Privacy Policy

Last updated: July 25, 2026

What we collect

• Account data: your email address and a hashed password if you register.
• Usage data: which videos you process (kept in your history per your plan's retention), and monthly Cloud Request and AI Processing counts. Anonymous usage is tracked per IP solely to enforce the free monthly limit.
• Transcripts: extracted transcripts are cached temporarily to speed up repeat requests.

What we don't do

• We don't sell your data or share it with advertisers.
• We don't store payment details (payments are processed by our payment provider).
• We don't track you across other websites.

AI features

When you use "Summarize with AI" or transcript chat, the transcript and your prompt or messages are sent to a third-party AI provider to generate the response. When you use VidWords Watch, a third-party AI provider may process the video or audio, sampled frames, transcript evidence, and your questions to produce the requested analysis.

Watch uploads are deleted from the provider immediately after processing. If that deletion fails, an hourly cleanup job retries it and also removes any upload left unprocessed for more than an hour. The provider expires stored files automatically as a backstop. VidWords does not use transcripts, videos, or prompts to train its own models; third-party processing is governed by the applicable provider terms.

Chrome extension

The VidWords Chrome extension is covered by this policy. It is an optional companion to your VidWords account; everything below is in addition to, not instead of, the sections above.

What the extension accesses

• The YouTube page you are viewing. The extension runs only on youtube.com pages and on its own panel. It reads the video ID from the address, the player's current playback position and duration, and the caption text of the video you are watching. It requests no access to any other website, and it cannot read tabs outside YouTube — it holds no permission to see them.
• Captions already loaded by YouTube. When YouTube's own player fetches a transcript for the video on screen, the extension reads the caption text out of that response instead of asking our servers to fetch the video again. It never sends your YouTube cookies, your Google account, or your watch history anywhere. What leaves your browser for a transcript is the caption text, its language label and language code, the video ID, and the video's title and channel name — the last two so a saved transcript is labelled in your library.
• One still frame, when you take a note. As you start writing a note the extension copies the frame showing in the player at that moment — a small image, taken from the video already playing on your screen — and saves it with the note so you can recognize the moment later. Nothing is captured while you are only watching: it happens when you begin a note, the frame is shown in the panel before you save, you can remove it, and you can switch the whole behaviour off in extension settings. It never captures anything outside the video player, and never during an ad.
• Your VidWords sign-in. Connecting opens a normal VidWords sign-in page in a browser window. The extension never sees or handles your password. On success it receives a per-device access token.

What the extension stores on your device

Chrome's extension storage holds your per-device access token; panel preferences; per-channel auto-get choices; whether setup and optional suggestions were completed or dismissed; and up to 20 YouTube video IDs used only to wait until three different transcript successes before offering an optional review or share. It does not store transcript text or notes locally. Disconnecting removes the access token; the other settings remain on that device until you change them or remove the extension. Removing the extension deletes its local storage. You can also revoke a device's token from your VidWords account settings.

What the extension sends to VidWords

Only what is needed to perform an action you asked for: the video ID and caption text to save or open a transcript, note text, its timestamp and the still frame from that moment when you write a note, and your questions when you use summaries or chat. Requested extractions and explicit review, share, or dismissal actions are recorded against your VidWords account with the extension version; extraction records also say whether the browser path succeeded or VidWords Cloud was needed. Successful browser extraction is recorded with zero Cloud Requests and zero AI Units. These records let us measure usage and reliability without observing unrelated browsing. These are handled exactly as the corresponding features on the website — including the AI-provider handling described above. Transcripts and notes created through the extension appear in the same library as ones created on the site.

What the extension does not do

• It does not collect browsing history, and does not read or monitor pages other than YouTube.
• It does not sell or transfer your data to third parties, other than the processing needed to deliver the feature you invoked.
• It does not use your data for any purpose unrelated to the extension's single purpose, and never for creditworthiness or lending.
• It contains no analytics, advertising, or tracking code, and loads no remote code.

VidWords' use of information received from the Chrome extension adheres to the Chrome Web Store User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

Data deletion

You can delete individual history entries at any time. To delete your account and all associated data, contact support. Removing the Chrome extension deletes everything it stored on your device; transcripts and notes it saved remain in your VidWords account until you delete them there.