Privacy policy

youtube-backup · last updated 15 October 2026

youtube-backup is a personal command-line tool with a single user: the person who installed it and authorised it against their own Google account. It is not a hosted service and has no other users.

What it accesses

With the account holder's explicit consent, it requests the read-only scope https://www.googleapis.com/auth/youtube.readonly and uses it to read:

• the account's own list of channel subscriptions;
• the account's own playlists, and the videos within them.

It requests no other scope. The access granted is read-only, so the tool cannot create, modify, upload, delete or publish anything on the account.

What it stores, and where

All data is written to the local filesystem of the computer the tool runs on:

• CSV exports of subscriptions and playlists, under ~/.local/share/youtube-backup/;
• OAuth credentials and the refresh token, under ~/.config/youtube-backup/, restricted to the owning user account;
• a plain-text run log, under ~/.local/state/.

What it transmits

Nothing, beyond the API requests to Google that are necessary to read the data described above. The tool has no backend, sends no data to the author or to any third party, and includes no analytics, telemetry, tracking or advertising. Nothing is shared or sold, because nothing ever leaves the user's own machine.

Retention and deletion

Exported files remain on the user's disk until the user deletes them. Deleting the directories listed above removes everything the tool has stored.

Withdrawing access

Access can be revoked at any time from myaccount.google.com/permissions. Revoking it immediately and permanently ends the tool's ability to read anything. Deleting ~/.config/youtube-backup/ removes the stored credentials locally.

Google API Services User Data Policy

Use of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

Children

The tool is not directed at children and collects no data from anyone other than the single account holder who installed it.

Changes

Any change to this policy will be published on this page with a revised date above.

Contact

Questions can be raised as an issue on the project repository.