Privacy

This is what playback.tv collects, why we collect it, and what we never do with it.

If you sign in

Sign-in is with Google. We receive your name, email address and profile picture, and we store them to run your account. We never receive your Google password, and we cannot read anything else in your Google account.

If you add a backup Google account in Settings, we keep which Google account it is, the same way as the first, and a record of each sign-in added or removed: when, the address partly hidden, and the kind of browser it was done from (for example “Chrome on Windows”). The same record notes each handle you remove or hand over. You can review it in Settings > Security.

We also note which page you were on when you pressed Sign in, so we can tell which pages bring people who go on to make something. It is kept with your account and never shown to anyone.

And we note the first time your account opens the maker, has a video load in it and marks a moment, so we can see where people stop before their first Playback: only that each happened and when, never the video or the part you marked. It is kept with your account and never shown to anyone.

While you are signed in we keep a session record with the internet address and the browser it came from. We use it to keep you signed in and to spot abuse, such as many accounts on one address. People who run the site can see it.

We also store what you create here:

• your handle
• the Playbacks you publish, including their titles and notes
• your comments, reactions and likes
• any reports you file
• what you add to your profile: links, teams, the shows you schedule, and your team of co-hosts

When someone opens your profile, we count it by day so you can see the number; we do not record who it was.

The Playback extension for Chrome

If you install Playback Clipper for YouTube, it can read a YouTube tab only after you press its button, a keyboard shortcut or its right-click menu on that tab. Chrome then lets it read that tab until the tab leaves YouTube or closes. It has no standing access to any website, and it cannot read a tab you have not pressed it on.

On such a tab it reads the video's time, its length, whether it is paused, the page's title and address, and whether an ad or a live stream is playing. It reads these once when you press a shortcut, and about every 0.4 seconds while its popup or side panel is open, so that it can show the video's clock.

The start and end you mark, any title you type, your chosen speed and the moments you keep are stored in your browser, in the extension's own storage. A kept moment also stores the video's name, so that you can tell your moments apart. Marks not touched for 60 days are removed. Removing the extension removes all of this.

The extension does not independently send your video information or usage analytics to Playback. A link it makes can carry information when that link is opened: the video's address, the times, the speed, any title you typed, and a tag saying the link came from the extension, which playback.tv uses to count those visits. What happens on playback.tv after that is described on this page. The extension adds nothing to YouTube's pages and does not change how YouTube plays.

Email

We email you about your account when it matters, for example when a sign-in is added to it. Emails about what is new on Playback (new features and the best Playbacks, about once a month) go only to people who choose them, with the box when you pick your handle (it starts ticked; untick it if you would rather not) or the switch in Settings. Every one of those emails has an unsubscribe link that works without signing in, and you can turn them off in Settings at any time. We keep when you said yes, and the country your connection came from when you answered at sign-up. Emails are sent through Resend, which handles them for us and for nothing else; we never sell or share your address.

Counting visits

We use Plausible to measure page views and selected actions, such as pressing play or copying a link. Plausible does not use cookies to track visitors. We use its reports to understand aggregate site activity.

Some links carry a tag saying where they came from, such as our Chrome extension or our free tools. The tag reaches our analytics when the link is opened, so we can count the visits it brings. When you publish a Playback, Cut or Compare, we keep a note of where it started, such as the page or tagged link that led to it.

Plausible is not the only service that handles data here. Signing in, email, reports and messages have their own sections on this page, and video players are covered under Embedded video. Our hosting provider receives your internet address with each request and keeps routine logs. We use addresses to deliver the site and to limit how often one address can do certain things.

If you don’t sign in

Your viewing preferences, such as playback speed and whether a clip loops, are saved in your own browser, not on our servers. A link you make can carry the speed and other settings, and our analytics can note the speed used when a link is copied or shared.

If you publish or comment without signing in, we create a guest account tied to a cookie in your browser, and store what you make with it, along with the session record described above. If you later sign in with Google, that work moves to your account.

If you report something

We keep the report, what you wrote in it, your account if you were signed in, and the internet address it came from. The address is how we stop one person filing the same report many times, or hiding a guest’s post alone. The person you report is never shown who reported them.

If you write to us

We keep what you send through the contact form: your name if you give one, the address you give, your message, and for a copyright notice the link, the original work and your signature. We also keep the country it was sent from and a scrambled fingerprint of its internet address, never the address itself, which is how we notice many messages from one place. If you email contact@playback.tv, we keep your email and our reply in that mailbox. A person reads every message.

If you reclaim a handle

We keep your claim: the handle, what you wrote, the links you gave, the account you claimed with, and each step of the review, including what we asked you and why we decided.

Embedded video

Playbacks play through each platform’s own player (YouTube, TikTok or Vimeo), or a podcast’s own audio file from its publisher. On a Playback’s page the player loads once it is on your screen, so it can start where the moment begins, and the platform may then set its own cookies under its own privacy policy. Lists and cards show a still image instead, and no player loads until you open one.

Playback.tv uses YouTube API Services to read public information about videos and playlists, such as a title or a length. Google's handling of data is described in the Google Privacy Policy. Using YouTube's player or these services also falls under YouTube's Terms of Service.

What we never do

• We don’t sell your information.
• We don’t run third-party advertising trackers.
• We don’t show your email address to other users.

Deleting your account

When an account is deleted, its handle, likes, comments and reactions are deleted with it. Playbacks you published stay up without your name attached, because other people’s comments and comparisons may depend on them. Ask us if you want those removed too.

Removing a handle you run from Settings deletes it the same way, and you can choose to take its Playbacks down as well. Its name stays held so nobody else can take it. Handing a handle over moves it, with its profile and everything it made, to the person who takes it over with their own Google account. From then on their Google account signs in to it, and its address becomes theirs.

Contact

Use the privacy request form, or emailcontact@playback.tv. A person reads every request.