Privacy Policy

ShortsBlock browser extension · Last updated 15 June 2026

In short: ShortsBlock has no accounts and never sees your browsing. The only thing it ever sends is an anonymous, aggregate usage count — which features are switched on and how many Shorts it hid — with no identifier and no IP stored. You can switch it off in one click, and every number we hold is public at /api/stats.

What is stored on your device

Your settings and two small counters, kept locally via chrome.storage.local:

Whether the extension is on or off, and which Shorts surfaces you hide
Whether to redirect /shorts/ links to the normal player
Whether anonymous stats are enabled, plus two running counters (pages cleaned, redirects done) and the timestamp of the last send

This stays on your device and is removed if you uninstall the extension.

The anonymous usage stats (and how to turn them off)

To learn which features people actually use, about once per browsing session (when you've stepped away for a while, or your browser restarts) ShortsBlock sends a single anonymous snapshot to our own server (shortsblock.zlef.fr). The entire payload is:

the extension version;
which of the five toggles are currently on or off (booleans);
two counters: how many pages it cleaned and how many /shorts/ redirects it performed since the last send.

It contains no account, no random or persistent identifier, no cookie, no URLs, no video IDs, no search terms — nothing about what you watch or browse. Our server aggregates the numbers per day and does not record your IP address. We never sell or share it, and it feeds no ads.

To opt out: open the toolbar popup and switch off “Share anonymous stats”. From then on nothing is sent and the local counters are cleared. For full transparency, the complete aggregate dataset we hold is published at https://shortsblock.zlef.fr/api/stats.

Permissions we request, and why

storage — to remember the local settings and counters above.
*://*.youtube.com/* (host access) — so the extension can read YouTube pages and hide Shorts. It modifies no other websites.
https://shortsblock.zlef.fr/* (host access) — used only to send the anonymous stats snapshot described above, and nothing else.

Children's privacy

ShortsBlock collects no personal data from anyone, including children.

Changes to this policy

If this policy ever changes, the updated version will be posted on this page with a new date.

Contact

Questions? Email [email protected].