Clipmaps privacy policy
Last updated 30 October 2026
In short
- Nothing about what you watch leaves your browser until you press Map (or the B key) on a video.
- When you do, the video’s ID and captions go to the Clipmaps server, which has Google’s Gemini write the map.
- Mapping a video no one has mapped yet needs a Google sign-in. Google shares no email, name, or photo with Clipmaps, only a number for your account. Videos someone has already mapped open without signing in.
- There is no advertising, no tracking across sites, and nothing is sold. Clipmaps sends anonymous usage counts, which you can turn off.
- The server knows your browser by a random ID and your account by another, and forgets which videos either mapped after 30 days.
What stays in your browser
Kept in Chrome’s extension storage on your device and never sent anywhere: the maps you have opened (up to 500 videos, the least recently used removed first), a log of the videos where you used Clipmaps and how each map ended, and your settings. The log is visible under Developer tools in Settings. Removing the extension deletes all of it.
When you press Map
Clipmaps reads the video’s captions through YouTube’s own player, in your browser, and sends these to the Clipmaps server:
- the video’s ID, length, YouTube category, and whether it is live or has captions;
- the caption text with its timings;
- the times of the video’s own chapters, if it has any;
- how much of the video has no speech;
- your browser’s random ID, with a signature the server issued to it;
- if you are signed in, a token the server issued that names your account.
Nothing else is sent: no cookies, no YouTube account details, no browsing history, and no other tabs or sites. Opening the toolbar popup, Settings, or the welcome page asks the server how much of this month’s free time you have left, which sends only your random ID and, if you are signed in, that token.
The server sends the caption text, the video’s length, and its chapter times to Google’s Gemini API, which writes the map’s topics. It does not send the video’s ID. Under Google’s terms for paid use of the API, Google does not use this to improve its products, and keeps it for a limited time only to detect misuse.
Signing in
The free monthly hours of new video belong to a person, not a browser, so mapping a video no one has mapped yet needs a Google sign-in. Clipmaps asks Google only to confirm who you are (the “openid” permission). Google then tells the Clipmaps server a number that identifies your Google account to Clipmaps, and nothing else: no email address, name, or photo.
The server does not keep that number. It keeps a keyed hash of it, which only the server can compute, so it can recognise your account the next time you sign in, on any browser. Your browser keeps the sign-in token for 30 days, and the number, so it can sign you in again without asking. Signing out in Settings removes both from your browser.
Ideas and feedback
When you send a note from the toolbar popup, Clipmaps sends the server its text, the extension’s version, your browser’s random ID (so the server knows the note came from Clipmaps), and, if you are signed in, the token that names your account. The server stores the note with the time and the version only, not your browser ID or account, so a note cannot be traced back to you. Please leave personal details out of it.
The first note from a signed-in account adds bonus hours of free mapping to that account, once. The account’s record keeps that it received them and how much of the bonus is left.
What the server keeps
| What | Why | How long |
|---|---|---|
| The map (topic times, titles, summaries, and kinds), filed under a fingerprint (a hash) of the captions it was made from. Not the captions themselves, and not who asked for it. | The next person to map the same video gets it at once, for free | No set limit |
| A record of each request to Gemini: the video’s ID, the time, its size and cost, and how it ended | Spending limits and cost review | No set limit |
| Your account: a random ID, the keyed hash described above, and the date it was created | Your monthly hours follow you to every browser you sign in on | Until you ask for it to be deleted |
| The random browser ID and account ID that each request to Gemini was made for | Spotting misuse of the free service | 30 days, then erased |
| How many minutes of new video each account has mapped this month, and whether it has received the feedback bonus and how much of it is left | The monthly limit on free mapping, and the bonus for a first note | Earlier months are deleted when that account next makes a map; the bonus record stays with the account |
| A keyed hash of your network’s address and the date (for IPv6, of the network part of the address), with how many minutes of new free video were mapped from that network that day. The address itself is never stored, and the hash changes every day. | A daily limit on free mapping from one network, so free accounts cannot be farmed | 2 days, then deleted |
| Notes you send from the popup, with the time and the extension’s version | Reading what people ask for and what goes wrong | 1 year, then deleted |
| Hourly totals of usage counts, unless you turned them off | Seeing what helps, and noticing when a YouTube change breaks Clipmaps | 90 days |
Usage counts, on unless you turn them off
With “Send anonymous usage counts” on, as it is unless you turn it off in Settings or on the welcome page, Clipmaps sends once an hour how many videos were opened and mapped, how each map you asked for ended, how often you jumped from the map to a segment or a key moment, whether the parts of YouTube’s player it needs were there, that it was installed, and whether it was used that day together with roughly how long ago it was installed (today, this week, this month, or longer), with the extension’s version. Counts never include video IDs, titles, times, your random ID, or anything else that identifies you or tells one person from another, and the server keeps only hourly totals across everyone on that version. Nothing is counted while the switch is off.
Services Clipmaps relies on
- Cloudflare runs the Clipmaps server. Like any web host it sees your IP address to deliver each request. Clipmaps uses that address only to limit how often one address can register a browser, sign in, send usage counts, or map new video for free (for that last, it keeps the daily hash in the table above). It does not record the address itself: request logging is off, and the server keeps only its own error messages, for up to 7 days.
- Google’s Gemini API writes the maps, as described above.
- Google Sign-In confirms who you are when you sign in, under Google’s own privacy policy.
Data is used only to make and share maps and to keep the free service running. It is never sold, never used for advertising, and never used to judge anyone’s credit or eligibility for anything.
Your choices
- Don’t press Map on a video, and nothing about it leaves your browser.
- Turn usage counts off at any time in Settings.
- Don’t sign in, and you can still open every video someone has already mapped.
- Sign out in Settings, or remove the extension, to delete everything Clipmaps stored on your device.
- The server holds no name or email, and the link between your account and your videos is erased after 30 days. To have your account deleted, or with any other question or request, write to the address below.
Children, changes, and contact
Clipmaps is not directed at children under 13.
If this policy changes, this page will say so and show a new date. Changes that affect what is sent or kept will also be noted in the extension’s release notes.
Contact: tubesafeapp@gmail.com