Privacy Policy

VidWise is operated by Tomala-Tech KAJETAN TOMALA, a sole proprietor registered in Poland and operating the VidWise brand ("VidWise", "we", "us" or "our"), tax identification number (NIP) 5482778343. The operator is the controller of personal data described in this policy.

Registered or correspondence address: Wacława Olszaka 5, 43-400 Cieszyn, Poland. Privacy questions and requests may be sent to support@vid-wise.com.

This policy applies to the VidWise Chrome extension, the VidWise website, VidWise Cloud and related account, AI, Library, credit and referral features. It does not apply to YouTube, Google, Chrome, or third-party websites and services governed by their own privacy policies.

VidWise is primarily designed for users in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, while its operator is established in Poland. Where applicable, we process personal data under the EU GDPR, UK GDPR and applicable United States or Canadian privacy laws.

The information processed depends on the features you choose to use.

• Account information held by VidWise: your email address, authentication-provider identifier, account creation date, account status, plan, AI credit balance and referral status. Clerk may also process profile information, such as your name, when you choose to provide it through an available sign-in method.
• Filter and preference inputs: topics, keywords, channel rules and other filter choices you provide. Most filter settings remain local, but selected topics and relevant video metadata may be sent to VidWise Cloud when cloud classification is enabled.
• YouTube video information: video titles, channel names, descriptions, hashtags and video identifiers visible on YouTube, but only when needed for an enabled VidWise feature or an AI request you initiate.
• Transcript text: captions obtained by the extension from YouTube in your browser and submitted to VidWise Cloud only when you actively request an AI feature that needs them, such as a summary, note, quiz, comparison, report, Study question or Short analysis.
• YouTube comments: when you turn on the optional Comments setting in Compare, the extension reads up to 50 comments currently visible on the video page (up to 8,000 characters in total). Their text is included with that comparison request to VidWise Cloud and its AI provider; comments are not collected for Compare when you leave this option off.
• User instructions and conversations: questions, custom prompts, recent conversation context, comparison goals, report or learning-path topics and other instructions you submit to generate a requested result.
• Exercise content: exercise tasks, code, text, sentences, answers and other solutions you enter for an Exercise. When you ask VidWise to evaluate a solution, the submitted content, the exercise instructions and relevant video transcript or context are sent to VidWise Cloud and processed by AI to generate feedback. Do not submit confidential information or information about another person unless you are authorized to do so.
• Library content: summaries, notes, quiz results, comparisons, reports, learning paths and related video information you choose to save or synchronize with VidWise Cloud. When Cloud is connected, your personal Learning Paths and lesson watch progress synchronize with your account dashboard. Local offline copies remain in the extension; deletion markers prevent older devices from restoring deleted paths.
• AI usage information: the type and time of an AI operation, model used, token or usage counts, credit changes, cache status and technical outcome. We use this information to provide credits, prevent abuse, troubleshoot errors and manage service capacity.
• Referral information: your referral code, the relationship between referring and referred accounts, qualification status, rewards and relevant dates.
• Communications information: if you request the VidWise learning pack or reminders, we store your email address, consent, selected reminder time, timezone, lifecycle stage and delivery status. When email delivery is enabled, Resend processes the address and message content to deliver learning, account, service and credit-related messages. Optional marketing can be unsubscribed from separately.
• Technical and security information: IP address, browser and operating-system information, extension or app version, session identifiers, request times, request metadata, security signals, error information and limited server logs needed to operate, secure and debug the service.

Filter topics, keywords, Always Show and Always Hide channel rules, Focus Mode preferences, Pomodoro settings and similar extension preferences are generally stored in Chrome extension storage on your device.

Local extension information, including any comments you add to a comparison, is not sent to VidWise Cloud unless you run a feature that requires cloud processing or synchronization. You can remove local information by clearing the extension's storage or uninstalling the extension.

