Scholar Red Flag — Privacy Policy

Last updated: 28 September 2026

Scholar Red Flag helps users review potential authorship mismatches on Google Scholar profiles. This policy describes version 0.3.7.

Information the extension accesses

The extension reads information displayed on the Google Scholar profile you open, including researcher names, affiliation text, publication titles, author lists, publication years, citation counts and publication links. It also processes alternative publishing names you optionally enter. Only publication rows already loaded on the page are checked.

How information is used

Information is used solely to compare displayed author names, highlight papers requiring manual review, and calculate the citation totals and percentage associated with flagged papers. These are preliminary name checks. They do not establish incorrect authorship or research misconduct.

Local processing and retention

All analysis takes place locally in your browser. Scholar Red Flag does not transmit profile information, entered names or analysis results to the developer, external data providers or other third parties.

Results and entered name variants are held temporarily in the page’s memory. The extension does not save them to persistent storage. They are discarded when the page is reloaded or closed.

Sharing, advertising and analytics

Scholar Red Flag does not sell user data, use advertising trackers or collect analytics. It does not use data for unrelated purposes, creditworthiness assessments or lending decisions.

Its use of information complies with the Chrome Web Store User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

Permissions

Access to supported Google Scholar domains allows the extension to read displayed profile information and add review labels directly to the page. The scripting permission allows its bundled code to run on supported profile tabs when the toolbar icon is clicked and on already-open profile tabs after installation or update.

Links to other websites

When you choose to open an article or evidence link, the destination website’s privacy policy applies. Scholar Red Flag does not automatically retrieve those linked pages.

Your choices

You can use the extension without entering alternative publishing names. You can restrict its site access, disable it or uninstall it through Chrome’s extension settings.

Changes to this policy

This policy will be updated if the extension’s data handling changes. The revision date appears above.

Contact

For privacy questions, contact Ruggiero Lovreglio at [email protected].