Privacy policy

NumberReels is a video site. You can watch everything on it without an account. The only things you can choose to give us are an email address (for the newsletter, or to hear when a reel you requested is made) and the text of a reel request.

What is stored on your device

The site keeps a few small things in your browser’s local storage: whether you have muted the player, whether you chose the light or dark theme, which clips you have watched (so it can mark new ones and show your progress through a series), your guesses in “guess the number”, which poll options you voted for, and whether you have dismissed the introduction and swipe hints. All of it stays on your device, is readable only by this site, and is never sent anywhere. Clearing your browser data removes it.

Analytics

We measure how the site is used with Google Analytics 4: which pages are viewed, and events such as a clip being played or watched to the end, a share, a vote or a signup. Results are seen in aggregate; we do not use them to identify you, and Google Analytics does not store IP addresses. Page addresses are recorded without their query strings, so nothing you type into search is included. Embedded players on other websites run no analytics at all.

Google Analytics uses first-party cookies (named _ga) to tell a returning visitor from a new one. If you are in the EEA, the UK or Switzerland, those cookies are only set once you consent; until then only cookieless, aggregate measurements are sent. Google processes this data under its partner-sites policy, and you can opt out entirely with Google’s Analytics opt-out add-on.

With those events the player also reports how well playback went: how long the video took to start, how many times it paused to buffer, and whether it had to switch to a simpler video format. These are measurements of the connection and the player, not of you, and are counted in aggregate like everything else above.

To rank what is trending, the site also counts plays per clip per day in its own data store. The same store keeps poll tallies and the average answer to “guess the number”. To count each visitor once, it keeps a one-way, salted hash of your IP address next to the action — never the address itself, and never linked to anything else — which expires after at most 30 days (or when a poll closes). Daily play counts are deleted after 16 days.

Newsletter

The newsletter is run by Buttondown. If you subscribe, your email address, the page you signed up from, and your IP address (which Buttondown uses to filter spam signups) are sent to Buttondown and handled under its privacy policy. You confirm your address before anything is sent, and every email has a one-click unsubscribe.

Reel requests

A reel request is published as a public issue on GitHub so others can see and upvote it. Only the text you write in the form is published. If you ask to be emailed when it is made, your address goes to Buttondown (see above) — it is never added to the public request.

Server logs

The site is hosted on Firebase App Hosting (Google Cloud), and its videos are served from content delivery networks (Cloudflare for the video files, and Bunny.net for the adaptive stream the player uses). Like any web host, these record standard request information — IP address, time, page requested, browser user agent — to serve pages and to spot abuse. We do not combine that with anything else or use it to identify you.

Advertising

This site does not currently display advertising, and no advertising cookies are set (the only cookies are the analytics ones described above). If that changes, this page will be updated before any ad is served, and visitors in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland will be asked for consent first.

Embedded content

Some pages link to the same clip on YouTube. Following such a link takes you to Google, whose own privacy policy applies. Nothing from YouTube is loaded into these pages unless you click through.

Children

This site is not directed at children under 13 and does not knowingly collect information from them.

Contact

Questions about any of this can go to the address on the contact page.