Privacy Policy

Introduction

Welcome to BSmeter ("we," "our," or "us"). This Privacy Policy explains how BSmeter, operated at bsmeter.ai, collects, uses, discloses, and safeguards your information when you use our AI-powered video credibility analysis platform (the "Service").

By accessing or using our Service, you agree to this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with the terms of this Privacy Policy, please do not access the Service.

Effective Date: October 23, 2026

Information We Collect

1. Information You Provide Directly

• Account Information: When you create an account using Google sign-in (on the website or in the Android app) or an emailed sign-in link, we collect your email address, name, and profile image URL.
• Doomscroll: Comments you post on the Doomscroll are public and show as "guest" plus four characters of a random ID kept in your browser or the Android app. When you are signed in we also store your account with each comment (it isn't shown), so blocks, deletion and moderation can find it. Clips you post are public under your Doomscroll name (a name you pick, your Google name shown as first name and last initial, or a generated alias) and, unless you switch it off, your Google profile photo. We also store your Doomscroll likes, votes, shares and follows, the people you block, when you agreed to the community rules, and the reports you send: what you reported, the reason, any note you add, a copy of what you reported and a one-way hash of your IP address, used only to stop report spam.
• YouTube Account Connection: If you connect your YouTube account, we access your public profile information and read-only access to your YouTube data (liked videos, playlists, subscriptions) to provide personalized analysis features.
• Contact Information: When you contact us through our contact form, we collect your email address, phone number (optional), and message content.
• Payment Information: For premium subscriptions, payment processing is handled by Stripe. We do not store your full credit card details; Stripe manages this securely.

2. Information Collected Automatically

• Usage Data: We collect information about how you interact with our Service, including video URLs analyzed, analysis preferences, and feature usage.
• Device Information: Browser type, operating system, device identifiers, and IP address.
• Country From Your IP Address: To pick the Doomscroll's language, we use the country our hosting provider works out from your IP address. It is used for that request and not stored.
• Our Own Measurement: Our servers record page views and product events: the page, the page you came from, your browser's user-agent string, an anonymous visitor ID stored in your browser and, when you are signed in, your account. Vercel Web Analytics also counts visits, without cookies.
• Analytics and Advertising Tools: Only if you click Accept on our cookie banner, Hotjar, Contentsquare, Google Analytics and Pendo record how you use the website, and the Google Ads tag and the Meta Pixel measure our ads. None of them loads before you accept. See Cookies and Tracking below.
• Content From Other Companies: Some parts of our pages load from other companies whatever you choose on the cookie banner: the video platforms' own embedded players, video thumbnails, our web fonts (Google Fonts) and our layout-testing service (YoXperience). Each of them receives your visit, including your IP address and browser details. See Third-Party Services and Cookies and Tracking below.

3. Video Content Data

• What You Submit: The links you submit for analysis: YouTube videos, TikTok and Instagram videos and photo posts, X and Facebook posts, and podcasts (Apple Podcasts, Spotify shows that have a public RSS feed, RSS feeds and links to audio files). In a private check you can also submit unlisted links and pasted scripts, and only you can see the result.
• Transcripts and Post Text: The captions or transcript of what you submit, and the text of posts (their caption, and the text read from their images).
• Video Comments: For YouTube videos, we retrieve public comments (the comment text, the commenter's public name and profile link, and like counts) and match some of them to the claims. They are stored with the analysis (see Data Retention).
• Video Metadata: Title, channel information, duration, and thumbnail URLs of analyzed videos.

Important: We read a video's existing captions where it has them. Otherwise the speech has to be transcribed, and media is processed as follows (see Third-Party Services): podcast audio is downloaded and sent to Google Gemini to be transcribed; YouTube videos without captions have their audio downloaded (usually by a download service we run on our own hardware, otherwise by our application servers) and sent to Gemini; speech in TikTok, Instagram, X and Facebook videos is transcribed by Supadata (for Instagram we may give Supadata the post's public media file instead of the post page); for photo posts and posts without speech, up to 6 of the post's images are sent to Gemini to read the text in them; and when our self-hosted model is unavailable, a few still frames per section of a YouTube video (taken from YouTube's preview thumbnails) may be sent with the transcript to Anthropic Claude (via Amazon Bedrock) or Gemini. Our application servers hold audio and images only in memory, or in a temporary file that is deleted as soon as transcription finishes. Podcast episodes over 15 MB are uploaded to Gemini's file service, which keeps the upload for a limited time under Google's terms.

