Privacy Policy
Playist · Last updated: September 30, 2026
Playist helps you follow YouTube creators, save videos to watch later, and watch them on your terms across iPhone, Apple TV, and the Playist browser extension. This policy explains what information Playist collects, why, and what control you have over it. It covers the iPhone app, the Apple TV app, the Share extension, and the browser extension.
Playist is made by Irfan Bhanji, an independent developer ("we", "us"). For data protection law, we are the controller of your personal data.
The short version
- We collect only what we need to run Playist and sync it across your devices.
- We do not show ads, sell your data, or track you across other apps and websites.
- We do not use analytics or advertising tools.
- We never ask for or access your YouTube or Google account.
- You can delete your account and all synced data at any time from Profile → Delete Account.
What we collect
Account information
You create your account and sign in on iPhone with Sign in with Apple. Apple shares with us:
- An account identifier that Apple creates for Playist.
- Your email address. If you choose Hide My Email, we only receive an Apple relay address, never your real one.
- Your name, only if you choose to share it the first time you sign in.
We never see or store your Apple ID password.
Signing in on Apple TV
The Apple TV app has no sign-in of its own. It shows a QR code, you scan it with your iPhone, and you approve the sign-in in the Playist iPhone app. To make this work, we briefly store:
- a random one-time code, which is what the QR code contains;
- a scrambled copy of a secret that only the requesting Apple TV knows, so no other device can collect the sign-in; and
- which account approved the code, and when.
Each code works once and expires after 10 minutes. We delete old sign-in requests routinely and never use them for anything else. To finish signing in, our server uses your account's email address to create a one-time sign-in key for your Apple TV. No email is sent to you. Your Apple TV then gets its own sign-in, separate from your iPhone's.
Your library
To sync Playist across your devices, we store:
- The creators you follow and the topics you sort them into.
- The videos you save to Up Next, including ones saved from the Share extension or browser extension.
- Your app preferences.
Your viewing activity
To keep your place and show your history on every device, we store which videos you have started, finished, or hidden, when you did so, and an estimate of time watched. We also store basic public details about each of those videos (title, creator name, thumbnail link, length, and publish date).
Technical information
When the apps contact our servers, those servers see your device's IP address, as with any internet request. We use it only to keep the service secure and to limit abuse. We do not use it to identify or profile you.
Links you save
Newsletters and other sites often wrap a YouTube link in a tracking or shortened link. To find the video, the Share extension follows that link from your iPhone, so the link's own website sees the request. The browser extension sends the link to our server, which follows it and returns only the YouTube address it leads to. We do not store these links.
What stays on your device
Some things are kept only on your device and are never stored with your account: creator profile pictures, video descriptions, and cached feeds. Our server may look some of them up from YouTube for you (see YouTube below). The browser extension keeps your sign-in session in your browser's local storage.
How we use your information
We use your information only to:
- create and secure your account;
- sign your Apple TV in to your account when you approve it on your iPhone;
- sync your library and viewing activity between your devices;
- show your feed, history, and totals such as videos watched;
- respond when you contact us; and
- protect the service against abuse and meet legal obligations.
We do not use your information for advertising, profiling, or automated decisions about you, and we do not sell or share it for those purposes.
YouTube
Playist uses YouTube API Services to look up public information about creators and videos, such as names, profile pictures, video lengths, and descriptions. Videos play in YouTube's official embedded player, or in the YouTube app if you choose that option.
- By using Playist you are also agreeing to the YouTube Terms of Service.
- YouTube's handling of data is covered by the Google Privacy Policy.
- When you play a video, YouTube (Google) may collect information directly, including through cookies or similar technologies in its player, under its own policies. We do not control that collection.
- Playist does not ask for access to your YouTube or Google account and cannot see your YouTube subscriptions, history, or recommendations.
- We keep a shared cache of public creator information (names, profile picture links, and descriptions) to reduce requests to YouTube. It is not linked to any Playist user.
Services we rely on
We use a small number of providers to run Playist. They process data only on our behalf and under their own security and privacy commitments:
| Provider | What it does | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Supabase | Account sign-in and the database that stores your library and viewing activity | United States |
| Netlify | Hosts the service that looks up creator and video information from YouTube, and handles Apple TV sign-in | United States |
| Apple | Sign in with Apple, and the App Store | Worldwide |
| YouTube (Google) | Public video and creator information, and video playback | Worldwide |
How long we keep it
We keep your account data for as long as you have an account. Public details we get from YouTube, such as video titles, lengths and thumbnail links, are refreshed or deleted within 30 days, as YouTube's rules require. When you delete your account, everything linked to it is removed from our database immediately: your account, library, viewing activity, and any Apple TV sign-in requests. Copies may remain in our database provider's encrypted backups for a short time until those backups expire.
Your choices and rights
- Delete your account: In the iPhone app, go to Profile → Delete Account. This permanently deletes your account and all synced data.
- Stop using Sign in with Apple: You can also stop sharing your Apple ID with Playist in your Apple ID settings, under Sign in with Apple.
- Ask us: Email irfanbhanji1@gmail.com to ask for a copy of your data, to correct it, or to have it deleted. We will respond within 30 days.
If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland
We process your data on these legal bases:
- To provide the service you asked for (performance of a contract): your account, library, sync, and viewing activity.
- Our legitimate interests: keeping the service secure and preventing abuse, for example using IP addresses to limit abusive requests.
You have the right to access, correct, delete, restrict, or object to our processing of your data, and to receive it in a portable format. You also have the right to complain to your local data protection authority.
Your data is stored in the United States. Where the law requires it, we rely on our providers' approved safeguards for international transfers, such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses.
If you are in California or another US state with a privacy law
We do not sell your personal information or share it for cross-context behavioral advertising. You can ask to know, correct, or delete the personal information we hold about you by emailing irfanbhanji1@gmail.com. We will not treat you differently for making a request.
Children
Playist is not intended for children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect information from them. If your country requires parental consent at an older age for this kind of service, you need that consent to use Playist. If you believe a child has given us information, contact us and we will delete it.
Security
Your data travels over encrypted connections. Our database is set up so that each account can only read and change its own data. Sign-in credentials on your devices are kept in Apple's secure Keychain. No system is perfectly secure, but we work to protect your information and keep what we collect to a minimum.
Changes to this policy
If we change this policy, we will update the date at the top. If a change is significant, we will also tell you in the app before it takes effect.
Contact
Questions or requests: irfanbhanji1@gmail.com