Privacy Policy

Effective September 29, 2026

In short: MiniTube does not collect, store, sell, or share your personal information. It has no accounts, analytics, advertising, or tracking. Everything the app needs stays on your Mac. Videos are played by YouTube, so YouTube and Google handle the data involved in playing them.

This policy explains how the MiniTube app for macOS (“MiniTube” or “the app”) and the website minitube.us handle information. MiniTube is developed by Andrei Evdokimov (“we”, “us”).

Information we collect

None. MiniTube does not send any information about you or how you use the app to us or to any server we operate. We do not use analytics, crash reporting, or advertising SDKs, and we do not track you across apps or websites.

Information the app uses on your Mac

To work, MiniTube uses some information locally. This information stays on your Mac and is never sent to us.

Settings

The app saves your preferences, such as the overlay’s corner, position, size, and style, and the options you turn on or off in the menu. They are stored in the app’s standard macOS preferences and are removed when you delete the app.

Browser tab (Play YouTube from Browser)

With your permission (macOS Automation), when you choose Play YouTube from Browser the app reads the address of the active tab in Safari, Chrome, Arc, or Edge. If you have allowed JavaScript from Apple Events in that browser, it also reads the video’s current playback position and pauses it. Send Back to Browser returns the position to that tab. This happens only when you choose these commands. MiniTube does not read your browsing history or other tabs.

Clipboard (Watch Clipboard for YouTube Links)

This option is off by default. When you turn it on, the app checks copied text for a YouTube link so it can play it. Any other clipboard content is ignored, and nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

Calls, screen lock, and screen recording (Pause for Calls and Screen Lock)

MiniTube never records audio or your screen, and it does not ask for microphone or screen recording permission. To pause during calls, it checks only whether the Mac’s microphone is currently in use by another app. It also checks whether the screen is locked, and whether macOS is showing a screen recording or screen sharing indicator, so it can pause or hide the overlay. You can turn this off in the menu.

Channels

The last few videos you played are kept in memory so you can switch between them. They are cleared when you quit the app.

YouTube and Google

MiniTube plays videos using YouTube’s embedded player, which loads directly from YouTube. When you are not signed in, the app uses YouTube’s privacy-enhanced mode (youtube-nocookie.com). When you are signed in, videos load from youtube.com so your account applies.

When a video plays, YouTube and Google receive information that any YouTube player receives, such as your IP address, device and browser details, and the video you watch, and they may set cookies. This is handled by Google under the Google Privacy Policy and the YouTube Terms of Service, not by us.

Sign In to YouTube opens Google’s own sign-in page inside the app. We never see your password. The resulting sign-in session is stored in the app’s web data on your Mac, so the player can use it. Sign Out of YouTube removes the YouTube and Google data stored by the app.

Apple

MiniTube is distributed through the Mac App Store. Apple handles purchases and downloads under the Apple Privacy Policy. If you have chosen to share analytics with app developers in macOS settings, Apple may give us anonymous crash reports and aggregated usage statistics. These do not identify you.

Website

minitube.us does not use cookies, analytics, or third-party scripts. It remembers the language you pick in your browser’s local storage, which never leaves your device. Like most web servers, ours keeps standard access logs (IP address, date and time, page requested, and browser type) for security and troubleshooting. These logs are deleted after about 14 days. The domain uses Cloudflare for DNS and may use it to deliver the site, under the Cloudflare Privacy Policy.

Children

MiniTube is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect information from anyone, including children.

Your choices and rights

Because we do not collect or hold personal information, there is nothing for us to access, correct, export, or delete, and we do not sell or share personal information. You stay in control of the information on your Mac:

To manage your YouTube and Google data, see your Google Account.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, we will post the new version on this page and update the effective date above.

Contact

Questions about this policy? Contact the developer, Andrei Evdokimov, through the MiniTube page on the Mac App Store.