Introduction
Last updated: November 7, 2023
This Privacy Policy applies to the SR Research WebLink Extension for the Chrome Website Store.
Please carefully read through this Privacy Policy to understand what personal or sensitive data the SR Research WebLink Extension handles as well as how the Extension handles this data. If you agree with this Privacy Policy, continue with the installation of the SR Research WebLink Extension. If you do not agree with this Privacy Policy, please do not install the Extension.
Note, that this Privacy Policy may be updated or changed at some point in the future. It is your responsibility to check this page for updates as the act of using the SR Research WebLink Extension is viewed as an acceptance of this Privacy Policy. If you disagree with any updates to this Privacy Policy, please uninstall the Extension.
Who are we?
When you read ‘we’, ‘our’, or ‘us’, that means SR Research Ltd., a privately held company in Canada with offices in Ottawa and Oakville. Address and contact details are available at the bottom of this page as well as on our Contact page. If you want to find out more about our history, please visit our About Us page or contact us.
We provide eye trackers and eye-tracking software mainly aimed at academic research applications. The SR Research WebLink Extension for the Chrome Website Store is a component of our SR Research WebLink software.
Our product
SR Research WebLink is software that allows EyeLink eye tracker users to track eye movements while a test “participant” views and interacts with dynamic media such as websites, online games, and computer software. The SR Research WebLink Extension focuses on the visible tab that a participant interacts with at any given time. Specifically, the SR Research WebLink Extension tracks the active tab in order to take screenshots of the visible portion of the webpage so that the eye movement data can be overlaid on top of the captured screen capture during analysis, so researchers can study eye tracking behavior when users browser web pages.
Personal or sensitive user data and data handling
According to the Chrome Web Store, personal or sensitive user data may include any identifiable information (e.g., name, address, and driver’s license number), financial and payment information, health information, authentication information (e.g., logins and passwords), website content and resources, form data, web browsing activity, personal communications, and user-generated content.
Further, the Chrome Web Store refers to data handling as “collecting, transmitting, using, or sharing user data”. Some examples of data handling include having login functionality, collecting personally identifiable information, clipping or scraping content from a website that the user visits (e.g., taking screenshots or capturing data from a web page), collecting data obtained from web requests (e.g., background activity that accesses contacts, emails, and files), and collecting web browsing activity and any information about the website content or resources a user requests or interacts with, including the domains or URLs.
What information does our product collect?
SR Research WebLink is a research tool that researchers can use to study the web browser behaviors of the users. For that purpose, the SR Research WebLink Extension captures the webpage content and the browser history. The data is stored locally on the user’s computers – nothing is transmitted to SR Research Ltd. Users typically sign an informed consent when enrolled in such research studies and get a briefing after the experiment is done. Users can withdraw the consent at any point of the study and have the data destroyed.
Our WebLink software starts each experimental session that involves Chrome using its own profile and clears all the history on exit within Chrome, so the previous test participant’s responses are not stored and do not have any influence on the next participant’s responses, e.g., auto-fills.
The SR Research WebLink Extension needs access to the URL information of the active tab, so if the URL changes, the Extension knows a new page is loaded and can perform new screenshots of the visible portions. The URL is also used when notifying WebLink of some tab events such as navigating to a new page or the complete loading of a page. The screenshots are saved to a local folder, and our WebLink software will use the screenshots for live preview, and our analysis software, Data Viewer, will use the screenshots for subsequent data analysis.
Note, that the Extension needs to capture the screenshot after the page is completely loaded. Therefore, we monitor the “onBeforeNavigate” events to get a final screenshot just before leaving a page and, in conjunction with subsequent tab update events to determine when a new page has finished loading.
Further, SR Research WebLink Extension requires the host’s permission for the following two reasons.
- We use the “chrome.tabs.captureVisibleTab”, which lets the Extension capture only the visible part of a webpage. In order to capture as much of the webpage content relevant to the recording, we rely on the host’s permission to run a content script that monitors scroll events and notifies the background script to reinitiate capture. Our WebLink software then builds a complete capture of the webpage by stitching these partial captures together.
- During a scroll, the stimulus seen by the participant who is being studied changes. The Extension needs to record the scroll events to identify the change in the content to present it properly on analysis.
What information does our product NOT collect?
SR Research WebLink Extension does not collect any of the following information:
- Personally identifiable information such as name, address, email address, age, or identification number
- Health information such as heart rate data, medical history, symptoms, diagnoses, or procedures
- Financial and payment information, for example, transactions, credit card numbers, credit ratings, financial statements, or payment history
- Authentication information, such as passwords, credentials, security questions, or personal identification number
- Personal communications, including, emails, texts, or chat messages
- Location, e.g., region, IP address, GPS coordinates, or information about things near the user’s device
How do we use the information?
The SR Research WebLink Extension transmits no data back to SR Research Ltd. All the data collected remains on the user’s desktop for data analysis purposes. To be explicit, any data collected is used internally by the Extension to perform its function or is saved to a local folder for subsequent data analysis by the end user.
What information do we share?
As the Extension transmits no data back to SR Research Ltd., SR Research does not and cannot sell or transfer user data to third parties, does not and cannot use or transfer user data unrelated to the extension’s purpose, and does not and cannot use or transfer user data for creditworthiness analysis or lending purposes. Your privacy is important to us.
How to contact us
If you have any questions or feedback on this policy, feel free to contact us.
SR Research Ltd.
35 Beaufort Drive
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K2L 2B9
Phone: 613-271-8686 | Toll Free: 1-866-821-0731 | Fax: 613-482-4866 | Email: privacy@sr-research.com