1. Introduction & Ethical Mission

Attack on Scholar (accessible at attackonscholar.com) is an open academic platform dedicated to free scientific communication, rapid laboratory bench microblogging, and reproducible method articles. We believe scientific insights must be accessible without subscription paywalls. This Privacy Policy outlines how researcher data is collected, stored, and protected.

2. Verified Scholar Applications & Accounts

To maintain authentic scientific discourse and prevent automated spam, researchers who wish to publish articles or microblog in the Scholar Lounge submit an application providing:

• Full Name & Institutional Affiliation: Used strictly to identify authors on published research guides and bench observations.
• Institutional Email Address: Used for account identity, admin verification review, and sending issued temporary login passwords.
• Discipline & Field of Study: Used to index contributions into relevant categories (e.g., Physical Sciences, Biomedical, Computer Science & AI).

We do not sell, rent, or trade researcher credentials, email addresses, or academic records to commercial marketing agencies, corporate recruiters, or third-party data brokers.

3. Open Access & Public Reading

All articles published in the Lab Journal, microblog entries in the Scholar Lounge, and practitioner Masterclasses are 100% publicly readable without logging in. Readers can access full text, view figures, and share direct links with collaborators freely. We do not track individual reading behavior or profile researcher interests across paywalled gates.

4. Researcher Profiles, Paper Requests & Contact Privacy

The Paper Request & Researcher Connection System facilitates legitimate peer discovery without collecting or exposing unnecessary personal data:

• Shielded Email Addresses: Your account email is strictly private and hidden by default. It is never displayed on paper requests or responses unless you explicitly check the "Make Email Publicly Visible" toggle in your researcher profile settings.
• User-Controlled Contact Routes: You decide which external academic contact methods to make public (such as your ORCID profile, official institutional lab directory, Google Scholar link, or faculty webpage). If no contact route is published, your profile still indicates your willingness to help, while your personal contact details remain completely concealed.
• Zero PDF Hosting & Document Tracking: Attack on Scholar never stores, hosts, or transmits PDF files of requested papers. All bilateral communications take place externally between researchers via legitimate academic channels.
• No Proxy or Credential Harvesting: We never request, store, or accept university library proxy credentials, EZproxy tickets, or publisher login passwords.

5. Infrastructure & Security Safeguards

Attack on Scholar utilizes modern, security-hardened cloud infrastructure:

• Cloudflare Edge Protection: All traffic is encrypted using Full (Strict) TLS 1.3 with automated edge certificates and HSTS security. DDoS mitigation and web application firewalls protect platform availability.
• Managed PostgreSQL Database: Account credentials and content records are stored on Supabase-managed PostgreSQL with Row Level Security (RLS) policies enforced. Temporary passwords must be updated upon first verified sign-in.
• Local Storage: Article drafts are autosaved locally in your browser (localStorage) to prevent accidental loss while drafting.

6. Third-Party Services & External Links

The platform interfaces with select open-access repositories and services:

• arXiv & Public Preprints: Smart Search queries public open-access endpoints to display relevant manuscripts without user profiling.
• CrossRef & Unpaywall APIs: Automatically resolves DOI records and discovers lawful publisher-authorized open versions directly without logging personal request histories.
• YouTube Embeds: Practitioner Masterclasses embed public YouTube video protocols to ensure zero-cost, high-performance video streaming.
• Google AdSense: We may display non-intrusive contextual academic advertisements to support infrastructure hosting. Users may manage personalized advertising preferences via Google Ad Settings.

7. Account Deletion & Right to Rectification

Scholars have the right to inspect, update, or request permanent deletion of their account records or published articles at any time by contacting our support desk.