--- title: "Privacy: Your Files Stay on Your Device | metadata.video" description: "How metadata.video handles data: files are read and rewritten in your browser, each optional download is listed, and analytics can be turned off at any time." url: https://metadata.video/privacy --- # Privacy at metadata.video Last updated: 7 November 2026 ## The short version The videos, photos and sound files you open here are read and rewritten by your own browser. They are never uploaded, and nothing read from them (tags, locations, dates, frames, sound, file names) is sent to us or anyone else. What leaves your device is listed below: the pages themselves, tools the inspector downloads when you ask for them, map tiles if you press **Show street map**, anonymous visit statistics you can switch off, and any feedback or crash reports. ## Your files When you open a file, the browser reads it from your disk. Our readers (our own MP4/MOV and photo readers, Mediabunny and MediaInfo) work on it in memory on your device. Editing and cleaning also happen there: the new file is assembled in your browser and saved with your browser’s normal download. The country shown for a location is worked out on your device from map outlines this site serves; no address or geocoding service is asked. On-device analysis (**Find scene changes**, **Measure picture and sound**, **Count faces**, **Transcribe speech**) decodes frames and sound in your browser. The results stay on the page and are never sent anywhere. ## What stays in your browser * **Your projects.** Each file you open is kept as a project so a reload, a closed tab or the **Continue where you left off** list can bring it back. The file itself is stored in the browser’s private file storage (Origin Private File System, or IndexedDB where that isn’t available), and the project list and a small thumbnail in IndexedDB (`vt-projects`), with a flag in local storage (`vt-projects`) so the home page can make room for the list. Older projects are removed automatically (ten at most), and you can delete any of them on the [projects page](https://metadata.video/app). * **Downloaded tools,** such as MediaInfo and the optional speech model, are kept by the browser’s cache so they don’t download again. * **Your theme** (light or dark) in local storage (`vt-theme`). * **Your analytics choice** in local storage (`vt-consent`). * **The feedback card’s memory** (`vt-feedback`), so it doesn’t ask too often. Clearing this site’s data in your browser settings removes all of it. ## Downloads the inspector makes, and when | What | From | When | What the server sees | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | MediaInfo (WebAssembly, about 1 MB compressed) | metadata.video | When you open a file, or hover over the start card | A normal request for a file on this site | | Country outlines for the map (about 130 KB) | metadata.video | When a file has a location, or you pick one | A normal request for a file on this site | | ffmpeg.wasm converter (about 10 MB) | metadata.video | Only when you save an MKV, WebM, AVI or similar file, change chapters or track names, or download subtitles | A normal request for a file on this site | | Face detector (BlazeFace model and MediaPipe runtime, about 3 MB) | metadata.video | Only when you press **Count faces** | A normal request for a file on this site | | Whisper speech model (about 75 MB) | Hugging Face (huggingface.co, which redirects to its CDN at \*.hf.co), in the United States | Only when you press **Transcribe speech**, and only the first time | Your IP address and that the model was requested. Your sound is not sent: transcription runs in your browser | | Street map tiles | OpenStreetMap (tile.openstreetmap.org) | Only after you press **Show street map** | Your IP address and which map area is shown, which is the area of the file’s location | Links such as **Open in OpenStreetMap** or the Content Credentials verifier open another site in a new tab, and that site then sees what the link contains (for the map link, the coordinates). Nothing is sent unless you follow them. Hugging Face’s and OpenStreetMap’s own privacy policies apply to their servers: [Hugging Face privacy policy](https://huggingface.co/privacy), [OpenStreetMap Foundation privacy policy](https://osmfoundation.org/wiki/Privacy%5FPolicy). ## Hosting The site is delivered by Cloudflare, whose servers handle routine connection details (IP address, browser, the address requested) to deliver pages and block attacks. We rely on that to keep the site running and safe, on the basis of legitimate interests (UK GDPR Art. 6(1)(f)). See [Cloudflare’s privacy policy](https://www.cloudflare.com/privacypolicy/). ## Visit statistics [Cloudflare Web Analytics](https://www.cloudflare.com/web-analytics/) and [Ahrefs Web Analytics](https://ahrefs.com/web-analytics) count visits without cookies and give us totals only: pages viewed, referring sites, rough country and device type. **Google Analytics 4** tells us which inspector sections, tools and guides are used, so we can improve them. It records the pages you view and actions such as opening a file, choosing a section, cleaning or editing, and downloading, with simple details like the container type, a rounded file size and length, and whether a location was present (yes or no). It never receives your file, its contents, its tags or coordinates, its name, frames or sound. Events are linked by a random identifier in a first-party cookie. Advertising features and Google signals are off. Google handles this data under [its privacy policy](https://policies.google.com/privacy) and explains [how it uses data from sites that use its services](https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites). Transfers to the United States rely on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and its UK extension. Event data is kept for 14 months. Our legal basis is legitimate interests in understanding and improving metadata.video (UK GDPR Art. 6(1)(f)); the analytics cookie is set under the statistics exception that the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 wrote into the UK’s Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations. If you browse from the EU, the EEA or Switzerland, analytics cookies start switched off. ## Cookies, and how to turn them off There are no adverts here. The only cookies are Google Analytics’ `_ga` and `_ga_*`, which last up to two years. A short notice explains them on your first visit. To object, choose **Cookie settings** in the footer, then **Turn off analytics**; this browser remembers it. A [Global Privacy Control](https://globalprivacycontrol.org/) signal has the same effect and the cookies are never set. We don’t sell personal data. ## Feedback and crash reports After you download a new file, a small card may ask how metadata.video did, with one to five stars. It’s optional. After four or five stars it offers a link to leave a public review on Trustpilot (an independent company; the link just opens its site and we send it nothing). After one to three stars you can pick a reason and add a note; please keep personal details out of it. We store the stars, reason and note with what prompted the card, the page path, the site version, a two-letter country code, browser and system family and device type. No IP address is stored (it’s used briefly to limit abuse), no cookie is set and no identifier is attached. Answers are deleted after 24 months. If the site’s code fails unexpectedly, your browser sends a technical error report: the message and where it happened in our code, the page path, the site version, a random id for that page view, browser, system, device type and country. Addresses are shortened and anything resembling an email address or a file name is removed first; reports never contain your file or anything read from it. Single reports are deleted after 30 days, and summaries of a problem 180 days after it last happened. Feedback and error reports are stored on Cloudflare, acting for us, on the basis of legitimate interests in keeping the site working. Google Analytics receives only the star number, a chosen reason, and the type of an error, never a note. ## Who runs metadata.video An independent, self-funded project with no accounts. We never receive your files and keep no profile of you; the only things we hold are the optional feedback answers and error reports described above. ## Your rights Depending on where you live, you can ask to access, correct or delete personal data, restrict or object to its use, receive it in a portable form, and complain to a supervisory authority (in the UK, the [Information Commissioner’s Office](https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/)). Your files and projects never leave your device, so deleting them in your browser (or on the [projects page](https://metadata.video/app)) is how those rights apply to them. Analytics can be switched off at any time in Cookie settings, and Google offers more controls in [your Google Account](https://myaccount.google.com/data-and-privacy). Feedback and error reports carry no identifier, so to have one removed tell us roughly when you sent it and what it said. Write to [hello@metadata.video](mailto:hello@metadata.video); the [contact page](https://metadata.video/contact) has more. ## Changes If metadata.video starts handling data in a new way, this page will say so and the date at the top will change.