Overview
YouTube Timestamp helps you save moments from YouTube videos with notes and tags, optionally sync them to your archive account, and open them from the web dashboard. This policy explains what we store, what third parties we contact, and how payments are handled.
The Chrome extension ships a packaged copy of this policy at privacy.html. When the two differ, this page is the canonical version.
Account information
Signing in is optional for basic local use of the extension. When you sign in with Google (on the web or through the extension), we create or recognize an archive account and store:
- Name, email address, and profile image from Google
- Optional display name on your profile
- Your plan status (`free` or `pro`)
- Extension session credentials (hashed tokens and expiry) when you connect the Chrome extension
Timestamps and library data
When you save a timestamp—on the web or through the extension—we store the fields needed to show and restore that moment:
- YouTube video ID, title, channel name, and thumbnail URL
- Timestamp position (seconds into the video)
- Optional note (up to 300 characters) and tags
- Favorite flag, source (`web`, `extension`, or `import`), and soft-delete time
- Folder names and folder membership when you use Pro folder organization
Signed-out extension use keeps timestamps only on the device in chrome.storage.local. When you sign in, those timestamps sync to your account so they appear in the dashboard and on other signed-in browsers. Free accounts can sync up to 100 active timestamps; beyond that limit, new extension saves stay on the device only until you upgrade or free up room.
Video transcripts
When you are signed in and save a timestamp, the Chrome extension may copy that video’s official captions—the same timed transcript YouTube can show in the player—and upload them to a shared cache on our servers. On YouTube watch pages, the extension keeps a short-lived, in-tab copy of caption-track responses the player already loads. It does not read other YouTube network traffic or scrape the rest of the page. After a save, it may briefly turn captions on so the player loads them, then restore your previous setting.
We store caption text, timing, language, whether the track was auto-generated, the video id, and video duration when the player reports it. This supports the summary beta and transcript features. The first successful upload for a video and language is kept; later uploads do not overwrite it. Caption text is shared across accounts for that video. It is not stored as part of your private timestamp library.
Transcripts are not uploaded when you are signed out. You can turn capture off with Turn off transcript capture in the extension account menu. Deleting a timestamp, signing out, or deleting your account does not remove a transcript already in the shared cache; if your account is deleted, your contributor id on that row is cleared. Crash reports never include caption text.
AI summaries
If your requested summary needs to be generated, we send the saved video's caption text, segment indexes, caption language and video duration to Google's Gemini models through Google Cloud Vertex AI for token counting and summarization. We also send our summary instructions and output format. We do not send your private notes, tags, folders, account ID, email or other account profile information in these requests.
We share cached summaries of the same caption source across accounts. Your account's unlock record controls access and allowance use; other users do not receive your private notes or account details. Saving a summary moment creates an ordinary timestamp in your account. Removing a timestamp or account does not remove shared captions or summaries. We retain generation attempts, token usage, cost and bounded error categories to enforce spending limits and diagnose failures. Caption text and summary prose are not included in analytics events.
Our app does not ask Google to create a stored conversation for these summary requests. Under the Google Cloud Service Specific Terms, Google does not use customer data to train or fine-tune models without our permission or instruction. Google may retain prompts for abuse monitoring, including review by authorized personnel, and temporarily cache inputs and outputs. Our use of Vertex AI does not guarantee zero retention. See Google's data retention and abuse monitoring documentation for details.
Payments
Pro subscriptions are billed through Dodo Payments. Checkout and payment-method updates happen on Dodo’s hosted pages. We never receive or store card numbers or full billing addresses.
To keep your membership in sync we store a billing record that includes a Dodo customer ID and email, subscription ID, product ID, status, amount, currency, billing interval, next billing date, and cancellation fields when applicable. We also store webhook delivery metadata so we can process subscription events reliably.
Crash reporting
The Chrome extension may send anonymous crash and error reports through our backend to an error-monitoring service (Sentry) so we can fix bugs without waiting for manual reports. Reports can include the extension version, Chrome version, locale, error message and stack frames from our own code, coarse tags such as signed-in state or plan, and a random install id (or your account user id when signed in).
Crash reports never include notes, tags, video titles, channel names, watch URLs, caption text, access or refresh tokens, email, display name, or avatar. Reports are routed through youtubetimestamp.com. You can turn crash reporting off with Turn off crash reporting in the extension account menu after signing in.
What we do not collect
The Chrome extension does not include advertising or product-analytics SDKs, and we do not use session replay. The web app uses Simple Analytics, a cookie-less analytics service, to count visits, countries, and a few product events such as sign-up. Crash reporting is limited to the technical error data described above. Caption text leaves your device only when you save a timestamp while signed in, unless you turn that off. We do not collect your general YouTube watch history. We do not sell your data or use it for credit, lending, or unrelated purposes. We do not track your general browsing history—only the YouTube moments you choose to save, plus the anonymous website usage described here.
Third parties
- Google. OAuth sign-in, Gemini summary processing through Google Cloud Vertex AI as described above, and UI fonts via Google Fonts in the extension
- Supabase — hosted database for account, timestamp, transcript, and billing records
- Dodo Payments — hosted checkout and subscription billing
- Sentry — error monitoring for optional extension crash reports forwarded by our backend
- Simple Analytics — cookie-less pageviews and product events on the web app only. The Chrome extension does not load this script. See Simple Analytics' privacy policy
- YouTube — video titles, channel names, thumbnails (`i.ytimg.com`), and official captions the extension copies when you save a timestamp while signed in
- Tally — only if you open the extension Feedback form
Those services may process standard connection data such as IP address under their own policies.
Retention and control
You can delete individual timestamps at any time. Disconnecting the extension revokes its session credentials and leaves local copies on the device. Shared video transcripts stay in the cache so other users and the summary beta can use them; they are not removed when you delete timestamps or disconnect. Canceling Pro does not delete your library; see the Terms of Service for how the free limit applies after a subscription ends.
To ask about access or deletion of your account data, email codebyketan@gmail.com.
Changes
We may update this policy when the product changes. The “Last updated” date at the top reflects the latest revision.
Contact
Questions about this policy: codebyketan@gmail.com