Privacy Policy

Last updated: June 26, 2025

This Privacy Policy explains how ShortTools ("we", "us", or "our") collects, uses, and discloses information about you when you access or use our website and services (collectively, the "Services"). We are committed to protecting your personal information and your right to privacy.

1. Our Use of YouTube API Services

Our Service uses the YouTube API Services to access data from YouTube. By using our Services, you are agreeing to be bound by the YouTube Terms of Service.

This policy is designed to transparently explain how we handle your data in relation to the YouTube API Services. We also adhere to the Google Privacy Policy.

You can revoke ShortTools' access to your data at any time via the Google security settings page.

2. Information We Collect

The information we collect depends on your interaction with our Services.

• Account Information: When you register, we collect your name, email address, and a hashed password. If you register using Google OAuth, we receive your name and email address from Google.
• Billing Information: If you subscribe to a paid plan, our payment processor, Stripe, will collect payment information, such as your credit card details and billing address. We only store your Stripe customer ID and subscription status.
• User-Generated Content and Activity: We store the channels you bookmark and the search filters you save.
• API Data from YouTube: Through the YouTube API, we access and store public data about YouTube channels and videos. This includes channel names, descriptions, statistics (subscriber, view, video counts), and video metadata (titles, tags, view/like counts, duration, and transcripts). We do not access any private or non-public information from your YouTube account.
• Cookies and Device Information: We use cookies and browser local storage to manage your session and keep you logged in. Our authentication is based on JWTs stored on your device's browser. We may also collect log information, including your IP address, browser type, and access times, for security and operational purposes.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect to:

• Provide, maintain, and improve our Services.
• Process transactions and manage your subscription.
• Send you technical notices, updates, security alerts, and administrative messages.
• Respond to your comments and questions.
• Monitor and analyze trends and usage to improve the user experience.
• Detect and prevent fraudulent transactions and other illegal activities.

4. How We Share Your Information

We do not sell your personal information. We may share your information in the following limited circumstances:

• With Service Providers: We share information with third-party vendors who perform services on our behalf.
  • Stripe: For processing payments and managing subscriptions.
  • Amazon Web Services (AWS): Our entire infrastructure is hosted on AWS. Data is stored in our PostgreSQL database on RDS and generated reports are stored in S3 buckets.
• For Legal Reasons: We may disclose information if we believe it's reasonably necessary to comply with any applicable law, regulation, legal process, or governmental request.
• With Your Consent: We may share information with your consent or at your direction.

5. Your Choices and Data Retention

You can update or correct your account information at any time by accessing your Account page. You may delete your account by contacting us, which will remove your personal information from our active databases. We store the information we collect for as long as is necessary for the purposes for which we originally collected it, or for other legitimate business purposes, including to meet our legal or compliance obligations.

6. Security

We take reasonable measures, including technical and administrative safeguards, to help protect information about you from loss, theft, misuse, and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction.

7. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make changes, we will notify you by revising the date at the top of the policy and, in some cases, we may provide you with additional notice (such as adding a statement to our homepage).