WatchStats Privacy Policy
Last updated: October 24, 2026.
Publisher and service operator: Lopimake
Privacy and support contact: lopimakee@gmail.com
1. What WatchStats does
WatchStats measures foreground YouTube and Twitch viewing and turns that activity into personal watch-time statistics, activity history, creator summaries and achievements. An optional account adds private backup, synchronization across devices, Friends, Community and a customizable profile.
An account is not required for local tracking, personal statistics, Activity, Creators, Achievements or JSON/CSV exports.
2. Tracking is your choice
Tracking is off by default. Before recording viewing activity, WatchStats shows a disclosure explaining what it records and asks you to enable tracking. Choosing Continue without tracking, or dismissing that disclosure with Escape, keeps tracking off and remembers your choice. A reminder remains at the top of the dashboard while tracking is disabled.
You can pause or resume tracking in Settings. Pausing stops new watch-time recording; it does not erase existing history or stop an already signed-in account from synchronizing previously recorded data. Signing out stops private account uploads from that installation.
Installations from older builds that enabled consent automatically must make a new explicit choice. Existing history is preserved.
3. Data recorded on your device
When tracking is enabled, WatchStats records the information needed to provide its viewing statistics:
- Platform: YouTube or Twitch; format: video, Shorts or live.
- Video or stream/channel identifiers, titles, creator/channel names and IDs.
- Session start and end times, verified watch durations, local dates and timezones, daily totals and available hourly viewing evidence.
- Local preferences, tracking-consent choices, an installation/device identifier and technical synchronization records used to prevent duplicate uploads.
Viewing records and preferences are stored in the extension's local browser storage. Without signing in, your viewing history is not uploaded to the WatchStats service. Browser storage is specific to the Chrome profile and can be removed by deleting extension data or uninstalling the extension.
WatchStats does not read your general browser history, cookies, keystrokes or page network-request contents. The tracking adapter reads the public player and page information on supported YouTube and Twitch pages; it does not read your YouTube or Twitch login credentials.
Watch time counts only when the player and browser meet the foreground-playback conditions. Hidden/background playback and detected advertisements are excluded. Ad detection is not perfect, and WatchStats does not measure your gaze or claim to recognize every advertisement.
4. What changes when you use an account
Creating an account, signing in or recovering an account signs that installation into the WatchStats service and starts private account synchronization. The account form explains this before you submit it.
On the first connection of an account on a device, existing local-only history is added to that account. Previously used accounts retain their own separate local histories and caches. Switching accounts does not combine their saved account histories.
While signed in, viewing sessions, titles, video/channel identifiers, creator metadata, daily totals and available hourly evidence are backed up to the WatchStats API. The service uses these records to restore your history and keep your account's statistics consistent across devices. An offline copy and pending uploads remain on each device; synchronization retries when connectivity returns.
This is private account backup, not social sharing. Turning Friends or Community sharing off does not turn account backup off. To stop private uploads from an installation, sign out. You can continue using local features without an account.
5. Account, profile and authentication data
The service stores your account ID, username and display name, and any profile bio, avatar or banner you choose to save. Uploaded profile images are processed and sanitized by the service. It also stores device registrations, friendships, requests, blocked pairs and sharing preferences needed for account features.
Authentication uses a username and a six-digit PIN; no email address is required to register. The PIN is transmitted over HTTPS for authentication and stored on the server as a hash, not as a readable PIN. The server also stores hashes of session tokens and one-time recovery codes.
The extension stores its active authentication token locally so you can stay signed in. If you generate recovery codes in Settings, readable copies are saved locally so you can view or copy them later. Authentication tokens and saved recovery codes are restricted to trusted extension contexts, rather than exposed to website content scripts. Keep exported or copied recovery codes private.
6. What other users can see
Identity and discovery
Signed-in users can search for an exact username. Account identity information, including usernames, display names and current avatars, can appear in discovery, friend requests and other permitted identity surfaces. Profile banners and activity information are subject to the service's friendship and privacy checks.
Friends
Viewing-activity sharing with friends is controlled separately from private backup. Accepted, unblocked friends can receive information allowed by your selected visibility level:
- Off: viewing activity is hidden from subsequent friend-facing statistics reads.
- Platform only: permitted aggregate watch times, platform/format breakdowns, viewing rhythm and session counts, where available.
- Detailed: the permitted aggregate information plus creator summaries and rankings.
Friend-facing responses do not include individual video IDs, video titles, raw viewing sessions or detailed session timelines. Blocking restricts access between the accounts according to the service's access controls.
Live presence
Live presence is a separate opt-in. When enabled alongside friend activity sharing, short-lived updates can show your online/watching state and platform. Detailed visibility can also show the current creator. Presence expires after two minutes without renewal and is cleared when the associated sharing is disabled.
Community
Community sharing is off by default. Signed-in users can browse Community without contributing their statistics. You can opt in through the invitation on the Community page or the setting in Settings.
Opting in makes your display name, username, avatar, aggregate watch time and active-day counts available to signed-in WatchStats users. Community totals and rankings include participating accounts and respect blocked pairs. Detailed sessions, video titles and viewing timelines are not exposed by Community.
