Privacy Policy

The short version

• You can browse the Service without an account.
• Your saved items, history, and settings start in your browser’s local storage. If you sign in to sync, your saved items, history, and any countries or searches you explicitly watch are also stored in our app’s Google Cloud Firestore database under your account. Collections, pinned countries, and other settings stay in this browser.
• Running a search is different: the words you type are sent to our own server so it can return results, and they appear in the page address. See “Search” below.
• Opening your Saved page can send our server item titles or IDs to look up available pictures and chart observations. Saving or sharing sends a separate Community Picks signal. See “What leaves your browser” below.
• Ads: some pages show ads served by Google. Where the law requires it, you are asked for consent before personalised ads are shown, and you can change that choice at any time (see “Advertising”).
• No third-party analytics, tracking pixels, or session-replay tools of any kind.
• Optional features — Google Sign-In to sync across devices, and browser push alerts — are strictly opt-in and involve the third parties named below.
• We do not sell your personal information.

1. Data stored on your device

By default, what you do here is stored locally in your browser (via localStorage and sessionStorage). Local storage does not mean that it never leaves your device: the exceptions are described under “What leaves your browser” below. It includes:

• your saved items (bookmarks) and recently-viewed history (kept to the most recent 200);
• the collections you sort saved items into on the Saved page (these are never synced);
• your settings: country/region, language, theme, playback preferences, and pinned/recent countries;
• interface state used to improve your experience: visit count and one-time prompt markers (so we don’t re-ask you to sign in or install the app), collapsed-section state, and “biggest movers” rank snapshots used to compute changes between visits;
• a random per-install identifier: a UUID your browser generates the first time you use the Service. It is not your name, email or account ID, but it identifies this browser install to our server. Requests to our backend can send it as-is; Community Picks uses its hash instead. We use it for per-install rate limits and the free AI allowance. If you enable browser alerts, we store it with your push subscription; a live-event follow can also be mirrored on our server under it. The storage and deletion periods are described in sections 3 and 12. Clearing site data resets the identifier but does not immediately delete records retained under the old value.

You can clear all of this at any time by clearing your browser’s site data for socialtrends.app.

What leaves your browser

• Search: the words you type are sent to our own server to return results (see Search).
• Your Saved page: displaying it can request information about items in your library, as described next.
• Saving or sharing an item: sends the usage signal described under “Usage signals (Community Picks)” below.
• Performance and security reports: first-party only, described under “Performance, security & optional usage counts”.
• Optional action counts: if you turn them on in Settings, a small sample of basic actions is reported to our own server, as described in the same section.
• Signing in: stores your saved items and history in our app’s Google Cloud Firestore database under your account (see the next section).

Your Saved page

Your Saved library is managed in this browser unless you choose cloud sync. Displaying it can ask our server for the latest available pictures and chart observations:

• up to eight of the events you saved most recently, by the event’s ID, to look for an updated picture;
• Google trends you saved together with their chart position, by the trend’s title and the country you saved it from, normally in batches of up to six, to look up their rank history. Some requests run when the page opens and others when cards approach the screen. Your saved chart positions are not included in these lookup requests;
• the YouTube videos and Shorts you saved, by each video’s ID, together with your selected country, in batches of up to fifty, to look up where else they appear in our cached charts. Dailymotion videos are not included in this lookup;
• the pages of saved items on your screen, whose addresses contain the item’s title or ID — your browser may load them in advance so they open quickly; and
• the video you press Play on, by its ID, to load its details.

Event and trend lookups can repeat about every fifteen minutes. Video-reach lookups can run again when your saved library changes. These requests do not guarantee fresh data: when an event cannot be resolved or a lookup fails, a card may retain its saved picture or previously available information.

Displaying the usual History video cards does not make a dedicated chart-history lookup for those entries. Image loads, page-wide performance reports, playback requests and optional sync still apply. The Community tab requests the aggregate board for your selected country or worldwide, rather than uploading your library. Pictures load from external image hosts or the resizing service described under “Third-party content shown in the Service” below.

