Canto

Privacy Policy

Effective date: 25 September 2026

Canto ("the app", "we", "us") is a personal-use companion app for browsing your own YouTube playlists and navigating chapters within a video. This policy explains what Google user data the app accesses, how it is used, and what happens to it.

Google user data we access

When you sign in with Google, Canto requests a single permission: read-only access to your YouTube account (the https://www.googleapis.com/auth/youtube.readonly scope). Using that permission, Canto accesses only the following Google user data:

• Your YouTube playlists: each playlist's ID, title, description, thumbnail images, creation date, and number of videos
• The videos in a playlist you open: each video's ID, title, and thumbnail images
• Details of a video you play: its title, description, thumbnail images, publish date, and duration

Canto does not request or access your name, email address, profile photo, contacts, watch history, subscriptions, comments, or any other Google account data. It cannot create, edit, delete, or upload anything to your YouTube or Google account.

How we use Google user data

The Google user data listed above is used only to provide Canto's features to you, on your own device:

• Playlist data is used to show your playlists in the app so you can choose one.
• Playlist video data is used to show the videos in the playlist you opened so you can choose one to play.
• Video details are used to display the video's title and to find the chapter timestamps in its description (for example "14:22 Midnight drift"), so you can jump between chapters or loop one. The duration is used to show playback progress.

Google user data is not used for advertising, analytics, profiling, training machine-learning or AI models, or any purpose other than displaying it back to you. It is not sold, and no human reads it.

What's stored, and where

Canto has no server or backend of any kind. Every request goes directly from your device to Google's YouTube Data API — nothing passes through, or is stored on, infrastructure operated by us.

The only thing the app stores is a Google sign-in credential (an OAuth refresh token), kept in your device's Keychain, which is encrypted and managed by iOS. It never leaves your device except to be sent to Google, and it is never seen by us.

How we protect your data

Because Canto has no server, there is no central database of user data for us to protect — there is simply nothing on our infrastructure to secure. The only credential the app holds (your OAuth refresh token) is stored using the iOS Keychain, which encrypts it at rest and ties access to your device and, where enabled, your device passcode or biometrics. All communication with Google's servers happens over HTTPS. We have no employees or systems with any means of accessing your Google data — the app itself has no channel to send it anywhere but Google.

How long we keep your data

Your OAuth refresh token remains in your device's Keychain only until you sign out of Canto, uninstall the app, or revoke Canto's access from your Google account — whichever happens first. We do not retain any copy of it, or of any YouTube data the app displays, anywhere else. Playlist, video and chapter information is fetched from Google fresh each time you use the app and is not stored persistently on your device beyond normal iOS memory/caching for the current session.

Analytics, ads, and tracking

Canto does not use analytics, advertising, or tracking SDKs of any kind, and does not collect usage data.

Sharing your data

We do not sell, rent, or share your data with any third party. The only outside party your data ever reaches is Google, via the API calls you initiate by using the app.

Removing your data

Tap "Sign out" in the app at any time to remove the stored credential from your device. You can also revoke Canto's access to your Google account entirely at myaccount.google.com/permissions.

Video playback

Videos play through YouTube's own embedded player. Google's own privacy practices apply to that playback — see the Google Privacy Policy.

Google API Services User Data Policy

Canto's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs to any other app adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

Children's privacy

Canto is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the updated version will be posted at this same address with a new effective date.

Contact

Questions about this policy can be sent to jeff.kranenburg@gmail.com.