BSmeter Android App

Our Android app (ai.bsmeter.app) is a floating overlay that fact-checks the video you are watching in another app. It handles data as follows:

• What it collects: the same core data described above — your email address and name (only if you sign in with Google), the video links and titles you choose to check or that play while the overlay is open, your Claim Chat questions, and any claims you bookmark. These are sent to bsmeter.ai over an encrypted (HTTPS) connection to provide the fact-check service. When you sign in, the app also sends your device model and Android version, which we store with your sign-in session. Tapping Evidence shows the sources already found for that claim, and on Basic and Premium runs a web search for it through our search provider (see Third-Party Services); the search is built from the claim text, never from your account data.
• Usage events: the app sends usage events to bsmeter.ai: for example a Doomscroll clip being watched and for how long, the Devil's voice being switched on, narration being ready, starting, stopping or failing (with how long it took to start and why it failed) and, from version 1.2.14, the app being installed or opened, the overlay being floated and the Google Play rating prompt being shown. Each event carries the app's install identifier (see below), the event's name, the app version and, where it applies, the BSmeter ID of the analysis or clip, the mode and the site the video is from. When you are signed in it is also linked to your account. Events are sent in small batches within about 30 seconds. The app has no switch to turn them off; uninstalling it stops them.
• Doomscroll in the app: likes, votes, shares, comments, reports and blocks need no account and are tied to the install identifier; from version 1.2.15, when you are signed in, your comments are tied to your account too, and your reports and blocks are tied to your account instead. Clips, follows and your Doomscroll name need you to sign in. The rest is as described under Doomscroll above.
• Notification access: the app uses Android's Notification Access permission for a single, narrow purpose — to read the active media session(the title of the video currently playing) so it can follow along and check the right video. While the overlay is open, the title (and length) of the YouTube video currently playing is sent to bsmeter.ai to look up an existing fact-check; it is not stored with your account, though it may appear in short-lived server logs. If you tap Analyzeon a video that has not been checked yet, the title is also sent to Google's YouTube Data API to find the video's URL. It does not read, collect, store, or transmit the content of your notifications, and it works fully without this permission (you simply share a video to it manually instead).
• Display over other apps: used only to draw the floating fact-check overlay on top of the video app. No data is collected through it.
• On-device storage and the install identifiers: your sign-in token is stored in the app's private storage. The app also creates two random identifiers and keeps them on the device. One is sent with each Claim Chat question so we can count free questions. The other, which starts with "and-", is sent with the usage events and the Doomscroll actions above. Neither is shared with third parties, and neither identifies you on its own, but what the app sends with them while you are signed in is also linked to your account.
• No advertising & no third-party analytics: the Android app contains no advertising ID, no ads, and no third-party analytics SDKs.
• Deleting your data: signing out removes your sign-in from the app; the "and-" identifier stays on the device until you uninstall the app or clear its storage. To delete your account and its associated data, open bsmeter.ai/settings → Delete Account (also linked from the app's home screen), or email support@bsmeter.ai. Account Deletion below lists what deletion removes and what it keeps.

BSmeter Browser Extension

Our browser extension for Chrome, Edge and Firefox adds BSmeter to video pages. It handles data as follows:

