PRIVACY POLICY
Last updated October 9, 2026. Applies to the Houndeye browser extension and to houndeye.app.

Houndeye is made by Mako Logics LLC (“we”). It is built to need as little about you as possible. The extension works without any account, and we never learn your name, your email address or your Google account from it. A Houndeye account is only needed for the optional Family plan. This page lists everything the extension and this website collect. If something isn't on this page, we don't collect it.

THE SHORT VERSION
- We receive your votes, and the video and channel they are about.
- We receive the videos where you came across YouTube's own “Made with AI” label. This is on for installs from version 1.2; an earlier install keeps the choice it had. Details below.
- Both come with an anonymous random number, so one person gets one vote. We store only a scrambled version of it.
- We never receive your watch history, your searches, or any video, audio or screenshot.
- We don't sell or share personal information, and there are no ads or trackers in the extension.
- Only if a parent links a browser to their Family plan does that browser send the parent a record of the AI videos Houndeye flagged on it. Details below.

WHAT STAYS ON YOUR COMPUTER
The extension keeps these in your browser's own storage. They are not sent to us.

What | Why | How long
Your settings and trusted channels | To remember your choices. If your browser syncs settings, your browser's maker syncs these between your own devices; we never see them. | Until you change or clear them
Your anonymous Houndeye number | A random 64-character number created when you install. It identifies your votes without identifying you. | Until you uninstall or press “Forget everything”
Results of label checks | For each video Houndeye checked: the video ID, whether YouTube labels it as AI, and its channel. Saves checking twice. | 14 days, at most 20,000 videos
Channel ages | A channel's join date and video count, read from its YouTube page, for the “new channel, many uploads” clue. | 14 days
Your own votes | So the vote buttons show what you picked. | Your latest 5,000 votes
The shared flag list | A list of videos and channels the Houndeye community has flagged, downloaded every few hours, so thumbnails can be checked on your computer instead of by asking us about each one. | Replaced at each download
Deep check's files (only if you turn Deep check on) | Houndeye's own AI-detection model, about 520 MB, downloaded once. It is software, not information about you. | Until you press “Delete Deep check's download” or uninstall
Deep check results | For each video Deep check looked at: the video ID, its score and whether the picture looked AI-made. Saves checking twice. | Your latest 1,000 videos, or until “Forget everything” or a new version of Deep check
A count of today's label checks | So the extension stays under its daily limit of checks it asks YouTube for. | Reset each day
Only on a browser linked to a Family plan: the link, and records waiting to be sent | The link (a random secret key, the family's name and who this browser belongs to) and, while offline, the records the parent asked for until they can be sent. | Until the browser is unlinked; waiting records until sent (at most 1,000)

WHAT THE EXTENSION ASKS YOUTUBE
To find YouTube's “Made with AI” label before you click, Houndeye asks YouTube for the details of videos on your screen, and for a channel's “About” page on the video you're watching. It does this from the YouTube page, the same way YouTube's own page does. These requests go between your browser and YouTube, under YouTube's own privacy policy. Houndeye's servers are not involved and don't see them. You can limit or turn this off in the extension's settings. The extension caps it at 40 videos per page and 800 a day.

WHAT THE EXTENSION SENDS TO HOUNDEYE
All of it goes to api.houndeye.app, over an encrypted connection.

When | What is sent | Why
Every few hours | A request to download the shared flag list. Nothing about you. | To badge flagged videos.
Only if you turn on Deep check | A one-time download of Deep check's files. Then, once a day, a check for a newer version: small updates download on their own, bigger ones wait until you start them in Settings. Nothing about you or the videos you watch is sent. | So Deep check can run on your computer and stay current.
On a video page | The first 4 characters of a scrambled (SHA-256) version of the video's ID. Thousands of videos share any 4 characters, so this doesn't tell us which video you're on. We send back every match and your browser picks out the right one. | To show the current vote count.
When you vote | The video's ID, its channel, your vote (Real, AI or Not sure) and your anonymous number. | To count your vote.
When Houndeye finds YouTube's “Made with AI” label | That video's ID, its channel and your anonymous number. Videos without the label are never reported. Never sent from a browser linked to a Family plan, or from an install that hasn't agreed (see Your choices). | So other people see the badge sooner, and to improve Houndeye's own AI-video detection.
Only on a browser linked to a Family plan | A check-in every few minutes, and the AI videos Houndeye flagged on that browser: video ID, title, channel, why it was flagged, what Houndeye did (badged, blurred, hidden, shown anyway or watched) and when. Ordinary videos are never sent. | So the parent sees the family's rules applied and the records they asked for.

