Privacy Policy - Research Tracker

Overview

Research Tracker is a Chrome extension that helps researchers track academic papers, manage deadlines, and discover relevant journals and conferences. This privacy policy explains how we handle your data.

Data Collection and Storage

What Data We Collect

Research Tracker collects and stores the following data locally on your device only:

• Saved Papers: Titles, URLs, notes, and metadata of papers you save
• Deadlines: Conference/journal deadlines you manually add
• Profile Information: Data imported from your LinkedIn, Google Scholar, or ResearchGate profiles (name, affiliation, research interests, keywords)
• Manual Interests: Research keywords you manually add to improve recommendations

Where Data is Stored

All data is stored locally in your browser using Chrome's chrome.storage.sync API. This means:

• Data is stored on your device
• Data syncs across your Chrome browsers if you're signed into Chrome
• We do NOT have access to your data
• We do NOT store data on our servers
• We do NOT collect or transmit your personal information

Third-Party Services

OpenAlex API

Research Tracker uses the OpenAlex API (https://openalex.org) to fetch:

• Journal and conference metadata
• Citation metrics
• Publisher information
• Research topics

OpenAlex Privacy: OpenAlex is an open academic database and does not track individual users. Learn more at https://openalex.org/about

Profile Imports

When you choose to import your profile from LinkedIn, Google Scholar, or ResearchGate:

• The extension reads publicly visible information from these pages
• Data is extracted locally in your browser
• No data is sent to our servers
• You control what gets imported

Permissions Used

Why We Need Each Permission

1. storage - To save your papers, deadlines, and profile locally in Chrome
2. activeTab - To detect when you're on a research paper page (arXiv, PubMed, etc.) and show the "Save" button
3. tabs - To open paper links and journal websites when you click buttons in the extension
4. Host Permissions - To access specific websites:
   • arxiv.org, scholar.google.com, pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov - Auto-detect papers
   • linkedin.com, researchgate.net - Import profile data (only when you click import)
   • nature.com, science.org, ieee.org, etc. - Detect papers on journal websites
   • api.openalex.org - Fetch journal/conference metadata

Data Usage

We use your data only for:

• Displaying your saved papers in the extension
• Showing deadline reminders
• Generating personalized journal/conference recommendations based on your interests
• Auto-detecting papers when you visit research websites

Your Data Rights

You have complete control over your data:

Export Your Data

Click the "Export" button in Settings to download all your data as JSON

Delete Your Data

• Click "Clear All Data" in Settings to permanently delete everything
• Uninstalling the extension also removes all local data

Opt-Out of Profile Import

• You can use the extension without importing any profile
• Manually add interests instead

Data Security

• All data is stored using Chrome's secure storage APIs
• No data transmission except anonymous API calls to OpenAlex
• No cookies or tracking scripts
• No analytics or telemetry

Changes to This Policy

We may update this privacy policy as the extension evolves. Changes will be reflected with a new "Last Updated" date. Continued use of the extension after changes constitutes acceptance of the new policy.

Open Source

Research Tracker is open source. You can review the code to verify our privacy practices.

Contact

For privacy questions or concerns, please contact:

• LinkedIn: Madjda Khedimi

Children's Privacy

Research Tracker is designed for academic researchers and does not knowingly collect data from children under 13.

International Users

Research Tracker works the same way for all users worldwide. Data is stored locally on your device regardless of your location.