URL Historian

URL Historian is a Chrome extension developed by New York University's Center for Social Media, AI, and Politics (CSMaP). URL Historian allows participants to share data that contributes to better understanding of how our ever-shifting online environment impacts politics and democracy. URL Historian collects browsing data from registered research participants who agree to be part of a study. When the plug-in is activated and registered, it automatically begins collecting URLs visited and how participants engage with those pages (for example, time on page and scrolling). Participants can block specific domains from being collected through a blocklist feature provided in the extension. Participants can also opt in to sharing a one-time copy of their past browsing history, their conversations with ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini, and the YouTube videos they watch and the videos recommended to them. Data collected through URL Historian is anonymized and used for academic purposes only. All collected data is securely stored on Amazon Web Services (AWS) and only accessible by CSMaP researchers. Participation in web browsing collection is completely voluntary. The extension also offers multiple options for allowing and limiting the types of data that are collected. When the study ends, the extension removes itself. Participants can contact NYU CSMaP Engineers at csmapsupport@nyu.edu to request their data be deleted. Please be aware that URL Historian collects the web browsing data of anyone using Google Chrome on the computer that URL Historian is installed on. If you share this computer with anyone, you should inform them that URL Historian is installed. For more information on how to install and configure the URL Historian extension, visit https://url-historian.csmapnyuapps.org/about/. For any questions on using the extension, requesting data deletion, or other technical problems, please reach out to csmapsupport@nyu.edu. For more information about the Center for Social Media, AI, and Politics research, visit https://csmapnyu.org/.