When you vote or share a label, we store a scrambled (SHA-256) version of your anonymous number, never the number itself. To stop vote-stuffing, we also store a keyed, one-way scrambled form of your network (the first part of your IP address), never the IP address itself. We use it to limit how many votes and new installs come from one network. It is kept with a vote for 90 days, with an appeal for 30 days, and with your anonymous number (once, from its first visit) for as long as that number is used. Once YouTube's label on a video is confirmed, we keep only how many people saw it, not who; unconfirmed reports are deleted after 30 days. When enough people report a label, our server looks at the video's public YouTube page to confirm it.

Those same requests show, as any request to any website does, which browser you use and which store your copy of Houndeye came from (Chrome Web Store, Edge Add-ons or Firefox Add-ons). We keep just those two names with the scrambled number, for example “Edge Add-ons, Edge”, so we can count installs per store. Nothing else about your browser or device is kept.

Like any website, our hosting provider, Cloudflare, sees your IP address when your browser connects, in order to deliver the request. Our request logs, which can include it, are kept for up to 7 days to fix problems and are not used for anything else.

DEEP CHECK
Deep check is off unless you turn it on. When it is on, Houndeye takes 8 still frames from the video you are watching, while you watch it, and runs its AI detector on them on your own computer, using your graphics chip when it can. The frames are checked and thrown away inside your browser. They are never saved and never sent to us or anyone else. Only the result is kept on your computer (see the table above). Ads are never scanned.

WHAT WE NEVER COLLECT
- Your watch history, search history, or the list of videos you browse. (The one exception is the AI-labelled videos described above.)
- Any video, audio, image or screenshot.
- Your name or email address (unless you create a Houndeye account yourself), and never your Google or YouTube account or contacts.
- Anything about videos that were not flagged as AI, even on a family-linked browser.
- Anything from websites other than YouTube. The extension only runs on youtube.com.

HOW VOTES ARE USED
Votes are combined into a public tally per video and per channel, which every Houndeye user can see. We never store your name, email or IP address with a vote, so the tally doesn't say who voted. Votes and confirmed labels are kept for as long as Houndeye runs, because they are the community's shared record. They may also be used, without your anonymous number, to improve Houndeye's own AI-video detection.

YOUR CHOICES
- Sharing labels is on for new installs from version 1.2. If you installed an earlier version, it stays off unless you turned it on then. Browsers linked to a Family plan never share labels.
- Checking labels before you click can be limited to videos you point at, or turned off.
- “Forget everything” in Settings deletes everything stored on your computer and gives you a new anonymous number, except a Family plan link (it belongs to the parent) and Deep check's download (software, not data about you). Votes already sent stay counted but can no longer be linked to you.
- To delete votes and shared labels you already sent, open Settings, copy the code shown under “Your data”, and email it to support@houndeye.app. That code is the scrambled number we store, so it lets us find them without knowing who you are.
- Uninstalling removes everything the extension stored on your computer.

HOUNDEYE ACCOUNTS AND THE FAMILY PLAN
The Family plan lets a parent or guardian set Houndeye's rules for their children and see what it caught. It is optional, and none of this happens on a browser that hasn't been linked to a family by a parent.

What | Why | How long
The account holder's email address, and a family name if they add one | To sign in (we email a one-time link; there is no password) and to send account messages. | Until the account is deleted
Sign-in links: the email address it was sent to, a scrambled form of the link, and a scrambled form of the requesting network | To sign you in, and to stop anyone flooding an inbox with sign-in emails. | Each link works once, for 20 minutes, and is deleted a day after it expires
Family members' first names or nicknames, and optionally their age | To show whose records are whose and to suggest rules by age. We never ask for a child's full name, email, photo or contact details. | Until the parent removes them. Children's details are deleted 30 days after a paid plan ends.
Linked browsers: a label such as “Windows computer”, the browser name, and when it last checked in | So the parent can see each device is protected, and be warned if one goes quiet. | Until the browser is unlinked (then deleted), or 30 days after a paid plan ends
Records of flagged AI videos (listed in the table above) | The record the parent asked for. | The parent chooses 30, 90 (the default), 180 or 365 days. Deleted 30 days after a paid plan ends. The parent can delete them at any time.
A family PIN, stored only in scrambled (bcrypt) form | So children can't change locked settings. | Until changed
Kids mode rules: the channels and single videos the parent approved, blocked words and blocked websites | So the child's browser can apply the parent's choices. | Until the parent changes them, or 30 days after a paid plan ends
Kids mode requests: when a child asks to watch a blocked video, its ID, title and channel, when they asked, and the parent's answer | So the parent can say yes or no. The parent gets an email about it (at most one every 10 minutes per child). | Answered requests 30 days, unanswered ones 14 days
Which Kids mode protections a linked browser can apply (for example, whether safe search can be switched on there) | To warn the parent when a protection isn't working on a device. | Until the browser is unlinked
Billing details | Payments are handled by Stripe. We never see or store card numbers; we keep only Stripe's customer reference and which plan is active. | As long as the law requires for billing records

