YDL

Legal

Privacy policy

YDL needs as little of your data as possible. There are no accounts, no analytics and no advertising; the download itself never leaves your device.

Last updated 1 November 2026

Summary

  • Downloading happens in your browser. Your files are never uploaded to us.
  • No accounts, no database of users, no analytics, no ads.
  • Your queue, settings and any optional YouTube cookies stay on your device.
  • You can erase all of it at any time by clearing site data.

Who runs YDL

YDL is an independent, non-commercial project run by an individual developer. It is not affiliated with YouTube, Google or any of the providers listed below. For any privacy question, write to ydl@rjoshi.net.

What happens on your device

When you paste a link, your browser asks YouTube for the video and saves the media to your device. If the quality you picked arrives as separate video and audio, they are combined locally before the file is handed to your normal downloads folder.

At no point is the video or audio sent to a server run by YDL. We could not store it if we wanted to: it never leaves your machine.

What is stored in your browser

YDL keeps the following on your device so the app works sensibly between visits. None of it is sent to us, and all of it disappears when you clear site data for ydl.rjoshi.net.

  • Your download library and progress - so an interrupted download can resume and the list survives a reload.
  • Temporary copies of media in progress - deleted when a download finishes, fails or is removed.
  • Your settings - quality preferences and whether finished files save automatically.
  • A note of recent throttling - so the app backs off instead of hammering YouTube.
  • YouTube cookies - only if you paste them in Settings.

Those cookies are credentials for your Google account. YDL keeps them in your browser, exactly as you pasted them, and sends them only to YouTube. Anyone using this browser profile could read them, so avoid the option on a shared computer and clear them when you are done.

Cookies and analytics

YDL sets no cookies of its own and runs no analytics, advertising, session recording or fingerprinting. The only cookie-like data involved is the optional YouTube cookie string described above, which stays in your browser and is never set as a cookie for this site.

Third-party services

  • YouTube / Google - receives the requests needed to find and fetch the video, and therefore sees your IP address and, if you enabled them, your cookies.
  • Cloudflare - runs the small forwarding service that lets your browser read YouTube's responses, and handles DNS for the domain.
  • Vercel - serves the pages of this site and keeps standard web-server logs.
  • GitHub - hosts the source code and the issue tracker. Anything you post there is public.

There are no other processors: no third-party scripts, no web fonts served by a font network, and no error-reporting service.

Email you send us

If you write to ydl@rjoshi.net, we receive your address, your message and any attachment. It is kept only as long as needed to answer you, and never added to a mailing list.

Your controls

Because the data lives in your browser rather than in a database we control, you exercise most rights directly:

  • Access - your library and settings are visible in the app.
  • Erasure - clearing site data for ydl.rjoshi.net removes the library, temporary files, settings and any stored cookies.
  • Marketing - nothing is collected for profiling or marketing, so there is nothing to opt out of.

If you have written to us and want that correspondence deleted, ask and it will be removed unless we are required to keep it for a legal claim.

Retention

  • On your device - until you delete the download, clear site data, or the browser frees space on its own.
  • At the forwarding service - requests are passed through and forgotten; Cloudflare keeps standard network metadata under its own schedule.
  • In email - as long as the conversation needs, then deleted.

Children

YDL is not directed at children. There is no account and no profile to fill in, but downloading copyrighted material may need an adult's permission where you live.

Security

The site is served over HTTPS and the forwarding service only accepts requests from this site. A failed download never corrupts a finished file. If you find a vulnerability, report it privately to ydl@rjoshi.net rather than in a public issue.

Changes

If the service changes in a way that affects this policy, this page is updated and so is the date at the top. Continuing to use the site after an update means you accept the revised policy.

Contact

Questions or requests: ydl@rjoshi.net. You can also open an issue on GitHub for anything that is not sensitive.