This policy covers everything called Samplecut: the website at samplecut.app, the API behind it, and the Samplecut browser extension for Chrome and Edge. It describes what we actually collect, why, and what you can do about it. Samplecut does not sell personal data and does not show ads.
Using Samplecut without an account
Extracting, cutting and downloading audio needs no account. When you paste a link, the link is sent to our API, which fetches the audio, prepares it for the editor and keeps the working files for about an hour before deleting them. We keep a record of each video that has been extracted — its platform, ID, title, length, a small waveform preview and, where available, the start of its captions — so it can have a public page on the site. That record is about the video, not about you: it is not tied to your account, IP address or analytics ID.
Analytics and session recordings
We use PostHog (hosted in the EU) to understand how Samplecut is used and where it breaks. On the website this includes:
- page views and product events, such as a link being extracted or a cut being downloaded, with details like the video's platform, the format chosen and how long a step took;
- errors that happen in your browser;
- session recordings, which replay how the page changed and where you clicked, so we can see what went wrong in a session. A recording can include what was on the page, such as the link you pasted;
- a random ID stored in your browser so events from one visit can be grouped together, and your approximate location derived from your IP address.
The website passes that random ID to our API with each request, so a failed download can be matched to the session it happened in. Analytics is only switched on for the production site. You can block it with any common content blocker; the site keeps working.
Signing in with Google
You only need an account to publish cuts to the shared library. Sign-in is through Google; we never see your Google password. From Google we receive your name, email address and profile picture, and we store them with the username you choose and a session cookie that keeps you signed in. Your username is shown publicly next to cuts you publish. Once you are signed in, your analytics ID is linked to your account so that your events carry your username.
Published cuts
When you publish a cut, its source video, start and end times, label, waveform preview and your username become public in the library and on their own page, and may be shown to search engines.
Server logs
Our API keeps operational logs (requests, errors, timings) so we can keep it running. IP addresses are never written to these logs in readable form — only as a short one-way hash, which lets us tell whether repeated failures come from the same place without recording where that is. IP addresses are also used, in memory only, to rate-limit abuse. Logs are sent to PostHog.
The browser extension
The Samplecut browser extension adds download buttons to YouTube video pages. It works like this:
- Nothing is sent until you click. The extension reads the page you are on to place its buttons, but it only sends the video's URL to our API when you choose to download or open it in the editor. The extension does not read or send your browsing history.
- Analytics events. By default the extension sends a small set of usage events to PostHog: it was installed or removed, its buttons were shown or could not be placed, a download was started and whether it worked, a part of a video was marked, and the editor was opened. These carry the video's URL or ID where relevant, and a random ID created when the extension is installed. That random ID is not linked to your Google account or anything else about you.
- The off switch. The extension's popup has a switch that turns analytics off. With it off, no events are sent, and the random ID is no longer attached to requests to our API or passed to the website.
- Files you download are saved by your browser. The extension does not need or use a Samplecut account.
Who else handles data
- PostHog — analytics, session recordings and logs.
- Google — sign-in.
- Vercel — hosts the website.
- Hetzner — hosts the API and its database, in the EU.
- Cloudflare — domain and network services.
To fetch a video's audio, our servers make requests to the video platform (YouTube, TikTok or Instagram), sometimes through a proxy provider. Those requests come from our servers, not your browser, and do not include information about you.
Your choices
- Use Samplecut without signing in; nothing you do is tied to a name or email.
- Block analytics in the browser, or turn it off in the extension's popup.
- Ask us to delete your account and the cuts you published, or for a copy of what we hold about you, by writing to privacy@samplecut.app.
Changes and contact
If this policy changes, the date at the top changes with it. Questions go to privacy@samplecut.app.