The requests for event, trend and video details also carry the random identifier your browser created for this site — as-is, not hashed — which our server uses to apply fair-use limits per browser. They reach our hosting with IP-address information. These lookup handlers read existing records and do not create a separate personal Saved library; their answers may be cached separately from the install identifier. Requested addresses can appear in platform request logs and identify saved titles or IDs. Our backend’s application request logger records the path rather than the query string and does not record the install-ID header. Saving or sharing sends the separate Community Picks signal described in section 4.

If you sign in to sync, whole saved-item and history records are sent to our app’s Firestore database, including their titles, image addresses, links, timestamps and saved details. Opening Saved can write an updated bookmark array there when an event picture changes. If you choose to watch a country, its country code and your watch or unwatch choice are also saved under your account. If you choose to watch a search, its title, the country you watched it in and when you started watching are saved there too, until you stop watching it. Collections, pinned countries, and other settings stay in this browser.

2. Optional account & cross-device sync

If you choose to Sign in with Google (an optional feature to sync your saved items, watched countries or watched searches across devices), sign-in is handled by Google Firebase Authentication:

• Google provides us your account’s unique ID, email address, display name, and profile photo. We use the unique ID as the key to store your data; your email, name, and photo are used only to show you who is signed in and are not written to our synced record.
• Your saved items and history are then stored in Google Cloud Firestore under your account and synced in real time across your signed-in devices. When you first sign in, items you saved anonymously on that device are merged up into your synced account.
• Countries are added to your account only when you choose to watch them. We store each selected country’s code and whether you watch it. Stopping a watch keeps a false choice for that code; it does not erase every record of your earlier interest. Different devices can update the same country, and an older choice made while offline may reach the server later and replace a newer choice. Watching a country does not enroll you in alerts. Your pinned countries and other settings stay on your device.
• Searches are added to your account only when you choose to watch one. We store the search’s title, the country you watched it in and when you started watching. Stopping a watch deletes that record. Different devices can update the same search, and an older choice made while offline may reach the server later and replace a newer choice. Watching a search does not enroll you in alerts.
• Google (as the identity provider) maintains your sign-in session in your browser so you stay logged in until you sign out.

Google’s handling of this data is governed by the Google Privacy Policy. Signing out stops new account sync in this browser, although a country- or search-watch change already queued while offline may still reach Firestore later. You can request deletion of your synced data (see “Your choices”).

3. Push notifications (optional)

If you enable “Trend Surge Alerts,” your browser creates a push subscription. We store only what is needed to deliver notifications: an opaque per-browser push endpoint URL, the public encryption keys your browser generates, the country you selected (so we only send alerts relevant to that region), and your per-install identifier (section 1), which ties the subscription to the live events you follow so their alerts can reach this browser. This is not linked to any account, and the country is your chosen setting — it is not derived from your IP or location.

Notifications are delivered through your browser’s push service (for example Google’s FCM on Chrome, Mozilla on Firefox, or Apple on Safari), which necessarily sees the delivery endpoint. Payloads are encrypted so only your browser can read them. You can turn alerts off in Settings at any time, which unsubscribes your browser and deletes the stored subscription.

4. Usage signals (Community Picks)

To power the “Community Picks” board (what people save and share most), when you save or share an item we send our own backend the item’s details plus a one-way SHA-256 hash of the per-install identifier described in section 1. The hash lets us count one vote per browser install; there is no account, cookie, name, email, or IP tied to it. It is not anonymous to us, though: the same install always produces the same hash, and your browser sends the identifier itself on its other requests (section 1).

5. Search

Search looks across the trend data we have already gathered. To return results, your browser sends the words you type to our own server. Results update as you type, so what you have typed so far can be sent before you have finished — a search you began and then deleted may already have reached us. It is not one request per keystroke: we wait for a brief pause in your typing, ignore repeats, and send nothing at all until you have typed at least two characters. Searching is optional: the rest of the Service works without it.

