Privacy policy

Effective 3 October 2026 · updated 11 October 2026 · applies to the Tubik app for iPhone and iPad and to this website

Who is responsible

Tubik is a personal project of Vladimir Skromny, Zurich, Switzerland ("we", "us"). For questions about this policy, use the contact options on the support page.

What stays on your device

The app stores the following locally, in the app's private storage on your device. None of it is sent to us or to anyone else.

• Parent PIN — stored only as a salted hash, protected by the system keychain.
• Child profiles — a picture chosen from built-in animal drawings, a colour, an age band (3–4, 5–6 or 7–9), interest tags, the preferred video language and time settings. We never ask for a child's name, date of birth or photo.
• Your setup — approved channels, hidden videos, categories, keyword rules and time budgets.
• Activity — which videos were watched and for how long, and the results of the short tasks between videos. This powers the timer and the weekly report you see in parent mode. It is kept for 90 days and you can delete it per profile at any time.
• Insights — the watch-time overview and patterns in parent mode are calculated and stored only on your device from the activity above. They are never sent anywhere.
• Cached video information — titles, thumbnails and durations of videos from your approved channels, so the shelf loads quickly. Videos themselves are never downloaded or stored. Information we received from the YouTube API is refreshed or deleted within 30 days.

Your device's own backup (for example iCloud Backup, if you use it) may include the app's storage, as with any app. That backup is handled by Apple under your Apple account, not by us.

Services from YouTube and Google

Tubik is not affiliated with YouTube or Google. To show and play videos it uses YouTube API Services:

YouTube embedded player

Videos play in YouTube's official IFrame player, unmodified, inside the app. We load it in YouTube's privacy-enhanced mode (youtube-nocookie.com) and treat every video with the settings YouTube requires for content made for children. When a video plays, YouTube receives data such as your IP address, device and browser information and how the player is used (for example play and pause), as it does for any embedded video. The recipient is Google LLC, USA (for users in the EU, EEA and Switzerland, Google Ireland Limited). YouTube may show its own ads in the player. We have no access to this data and no control over it. Player cookies are cleared when a child session ends. You do not sign in to YouTube in Tubik.

YouTube Data API

When you add a channel by link or search for one by name in parent mode, and whenever the app refreshes the video lists of your approved channels, it sends requests to the YouTube Data API. These contain the channel or video IDs, or the search words you typed, together with the app's API key. The recipient of these requests, including the search terms you type in parent mode, is Google LLC, USA (for users in the EU, EEA and Switzerland, Google Ireland Limited). They tell Google nothing about your child and are not linked to any account. The app reads public information only — titles, thumbnails, durations and whether a video is made for children and may be embedded. Tubik never posts, likes, subscribes or creates anything on YouTube. Searching is available in parent mode only and is limited to 3 searches per device per day; the results of a search are cached on your device for 24 hours. Thumbnails are loaded from Google's image servers.

By using Tubik you are also bound by the YouTube Terms of Service. Google's handling of data is described in the Google Privacy Policy. You can revoke access to your data through Google's security settings, although Tubik does not request access to any Google account. Our own terms are on the terms of use page.

Children

Tubik is a tool for parents. Children use it only in child mode, which a parent starts. We do not collect personal information from children. When a child session starts, the app refreshes the video lists of the approved channels through the YouTube Data API — the same requests as in parent mode, containing only channel or playlist IDs and the app's API key, nothing about your child. Apart from that, child mode only plays the approved videos in YouTube's player and loads their thumbnails; it never triggers a search.

Permissions

Tubik does not use the camera, microphone, photos, contacts, location or notifications, and it does not ask to track you. If you turn on Face ID for parent mode, the check happens entirely in iOS; the app only learns whether it succeeded.

Crash reports

We do not include any crash-reporting SDK. If you have chosen to share analytics with app developers in your iPhone or iPad settings, Apple may pass anonymised crash reports to us. You can change this in Settings › Privacy & Security › Analytics & Improvements.

Deleting your data

Because we hold no data, there is nothing to request from us. To delete everything, use "Reset app" in Tubik's settings or delete the app. Activity history can be deleted per profile in parent mode.

Your rights

Under the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection and, where it applies, the GDPR, you have rights of access, rectification, erasure and objection. As we do not process personal data about you, these rights are fulfilled by the controls on your own device. You can still contact us with any question, and you may complain to a data protection authority.

This website

This site is hosted on GitHub Pages. It uses no cookies, no analytics and no third-party scripts; fonts are served from this site. GitHub may log technical data such as IP addresses to operate and secure the service — see the GitHub Privacy Statement.

Platforms

Tubik is currently available for iPhone and iPad only. This policy will be updated before the app is offered on any other platform.

Changes

If this policy changes, the new version will be published on this page with a new effective date.