URL Historian

URL Historian is a Chrome extension developed by New York University’s Center for Social Media 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. Participants can pause this collection at any time through the extension interface. Participants can also block specific domains from being collected through a blacklist feature provided in the extension. Participants can also opt-in to sharing data from YouTube page

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.

URL Historian also allows participants to delete data that was shared for up to ten days after it was collected. If more than ten days have passed since data was collected, participants can contact NYU CSMaP Engineers at [email protected] 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, and show them how they can pause the app and/or delete their browsing history when they use the computer.

For more information on how to install and configure the URL Historian extension, visit https://www.csmapsurveys.org/csmap_url_historian.html. For any questions on using the extension, requesting data deletion, or other technical problems, please reach out to [email protected]. For more information about the Center for Social Media and Politics research, visit https://csmapnyu.org/.