One case is worth calling out, because the search term need not be yours: opening a shared or bookmarked /search?q=… link runs that search immediately, with no typing at all. If you would rather send us no search term, do not open such a link and do not use Search.

The Google Trends page also has a filter. It works in your browser and sends no request as you type, but its text appears in the page address (/google?q=…). Opening or reloading that address, including a shared or bookmarked link, sends the filter text to our front-end server as part of the requested address. It can therefore appear in the standard hosting logs described below. The filter text is not written to a database, used to build a profile or target advertising, sold, or given to advertisers or data brokers.

What you type has exactly two uses, and we would rather name both than write “only” and be wrong. The first is answering your search. The second is that the request is recorded in the standard server log described under “Server logs & IP address” below, which we use to keep the Service running and to find and fix problems with it. Beyond those two, nothing: it is not written to a database, not attached to your saved items or to a signed-in account, not used to build a profile of you or to target advertising, and not sold. We do not give search terms to advertisers or to data brokers. Our servers run on Google Cloud, which does receive these requests, and keeps the logs described under “Server logs & IP address” below, in order to run the Service for us — as our hosting provider, on our instructions, and not for its own purposes.

Two consequences are worth stating plainly. First, your search appears in the page address (?q=), so your browser can keep it in its own history and it will be included if you bookmark or share that link. Second, as described under “Server logs & IP address” below, the platform that hosts us records a standard log entry for each request, and that entry contains the requested address — which for a search contains the words you searched for. Those entries are kept for a limited operational period, and we use them only to run and secure the Service, to monitor whether it is working properly, and to diagnose and fix problems with it. Because those entries exist and are kept, we describe search terms as collected, rather than as discarded the instant your results come back.

6. Performance, security & optional usage counts

To keep the Service fast and secure, your browser may send us:

• performance measurements (page-load timing metrics and the page path). They also include your browser’s own timing details for the page, which can name the full page address and a measured image — on the Saved page, that can be the picture of one of your saved items. Our structured performance log keeps the summarized measurements and page path, not the raw timing entries; and
• automatic browser reports if our Content-Security-Policy blocks something (used to fix security-policy issues).

These are sent only to our own systems and appear in our server logs; they are not shared with any third-party analytics provider. We use no third-party analytics or tracking SDKs; advertising is described in its own section below.

Optional action counts

You can choose to help us improve the Service by turning on “Optional action counts” in Settings. This is off by default. When enabled, a sample of basic actions — opening a search result or trend detail, using its history, save or share controls, or following a video detail page’s country, category, video or channel links or opening its channel details — can be sent to our own server. Each report contains only a fixed action name, where the action occurred — Search, the search menu, a trend detail page or a video detail page — and a format version. It contains no search words, item titles or IDs, page addresses, country, account ID, or per-install identifier. These counts are separate from the Community Picks signals described in section 4.

We sample about one in ten times the site is loaded, with at most twenty action reports until the next reload. Reports are not stored in your browser and failed reports are not queued by your browser. We do not store individual action reports. The server keeps only combined hourly counts, which expire 24 hours after the start of their UTC hour. To prevent a retried report from being counted twice, it also keeps a random delivery receipt and its hour. Expired totals and receipts are normally deleted within six more hours; a cleanup failure may delay deletion. The counts and receipts contain no account, install or visitor identifier and cannot connect actions across tabs or devices.

The same optional choice also covers a visibility calibration for trend-detail headings, which is disabled by default. When enabled, it randomly assigns one of two groups that show the same heading. The group is kept only for the open page, survives navigation within it, and starts over on reload or in a new tab. It is not stored. A report can be sent once while at least half the heading is visible in the active tab; it contains only a fixed experiment version and group label in place of the action location. These reports share the sampling and limits above. They do not identify you, link your actions together or measure advertising revenue.

