Privacy Policy

ViralPanel · last updated 24 September 2026

1. Summary

ViralPanel is a personal, locally-run research tool operated by one individual. It has no users other than its author: there are no accounts for anyone else to sign in to, no visitor tracking, no cookies, no analytics scripts, and no advertising on this website. Because the tool collects no personal information from anyone, there is no personal data to sell, share, or transfer.

2. Data this website collects

None. These pages are static documents. No cookies are set, no analytics or tracking scripts run, and no forms collect information. Standard server request logs may be retained by the hosting provider for security and reliability purposes.

3. YouTube API Services data

ViralPanel uses YouTube API Services in two clearly separated ways.

(a) Research panel — public data, API key only. Public information about a fixed panel of public channels is retrieved from the YouTube Data API v3 using an API key. This path requests no OAuth authorization, signs in as no one, and never touches any private data, private video, private playlist, or channel analytics belonging to anyone else.

(b) The author's own channel — OAuth, added 24 September 2026. The author authorizes the tool against their own YouTube channel using OAuth 2.0, with two scopes:

• yt-analytics.readonly — reads that channel's own analytics (per-video average view percentage, watch time, subscribers gained, country breakdown);
• youtube.force-ssl — writes metadata to that channel's own videos, specifically translated titles and descriptions.

This authorization covers exactly one channel: the author's own. It is never used to read or modify any panel channel, or any channel belonging to anyone else. The OAuth token is stored in a single file on the author's personal computer, readable only by the author's operating-system account (file permissions 600), and is transmitted to no one except Google's own token endpoint. It can be revoked at any time from the Google Account page linked in section 7.

The data retrieved is limited to publicly available information about a fixed research panel of public channels:

• public channel metadata (channel id, title, public description, country, category);
• public video metadata (video id, title, publication date, duration);
• public statistics (view, like, and comment counts);
• public thumbnail images, read for automated visual similarity comparison only.

From this data the tool computes derived metrics — for example per-channel median views and custom baseline-lift ratios based on weighted formulas. These derived values are the author’s own calculations and are not YouTube API data; they are not presented as official YouTube figures and are never used to make financial projections or guarantees.

4. Storage, retention, and deletion

• All data is stored in a local SQLite database file on the author’s personal computer, readable only by the author’s operating-system account (file permissions 600). It is not hosted, published, or exposed on any network.
• The author's own channel analytics and the OAuth token are likewise stored only in local files readable by the author's account alone; the token is deleted by removing that file, which immediately ends the tool's access.
• Raw YouTube API data is automatically deleted after 30 calendar days. This retention limit is enforced in code, runs on every collection cycle, and has been tested.
• Aggregated derived metrics may be retained beyond that period only to the extent permitted by the YouTube API Services Terms of Service and any approval granted by YouTube.
• The author can delete the entire dataset at any time by removing the local database file.

5. Sharing

No YouTube API data — raw or derived — is republished, resold, licensed, syndicated, or shared with any third party. Nothing is transferred to advertising networks or data brokers. The tool makes no outbound requests other than to Google/YouTube endpoints and YouTube’s public thumbnail CDN.

6. Rights of channel owners

The panel contains only public channels, and only publicly visible information about them. If you own a channel and would like it removed from the research panel, email the address below and it will be deleted from the local dataset.

7. Third-party policies

Data accessed through YouTube API Services is also governed by Google’s own policies. Please review the Google Privacy Policy and the YouTube API Services Terms of Service. You can review and control the data Google holds about you, and revoke this and other applications’ access to your Google account, at https://myaccount.google.com/permissions where ViralPanel is listed as “ViralPanel”. Revoking it there immediately stops the tool from reading or writing anything on the author’s channel.

8. Changes and contact

Any change to this policy will be published on this page with an updated date. Questions, removal requests, or privacy concerns: Bekir Göksel — bekirgoxel@gmail.com.