Effective date: September 23, 2026

MedLens is a Chrome extension that helps researchers screen PubMed search results by displaying article information and abstracts, recording screening decisions, organizing exclusion reasons, and exporting screening records for research workflows.

Information MedLens processes

When MedLens is used on PubMed, it processes information from the PubMed search results page, including article titles, PubMed identifiers (PMIDs), abstracts, publication types, citations, and the user’s current PubMed search.

MedLens also processes information entered or generated during screening, including include, maybe, and exclude decisions; exclusion reasons; search logs; and extension settings.

How information is used

This information is used only to provide MedLens features, including:

• displaying PubMed abstracts alongside search results;
• helping users review and screen articles;
• recording include, maybe, and exclude decisions;
• organizing exclusion reasons;
• maintaining a record of PubMed searches; and
• exporting screening records to an Excel file.

MedLens may provide rule-based or keyword-based screening suggestions. These suggestions are generated by the extension and do not use an external artificial intelligence service.

Local storage and retention

MedLens stores screening decisions, exclusion reasons, search logs, and extension settings in Chrome’s local extension storage on the user’s computer.

This information remains in local storage until the user clears MedLens data, resets the extension, removes the information, clears browser extension data, or uninstalls MedLens.

Excel exports are created locally and saved only when the user chooses to export them.

PubMed and NCBI services

MedLens accesses pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov so that it can operate on PubMed search-result pages.

MedLens may also communicate with the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) E-utilities service at eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov to retrieve publicly available article information such as abstracts and publication types.

Information necessary to identify the requested PubMed records, such as PMIDs, may be sent to NCBI for this purpose.

Information MedLens does not collect or transmit

MedLens does not transmit screening decisions, exclusion reasons, search logs, extension settings, or exported screening records to the developer or to a developer-operated server.

MedLens does not:

• require a user account;
• collect names, email addresses, addresses, or other personally identifiable information;
• collect financial or payment information;
• collect authentication credentials;
• collect personal communications;
• collect location information;
• build a general browsing-history profile;
• use advertising or analytics trackers;
• sell user information; or
• use user information for advertising or marketing.

MedLens does read relevant content from PubMed pages because access to that information is necessary for its literature-screening features.

Third parties

MedLens does not sell or share user information with third parties for advertising, marketing, or unrelated purposes.

MedLens communicates with NCBI services only as necessary to retrieve publicly available PubMed article information.

MedLens does not use Anthropic, OpenAI, or another external artificial intelligence service in its current version.

Permissions

MedLens uses Chrome permissions only as necessary to provide its literature-screening functionality.

Website access is limited to:

• PubMed (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) — to read PubMed search results and display the MedLens screening interface.
• NCBI E-utilities (eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) — to retrieve publicly available article abstracts and publication information.

Chrome local storage is used to preserve screening decisions, exclusion reasons, search logs, and extension settings between sessions.

User control

Users control their MedLens screening records and may clear saved information, reset screening data, disable the extension, revoke its permissions, or uninstall MedLens at any time.

Exporting data to Excel occurs only when the user selects the export function.

Health and medical information

MedLens is a research and literature-screening tool. Although it displays publicly available biomedical and medical research information from PubMed, it does not collect a user’s personal health information or medical records.

MedLens does not provide medical diagnosis, treatment, or individualized medical advice and is not intended to replace professional medical judgment.

Children

MedLens is a general research tool and is not designed to collect personal information from children.

Chrome Web Store Limited Use disclosure

The use of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Chrome Web Store User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

Changes to this policy

If MedLens’s data practices or functionality change in a way that affects user privacy, this privacy policy and the applicable Chrome Web Store disclosures will be updated before those changed practices are introduced.

Contact

For privacy or support questions, use the verified support email displayed on MedLens’s Chrome Web Store listing.

This is substantially better than simply replacing “FocusBell” with “MedLens,” because MedLens actually reads PubMed webpage content and contacts NCBI E-utilities, and Google should see those practices disclosed accurately.