• Where it runs: on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram. It runs on X (Twitter) or Facebook only after you turn it on for that site, either from the BSmeter button in your browser's toolbar (your browser then asks you to allow it) or in your browser's extension settings. You can take that permission back in your browser's extension settings, and BSmeter then stops running there.
• Score lookups: the extension can see the addresses of your open tabs, so it can tell when one shows a video. When a tab opens a video on a site where it runs, it sends that video's ID (not the page address) to bsmeter.ai to check for an existing analysis, and shows its score on the toolbar icon. This lookup carries neither your install ID nor your sign-in, and we don't save it, though it can appear in our hosting provider's request logs. Where the BSmeter button appears on a video, the extension also asks bsmeter.ai, with your sign-in, how many analyses you have left today.
• Analyzing a video: when you ask for an analysis, the extension sends the video's link and the mode you picked, plus, on YouTube, the video's captions when the page has them. While the analysis runs, it also sends how far into the video you are, so the part you're watching is analyzed first; we keep only the latest position, with that analysis. The analysis is saved with your account and, like one started on our website, is a public page on bsmeter.ai that search engines may list (see Data Retention).
• Telling our website you have it: when the extension checks in with bsmeter.ai, signed in or not (such as the check of how many analyses you have left), our server sets a bs_ext cookie in your browser for 90 days. It holds no ID, only the day it was last set. Our website reads it so it stops asking you to install the extension. The page that opens when you install the extension sets it too, and the page that opens when you uninstall it (recent versions) deletes it.
• Waiting page: while an analysis loads, the panel shows a page from bsmeter.ai with a game to play. We don't record it as a page view, and none of our website's analytics tools or layout tests run on it, whatever you chose on our cookie banner.
• Clips: opening the Clip menu on a claim posts that moment to the public Doomscroll on bsmeter.ai under your BSmeter profile straight away, unless someone has already clipped it. The same menu takes yours back down.
• Signing in: the sign-in link in the panel carries the address of the page you're on, so you come back to the same video, and the extension's install ID. Our sign-in doesn't save the install ID, though the link can appear in our hosting provider's request logs. The page address also goes to Google with the sign-in and comes back in the address of the bsmeter.ai page you land on, where Vercel Web Analytics and, if you accepted cookies, the analytics and advertising tools can see it.
• Install ID and usage events: when it is installed, the extension makes a random install ID and keeps it in your browser. It sends us usage events, such as being installed, the panel opening, an analysis starting, finishing or failing, a mode switch, narration playing, and a sign-in or upgrade message being shown or clicked. Each event carries the install ID, the event's name, the extension's version and, where they apply, the video's ID, the site, the mode and a few details (such as how many claims were found), but not your email address. Events wait in your browser and are sent in batches, about once a minute. The install ID is also sent with each analysis you ask for. When we run that analysis fresh (rather than reuse an earlier result for the same video), we save the install ID with it, next to your account, so these events can be linked to your account. The toolbar popup also reports when it is opened and which of its links you click. Those reports carry no install ID, except the Devil Pass offer being shown or clicked, which is sent with the usage events above; if you're signed in, the others can arrive with your sign-in and are then recorded with your account. Sharing a claim from the panel is recorded too, with your account if you're signed in. We keep these events with our other product events (see Data Retention).
• Other panel features: Claim Chat, bookmarks, evidence searches, narration, translation, transcript downloads, claim reports and feedback work in the panel as they do on our website: they go to bsmeter.ai with your sign-in (see How We Use Your Information and Third-Party Services).
• Install and uninstall: a fresh install (not an update) opens one bsmeter.ai tab to get you started, and we record that visit as we do for our other links. If you uninstall the extension, your browser opens a bsmeter.ai page whose address carries the install ID and the extension's version, and we record the uninstall with them, and with your account if you're signed in to bsmeter.ai in that browser.
• Turning this off: in Firefox, the install prompt has a box, ticked to start, to "Share technical and interaction data with extension developer". With it unticked (when you install, or later in Firefox's Add-ons Manager: about:addons → BSmeter → Permissions and data), the extension sends no usage events or share records, deletes the events it hasn't sent yet, and leaves the install ID out of analysis requests, the sign-in link and the uninstall page. Firefox asks only when you first install, so if BSmeter was installed before it asked, this starts off until you turn it on there. Chrome, Edge and versions of Firefox without this box have no such setting, and the extension has none of its own yet: removing the extension stops it.
• Kept in your browser: your settings (such as filters, sponsor skipping, narration and where the panel sits), the install ID and any usage events not yet sent.
• Fonts, ads and analytics: the popup, the panel and its waiting page load their fonts from Google Fonts, so Google receives your IP address and browser details. The extension contains no ads and no third-party analytics.

