Law firms send privileged documents through this API. This page says exactly what happens to a document from the moment it is uploaded, what does not happen to it, and what is left afterwards. The compliance side (SOC 2 Type 2, encryption, penetration testing) is on the Security page.
What happens to a comparison
POST /v1/comparestores the two files in S3, encrypted at rest.- The comparison engine, a rules-based program written in Rust, computes the redline. It is deterministic: the same two versions always produce the same redline.
- The renderings you asked for (Word with tracked changes, PDF, changed pages only, Markdown, JSON) are written to S3.
GET /v1/compare/{comparison_id}mints signed download URLs, each valid for one hour.
No language model is involved in any of these steps, and nothing about the documents' contents is logged for AI. Version Story is not an AI application. It is an application that AIs and people can use.
AI is off by default
Nothing goes through a model unless your organization asks us to turn on an AI feature. Two exist: AI conversion of scanned PDFs, and Analytics reports. Neither is on for a new organization, and neither is used by compare, merge, or version history. With them off, which is the default, no document you send ever reaches a model.
Training and human access
- Nothing you upload is used to train or improve any model, ours or a vendor's.
- No person reads your documents to produce a redline. There is no human review step, no contractors, and no crowd workers anywhere in the process.
- Access by Version Story staff is role-based and recorded in audit logs.
Retention
By default, what the API makes is kept so you can come back for fresh download URLs. Organizations that would rather keep nothing turn on zero-day retention on the web app's Developer page.
With it on, everything the API makes from then on is deleted permanently once you have the result. Only a record that the work existed remains. Each kind of work has its own deadline and its own acknowledge call, and deletion happens at whichever comes first:
| Work | Deleted one hour after | Or when you acknowledge with | What is deleted |
|---|---|---|---|
| A comparison | It finishes | POST /v1/compare/{comparison_id}/acknowledge | Both documents, the redline, and every rendering |
| A merge | The merged document finishes | POST /v1/merge/{merge_id}/acknowledge | The base, the revisions, their redlines, and the merged document |
| An edit | The edit finishes | POST /v1/edit/{edit_id}/acknowledge | The edited file and its redline |
| An uploaded file, or a revisions result | It is created | POST /v1/files/{file_id}/acknowledge | The file |
| A created document | It is created | POST /v1/create/{creation_id}/acknowledge | The document |
Each download's expires_at is the deadline, so it tells you exactly how long you have. Call
the acknowledge endpoint as soon as you have saved what you need. Afterwards, reading the work
answers 410 CONTENT_DELETED.
The setting is stamped onto the work when it is created, so turning it on or off never changes work that already exists. Anything made from a file, such as an edit or a redline, is kept on that file's terms.
In the web app, documents stay in your workspace until you delete them, and organization admins can set automatic deletion for inactive projects.
Deleted documents remain only in encrypted backups, which expire on a fixed schedule; content under zero-day retention is never backed up.
Where it runs
- Comparisons run on AWS inside a private VPC.
- Files are held in S3 only while they move between services, encrypted in transit (TLS) and at rest (AES-256).
- Two regions. US organizations use
api.versionstory.com; UK organizations useapi.uk.versionstory.com, and their documents stay in the UK region.
Agreements
Our terms of use and privacy policy cover confidentiality. Firms that need their own agreement for privileged work can have one; write to security@versionstory.com.
Related
- Security
- Formats & limits
- Compare, including the zero-day retention endpoints