Privacy Policy — Smart Video Controls

Smart Video Controls is built privacy-first. This document explains exactly what data the extension reads, what it stores, and where it goes.

TL;DR

• Free version: your playback positions sync through your own Chrome account (Chrome's built-in extension sync) — they never reach our servers. Everything else stays on your device. We collect small, anonymous usage counts (see below) — never URLs, titles, or page content.
• Pro version (cross-device sync): episode URLs and playback positions are sent over HTTPS to our backend so we can sync them to your other devices. That's it.
• Anonymous, opt-out usage counts. No tracking pixels, no Google Analytics, no ads, no third-party scripts.
• We never collect your browsing history, the content of pages you visit, or any personal identifier you didn't give us yourself.

What the extension reads

To do its job — keyboard shortcuts and automatic position resume — the extension reads:

1. <video> elements on the page you're watching. Specifically currentTime, duration, paused, playbackRate, and volume. These are read in-memory only; we do not store the video content.
2. The URL of the page containing the video. Used as the storage key so we can restore the right position when you come back. The URL's fragment (#…) is stripped before storage.
3. Keyboard events on pages with a video. We intercept Space, arrow keys, >, <, and any custom shortcuts you set, only when no input field is focused.

We do not read:

• The text or DOM of pages you visit (beyond detecting <video> and <iframe> elements).
• Form data, passwords, cookies, or local storage of any website.
• Your browsing history, tabs, or bookmarks.

What the extension stores on your device

Your custom shortcuts, your per-site disable list, local usage counters (including the popup's "time saved" figures), your analytics opt-out choice, and an anonymous identifier created on install — tied to no real-world identity unless you redeem a license key. All of that lives in chrome.storage.local, which is extension-scoped and not accessible to any website.

Playback positions (auto-deleted after 15 days of inactivity) are the one exception: they live in chrome.storage.sync, so Chrome mirrors them to your other devices signed in to the same Chrome account. That is how cross-device resume works without a paid plan. They travel via Google under your own account and are never sent to us. If Chrome's sync quota is full, the entry stays on this device instead. Want the full key-by-key breakdown? Email us (contact below) and we'll gladly share it.

What the Pro version sends to our backend

If — and only if — you have purchased Pro and activated a license: the episode URL (fragment stripped), the playback position and duration, your anonymous user ID (to tie your devices together), the license key at activation time, and any feedback text you write yourself. All requests go over HTTPS to https://pnjsyklmibspekxgslos.supabase.co. We use Supabase as a database host; they process the data on our behalf and do not share it.

Free users' positions never reach our servers — that requires Pro. They do travel between your own devices via Chrome's built-in sync (see above), which is Google's infrastructure under your Chrome account, not ours. The extension authenticates anonymously at install time so feedback submission and the daily usage report below work.

Product analytics (anonymous, opt-out)

To understand which features get used and how many people come back, the extension sends a small daily report to our backend over HTTPS. It contains only:

• Counts of shortcuts used, automatic position resumes, and popup opens from the last day.
• Counts of how many videos the extension found, how many times a site handled a keypress instead of us, and how many pages you visited where the extension stays switched off by design (YouTube and similar). These tell us whether the extension is working for you or quietly doing nothing — counts only, never which videos or which sites.
• The estimated seconds the extension saved you that day (the same conservative figure behind the popup's all-time line).
• The extension version.
• Your anonymous user ID — the random UUID created on install, tied to no real-world identity unless you redeem a license key.

It is sent at most once per day, and even when every count is zero (a zero report simply means "still installed and the browser is alive" — that's how we measure retention). No URL, title, hostname, or page content is ever sent or stored — the payload is counts, a version string, and the anonymous ID.

You can turn it off at any time in the popup under Settings → "Share anonymous usage stats". When off, no report is sent. Raw report rows are deleted after 13 months (see Data retention).

Permissions we ask for

• storage — store positions and your shortcut settings locally.
• scripting — query <video> state in cross-origin iframe players (the extension's signature feature).
• alarms — wake the background service worker periodically: every 30 minutes to sync Pro positions across Chrome profiles, and every 4 hours as an opportunity to send the once-daily usage report.
• Host permission <all_urls> — we cannot know in advance which sites you'll watch videos on. We never read page content beyond <video> and <iframe> elements, and the extension can be fully disabled per-site via the popup.

Sites where the extension is disabled by default

YouTube, X (Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, and any host you add to the per-site disable list in the popup. On those domains we do not run the content script at all.

Third parties

• Supabase (database + serverless functions) — all users: it stores the anonymous daily usage report (counts only), and for Pro users it also stores your synced positions. See Supabase's privacy practices.
• Stripe (payment processing) — only at the moment you click "Upgrade". Stripe receives no data from the extension; you're redirected to their hosted checkout page.
• Chrome Web Store — distributes updates. Google's standard analytics apply to the store listing itself; the extension does not call Google services at runtime.

No other third parties. No Google Analytics, no third-party analytics SDKs, no advertising. Usage stats are collected first-party (by us, directly) and contain no URLs, titles, or page content.

Data retention

• Local positions: auto-deleted 15 days after the last update.
• Pro positions (server-side): retained while your Pro license is active. Deleted on request — email the address below.
• Anonymous usage stats: raw per-day report rows are deleted automatically after 13 months (via a scheduled database job). Only aggregated, non-identifying totals — such as the "time saved by all users" figure on the landing page — may be kept longer.
• Anonymous user IDs: retained for the lifetime of your install. Reset by uninstalling and reinstalling.

Your rights

• Delete everything stored locally by uninstalling the extension (Chrome removes its storage automatically).
• Delete Pro server data by emailing the contact below with your license key.
• Disable the extension on specific sites via the popup's "Site Access" panel.

Changes

Material changes to this policy will trigger a popup notification on next launch and a version bump on the listing page.

Contact

Questions, deletion requests, or concerns: divyamrastogi2@gmail.com