VidWise does not record, upload or store YouTube audio or video files. When an AI feature requires transcript content, the extension obtains available caption text in your browser and sends text—not the underlying audio or video—to VidWise Cloud.

We use information only as reasonably necessary to provide and protect VidWise.

• Provide YouTube filtering, Focus Mode and other extension functionality.
• Authenticate users and maintain secure sessions.
• Generate AI classifications, summaries, notes, quizzes, Study answers, comparisons, reports and Exercise feedback requested by the user.
• Save and synchronize Library content selected by the user.
• Administer AI credits, plans and referral rewards.
• Send requested service, account and credit-related communications.
• Prevent fraud, abuse and unauthorized access; investigate failures; and maintain service reliability.
• Comply with legal obligations and enforce our Terms of Service.

Where the GDPR applies, we process account information, requested AI inputs and outputs, credits, subscription status and synchronized Library content as necessary to perform our contract with you and provide the VidWise features you request.

We rely on our legitimate interests to secure and maintain the Service, prevent fraud and abuse, diagnose failures, enforce our Terms, understand operational costs and improve reliability. We balance those interests against your rights and expectations. You may object to processing based on legitimate interests by contacting us.

We rely on consent for optional marketing and any other processing for which consent is legally required. You may withdraw consent at any time. Withdrawal does not affect earlier lawful processing or processing supported by another legal basis.

We process billing, transaction, tax, compliance and legally required records where necessary to comply with a legal obligation. We may also process information where necessary to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

VidWise uses large language models and related AI systems to process video metadata and, when needed, transcript text for user-requested classifications, summaries, notes, quizzes, answers and reports. AI-generated content may be incomplete, inaccurate or misleading and should not be treated as authoritative or as professional advice.

Depending on the feature, the AI request may also include your selected topics, questions, prompts, recent conversation context, goals, Exercise instructions or your Exercise submission. An optional Compare request can also include visible viewer comments when you select Comments. We send only the information reasonably required for the selected feature.

When you choose to listen to an answer or note, VidWise uses the browser's built-in speech synthesis feature on your device. The text is not sent to a separate external text-to-speech provider for this read-aloud feature.

VidWise does not train its own general-purpose AI model on your transcript text or Library content and does not use that information to build advertising profiles or determine eligibility for employment, housing, credit, insurance, education admission, or other high-impact decisions. Third-party AI providers process inputs under their applicable service terms, data-processing commitments and configured retention controls.

VidWise does not make decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects about you solely through automated processing.

We disclose information to service providers only as needed to operate the relevant feature. These providers process information under their own terms and privacy commitments.

• Clerk: account authentication, identity and session support. VidWise does not receive or store your Google password.
• Google Sign-In: an optional account sign-in method. Google processes the authentication request under its own terms and privacy policy; this role is separate from Google's provision of Gemini AI services.
• Replit: application hosting, backend infrastructure, database services and the managed AI integrations that route requests to the model provider used for each VidWise AI feature.
• OpenAI, through Replit's managed AI integration: transcript-based video summaries and notes, questions and answers, quizzes, exercises, comparisons, Reports, SmartCut and Shorts summaries, using video context and other content you submit for those features.
• Google Gemini AI services: video-feed classification and filtering, topic expansion, and Learning Path generation, based on information required for those features.
• Resend: delivery and status tracking for enabled learning, account, service, welcome and credit-related email communications.
• Stripe, including its Checkout and Link payment services: subscription checkout, payment processing, invoices, billing events and customer-portal services. For purchases identified as Managed Payments at checkout, the Stripe entity shown to you acts as merchant of record and independently processes information needed for indirect-tax compliance, fraud prevention, disputes, refunds and transaction-level support. For legacy or other transactions not processed through Managed Payments, Stripe acts as payment processor. VidWise does not receive or store complete payment card numbers.
• Professional advisers, authorities or other parties when reasonably necessary to comply with law, protect rights and safety, investigate abuse, or complete a business reorganization subject to appropriate safeguards.

