Privacy Policy

Last updated

Digital Clock Online is an independently operated website and browser extension. This policy explains how information is handled when you use onlinedigitalclock.com (the "Website") or the Digital Clock Online browser extension (the "Extension").

The two products have different data flows. The Website uses hosting, analytics, and contact tools. Most Extension data stays on your device; its analytics, Google, YouTube, radio, browser-profile sync, and Google Drive features are disclosed separately below. Website and Extension analytics are not used to join your activity across the two products.

1. Information handled by the Website

Functional cookies and local storage

The Website stores browser preferences needed to provide its clock features:

  • Clock preference cookies: whether to show seconds, use 12- or 24-hour time, clock size, and separator preference. These cookies expire after one year.
  • Clock synchronization cookie: records for up to 24 hours that a recent comparison with the Website's time endpoint was within the accepted threshold.
  • Theme preference: local browser storage remembers a light, dark, or system theme choice.
  • Country comparison preference: local browser storage remembers countries selected in the homepage time comparison.

You can remove these items through your browser's cookie and site-data controls. Removing them resets the related preferences.

Google Analytics

The Website uses Google Analytics 4 to understand how people find and use the Website and to improve its content and tools.

Google Analytics can collect page and on-site activity, approximate location, referrer, browser and device information, and a pseudonymous client identifier. Its standard setup uses first-party cookies such as _ga and _ga_<container-id>, which have a default expiry of two years that may be renewed on later visits. IP addresses are used during collection and for approximate geolocation and service security, but Google states that Google Analytics does not log or store individual IP addresses.

We do not send names, email addresses, contact-form content, or other directly identifying form fields to Google Analytics. Analytics is used for measurement, not to build Extension profiles. Where consent is required, the Website asks before enabling analytics storage and passes the choice through Google's consent controls. You can reject analytics cookies through the Website's consent control, clear them in your browser, or use the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on.

Website hosting and logs

Vercel hosts and delivers the Website. Like other hosting providers, Vercel processes technical request information, which can include an IP address, requested URL, timestamp, and browser or device information, to deliver, secure, and operate the service. Vercel handles this information under its own privacy notice.

Contact form and email

When you submit a contact form or email us, we collect the information you choose to provide, such as your name, email address, subject, message, and attachments. We use it to answer the request, prevent abuse, keep necessary correspondence, and protect the Website.

The form may also process technical information such as an IP address, timestamp, and spam-detection signals. The Website's hosting, form-delivery, spam-protection, and email providers process submissions only as needed to deliver and protect the communication. Contact content is not sent to Google Analytics.

We keep correspondence only as long as reasonably needed to respond, maintain necessary records, resolve disputes, prevent abuse, or meet legal obligations, then delete or anonymize it where practical.

2. Information stored by the Extension

Most Extension data stays in browser storage on your device. This can include:

  • Clock, theme, and appearance settings
  • Volume, mute, mini-player, timer, and other device preferences or temporary state
  • Saved and temporary playlists in IndexedDB
  • The selected track and playback position while the new-tab page is open
  • Google access tokens, granted scopes, account email, and account identifier when you connect Google
  • Sync state, client identifiers, pending changes, deletion markers, and Drive file identifiers when sync is used
  • A random analytics installation identifier and temporary session identifier if you enable Extension analytics

This local data remains until it is reset or deleted in the Extension, cleared through the browser, or removed when the Extension is uninstalled, subject to how your browser retains extension data.

3. Extension analytics

The Extension uses a separate Google Analytics 4 data stream to measure product reliability and which features are used. Because Chrome Manifest V3 does not allow remotely hosted analytics code, the Extension sends a limited event record to Google Analytics through the Google Analytics Measurement Protocol.

Extension analytics uses a random client_id stored in local extension storage for the life of the installation and a temporary session identifier. Events can describe that the new-tab page or a Control Hub section opened, that a feature or setting was used, the Extension version, and a sanitized error category. Google receives the network request, including the IP address used to make it, but Google states that Google Analytics does not log or store individual IP addresses.

Extension analytics does not include your name, email address, Google account identifier, OAuth tokens, playlist or video IDs, playlist or media titles, radio URLs, contact messages, browsing history, precise location, or raw error messages and stack traces. It is not linked to Website analytics, Google Signals, Google Ads, advertising personalization, or your connected Google account.

The Extension asks before enabling analytics and provides an analytics toggle in Settings. No analytics event is sent before you opt in. Turning analytics off stops new events and removes the local analytics identifiers. Previously aggregated information in Google Analytics cannot generally be tied back to you by Digital Clock Online. The Extension's Google Analytics property is configured for two months of user- and event-level retention; standard aggregate reports may remain longer under Google's retention rules.

4. Optional browser-profile sync

If browser-profile sync is selected, clock settings are copied through your browser vendor's extension-sync service so they can follow your browser profile. Playlists, Google tokens, device preferences, timer state, and playback state are not included. Your browser vendor processes synced settings under its own privacy terms.

5. Optional Google sign-in

You can connect Google from the Extension's Control Hub. YouTube access and Google Drive cloud sync are separate choices. Enabling one does not enable the other.

Google OAuth provides an access token to the Extension on your device. The Extension may also receive your Google account email and stable account identifier so it can show the connected account and keep that account's workspace separate. Digital Clock Online does not receive these items on a first-party server.

YouTube API Services

The Extension uses YouTube API Services. If you connect YouTube, it requests read-only access to your YouTube account together with basic identity scopes. It uses this access to load playlist and video metadata, including titles, video and playlist IDs, channel names, durations, and thumbnails, so you can browse saved sources and play them in the Extension.

