Signet Academic — Writing Records & AI Citations for Google Docs

Tamper-evident Writing Process Records for Google Docs. Document your process, disclose AI use, and show proof of your work.

YOUR AI USE, CITED. YOUR WRITING PROCESS, VERIFIED. More instructors now expect students to disclose how they used AI—but few explain how to document it clearly. Signet Academic helps you build that record as you work. When you paste from outside your document, label it in a few taps: • AI-assisted • Direct quote • Your own notes • Prior draft • Source material For AI-assisted work, add the tool and briefly explain how you used it—for example, “ChatGPT (GPT-5) — brainstorming.” Signet turns your labels into a clear AI Use Statement, copy-ready APA and MLA citations, and an optional Student’s Statement in your own words. Used no AI? Your Writing Process Record can show that too. If you’re asked how you used AI or how your paper developed, Signet helps you answer with a record created alongside your work—not a guess made after submission. TWO DIRECTIONS OF PROOF Signet works both forward and backward in time. Forward — Create Record Install Signet before you write, and it documents the process as it happens: writing sessions, timing, editing activity, typed versus pasted activity, and the sources you label. When your paper is ready, Create Record seals a live-witnessed Writing Process Record. This is Signet’s strongest tier of process evidence. Backward — Rewind Already wrote the document before installing Signet? Google Docs may still have its revision history. Rewind uses that history to build a clearly labeled Reconstructed Writing Process Record. It can show when the document changed, how much it changed, and how it developed across sessions, with selected rendered views from significant moments in the revision history. A Reconstructed record is transparently identified as having been created after the writing occurred. HOW IT WORKS When you open a Google Doc, Signet quietly documents process signals such as: • Writing-session timing • Insertions and deletions • Cuts, undos, and redos • Paste events • Pauses and active writing time • Source and AI-use annotations you choose to add Signet counts activity categories—it does not record which individual keys you press. Session records sync to your personal Signet account, creating a verifiable history of when you worked, how long you worked, and how the document developed through drafting and revision. When you are ready to submit, Signet creates an online Writing Process Record that you can share and independently verify. You can also download a record PDF and submission copies of your document. HELPFUL PASTE REMINDERS When you paste from outside your document, Signet can show a short beginning-and-ending excerpt to help you recognize the paste later and annotate it accurately. These reminders contain only a small excerpt—not the complete pasted passage. They are temporarily synced to your account so they are available across your signed-in devices. A reminder is removed when you complete its annotation and is otherwise automatically deleted after 60 days. You can turn paste reminders off in the extension settings. YOUR WRITING STAYS PRIVATE—AND YOU CONTROL WHAT YOU SHARE Signet is designed to document the writing process without continuously collecting or storing the full text of your document. During live recording, Signet stores process signals rather than a copy of everything you write. The default record includes: • Session start, end, duration, and pause information • Edit-event counts by category—not the individual keys pressed • Paste-event character counts • Short temporary paste reminders when enabled • Revision signals showing that editing occurred—not a continuous transcript of every change • Your document title, so you can identify it in your dashboard • Source labels, descriptions, and statements you choose to provide Additional document content is processed only when you deliberately use features that require it, such as Rewind or the optional revision-history witness. These features may use rendered views of selected document revisions as evidence, and the resulting record clearly shows what has been included. You review the record before creating it and decide whether to share it. WHAT YOU GET • An online Writing Process Record organized by document • A history of writing sessions and revision activity • An AI Use Statement generated from your own disclosures • Copy-ready APA and MLA AI citations • An optional Student’s Statement in your own words • A downloadable Writing Process Record PDF • Downloadable Word and PDF submission copies • A shareable verification link • A dashboard at www.getsignet.app containing your writing history A STUDENT PROTECTION TOOL, NOT A SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM Signet is built to help students document and explain their own work. You can exclude a document from recording at any time. Signet does not give professors, schools, or other third parties automatic access to your documents or records. Nothing is shared