How We Use Your Information

We use the collected information for the following purposes:

• Provide the Service: Analyze video content for credibility, generate BS Reports, and power the Claim Chat feature.
• AI Processing: The main analyzer on every plan is a self-hosted open-weight model (Google's Gemma) running on hardware we control. When it is unavailable or fails, the transcript goes to a hosted fallback: Anthropic Claude Haiku (via Amazon Bedrock), then Google Gemini. Some jobs use a set provider: Claim Chat questions go to our self-hosted model only (your question and the claim being discussed are sent); the extra logic pass in Analyze mode uses our self-hosted model only; judging which search results back a claim uses our self-hosted model, then Gemini; translating claims uses our self-hosted model; the narration script is written by Gemini; and YouTube comments are matched to claims by Gemini. These providers process content as our service providers, according to their respective privacy policies; we do not sell your data to them or let them use it for their own purposes.
• Account Management: Create and manage your account, authenticate your identity, and process subscription payments.
• Personalization: Remember your analysis history and preferences. Once you have 3 or more completed analyses while signed in, we build a short interest profile from them (recurring topic words in the titles of the videos you analyzed, the mode you use most, and how many claims you have bookmarked), store it with your account, and add your top topics and usual mode to the analysis prompt so the commentary's tone and examples suit you. The prompt tells the model never to let this change a score or which claims it flags. Private checks are never used for this profile.
• Communication: Respond to inquiries, provide customer support, and send service-related notifications. After you sign up we also send a short series of emails about BSmeter, such as a nudge to run your first roast or a few roasts worth watching, and we may send one-off emails, such as a note when you reach the free daily limit or a reminder about a checkout you didn't finish. Every one has an unsubscribe link, and one unsubscribe stops all of them.
• Improvement: Analyze usage patterns to improve our Service, using our own aggregated counts and, if you accept cookies, the analytics tools described under Third-Party Services.
• Security: Detect, prevent, and address technical issues, fraud, or abuse.
• Legal Compliance: Comply with applicable laws and regulations.

Third-Party Services

We integrate with the following third-party services:

Data Retention

• Account Data: Retained for as long as your account is active. You may request deletion at any time.
• Analysis Results: An analysis (its claims, scores, quoted transcript lines and the YouTube comments retrieved for it) stays with that analysis for as long as the analysis exists. Public analyses stay up after you delete your account, without the link to you; private checks are deleted when you delete them or your account.
• Shared Video Cache: So the same video isn't processed twice, we cache each video's transcript, comments and finished analysis. A video's cached copy is deleted once the video goes cold: its popularity score (which decays over time) is under 5, it has fewer than 3 analyses, and nobody has analyzed it for 14 days. Videos that stay popular stay cached. Private checks are never added to this cache.
• Payment Records: Retained as required for accounting and legal compliance purposes.
• Doomscroll Comments and Clips: Stay up until you delete your comment or take your clip down, we remove them, or you delete your account (see Account Deletion).
• Reports and Blocks: A report is kept while we handle it and for 180 days after, or longer when the law requires us to keep it. A block lasts until you remove it or delete your account.
• Analytics Data: Data collected by Hotjar, Contentsquare, Google Analytics, Google Ads, the Meta Pixel and Pendo is kept by each analytics provider under its own retention settings. Our own page-view and product-event records are kept in our database; they have no automatic deletion schedule today.
• Server Logs: Request logs kept by our hosting provider (which may include the video links or titles you look up) are retained for a limited period and then discarded.

Data Security

We implement appropriate technical and organizational security measures to protect your data:

• Encryption: All data transmitted between your browser and our servers is encrypted using TLS/HTTPS.
• Secure Storage: Data is stored in secure, managed PostgreSQL databases with encryption at rest.
• Access Controls: Access to user data is restricted to authorized personnel only.
• Authentication: We use industry-standard OAuth 2.0 for secure authentication.
• Payment Security: Payment processing is handled entirely by Stripe, a PCI-DSS compliant provider.

However, no method of transmission over the Internet or electronic storage is 100% secure. While we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your data, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.

Your Rights

For All Users

• Access: Request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Correction: Request correction of inaccurate personal data.
• Deletion: Request deletion of your account and associated data.
• Cookie Preferences: Manage your cookie preferences at any time via our cookie consent banner or by visiting our About page.
• YouTube Data: Revoke YouTube access at any time through your Google Account settings.