Kids mode on a child's browser. Houndeye applies the parent's rules there: YouTube's own Restricted Mode, safe search on Google and Bing, and blocking the websites the parent chose. For the rules that reach beyond YouTube, the browser asks once for permission to act on other websites. Houndeye uses that only to switch on safe search and to block the parent's list. It doesn't read those pages, and nothing about the sites visited is sent to us.

A linked browser holds a random secret key. Our database keeps only a scrambled (SHA-256) form of it, so a copy of the database couldn't be used to pretend to be that browser. Signing in sets one essential cookie that keeps you signed in for up to 30 days. It isn't used for tracking.

Who can see family records. Only the account holder. Houndeye staff can open a family's records only to answer a support request. Every time they do, it is logged with the staff member's name and the reason, and the parent can ask us for that log.

Children's privacy (COPPA). Records about a child are collected only after a parent or guardian, signed in to their own account, creates a pairing code and enters it on the child's browser. Family features are part of a paid plan, and the parent's payment is how we confirm consent (for a free staff account, we record how consent was confirmed). A linked child's browser never sends its anonymous Houndeye number to the family. The parent can review everything collected about their child on the dashboard, delete it at any time, stop collection by turning records off or unlinking the browser, and ask us to delete the whole account at support@houndeye.app. We collect only what is listed here, and never use a child's information for advertising. The operator responsible for this is Mako Logics LLC, 550 Club Dr #264, Montgomery, TX 77316, USA. Parents can reach us about their child's information by phone at (832) 206-6234 or by email at support@houndeye.app.

THIS WEBSITE
houndeye.app uses Vercel Web Analytics and Speed Insights to count page views and measure page speed. They don't use cookies and don't build a profile of you. If you send an appeal, we receive what you type (your email address, the video or channel, and your message), and Cloudflare Turnstile checks that you're a person. We use appeals only to review the badge and reply to you, keep them for up to two years, and delete them sooner on request.

If a school sends the form on our schools page, we receive what you type: the school's name, your name, your work email, and, if you give them, your role, the rough number of devices, the kind of computers and your message. Cloudflare Turnstile checks that you're a person, and a keyed one-way fingerprint of your network limits how many enquiries can be sent; it is deleted after 30 days. We use enquiries only to reply and to decide what to build for schools, keep them for up to two years, and delete them sooner on request. The schools form is for adults; we don't ask for any student's information.

WHO PROCESSES DATA FOR US
- Cloudflare: runs api.houndeye.app, Turnstile, our email forwarding, and sends sign-in emails.
- Microsoft 365: our support mailbox, where emails to support@houndeye.app, appeal notices and school enquiries arrive.
- Supabase: hosts the database of votes, labels and Family plan accounts, in the United States.
- Vercel: hosts this website and its analytics.
- Stripe: takes payments for paid plans.

We don't sell personal information, share it for advertising, or use it for anything except running Houndeye.

CHILDREN
The free extension doesn't collect personal information from anyone, children included. Information about a child is collected only through the Family plan, with a parent's consent, as described above. Children can't create Houndeye accounts.

CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS
Under the CCPA and CPRA you can ask what we hold about you, ask us to correct it, and ask us to delete it, and we will not treat you differently for asking. We do not sell or share personal information. Email support@houndeye.app with the code from Settings (or from your account's email address, for Family plan data) to make a request; that code or that address is how we verify the request is yours. Someone you authorise may ask for you, with your written permission. We answer within 45 days.

CHANGES
If we change what Houndeye collects, we'll update this page and its date before the change ships, and say so in the extension. A choice you have already made is never switched for you.

CONTACT
Mako Logics LLC, 550 Club Dr #264, Montgomery, TX 77316, USA · (832) 206-6234 · support@houndeye.app · Terms of use