Privacy Policy

Who operates this site

Fire Emoji Counter is operated by The Outsiders Group LLC.

What we collect

When you score a YouTube video, we store the video ID you submitted, the resulting score, aggregate comment statistics (such as counts of comments sampled and how many carried hype signals), and a short link so the score can be shared. We do not require an account to use the core scoring features.

If you sign in via Clerk, we rely on Clerk to handle authentication. We do not store passwords. Basic profile information from your Clerk account may be used to provide signed-in features such as score history.

YouTube Data API & Google user data

Scoring a YouTube video by URL uses the YouTube Data API to read public comments and public video metadata (title, thumbnail, view and comment counts). This does not require signing in and we do not access your YouTube account for this feature.

Specifically, here is what we access, what we store, and what we never keep:

• Accessed but not stored: the text of public comments (used transiently to compute a score and, if you view it, an AI-written summary; the text itself is not saved), current view and comment counts (read live each time a score page is viewed), and your OAuth access token (retrieved fresh from Clerk for each operation and never written to our database).
• Accessed and stored: video ID, video title, channel title, thumbnail URL, aggregate counts from the comment sample (comments sampled, comments carrying hype signal), the resulting score, your channel title, channel ID, and channel thumbnail (if you connect a channel), and badge settings for videos you choose to badge (badge location, optional custom message, hourly refresh on/off).
• Never accessed: private videos, video files, captions, playlists other than your uploads list, subscriptions, likes, watch history, and analytics not listed above.

If you choose to connect your YouTube channel as a creator on a paid plan, we request the https://www.googleapis.com/auth/youtube.force-ssl scope. This is the minimum scope that allows both reading your upload list and adding a Fire Emoji Score badge to your video descriptions or comments. We use it only for these specific purposes:

• Read your channel title, channel ID, and uploads playlist ID.
• Display a list of your public uploads so you can choose a video.
• Add or update a single Fire Emoji Score badge line in a video description.
• Optionally post the badge as a pinned comment.

We do not read, modify, or delete video files, titles, thumbnails, captions, playlists, subscriptions, likes, or watch history. We do not access private videos. We only write to the description or comments of the specific video you select and badge.

Google's handling of data collected by its own services is governed by Google's Privacy Policy.

You can revoke our access to your YouTube channel at any time through your Google Account's Third-party apps and services page, or by visiting your Account page on this site and clicking Disconnect. Either action stops badge updates immediately.

To delete stored data associated with your account (scores and short links you created, connected channel information, badge settings, and subscription records), email hello@fireemojicounter.com from the address on your account and we will delete it within 30 days. Disconnecting your channel removes the stored channel connection immediately and stops all badge updates.

AI comment analysis (Anthropic)

When you score a YouTube video, an optional feature sends the text of the sampled public comments, along with the video title, to Anthropic's Claude API solely to generate a short AI-written analysis ("Ember's read"). Anthropic processes this content under Anthropic's privacy policy.

Comment text is not retained after the analysis completes: we store only the resulting score and one-line verdict on the shared score page. No account data is sent to Anthropic.

How we share and protect data

We do not sell, rent, or share your Google user data or YouTube channel data with third parties. It is used solely to operate the Fire Emoji Counter service for you.

Payments are processed by Stripe. When you subscribe, Stripe collects and processes your payment details directly; we never see or store your full card number. Stripe shares with us only the metadata needed to manage your subscription (customer and subscription IDs, plan, and status). Stripe's handling of payment data is governed by Stripe's privacy policy.

Data is stored in encrypted databases hosted by Vercel and Neon. Access tokens are never stored in our database; they are retrieved fresh from Clerk for each operation and are encrypted in transit. Database connections use TLS, and production credentials are managed through Vercel's secure environment-variable system.

Cookies and analytics

We use Clerk for authentication, which may set cookies necessary for sign-in and session management. We do not run third-party advertising or tracking scripts.

We keep a first-party, server-side event log (page views, score creations, feature usage) to understand how the Service is used. Logged events may include your IP address, browser user-agent, and the page visited. This data is stored in our own database, is never sold or shared, and is accessible only to the site operator through a private, authenticated admin dashboard. It is not used for advertising.

Data retention

Shared scores and short links are stored indefinitely so the links keep working. You can contact us below to request deletion of data associated with your account.

Contact

Questions about this policy? Reach out at hello@fireemojicounter.com.