Privacy Policy

1.About this Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy describes how the “Social AI Feed Detector” Chrome extension (the “Extension”) collects, uses, stores, and protects information from consented research participants. The Extension is part of an academic research study conducted by Prof. Kiran Garimella and research collaborators at Rutgers University.

This policy applies only to data collected through the Extension. It does not apply to data that X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn, Pangram, or any other third party may independently collect about you outside of this Extension.

2.Who we are

The Extension is developed and operated by:

• Prof. Kiran Garimella, Rutgers University
• Research collaborators on the project listed above

The study has been reviewed and approved by the Rutgers University Institutional Review Board.

3.Who can use the Extension

The Extension is intended exclusively for consented research participants. To use it, you must:

• Be at least 18 years of age
• Have received a unique Participant ID through an authorized study invitation
• Have completed the study's informed consent process before installing
• Provide your Participant ID through the Extension's setup screen on first use

The Extension cannot function without a Participant ID. Installing the Extension without being enrolled in the study is not its intended use, and no scientific data will be collected from such installations beyond what is necessary to identify them as non-enrolled.

4.Information we collect

When you browse your X (formerly Twitter) or LinkedIn feed with the Extension installed, the Extension reads the publicly displayed content of posts that appear in your feed and submits the data described below to our research server.

Post information

• The text of public feed posts that are at least 250 characters in length
• The post's URL where available
• The post author's publicly displayed username/handle, display name, professional headline, verified-account status (X) or connection degree (LinkedIn)
• The post's publicly displayed engagement metrics: likes, comments, reposts/retweets, replies, and views (whichever apply)
• The platform (X or LinkedIn) and the post's platform-specific identifier
• The timestamp at which the Extension first observed the post in your feed
• The AI-content classification returned by the third-party detection service

Participant identity

• The anonymous Participant ID you provided during setup
• A unique randomly generated authentication token used by the Extension to communicate with our research server

Technical metadata

• The IP address from which the Extension first registered with our server (used only for abuse prevention at registration; not linked to your scientific data thereafter)
• Server-side timestamps when records were submitted

We do NOT collect

• Private or direct messages on X or LinkedIn
• Posts, comments, or drafts you author yourself
• Your X or LinkedIn account credentials, passwords, or session tokens
• Your browsing history outside of x.com, twitter.com, and linkedin.com
• Email addresses, real names, phone numbers, or other personally identifiable information beyond the Participant ID you provide
• Information from any website other than x.com, twitter.com, and linkedin.com

5.How information is collected

The Extension runs in your browser only when you visit x.com, twitter.com, or linkedin.com. While you are scrolling your feed on these sites, content scripts read the publicly visible text of posts that come into view. Posts that meet the 250-character minimum are sent to the research backend along with the metadata listed in Section 4. The backend forwards each post's text to Pangram (described in Section 7) for AI-content scoring and stores the result.

No data is collected from any other website. The Extension does not run on pages outside the three domains listed above.

6.Why we collect this information

Information is collected solely for the academic research study described in Section 1. Specifically, the data is used to:

• Measure the prevalence of AI-generated content in social media feeds
• Study how users engage with AI-generated content compared to human-generated content
• Inform aggregated, anonymized findings published in academic journals and conference proceedings

Your data will not be used for advertising, marketing, profiling, commercial purposes, or sale to any third party.

7.Third parties

Two third parties process data on behalf of the research:

• Pangram (pangram.com) — a United States–based AI-content detection service. We send the text of feed posts to Pangram, which returns a classification (Human, Mixed, AI, or AI-Assisted) and supporting analysis. Pangram's processing of this text is governed by their own Privacy Policy.
• Rutgers University infrastructure — the research backend service and database are hosted on Rutgers-managed servers.

We do not share, sell, rent, or transfer your data to any third party other than as required to operate the research backend and obtain AI-content classifications.

8.Where your data is stored

All study data is stored in a MongoDB database hosted on Rutgers University infrastructure located in the United States. Access to the server is restricted to authorized members of the research team.

9.Who has access to your data

Identified data is accessible to:

• The principal investigator and named research collaborators on the study
• Rutgers University personnel responsible for research-data security and IRB oversight, where required

Aggregated and anonymized findings may be shared in academic publications, presentations, and educational materials. Individual-level data, including any data tied to a Participant ID, is not published.

10.Data retention

Study data is retained for the duration of the research study and for a publication period thereafter, as defined by the project's IRB-approved protocol. After the retention period, data is either anonymized for archival or deleted.

11.Your rights

As a research participant, you have the right to:

• Access: request a copy of the data we hold about your Participant ID
• Correction: request correction of inaccurate data
• Deletion: request deletion of your data
• Withdrawal: withdraw from the study and stop further data collection at any time

You may stop further data collection at any time by removing the Extension from chrome://extensions. Uninstalling stops new data from being collected but does not automatically delete data we already hold; for deletion, contact the research team using the channel above.

12.Security

We take the following measures to protect collected data:

• All communication between the Extension and our research server occurs over HTTPS
• Server access is restricted to authorized researchers via SSH key authentication
• Your authentication token is stored locally in your browser and on our authenticated server only
• Rate limits and abuse-prevention measures are applied to the research server's endpoints

No system is perfectly secure. While we follow standard research-data security practices, we cannot guarantee absolute security.

13.Children

The Extension is not intended for, and we do not knowingly collect data from, individuals under 18 years of age. If you become aware that a person under 18 has installed the Extension, please contact the research team so that their data may be deleted.

14.International users

The Extension is intended for participants in a research study conducted in the United States. Data collected by the Extension is transferred to and stored in the United States. By using the Extension, you understand that your data will be processed in the United States.

15.Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this policy from time to time as the study evolves or in response to regulatory, technical, or organizational changes. Material changes will be communicated to enrolled participants. The “Effective date” and “Last updated” at the top of this policy reflect when it was last revised.

16.Contact

For questions about this Privacy Policy, the study, or to exercise the rights described in Section 11, contact the research team using the channel provided in your study invitation.

For questions about your rights as a research participant or to report a concern about the research, contact the Rutgers University Institutional Review Board through the contact channels published on the Rutgers Office of Research Regulatory Affairs website.