Disabling Community sharing excludes you from subsequent Community reads; it does not delete your private backup or change Friends settings. Earlier builds that automatically enabled Community participation are reset to off once, so a new explicit choice is required. Later choices persist across devices and restarts.
Changing sharing settings cannot retroactively remove information someone has already received, copied or captured. WatchStats refreshes its social displays periodically and stops displaying its social snapshot if refresh fails.
7. Purposes, infrastructure and third parties
WatchStats uses the data described here to provide its disclosed features: tracking and personal analytics, private account backup and restore, multi-device synchronization, authentication, profiles, optional social features, and the security and operation of those services.
Network and hosting infrastructure necessarily processes connection metadata, including IP addresses, to deliver API requests. The service can process technical request information such as response status, timing and error counts for operations and abuse protection. Structured application logging excludes authentication bodies, bearer tokens and viewing payloads. Administrative monitoring uses technical and aggregate metrics.
There is no advertising, sale of user data, advertising profiling or third-party analytics SDK in WatchStats. Infrastructure providers may process information needed to host, secure and transmit the service; this is not a separate use for advertising or data resale. Information may also be disclosed where required by applicable law or necessary to investigate abuse and protect the service.
8. Security and access
Production connections to the WatchStats API use HTTPS. The service restricts private history to its owner's authenticated account and enforces the applicable friendship and sharing checks for social routes. The database and its backups are restricted to the service operator and authorized infrastructure access.
Private backup means access-controlled storage, not end-to-end encryption: the WatchStats service processes the history to provide backup, synchronization and statistics. It is not an encrypted vault whose contents only you can decrypt.
The operator does not use account access to read individual viewing histories for unrelated purposes. Human access is limited to your explicit consent for specific support needs, necessary security investigations or legal obligations; aggregate, anonymized information may be used for internal operations.
9. Retention and backups
| Data | Retention |
|---|---|
| Local viewing history and account caches | Until removed through the relevant local-data controls, extension-data deletion or uninstallation. Signing out alone is not a local-data erasure operation. |
| Active server account, profile, private history and social records | For the account lifetime, unless removed earlier through the available account/device controls. Account deletion removes associated records from the active database. |
| Authentication sessions | Expire after 30 days; sessions can also be revoked earlier. Expired sessions are cleaned up by the service. |
| Live presence | Expires after two minutes without renewal. |
| Automatic database backups | The 14 most recent successful automatic backups are retained. A backup runs approximately every 24 hours; older automatic copies are removed after a successful backup exceeds that count. This is a count-based rotation, not a guaranteed 14-day deletion deadline. |
| Initial database-import archive, if still retained | Excluded from automatic backup rotation and has no automatic deletion deadline. Contact the operator about removal of data from a retained import archive. |
No additional manual or external backup copies are currently maintained by the operator. Database backups can contain account information, viewing history, profile media and authentication hashes present when the backup was made.
Deleting an account or revoking a device removes the corresponding data from the active database; it does not immediately rewrite existing backup archives. Data can remain in automatic backups until rotation removes those copies, or in an initial import archive until it is removed separately. A restoration from an older archive can contain records deleted since that archive was made. Contact the operator for requests concerning retained archives or restored data.
10. Your controls and deletion options
- Tracking: decline the initial disclosure, or pause/resume tracking in Settings. Pausing does not delete earlier history.
- Exports: download the personal history available in your dashboard as JSON or CSV. Exported files are under your control; deleting extension or account data does not delete files you saved elsewhere.
- Local deletion without an account: delete local history in Settings. There is no WatchStats server backup of that local-only history to restore it from.
- Local deletion while signed in: clear the device's offline cache and pending captures. Already synchronized server history is preserved and can return on synchronization; this is not an account-deletion action.
- Sign out: stop private account uploads from that installation. Signing out does not delete your server history or the local account cache. Separate local and account controls are available for deletion.
- Device revocation: remove that device's server contributions and prevent delayed uploads from its revoked device registration. Deletion markers are synchronized to other devices. Revocation does not remotely erase browser storage on the revoked device.
- Account deletion: delete your account and associated server history, profile and social records. This does not remotely erase local caches on other installations or files someone has already exported. Use the local-data controls or remove extension data on those installations as well. Backup exceptions are explained in section 9.
- Social sharing: change Friends visibility, live presence and Community participation independently in Settings.
For questions or requests about access, correction, deletion or backup retention, contact lopimakee@gmail.com. Do not send your PIN, authentication token or recovery codes by email. The operator may need to verify that a request concerns your own account.
11. Chrome Web Store Limited Use
WatchStats uses data only for its prominently disclosed user-facing purpose and the operation and security of those features. Its use and transfer of information adhere to the Chrome Web Store User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. WatchStats does not use or transfer user data for personalized advertising, creditworthiness or lending decisions, data resale or unrelated profiling.
12. Changes to this policy
The date at the top identifies the current version. Material changes to data collection, synchronization or sharing will be explained in the product before the changed practice takes effect, with an additional user choice where required.