ever creating an account. See working as a guest.
- Keep it in the browser. Offline Mode keeps a document off the server entirely.
- Share on your terms. Add a share password to a document or an expiry to a share link, and revoke links at any time.
- Delete what you own. Deleting a document moves it to the Trash for 30 days, then removes it with its tabs, comments and share links; you can delete it permanently from the Trash sooner. Signed-in users can delete their whole account, which removes their personal documents, folders, images, tokens and preferences straight away.
- Opt out of analytics. The anonymous usage events have a switch in Settings. See What We Collect.
livedocuments does not claim end-to-end encryption. Document content is protected by authentication and access controls, not by client-side encryption. Found a way around them? Please report it privately.
Was this article helpful?