Privacy
One question I care about - do people come back - and this is everything I collect to answer it.
What I collect
A random identifier in your browser. Against it: which pages you opened and when, whether a video started and roughly how far it got, and whatever referrer or campaign tag brought you here. No name and no IP address stored against it.
If you make an account, that identifier gets linked to your email. So while you're signed out there's nothing here that says who you are - and once you sign in, there is. It's one small table joining the two, and it exists so that asking me to delete your data from your phone also clears what your laptop did. Nothing else uses it: the topic counts don't touch it, and neither does the come-back-later maths.
That traffic might also be looked at in aggregate to see which topics people open most, so I know what to add more of. Counts of cards opened on this site, added up across everyone - never per person, and never how much of a video anyone watched.
No advertising cookies, no third-party trackers, nothing sold or shared.
What stays in your browser
Separately, your browser keeps its own memory so the site can be useful to you: which entries you've opened and roughly how far into each you got, which ones you've kept, and which ones you've taken off your list. That copy is never uploaded, and clearing your site data ends it.
Being exact, because two of those overlap with the counting above: opening an entry and playing a video both get recorded on my side too, against the random identifier. So I can work out roughly the same two things - not from your browser's copy, but I can. What you've kept and what you've taken off your list are the ones that genuinely never leave while you're signed out: pressing the heart sends nothing, crossing something off sends nothing, and there's no record of either here.
What an account holds
Sign in and that moves onto your account, so the same list follows you between devices. Each piece is there for a reason:
- What you've opened, and roughly how far in you got - so things you've already watched sink to the bottom instead of making you scroll past them forever, and so a half-finished one can tell you it's half-finished.
- What you've kept - that's your shelf. It's the whole point of the heart.
- What you've taken off your list - so the things you've crossed off stay crossed off on your next device.
Plus the email you signed in with, because that's how signing in works at all.
Once you're signed in, your account is the real copy and the browser's is left alone - so two people sharing a laptop don't share a history. Sign out and you're back to whatever that browser had before you signed in. Deleting your data below removes the account's copy too.
Your account's copy is yours: it isn't watched, profiled, or sold, and nothing on the site is ever ordered or ranked by what anyone kept. There's more detail on what I keep and why if you want it.
What the player collects
Everything plays in YouTube's embedded player. When it loads YouTube gets your IP, the page you're on, and identifiers from any Google cookies you already have, under Google's privacy policy. Happens whether or not you press play, and it's out of my hands. Autoplay is off everywhere, so at least nothing starts on its own.
How long I keep it
Six weeks minimum, since the return question needs about a month to answer. Then until this version of the site is done with, realistically a couple of months, and after that it goes. Account records stay until you delete the account.
If this gets bigger
A version that hosts the videos itself would probably collect more than this one. If that happens I rewrite this page first, rather than quietly widening what's already here. Two things that won't change: no third-party trackers, no ads. Not "no ads for now" - ads are the thing that rots recommendations in the first place, and selling ad space against a site built as the opposite of that would be pretty stupid of me :D
Wiping it
Erases everything tied to your browser's identifier, and - if you've signed in - the account's copy along with it, on every device you've used. This browser is cleared too. Usually instant, 30 days at the outside. No undo.
One thing it can't reach: another device you've used but never signed in on. There's nothing connecting that browser to you, which is the point of it, and it also means I can't find it to delete it. Clearing site data there does it.
Account questions or anything else: privacy@cabin.watch.