Privacy Policy

Last updated: 2026-08-13

What the extension sends, what this website stores, and what neither of them ever collects.

1. The browser extension

The extension runs only on youtube.com. It has no content script on any other site, so it cannot see the other pages you open, your bookmarks, your downloads or your browsing history.

Stored on your device

Three small values are kept in your browser's extension storage. They never leave your device except through your browser's own sync, if you have it enabled:

• Your display preference — the count inside YouTube's button, or the floating box.
• A random identifier generated in your browser. It is not linked to any account and is used to count distinct installations in error reports, so one person hitting a bug fifty times does not look like fifty broken installations.
• Two flags recording whether the one-time review prompt has already been shown or dismissed, so it is never shown twice.

Sent to our server

The extension talks to one server, at howfixes.com, in exactly these situations:

• Showing a count — the video ID of the video you are watching is sent so the server can return that video's dislike number. A video ID identifies a public YouTube video; it says nothing about you.
• Voting — if you press the dislike button on a video, the extension registers that vote so the estimate stays current. It sends the video ID and whether the vote was added or removed.
• Automatic error reports — when the count cannot be placed on the page, the extension sends a technical report: the video ID, the page path, your browser name and version, the extension version, the first eight characters of the random identifier, and a text-free description of the button markup that failed.
• The Cannot See Dislike Count button — if you press it in the popup, the report additionally includes the full link to that video and your browser's language setting, because those two details are what make an unreproducible bug reproducible.

Every request necessarily carries your IP address, as any request on the internet does. IP addresses appear in ordinary server logs, are used only for security and abuse prevention, and are not used to build a profile or matched to individual people.

Never collected

• Your browsing history, or any page outside youtube.com.
• Your name, email address, phone number or payment details — the extension has no accounts and no sign-in.
• Your YouTube or Google account, your subscriptions, your comments or your watch history.
• Keystrokes, clipboard content, form data or page text. Nothing is sold, rented or shared for marketing.

Why each permission is requested

How long data is kept

Count and vote records are stored for as long as the service runs, because they are what the estimates are made of. Error reports are kept while the bug they describe is being investigated and are cleared out periodically. Server logs are rotated within a few weeks.

Deleting your data

Removing the extension deletes everything it stored on your device, including the random identifier — a fresh one is generated if you reinstall. Because that identifier is not linked to your name, email or account, we cannot search past error reports for one specific person. If you want the reports associated with your identifier removed, send it to us from the address below and we will delete them.

2. This website

Server logs

Like every web server, ours records the requests it serves: IP address, date and time, the page requested, the referring page and the browser user agent. These logs exist for security and troubleshooting, are not used for advertising, and are deleted on a rolling basis.

Cookies we set ourselves

One preference cookie, ytd_lang, remembers the language you picked so you are not sent back to English on your next visit. Your answer to the cookie banner is stored in your browser's local storage under ytd_ads_consent. Neither is used for tracking, and the site works without both.

Analytics

This site runs no analytics suite: no Google Analytics, no heatmaps, no session recording, no third-party tracking pixels beyond the advertising described in the next section.

3. Advertising and cookies

This website is funded by advertising served through Google AdSense. Google and its partner networks use cookies and similar technologies to select and measure ads, including the DoubleClick cookie, and may use the pages you have visited to make advertising more relevant. Ad code is loaded only after you accept the cookie banner; if you decline, no advertising cookie is set.

You can control advertising cookies at any time:

• Google Ad Settings — turn personalised advertising on or off across Google services.
• aboutads.info — opt out of participating networks (United States and Canada).
• youronlinechoices.eu — opt out of participating networks in Europe.

The full list of the cookies used on this site is on the Cookies

4. Your rights

If you are in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, the GDPR gives you the right to access the personal data held about you, to correct or erase it, to restrict or object to its processing, and to receive it in a portable form. Our legal basis is legitimate interest: running the service, keeping it working and preventing abuse — plus your consent, where advertising cookies are concerned.

If you are a California resident, the CCPA gives you the right to know what personal information is collected and to ask for it to be deleted. We do not sell personal information, and never have.

Children

This service is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect information from them. If you believe a child has sent us personal information, write to us and it will be deleted.

Changes to this policy

When the extension or the site changes in a way that affects this policy, the text is updated and the date at the top changes with it. Material changes will be summarised on this page rather than slipped in quietly.

5. Contact

Questions about privacy, or a request concerning your data, go to [email protected]