Is nnscholar safe?

Low risk

nnscholar adds search tools to scholarly sites and sends text typed in any field to an LLM API when an opt-in shortcut is enabled.

The extension adds helper features to academic search sites. If the user enables the optional universal search feature, a double space in any text field sends that field's text to api.siliconflow.cn to generate a search strategy. It also fetches a shared LLM API key from scholarbar.org using a secret that ships in the extension code, and stores that key in synced browser storage.

Part of this rating comes from analysis signals we haven't published as detailed findings yet.

v1.9Chrome Web Store
17Risk

AI-generated. Findings may contain errors. Those marked Verified have been manually reviewed.

Publishers can request a review.

What it can do

Permissions this extension asks for, as declared in version 1.9. Asking for a permission is not a finding on its own - it is what the extension can do if it chooses to.

  • Read and change your data on pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/*

  • Read and change your data on www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/*

  • Read and change your data on scholar.google.com

    https://scholar.google.com/*

  • Read and change your data on scholar.google.co.jp

    https://scholar.google.co.jp/*

  • Read and change your data on scholar.google.cn

    https://scholar.google.cn/*

  • Read and change your data on scholar.google.com.hk

    https://scholar.google.com.hk/*

  • Read and change your data on scholar.google.com.co

    https://scholar.google.com.co/*

  • Read and change your data on scholar.google.co.uk

    https://scholar.google.co.uk/*

  • Read and change your data on scholar.google.co.in

    https://scholar.google.co.in/*

  • Read and change your data on webofscience.com

    https://*.webofscience.com/*

  • Read and change your data on webofknowledge.com

    https://*.webofknowledge.com/*

  • Read and change your data on clarivate.com

    https://*.clarivate.com/*

  • Read and change your data on localhost:3000

    http://localhost:3000/*

  • Read and change your data on www.scholarbar.org

    https://www.scholarbar.org/*

  • Store data in your browser

    storage

  • Act on the current tab, but only after you click the extension

    activeTab

  • Read and change cookies, including the ones that keep you signed in

    cookies

Where it sends data

Destinations our analysis observed nnscholar contacting. Sending data somewhere is not a finding on its own - an extension that syncs your settings has to talk to its own server - but it is where your data can go, and who else it goes to.

  • api.siliconflow.cn

    nnscholar sends data to api.siliconflow.cn. 5 other extensions we have analysed send data here.

  • www.scholarbar.org

    nnscholar sends data to www.scholarbar.org. No other extension we have analysed sends data here.

Updated 15 October 2026oapbepmdfniioccaojobgoakgofjoikb