Your choice stays in this browser and is not synced with your account. You can turn it off at any time in Settings. A browser’s Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track preference also keeps this reporting off, even if you previously enabled it. This choice is separate from advertising consent. Our hosting provider still records the ordinary request information described below, including your IP address and the fixed reporting address, /api/product-events. The action report does not include the page you were viewing.

7. Server logs & IP address

Like virtually all websites, our servers and hosting provider (Google Cloud) record standard request logs. Each entry includes your IP address and the address that was requested — which may contain the country you are viewing, the words you searched for when you run a search, Google Trends filter text when you load an address containing it, and the titles and IDs of saved items described under “Your Saved page” when you open it. Because the pages you see fetch their data through our own server, such a request is recorded by that front-end server and by the backend it calls.

We use your IP address transiently to rate-limit abuse; we do not use it to build a profile of you or to determine your location for content. We use these logs to run and secure the Service, to monitor whether it is working properly, and to diagnose and fix problems with it — not to mine them for what people search for. They are kept for a limited operational period set by our hosting provider, which processes them on our behalf.

8. Third-party content shown in the Service

SocialTrends displays content from other platforms. When that content loads in your browser, the relevant third party can see your IP address and which items you viewed (standard for any embedded content). These include:

• Thumbnail images loaded from an image-resizing service (wsrv.nl) and directly from the source platforms’ image servers (e.g. YouTube, Dailymotion, Reddit, Twitch). To resize a thumbnail, the image service receives the source image URL.
• Bluesky posts and images. The Bluesky board shows the topic list Bluesky publishes, and for the top topic a single image from a public post, together with the posting account’s handle and a link to that post. Those images are routed through the resizing service above, so your browser is not asked to contact Bluesky’s servers to display them. We do not store Bluesky profile data, and we do not show accounts that have marked themselves as not visible to logged-out viewers.
• Embedded video players — YouTube and Dailymotion. The YouTube player itself loads from the privacy-enhanced youtube-nocookie.com domain; YouTube’s player script is loaded from youtube.com. When an embedded player loads — including when a shared video link opens it automatically — the provider receives the player request and may set its own cookies. Playing or interacting with the video may send additional information to the provider. Your use of these players is subject to YouTube’s and Dailymotion’s policies.
• Google Sign-In and Firestore (Google/Firebase). Your saved items, history, and explicit country- and search-watch choices are sent to Firestore only if you sign in to sync. On phones, tablets and Safari, however, the sign-in component loads a small Google sign-in frame when a page opens, even if you never sign in. That request tells Google which site it is for and, like any request, your IP address and browser details — nothing you have saved.

Our fonts are self-hosted (not fetched from Google), and all trend data is fetched through our own server, so your browser does not talk to our backend directly.

9. Advertising

SocialTrends is free to use and is funded by advertising. Some pages show ads served by Google AdSense. Ads do not appear in the video player, in article and trend readers, in Search, in your saved items, or on the settings and policy pages.

When an ad loads, Google receives your IP address, the address of the page you are on, and the information your browser sends with any request. Google and its certified partners may use cookies or similar identifiers to measure ads and — where you have consented, or where the law otherwise allows it — to personalise them based on your visits to this and other sites. How Google uses this data is described in Google’s advertising page and in how Google uses information from sites that use its services.

Your choice. If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland, a consent dialog appears before personalised ads are shown; you can decline there and keep using the Service. Change or withdraw that choice at any time via “Your privacy choices” in the page footer (in some US states that same control opens the “do not sell or share” choice). Anywhere else, you can opt out of personalised advertising at Google Ads Settings or aboutads.info. Ads still appear, but they are not based on your interests.

We do not give Google, or anyone else, your search terms, your saved items, or your account details for advertising. An ad request carries only what your browser sends when it loads any page.