GDPR Rights (EU/EEA Users)

If you are located in the European Union or European Economic Area, you have additional rights under GDPR:

• Right to data portability
• Right to restrict processing
• Right to object to processing
• Right to withdraw consent at any time
• Right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority

CCPA/CPRA Rights (California Users)

If you are a California resident, you have the right to:

• Know what personal information is collected about you
• Know whether your personal information is sold or disclosed and to whom
• Opt-out of the sale or sharing of your personal information
• Access your personal information
• Request deletion of your personal information
• Request correction of inaccurate personal information
• Limit use and disclosure of sensitive personal information
• Not be discriminated against for exercising your privacy rights

Do Not Sell or Share: BSmeter does not sell your personal information. If you accept cookies, the Google Ads tag and the Meta Pixel load and tell Google and Meta about your visit, which may count as "sharing" for cross-context behavioral advertising under California law. To opt out of that, click Decline on the cookie banner, reset your choice from our About page ("Manage Cookie Preferences") and decline, or turn on Global Privacy Control (GPC) in your browser. We honor GPC: when your browser sends it, Google Analytics, the Google Ads tag and the Meta Pixel never load. Declining or resetting your choice turns off the analytics and advertising tools named under Cookies and Tracking, and GPC turns off Google Analytics, the Google Ads tag and the Meta Pixel. Neither stops the video platforms' embedded players or the other content listed there under "Not Covered by the Cookie Banner": those still load, and those companies handle your visit under their own privacy policies.

Other U.S. State Privacy Laws

We recognize the privacy rights of residents in states with comprehensive privacy laws, including Virginia (VCDPA), Colorado (CPA), Connecticut (CTDPA), Utah (UCPA), and others. If you are a resident of a state with applicable privacy legislation, you may exercise rights similar to those described above by contacting us.

Automated Decision-Making Technology (ADMT)

BSmeter uses Automated Decision-Making Technology to analyze video content and generate credibility assessments. In accordance with emerging state privacy regulations, we provide the following disclosures:

• Purpose: Our AI systems analyze video transcripts to identify claims and assess their credibility based on logical consistency, factual plausibility, and rhetorical patterns.
• Logic: Scores are generated by large language models: our self-hosted Gemma model first, with Anthropic Claude (via Amazon Bedrock) and Google Gemini as fallbacks. The model gives each claim it pulls out a framing label (such as Missing Context, Loaded Language or Cherry-Picked), and the label sets the 0-100 score, so the score describes how a claim is framed and is not a truth percentage. Up to 3 low-scoring claims per video are re-checked against a web search by a second model pass.
• Outputs: The system produces a 0-100 score and a framing label for each claim; up to 3 re-checked claims per video get a label such as Verified or Dubious. Each analyzed claim also gets explanatory text.
• Human Oversight: All AI-generated assessments are presented as informational tools only. No automated decisions are made that have legal or similarly significant effects on users. Users maintain full discretion over how to interpret and act upon the analysis.
• Opt-Out: You may choose not to use our AI analysis features at any time by simply not submitting videos for analysis.

Note: Our AI analysis is designed to assist critical thinking, not replace it. Credibility scores reflect AI interpretation and should not be considered authoritative fact-checks.

Cookies and Tracking

We use cookies, and storage in your browser, as follows:

• Essential: The sign-in session cookie that keeps you signed in, and your cookie choice, which is stored in your browser. When you are signed out, Google's sign-in script is loaded from Google to offer one-tap sign-in, and Google may set a g_state cookie to remember that you closed that prompt. These cannot be disabled.
• First-Party Sign-Up Attribution: When you arrive from a link with campaign parameters (such as utm_source or a Google Ads click ID), or from our sister site opensatan.com, we set a bsmeter_utm cookie for 30 days. Our server reads it when you create an account to record which campaign brought you, and stores that with your account. The cookie itself is not sent to anyone else. If you accept cookies, the analytics and advertising tools below may also see the campaign details.
• Our Own Measurement: Our page-view and product-event counts use an anonymous visitor ID kept in your browser's storage, and Vercel Web Analytics counts visits without cookies. These run without the banner.
• Install Prompt: Our website may suggest our browser extension, or on Android our app. The bs_ext cookie, described under BSmeter Browser Extension, tells it the extension is already installed, so it doesn't ask. Your answer ("Not now", or the install button) is kept in your browser's storage so it doesn't ask again for 14 or 30 days. When you click the install button, we set a bs_ipp cookie for 7 days holding a random ID for that click; if you then install the extension, the page that opens on install carries it back, so we can count the installs that came from the button. Neither cookie is sent to anyone else. These run without the banner.
• Analytics and Advertising: Hotjar, Contentsquare, Google Analytics 4, Google Ads, the Meta Pixel and Pendo. They load only after you click Accept on the cookie banner. Google Analytics, Google Ads and the Meta Pixel never load when your browser sends Global Privacy Control.
• Not Covered by the Cookie Banner: The embedded video players (YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and X), video thumbnails, Google Fonts and YoXperience, described under Third-Party Services, load whatever you choose. The video platforms may set their own cookies through their players. Declining or resetting your choice turns off only the tools in the Analytics and Advertising item above, and Global Privacy Control only Google Analytics, the Google Ads tag and the Meta Pixel.

A cookie consent banner is displayed on your first visit. You can change your choice at any time from our About page: click "Manage Cookie Preferences" and choose again. If you decline, or reset your choice, after accepting, the page reloads without these tools and their cookies on bsmeter.ai are deleted. Cookies the video platforms set through their players are not affected; you can clear them in your browser settings.

International Data Transfers

Our Service is hosted on Vercel (application) and Railway (database), which may involve data processing in the United States and other countries. By using our Service, you consent to the transfer of your information to countries outside your country of residence, which may have different data protection rules.

We ensure that any international transfers comply with applicable data protection laws and that appropriate safeguards are in place to protect your data.

Account Deletion

You can delete your account yourself at any time under Settings → Delete account (bsmeter.ai/settings), or ask us to do it by emailing the address below. Deletion happens right away, and it:

• First cancels any subscription that could still charge you and closes any open checkout page. If that fails, nothing is deleted and you can try again.
• Deletes your private checks, the Android app's saved sign-ins, your bookmarks, your usage counters, your interest profile (see Personalization), the star ratings you gave, your Doomscroll profile, follows and blocks, the Doomscroll comments you posted while signed in, your plan records and your account, and signs you out on this and your other browsers.
• Keeps your public analyses but removes the link to your account and to the browser, app or extension that started them, and takes down the Clips you posted (the record stays, without your account).
• Keeps the usage events, page views, email history, evidence searches and failed-analysis records tied to your account, but removes your account from them, so they are no longer linked to you. Anything that arrives in the minutes after deletion is unlinked within a day.
• Keeps reports without your account: the ones you sent stay, and reports other people sent about your posts are kept as described under Data Retention.
• Keeps a record of the deletion (your user ID, email address, name, IP address and browser user-agent) so a deleted account can't come back and its billing stays stopped, and a one-way hash of your email address and sign-in ID with the number of analyses you ran that day, so deleting an account can't reset the free daily limit. That count stops applying at midnight.

We also keep data we are required to keep for legal or accounting purposes, such as payment records. Deletion does not yet remove the access tokens of a connected YouTube account: revoke BSmeter's access in your Google Account settings and they stop working.

Children's Privacy

Our Service is for adults: you must be 18 or older to use it. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has provided us with personal information, please contact us immediately.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page and updating the "Last updated" date. For significant changes, we may also notify you via email or through a prominent notice on our Service.

Your continued use of the Service after any changes to this Privacy Policy constitutes your acceptance of the updated policy.

Limitation of Liability

BSmeter provides AI-powered analysis of video content for informational and educational purposes only. The credibility assessments, scores, and explanations generated by our Service are produced by artificial intelligence and should not be considered definitive judgments of truth or accuracy.

We make no warranties, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of our AI-generated analysis. Users should exercise their own judgment and conduct independent verification of any claims or information. We are not liable for any decisions made based on our Service's output.