with them unless you choose to share it. The extension stays out of the way while you write. It uses a small movable status chip and shows focused prompts only when your attention is useful—for example, when you may want to annotate an external paste. OPEN BETA Signet Academic is currently in open beta. Students and instructors in the founding cohort are helping shape the product, and their feedback directly informs the roadmap. The product will continue to evolve, but records already issued remain independently verifiable. REQUIREMENTS • A free Signet account at www.getsignet.app • Google Docs and a Google account • Chrome 114 or later Version 1.1.2 — bug fixes only, no new permissions or manifest changes. Fixed: paste source classification incorrectly flagging within-document pastes as external after tab switching. Fixed: Exclude button crash (chrome.tabs.getCurrent unavailable in content scripts). Fixed: annotation panel positioning during chip drag. Improved: annotation panel now collapsible with category filter; opens/closes on button toggle; auto-closes on tab switch or click-outside. Certify panel toggle matches same pattern. Settings toggle relocated into annotation panel. Recent updates (v1.1.2): - Persistent authentication — sessions stay active across browser restarts via refresh tokens, no need to re-login between writing sessions. - Streamlined permissions — removed unused permissions; the extension now requests only storage and alarms. - Updated privacy policy with named third-party processors. - Only the title of the Google Doc the user is actively writing in. Document body content, formatting, images, embeds, and links are never read or transmitted. Titles are stored so users can identify their certified documents in our dashboard. - Updated testing instructions for store review. Recent updates (v1.1.3): - Stay signed in — sessions now persist across browser restarts and Chrome reloads. - Clearer status — when sign-in is needed, the chip shows it immediately with one-click access. - Streamlined permissions — extension now uses only storage and alarms. - Updated privacy policy with full disclosure of third-party data processors. Version 1.1.4 — new feature (Rewind), no new permissions or manifest changes. Recent updates (v1.1.4): New: Rewind — build a Reconstructed-tier certificate from a document's Google Docs revision history, for work written before Signet was installed. Includes rendered revision views, clearly labeled as built after the fact. New: revision-history witness — regular certificates can now include the document's revision history as a second, independent evidence stream, corroborating the live session record. On by default; can be switched off at certification (metrics only, no images). New: cite your AI use as you work — when you paste from outside the document, you can now add a short source declaration right in the popup ("ChatGPT — brainstorming"). Declarations appear in the certificate's Process & Sources appendix. Improved: the certificate PDF now includes a Process & Sources appendix (your paste declarations and AI-use disclosure), a document-growth chart, and — for Rewind — the revision views. Certification now downloads two files (paper + certificate); the separate verification document is retired, its role absorbed by the certificate. Reliability: pastes made as the first action after opening a document are no longer missed; paste annotations now survive page refresh; writing sessions no longer overlap or double-count after tab switches; certification now gathers the complete session history. Renamed to Signet Academic; open-beta status now shown in the extension. Version 1.1.5 — Renamed the flow to "Create Record," added AI-use labeling (tool, version, and how you used it) with auto-generated AI-use statements and citations, an optional Student's Statement, and clearer "tamper-evident" wording. Version 1.1.6 — reliability, onboarding, and Writing Process Record improvements • Improved first-time setup with a guided account-creation and extension-connection flow. • Added clearer signed-in, recording, modified, and record-status messaging. • Improved authentication persistence and recovery across browser restarts, extension reloads, and token refreshes. • Fixed a critical issue where changes made after creating a record did not always invalidate the existing certification immediately. • Updated the status chip to use the Signet hexagon itself as the status indicator. • Redesigned the Create Record completion screen around the online Writing Process Record, record PDF, and submission-copy downloads. • Added share-link copying and clearer verification actions. • Added temporary cross-device paste reminders using short beginning-and-ending excerpts, with automatic removal after annotation or expiry after 60 days. • Improved paste annotation so selecting a category no longer moves the paste out of “Needs Annotation” before the description is completed or explicitly skipped. • Improved panel, popup, and draggable-chip navigation throughout Google Docs. • No new Chrome permissions requested.