Privacy Policy — Covidence AI Screener

Last updated: 18 June 2026

Covidence AI Screener ("the extension", "we", "our") is a browser extension that adds an AI screening button to title-and-abstract screening pages on app.covidence.org. When you click it, the study's title and abstract are sent to our backend service at cai.palvn.com, which runs the screening through an AI model and returns a Yes/No verdict with a confidence score and a short reason. Screening is billed from a prepaid balance ("wallet") tied to your account. This policy explains exactly what data we process, where it goes, and your choices.

In short: you sign in with an email and password; screening text you submit is sent through our backend to an AI provider (OpenRouter) to produce a verdict; you fund a prepaid balance through Stripe. We do not run advertising or third-party tracking, and we never sell your data. You can delete your account and all associated data at any time from the extension's Options page.

1. Who we are

The extension and its backend service (cai.palvn.com) are operated by the developer of Covidence AI Screener. This extension is an independent tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Covidence / Veritas Health Innovation, OpenRouter, or Stripe. For privacy questions, see Contact.

2. Information we process

2.1 Account information

Email address — used to create your account, sign you in, verify your email, send password-reset and account-related messages, and associate your wallet balance and usage with you.
Password — stored on our backend only as a salted cryptographic hash; we never store your password in plain text and cannot read it.
Session token — an opaque token issued when you sign in, stored in your browser (chrome.storage.local) and sent with each request to authenticate you.

2.2 Screening content you submit

When you click the AI button or Screen all, the extension reads the title, abstract, study number, and related bibliographic metadata of the studies shown on app.covidence.org, together with your screening prompt and the model you selected, and sends them to our backend. The backend forwards this content to OpenRouter, which routes it to the AI model you chose to generate the verdict.
We retain operational records of each request — such as the model used, token counts, computed cost, and timestamp — for billing, support, and abuse prevention.

2.3 Payment information

Top-ups are processed by Stripe on a Stripe-hosted checkout page that opens in a new tab. Card and payment details are entered directly on Stripe's page and are never seen, handled, or stored by the extension or our backend. Our backend receives only a payment confirmation and identifiers (such as the Stripe session/event ID and the amount), which it uses to credit your wallet and keep a record of the transaction.

2.4 Data stored in your browser

Your screening prompt and selected model — your configuration.
Cached verdicts — keyed by study number, each holding the decision (Yes/No), confidence score, the model's one-line reason, the study title, and a timestamp. Caching avoids repeat charges for studies you already screened.
Your own Covidence votes — when you cast Yes/No/Maybe, the extension records your vote and study number locally so it can be shown next to the AI verdict in the CSV export. The co-reviewer's vote is blinded by Covidence and is never accessed.
A cached snapshot of your account (e.g. wallet balance) for display.

All of the above browser-stored data lives in chrome.storage.local on your own device. It is not Chrome-synced to other devices.

3. How we use your data

We use the data described above solely to provide the extension's single purpose — AI-assisted title-and-abstract screening — and the account and billing functions that support it: authenticating you, running and returning screening results, metering and charging your prepaid balance, processing top-ups, sending transactional email, and preventing abuse. We do not use your data for advertising, profiling, or any purpose unrelated to the extension, and we do not use it to determine creditworthiness.

4. Third parties / service providers

We share data only with the service providers needed to operate the extension, and only for that purpose:

Provider	What it receives	Why
OpenRouter (and the AI model provider you select)	Your screening prompt plus the study title/abstract/metadata you submit	To generate the AI verdict. See the OpenRouter Privacy Policy. Your chosen model provider's own policy also applies.
Stripe	Your payment/card details (entered on Stripe), email, and top-up amount	To process wallet top-ups. See the Stripe Privacy Policy.
Brevo (email delivery)	Your email address and the message content (e.g. verification / password-reset links)	To send transactional account email. See the Brevo Privacy Policy.
Our hosting provider	Data transmitted to and stored by our backend	To host the `cai.palvn.com` service that runs screening and stores your account.

We do not sell, rent, or share your data for advertising or any other unrelated purpose.

5. Retention and deletion

Delete your account: Options → Delete account removes your account and associated data from our backend and clears the extension's local data (token, cached verdicts, and votes) from your browser.
Sign out clears your session token from this browser.
Clear cached verdicts in Options removes locally cached results at any time.
Uninstalling the extension removes its locally stored data from your browser. Records we are required to keep for accounting/tax or fraud-prevention purposes (e.g. transaction history) may be retained as required by law.

6. Security

All communication between the extension and our backend uses HTTPS/TLS. Passwords are stored only as salted hashes. Your session token is held in your browser's extension storage and sent only to cai.palvn.com.

7. Permissions and why they are needed

storage — to save your session token, prompt, model choice, cached verdicts, and votes in your browser.
Host access to https://cai.palvn.com/* — to sign in and send screening and top-up requests to our backend.
Content script on https://app.covidence.org/* — to add the AI button and read the title/abstract of the study you are screening.

8. Limited Use disclosure

Covidence AI Screener's use of information received from Google APIs and from its operation adheres to the Chrome Web Store User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. Data is used solely to provide and improve the extension's single user-facing purpose — AI-assisted title-and-abstract screening — and is not transferred to others except as needed to provide that feature (the service providers in Section 4), to comply with applicable law, or as part of a merger or acquisition. We do not use or transfer this data for serving advertisements, and we do not allow humans to read it except where you give consent, for security/abuse handling, to comply with law, or where the data has been aggregated and anonymized.

9. Children

The extension is a research-workflow tool intended for adult researchers and is not directed to children under 13 (or the equivalent minimum age in your jurisdiction).

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. Material changes will be reflected by an updated "Last updated" date on this page.

11. Contact

For questions about this policy or the extension, or to request data deletion, contact: mytablet5421@gmail.com.