VidWise complies with the Chrome Web Store User Data Policy, including its Limited Use requirements. Data obtained through the extension is used and transferred only to provide or improve the single user-facing purpose disclosed for VidWise: helping users focus on, understand and learn from YouTube content through filtering, organization and user-requested AI tools.

We do not sell this information, use or transfer it for targeted advertising, transfer it to data brokers or information resellers, or use it to determine creditworthiness or for lending purposes.

We do not permit people to read user data unless you first affirmatively agree to the reading of specific data, it is necessary for security or abuse investigation, it is required by applicable law, or the data has been aggregated and anonymized and is used only for internal operations.

Where Google API user data is involved, VidWise's use and transfer of that information will also adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

Payments for paid VidWise plans are processed through Stripe. New subscriptions presented as Managed Payments use the Stripe entity identified at checkout and on the receipt as merchant of record. That entity processes payment, billing address, location, tax, fraud, dispute, refund and transaction-support information under its own terms and privacy notice. Existing subscriptions created before Managed Payments, and any transaction explicitly identified otherwise at checkout, may continue to be processed with Tomala-Tech as merchant and Stripe as payment processor.

VidWise does not receive or store full payment card numbers. We receive customer and subscription identifiers, plan and subscription status, transaction status, billing events and limited tax or payment metadata needed to provide the paid service, reconcile entitlements, keep legal records and support the account.

Stripe may retain transaction and tax records for periods required by law and may transfer data internationally using safeguards described in its own privacy documentation. You can use Stripe Checkout to start a subscription and Stripe's customer portal to manage payment details, invoices and cancellation.

VidWise uses a strictly necessary, secure session cookie to keep you signed in and connect your authenticated website session to the extension. The VidWise session cookie is configured as HttpOnly and Secure. Clerk, our authentication provider, may also use strictly necessary cookies or similar storage to complete sign-in, protect sessions and prevent abuse under Clerk's privacy documentation. The extension uses Chrome extension storage for local preferences and saved state.

The website uses localStorage to remember a referral code, an intended subscription plan and a starter-offer selection while you navigate to registration or checkout. These values are used for that requested flow, not for cross-site tracking, and can remain in your browser until used, replaced or cleared. If the website sidebar is used, a separate first-party preference cookie (sidebar_state) remembers whether it is open for up to 7 days; unlike the session cookie, this preference cookie is readable by the website's JavaScript and does not contain a login token.

VidWise does not currently use advertising cookies, advertising pixels, or cross-site behavioral tracking. If we introduce optional analytics or advertising technologies, we will update this policy and request consent where required before activating them.

Account information is retained while your account is active and afterward only as reasonably necessary to resolve disputes, prevent fraud, enforce agreements and meet legal obligations. Saved Library items remain until you delete them through available controls or submit a verified deletion request.

VidWise Cloud sessions expire after 90 days and expired session records are periodically removed. Temporary Short-answer and Compare-result cache entries expire after approximately 4 hours, and temporary Short-summary cache entries expire after approximately 24 hours. These temporary caches are held in application memory and may disappear earlier when the service restarts.

Separately, the shared AI-result cache stores selected reusable AI-generated summaries, notes, quizzes and Exercise content, including Shorts summaries, in the VidWise database to avoid generating the same result repeatedly. Results may be reused for equivalent requests from other users. The cache stores generated content and a hash derived from request inputs, without an account identifier or a separate copy of the source transcript. Entries are eligible for reuse for up to 7 days after generation; expired entries are excluded from reuse. A cleanup job scheduled every 6 hours while the VidWise Cloud server is running deletes expired records. Physical deletion may occur later if the service is stopped or cleanup is delayed or fails. User-saved Library items are separate and follow the Library retention described above.

Usage records connected to an account are retained for service integrity, credit accounting, fraud prevention, capacity planning and legal recordkeeping. Shared classification and semantic-filter cache records use derived video/topic identifiers and classification results rather than raw transcript text; records not updated for 12 months are scheduled for deletion. Topic and video embeddings used for semantic filtering are scheduled for deletion 12 months after creation.