Playback uses an embedded YouTube player. Google and YouTube receive the connection and playback requests needed to provide the player and content. The Extension does not request permission to upload, edit, or delete your YouTube content, and deleting Extension data does not delete data held by YouTube.

Use of YouTube features is also governed by the YouTube Terms of Service. Google processes information under the Google Privacy Policy.

User-created records and YouTube Authorized Data

When you disconnect Google through the Extension, it keeps information you entered yourself, such as playlist URLs, your list names and order, and video or playlist IDs that can be read from those URLs. It removes OAuth credentials and account binding, clears cached API responses, and strips YouTube API metadata such as titles, channel names, thumbnails, and durations. If Drive sync is active, the stripped records are written to the cloud backup before authorization is revoked.

After a successful in-Extension disconnect, removal begins immediately and will occur no later than seven calendar days. If you revoke access through Google instead, the Extension removes related API data when it next detects that authorization is invalid, subject to YouTube's 30-calendar-day outside limit. Active YouTube metadata is refreshed or removed within the periods required by YouTube's policies.

Google Drive App Data sync

Google Drive sync is off until you enable it. When enabled, the Extension requests the limited drive.appdata permission and sends selected clock settings and saved playlist records directly to Google Drive's hidden application-data folder. This permission does not allow the Extension to read your Docs, Sheets, photos, or other ordinary Drive files. Only this app can access the files it creates in that folder, and Digital Clock Online does not receive the sync payload on a first-party server.

Drive sync does not include OAuth tokens, volume or mute settings, temporary playlists, the current track, playback position, timer state, or browser client identifiers. Sync records can include deletion markers so changes made on different devices merge correctly.

Disabling cloud sync stops further Drive traffic but leaves the existing backup in Drive. Delete cloud backup removes this app's client files from Drive App Data. Disconnect Google account turns off YouTube and Drive access, strips YouTube Authorized Data, and revokes the Extension's Google authorization after any required stripped sync completes.

6. Optional radio playback

If you add and play a radio stream, the Extension connects your browser directly to the stream URL you selected. The stream operator can receive connection information such as your IP address, browser or player details, and request time under its own privacy practices. Digital Clock Online does not proxy or record the stream.

7. How information is used and shared

Information is used to provide, secure, maintain, measure, and improve the products described above, answer messages, and comply with law. We do not sell personal information or Google user data, and we do not use Google API user data for advertising. Information is sent only to services needed for the Website or a feature you choose, including:

  • Vercel: Website hosting and delivery
  • Google Analytics: Website measurement, subject to applicable consent choices
  • Google Analytics Measurement Protocol: limited, opt-in Extension usage and reliability events
  • Form, spam-protection, and email providers: contact delivery and abuse prevention
  • Your browser vendor: optional browser-profile settings sync
  • Google OAuth and UserInfo: optional Extension account connection
  • YouTube Data API and embedded player: optional playlist metadata and playback
  • Google Drive API: optional Extension settings and playlist backup
  • A radio stream operator: only when you choose to play its stream

Our use of information received from Google APIs follows the Google API Services User Data Policy, including its Limited Use requirements.

8. Information the Extension does not collect

The Extension has no content scripts and does not read the contents of other webpages or collect your general browsing history. It does not collect payment information or precise location. It does not intentionally infer sensitive characteristics from your settings or media choices.

9. Retention and deletion choices

  • Website preferences: remain until they expire or you clear browser data. Clock preference cookies last up to one year; the synchronization cookie lasts up to 24 hours.
  • Website Google Analytics: its default first-party cookies last up to two years and may be renewed. The Website property is configured for two months of user- and event-level retention; standard aggregate reports may remain longer.
  • Vercel hosting: technical hosting and security records are retained according to Vercel's settings and policies.
  • Contact messages: are retained only as described in Section 1.
  • Extension analytics: the local installation identifier remains until you turn analytics off, clear Extension data, or uninstall. The Google Analytics property uses two months of user- and event-level retention; aggregate reports may remain longer.
  • Extension device data: remains until you reset the relevant feature, clear extension data, or uninstall the Extension, subject to browser behavior.
  • Google credentials: are removed from Extension storage when Disconnect Google account succeeds or when the token is already invalid.
  • YouTube Authorized Data: is handled as described in Section 5, including the seven- and 30-day outside limits after revocation.
  • Drive backup: remains until you use Delete cloud backup, remove the app's Drive data through Google, or Google removes it under its account-retention rules.

You can review or revoke the Extension's access at any time in Google Account third-party access settings. Revoking access stops future API access but does not itself delete data stored locally by your browser; open the Extension or clear its storage to remove local records. To delete information held by YouTube itself, use YouTube's own controls.

10. Security

The Website and supported third-party API connections use encrypted HTTPS transport. The Extension requests only the permissions needed for its shipping features and keeps credentials in browser-managed local storage rather than a Digital Clock Online server. No transmission or storage method is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security.

11. Children

The Website and Extension are general-audience services and are not directed to children under 13 or the minimum age required in their jurisdiction. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has sent us personal information, contact us so we can review and delete it where required.

12. Your privacy rights

Depending on where you live, you may have rights to ask about, access, correct, delete, restrict, or object to certain processing of your personal information. Most Extension data is stored on your device or in a third-party account you control. The quickest method is usually the Website consent control or the browser, Extension, Google, YouTube, or Drive controls described above. You may also contact us, and we will respond in accordance with applicable law.

13. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy when the Website, Extension, providers, or legal requirements change. The date shown at the top identifies the latest revision. Material changes to optional Google or YouTube data handling will also be reflected in the Extension's consent flow where required.

14. Contact

For privacy questions, complaints, or deletion requests, email digitalclockonline@gmail.com or use the contact page.