Privacy Policy

Introduction

At OPT Pulse (optpulse.org), we provide community-sourced tracking timelines for OPT and STEM OPT processing based on aggregated, public data. We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting any personal data you might share with us.

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and safeguard your information when you interact with our live tracker dashboard and tools.

Information We Collect

OPT Pulse is designed to be an open dashboard. We do not require account creation, logins, or payments. We collect the following limited types of information to provide and improve our service:

1. Public Community Submissions — Timeline metrics such as application dates, approval dates, processing days, and OPT types. This data is collected from public forums (such as r/f1visa) or voluntary community submissions. No personally identifiable information (PII) like names or receipt numbers is tracked.
2. Usage Data — Aggregated, anonymous metrics about how users interact with the dashboard, including features accessed (like the Date Lookup or Predictor tools) and general traffic patterns.
3. Device Information — Basic technical details such as browser type, operating system, and device type, used purely to optimize dashboard layout and charting performance (e.g., ResponsiveContainer rendering).
4. Local Preferences (Cookies & Local Storage) — We may use minimal local storage or cookies on your browser to remember your dashboard filter settings (such as OPT type or premium processing selections) so they persist across quick refreshes.

Premium Processing Checklist and Reminder Leads

If you submit your email through a premium processing checklist, refund checklist, or reminder form, we may store your email address, OPT type, premium processing clock start date, current case status, and related non-sensitive form metadata. We use this information to understand demand for reminder and checklist features, improve the premium processing calculator, and contact you if you requested follow-up.

If you request a Premium Day 31 packet, we may also store optional name, selected packet concern, calculated business-day stage, deadline date, and short notes you choose to provide. These fields are used to validate demand for checklist, refund-readiness, USCIS contact script, and DSO question-list features.

Do not submit receipt numbers, SEVIS IDs, passport numbers, birth dates, home addresses, or other sensitive identifiers through these forms. OPT Pulse does not need those identifiers to calculate a business-day deadline or prepare a general checklist.

You may contact support@optpulse.org to request removal of a premium processing lead submission.

OPT Pulse Chrome Extension

The sections below describe the additional data practices specific to the "OPT Pulse — Case Tracker" Chrome extension, which is separate from browsing our website.

What the extension stores

The extension does not create an account or profile for you. It uses Chrome's built-in storage APIs to keep data only on your own device (and, for sync storage, across your own Chrome browsers signed into the same Google account):

• Pinned case info (OPT type, date applied, and the resulting prediction) and unemployment day tracking (days used / limit) — stored via chrome.storage.sync, entered manually by you in the extension popup.
• Temporary parsed case data — stored via chrome.storage.local only while you are using the "submit from Reddit" flow described below.

We (the developers) cannot access this locally/sync-stored data; it never reaches our servers unless you take one of the actions below.

Reddit case submission (r/f1visa only)

On reddit.com/r/f1visa pages, the extension adds a right-click menu item, "Submit selected case info to OPT Pulse." This only activates on text you have manually selected. When you use it, the extension parses that selected text locally (to identify fields like OPT type, dates, and service center) and opens a confirmation screen where you can review, edit, or discard anything before proceeding. The extension does not read or collect any other content on Reddit pages.

Network requests made by the extension

• Automatic prediction lookups: to show your predicted decision window, the extension sends only your OPT type and application date to optpulse.org/api/predict. This happens when you open the popup, submit the case form, and on a periodic background check (roughly twice daily).
• Submitting a full case report: only if you click "Submit full case" on the confirmation screen, the extension opens a new browser tab to optpulse.org/submit with your reviewed case details pre-filled in the page URL. From that point on, your interaction is with the optpulse.org website itself, governed by the website sections of this policy above.

Permissions

The extension requests storage, alarms, contextMenus, and notifications permissions, used respectively to save the data described above, run the periodic prediction check, provide the Reddit right-click menu, and show local status-change alerts. It does not request access to your browsing history, clipboard, camera, or microphone.

Removing your data

Uninstalling the extension removes its locally stored data. Data held in Chrome sync storage is governed by your own Chrome sync settings (chrome://settings/syncSetup).

How We Use Your Information

We use the minimal data we collect to:

• Aggregate and display processing trends, average wait times, and distribution metrics.
• Power the localized "Date Lookup" and "Predictor" features to benchmark processing timelines against historical datasets.
• Maintain, optimize, and troubleshoot the responsiveness of our charts and user interface.
• Keep the dataset fresh, relevant, and free from erroneous outlier data.

Data Sharing & Third Parties

We do not sell, rent, or trade any user information. Because we do not require accounts or collect payment details, there is no personal financial or profile database to share. Data is only shared in these limited contexts:

• Aggregated Analytics — Anonymous usage telemetry may be reviewed via standard privacy-focused web analytics tools to see overall visitor counts.
• Legal Compliance — To comply with legal obligations or protect our rights, safety, or that of our users if lawfully requested by public authorities.

Advertising and Google Services

OPT Pulse may use Google AdSense or similar advertising services to display ads on the site. These services may use cookies, device identifiers, or similar technologies to serve, measure, and improve ads.

Google and its partners may use cookies to serve ads based on a user's prior visits to this or other websites. Users may opt out of personalized advertising by visiting Google's Ads Settings. Users can also learn more about how Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services at https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.

We do not intentionally send personally identifiable information, such as email addresses, passport numbers, SEVIS IDs, receipt numbers, phone numbers, or home addresses, to advertising providers.

Data Security

We implement industry-standard technical measures—including HTTPS encryption in transit—to protect communication between your device and optpulse.org. Please note that while our backend data updates frequently, no method of transmission over the Internet is 100% secure.

Your Rights

Since we do not store personal profiles, accounts, or full IP addresses, we have no identifiable records to export or delete upon request. If you contributed specific timeline data to our crowdsourced pool and wish to have it corrected or removed, please reach out to us with the matching submission criteria.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time as our tracking tools evolve. Any changes will be reflected by updating the date at the top of this page. We encourage you to review this page periodically to stay informed.

Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or would like to submit feedback or report a bug, please use the form links provided in the application header or contact the maintainers via our community links.

You can also reach us directly at privacy@optpulse.org.