10. Cookies & local storage

Apart from advertising (above), SocialTrends sets no cross-site tracking cookies. The browser storage we use ourselves remembers your settings and saved items (described above), including your choice about optional action counts, and, if you sign in, the Google sign-in session your browser keeps you logged in with. Only the action-count preference is stored locally; action reports and sampling decisions are not. Google’s advertising script stores its own identifiers on this site — cookies such as __gads, __gpi and __eoi, a record of your consent choice, and a few local-storage entries — only as described under “Advertising”; clearing this site’s data removes them. Embedded video players (YouTube, Dailymotion) may set their own cookies when you play a video; those are governed by the respective provider.

11. How your information is shared

We do not sell your personal information — your search terms included — and we do not give it to data brokers. Advertising is the one case where a third party receives data from your browser for its own purposes: Google, as described under “Advertising”, with the choices listed there. Some US state laws treat personalised advertising as “sharing” personal information; the choice reachable from “Your privacy choices” is how you opt out of it. Otherwise data is only ever involved with the parties needed to run the optional features you choose: Google/Firebase (sign-in and sync — though some browsers contact its sign-in frame on every page, as described under “Third-party content shown in the Service”), your browser’s push service (notifications), and the content providers whose media you view (as above). Our hosting and logging run on Google Cloud, which receives and processes those requests and logs on our behalf, as our service provider.

12. Data retention

• On-device data stays until you clear your browser data.
• Synced data (if you sign in), including watched-country choices, stopped-watch records and watched searches, stays in Firestore until you ask us to delete your synced data. Stopping a country watch keeps its country code with a false choice; stopping a search watch deletes its record.
• Optional action counts are stored as hourly totals and expire 24 hours after the start of each UTC hour. A random delivery receipt and its hour prevent duplicate counting; a receipt expires with its hourly total. Expired totals and receipts are normally deleted within six more hours; a cleanup failure may delay deletion. Individual action reports are not stored in the database or application logs; ordinary hosting request logs still apply as described above.
• Push subscriptions stay until you turn alerts off, are automatically removed when your push service reports the subscription as expired, and are in any case deleted 90 days after your browser last checked in.
• Live-event follows kept on our server under your per-install identifier are deleted when you unfollow, and in any case 90 days after their last update.
• Server logs — including the request-address entries described above, which for a search contain the words you searched for, for a Google Trends address may contain filter text, and for the Saved page the titles and IDs of saved items — are kept for a limited operational period set by our hosting configuration. We use them to run, secure, monitor and troubleshoot the Service, not to profile you.

13. Your choices & rights

• Use the Service without an account — do not sign in.
• Avoid sending search terms to us by not using Search or opening links containing ?q=, including Google Trends filter links. The rest of the Service works without these.
• Clear your browser’s site data to erase everything stored locally.
• Sign out to stop new account sync in this browser; a country- or search-watch change already queued while offline may still arrive later. Your Google account remains with Google.
• Stop watching a country to remove it from your watch list; this retains its country code in your synced data.
• Stop watching a search to delete it from your synced data.
• Turn off Trend Surge Alerts to unsubscribe and delete your push subscription.
• Unfollow a live event to delete the follow kept under your per-install identifier.
• Keep optional action counts off, or turn them off in Settings. Global Privacy Control and Do Not Track also keep this reporting off.
• Decline or withdraw consent for personalised ads via “Your privacy choices” in the page footer (where a consent dialog applies), or opt out at Google Ads Settings (see “Advertising”).
• To access or delete your synced data, email admin@socialtrends.app with the subject “Privacy request.” Depending on your region, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, or port your data, and to object to certain processing.

14. Children

SocialTrends is not directed to children under 13 (or the equivalent minimum age in your country), and we do not knowingly collect their personal information. Note that trending content aggregated from third parties is not curated for children.

15. International processing

The optional Google/Firebase features and our Google Cloud hosting may process data on servers located in various countries. By using those optional features you understand your data may be processed outside your country of residence.

16. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. Material changes will be reflected by updating the “Last updated” date above; significant changes may be highlighted in the Service.

17. Contact

Questions or requests? Email admin@socialtrends.app. See also our Terms and Disclaimer.