TextReadsFast for YouTube - Privacy Policy

Last updated: 20 August 2026. The published version of this policy is at:
https://ravandohq.github.io/privacy-policy/textreadsfast-youtube/

The short version: the extension reads YouTube's own caption tracks and shows
them back to you differently. That happens entirely inside your browser. The one
feature that sends anything anywhere is the Read Mode assistant; it is off until
you supply your own API key, and it sends to a provider you choose.

There is no server operated by this project. There is no account, no analytics,
no telemetry, no advertising, and nothing is sold or shared with anyone.

WHAT THE EXTENSION STORES, AND WHERE

Reading settings and profiles are kept in storage.sync. If you have browser
account sync switched on, those values are replicated to your other devices
under your own account. That covers settings and profiles only — never your API
key.

Your AI API key, your chosen model, the provider URL, the summary prompt and
your device preferences are kept in storage.local, which is never synced.

Read Mode sessions — notes, summaries and chat history — and study statistics
such as watch time, coverage and rewatch counts are kept in the extension's own
IndexedDB database on this computer.

Everything above stays on your device. Uninstalling the extension removes it.

WHAT IS SENT OVER THE NETWORK

By the reader: nothing. Captions are obtained from YouTube, for a video you have
already opened, either by requesting the caption track named in the page's own
player response or by observing the caption data the YouTube player fetches for
itself. No copy of any transcript is transmitted anywhere else, and no record of
what you watch leaves the device.

By the Read Mode assistant: only after you opt in. The assistant is inert until
you enter an API key. Once you have entered one, opening Read Mode on a video
sends that video's transcript and title to the AI provider configured in
settings — by default OpenRouter — so it can produce the summary. Questions you
type are sent to the same provider along with the transcript for context, and
asking for generated chapter names sends the transcript too.

That is the complete list. Your notes are not sent. Your library, statistics and
settings are not sent. Nothing is sent for videos you do not open Read Mode on.

Requests are made by the extension's background page directly to your provider.
They do not pass through any server belonging to this project, because there
isn't one. Your provider's privacy policy governs what happens to that data once
it arrives; if you use OpenRouter, see https://openrouter.ai/privacy. You can
point the extension at any OpenAI-compatible endpoint, including one you run
yourself, by changing the base URL in settings.

Deleting your API key stops all of this. The assistant returns to doing nothing,
and the rest of the extension is unaffected.

PERMISSIONS

storage and unlimitedStorage save settings, profiles, notes, sessions and
statistics locally; transcripts of long videos are sizeable.

downloads writes the Markdown file when you press Export, and is used only at
that moment.

Access to youtube.com is needed to read captions and place the reader over the
player. The extension runs on YouTube and nowhere else.

Access to openrouter.ai is optional and requested when you first save an API
key, not at install.

Access to other https sites is optional and requested only if you point the
assistant at a different OpenAI-compatible provider. It is never requested
otherwise, and the extension is fully usable as a reader without it.

WHAT THE EXTENSION DELIBERATELY DOES NOT DO

It does not read pages other than YouTube. It does not read, or have permission
to read, your browsing history. It does not access your microphone, camera,
clipboard or files — the export is a download you initiate, not filesystem
access. It contains no analytics, crash reporting or third-party SDK. It loads
no remote code; everything it runs ships in the package. The API key is never
given to a content script, and this is enforced by a build check that fails if
the boundary is ever crossed.

CHILDREN

Not directed at children, and it collects nothing from anyone.

YOUR CONTROL

Change or reset settings and profiles in the options page. Clear your API key in
settings and the assistant stops immediately. Delete sessions and notes
individually or clear the whole library. A single toggle turns statistics
recording off, and turning it off stops the recording rather than merely hiding
what was recorded. Uninstalling removes all local data.

CHANGES

Material changes will be reflected here with a new date, and noted in the
release notes.

CONTACT

Open an issue at https://github.com/Ramonvdo/textreadsfast-youtube/issues, or
use the repository's Security tab for anything sensitive.