The shared topic-expansion cache stores normalized topic labels, user-provided topic keywords and AI-generated keyword suggestions so the same topic does not require repeated AI processing. These records are not linked to a user ID; records not updated for 12 months are scheduled for deletion. Cleanup runs periodically while the VidWise Cloud server is operating, so deletion may occur after the threshold rather than at an exact instant.

Billing, invoice, payment and transaction records may be retained for the period required by applicable tax, accounting and consumer-protection law. Security and diagnostic information is retained only as long as reasonably necessary for troubleshooting, service integrity, fraud prevention, incident investigation or legal claims. Email delivery and consent records may be retained while the relevant communication program is active and afterward as needed to document preferences, consent or compliance.

Where no fixed period is stated, we determine retention by considering the purpose of processing, account status, sensitivity and volume of the information, security and fraud risks, applicable limitation periods and legal recordkeeping duties. We periodically review whether information remains necessary.

Signed-in users can request permanent account deletion from the VidWise extension settings. VidWise emails a confirmation link that expires after 24 hours, and deletion occurs only after the user explicitly confirms it on the website. Linked account data is removed or de-identified, while information that must be retained by law or is needed for a permitted security, fraud-prevention, dispute or recordkeeping purpose may be retained. Broader privacy requests can still be submitted through support@vid-wise.com.

VidWise is operated from Poland and uses service providers that may process information in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom or other countries. Where the EU GDPR or UK GDPR applies to an international transfer, we rely on an adequacy decision, contractual safeguards such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses or the applicable UK transfer addendum or agreement, or another lawful transfer mechanism, as applicable.

We use technical and organizational measures designed to protect information, including encrypted HTTPS transmission, secure session cookies, access controls, request validation, credential protection and restricted access to production systems. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security.

Do not send passwords, payment card numbers or other unnecessary sensitive information through VidWise prompts, notes or support messages.

Depending on your location, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, restrict or object to processing of personal information, receive a portable copy of information you provided, and withdraw consent. You may also disconnect VidWise Cloud, revoke extension permissions, delete individual Library items, clear local extension storage, unsubscribe from optional emails, or uninstall the extension.

You can request account deletion while signed in through the VidWise extension settings, then confirm the request from the email link on the VidWise website. To exercise another privacy right or request a full data export, contact support@vid-wise.com. We may need to verify your identity before completing a request and will respond within the period required by applicable law.

If the GDPR applies, you may lodge a complaint with the Polish supervisory authority, the President of the Personal Data Protection Office (UODO), or another competent supervisory authority.

Residents of certain United States states may have additional rights to know, access, correct, delete or obtain a copy of personal information, and to opt out of certain sales, sharing or targeted advertising. VidWise does not sell personal information or share it for cross-context behavioral advertising.

You may exercise applicable state rights by contacting support@vid-wise.com. We will not discriminate against you for exercising a privacy right. Where permitted by law, an authorized agent may submit a request on your behalf, subject to appropriate verification. If we deny a request, you may appeal by replying to our decision and stating that you wish to appeal.

You must be at least 16 years old to create a VidWise account or use VidWise Cloud. VidWise is not directed to children under 16, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. If we learn that an account belongs to a child under 16, we will take reasonable steps to delete the account and associated personal information. A parent or guardian who believes a child provided information to VidWise should contact support@vid-wise.com.

We may update this policy when VidWise, our service providers or applicable requirements change. We will publish the updated version on this page and update the effective date. If a change materially affects how we use personal information, we will provide additional notice or request consent when required.

Data controller: Tomala-Tech KAJETAN TOMALA, Poland. Tax identification number (NIP): 5482778343.

Registered or correspondence address: Wacława Olszaka 5, 43-400 Cieszyn, Poland.

Privacy email: support@vid-wise.com.