Privacy Policy
Introduction
This Privacy Policy explains how Popular Recently ("the extension," "we," "us") handles information when you install and use the extension, and when you visit this website. We wrote it to be read in full in a couple of minutes, not to bury the important parts in legal filler. If a section below doesn't apply to Popular Recently, we say so explicitly rather than leaving it out.
Information the extension accesses
- Public YouTube page content. On a channel's Videos or Shorts tab, a video's own watch page, or a playlist page, the extension reads information already publicly visible there, or fetched from YouTube's own domain, such as video titles, view counts, upload dates, like counts, thumbnails, and transcripts. This is the same information any visitor to that page can already see.
- VidIQ data, only if you have it installed. If the VidIQ extension is active on the page, Popular Recently reads what VidIQ has already displayed (views-per-hour, outlier score) to show alongside its own results. It never installs, contacts, or depends on VidIQ in any other way.
Popular Recently does not collect any information about you personally, your device, or your identity. It only reads public content about the YouTube videos and channels you choose to look at.
How we use this information
Popular Recently only uses the public page data described above to perform the action you directly requested in that moment: sorting a channel's videos, displaying a ranked list in the side panel, or building a file you chose to export. Nothing is used for advertising, profiling, analytics, or any purpose beyond what you asked the extension to do.
What the extension does not do
- Does not require you to log in or connect a YouTube or Google account
- Does not use the YouTube Data API or any API key
- Does not access your personal information, passwords, payment details, browsing history, or location
- Does not track your activity, set analytics cookies, or use any third-party analytics or advertising service
- Does not transmit any data to the developer or to any server, there is no backend for this extension
- Does not sell or share data with third parties
Data stored on your device
The extension uses Chrome's built-in storage permission only to remember two small preferences locally: your default time-window selection (for example, "last 12 months") and the side panel's width. That's the entirety of what's stored, and it never leaves your browser.
Data retention
Popular Recently does not retain data on any server, because it does not operate one. Page data it reads is used immediately, in memory, to build your results, and is discarded when the tab is closed or refreshed. The only things retained anywhere are the two local preferences above, stored via chrome.storage.sync in your own browser, which stay until you clear them yourself or uninstall the extension.
Third-party sharing and disclosure
Popular Recently does not sell, rent, trade, or otherwise share any data with third parties, advertisers, analytics providers, or data brokers, for any purpose. There is no third party for us to share data with, because no data is collected or transmitted by the extension in the first place.
Data security
Because Popular Recently doesn't operate a server or database, there is no centrally stored data that could be exposed in a breach. All processing happens locally, inside Chrome's own extension sandbox, using the security protections Chrome itself provides. The network requests the extension does make (described below) use HTTPS.
Children's privacy
Popular Recently is not directed at children under 13, and does not knowingly collect personal information from anyone, regardless of age. Because it collects no personal information from any user, there is no children's data for this policy to protect, by design rather than by exception.
Your rights (GDPR, CCPA, and similar laws)
Data protection laws like the GDPR (EEA/UK) and CCPA (California) give you rights to access, correct, export, or delete personal data a company holds about you. Popular Recently holds no personal data about you, there is no database of user information for these rights to apply to, so there is nothing to request. The only extension-related information in your control is the pair of local preferences described above, which you can clear at any time from Chrome's extension settings, or by uninstalling the extension.
Cookies and tracking
Popular Recently does not set, read, or use cookies, web beacons, pixels, or any other tracking technology, and does not use Google Analytics or any similar service. YouTube's own pages may use their own cookies independently of this extension, those are governed by YouTube's privacy policy, not this one.
Third-party services: YouTube and VidIQ
Popular Recently operates on top of YouTube, a service owned by Google LLC, and can optionally read data from VidIQ, a separate browser extension, if you have it installed. Neither integration involves Popular Recently sending your data to YouTube or VidIQ, it only reads what's already publicly displayed on the page. Your use of YouTube is governed by YouTube's own Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, and your use of VidIQ (if installed) is governed by VidIQ's own policies. Popular Recently has no control over, and is not responsible for, either service's own data practices.
International users
Because all processing happens locally in your own browser and no data is transmitted to or stored by the developer, there is no cross-border data transfer involved in using Popular Recently, regardless of where you are located.
Files you export
When you choose to export video information, as a .txt file, a .pdf, or a .zip, that file is built entirely inside your browser and saved directly to your own device. The extension never uploads it anywhere.
Network requests
The only requests the extension makes are:
- To
youtube.com, to read additional public details (exact date, like count, transcript, playlist and Shorts listings) not already shown on the tab you're viewing - To
i.ytimg.com, to load video thumbnail images
No other domain is contacted, and none of these requests carry any information about you.
Changes to this policy
If this policy changes, the "Last updated" date at the top of this page will be revised to reflect it. Material changes, if there are ever any that affect what data is collected, will be reflected here before they take effect.