Privacy Policy

SubstackToYT turns your written articles into short videos and, when you approve them, posts those videos to social accounts you have connected. This page explains exactly what we store, why, and how to get rid of it. It is written to be read, not to be survived.

Two things worth knowing up front.

1. We never post anything you have not seen and approved. Every video stops at a preview page. You choose which accounts it goes to, and nothing is published until you press the button.

2. We never sell your data, and we never post on your behalf for our own purposes — no promotion of this product, no anything, on any account.

1. Your account

Name and email address, from Google sign-in — so you have an account and we can email you when a video is ready.
Your Google account identifier (the sub claim from Google's OpenID Connect) — this is how we recognise you on your next sign-in. We never receive your Google password.
Phone number, verified by SMS — used once, to deter people creating accounts in bulk to abuse the paid APIs behind this service. We do not use it for marketing and we never share it.
Plan and usage: whether you are on free or Pro, and how many videos you have made this month.

2. Your videos

The article you submit, either as a URL we fetch or as text you paste.
The video and its parts: the script, the generated images, the voiceover, the finished MP4 and a small thumbnail.
Details about it: title, format, when it was created, its status, and when it was posted.

Finished videos are kept for 30 days after being posted, then the files are removed and only the thumbnail and the links are kept. Videos you have not posted are kept indefinitely on Pro, and for 30 days on the free plan. You can delete any video yourself at any time.

3. Connected accounts

You can connect any of these, or none. Connecting one is what lets us post there; it is also the only reason we store anything about it. The columns below are exactly what is in our database.

YouTube

What we store	Why
Access and refresh tokens	To upload a video to your channel when you approve it, and to read its statistics.
Which permissions you granted	So we can tell you if analytics need reconnecting, instead of failing silently.
Video ids of what we posted	To link you to the video and to fetch its numbers.
Views, likes, comments, watch time, average view duration, subscribers gained	To show you how the video did.

We never read your other videos, your subscriptions, your comments or your private data. We upload what you approve and read the statistics of what we uploaded.

Instagram

What we store	Why
Access token and its expiry	To publish an approved video as a Reel.
Your Instagram account id and username	The id is what publishing is addressed to; the username is so the app can tell you which account is connected.
Which permissions you granted	As above — so a missing analytics permission is something we can tell you about.
The media id and permalink of each Reel we posted	To link you to it and to fetch its numbers.
Views, reach, likes, comments, saves and shares	To show you how the Reel did.

We do not read your feed, your followers, your messages or anyone else's posts.

Facebook Page

What we store	Why
Page access token and its expiry	To post an approved video to your Page.
Your Page id and Page name	The id is what posting is addressed to; the name is so the app can tell you which Page is connected.
Your app-scoped Facebook user id	So that when you remove the app or ask Facebook to delete your data, we can find your connection and delete it.
Which permissions you granted	As above.
The video id and permalink of each post	To link you to it and to fetch its numbers.
Views, impressions, comments, watch time and reactions	To show you how the post did.

We post to a Page you administer, never to your personal profile, and we do not read your friends, your timeline or your messages.

What we store	Why
Access token, refresh token and expiry	To create a video pin when you approve one. The refresh token is what keeps the connection alive without asking you to reconnect every 30 days.
Your board id and board name	Pins have to go on a board; the name is so the app can tell you which one.
Which permissions you granted	As above.
The pin id of each pin we created	To link you to it and to fetch its numbers.
Impressions, saves and outbound clicks	To show you how the pin did.

TikTok

What we store	Why
Access token, refresh token and their expiry times	To post a video to your TikTok account when you approve it, and to read the statistics of videos we posted. TikTok access tokens last 24 hours; the refresh token is what lets us get a new one without asking you to reconnect every day. Both are encrypted (see section 10).
Your TikTok open_id	TikTok's identifier for your account within SubstackToYT. It is how TikTok's responses refer to you.
Your TikTok display name and avatar link	So the app can show you which TikTok account is connected.
Which permissions you granted	As above. We ask for exactly three: user.info.basic (your display name and avatar), video.publish (posting) and video.list (statistics).
The posting settings you chose for a scheduled post	Who can see it, whether comments, Duet and Stitch are allowed, any content disclosure, and the caption — so a scheduled post goes out exactly as you set it. Removed once the post goes out or you cancel the schedule.
The publish id, video id and link of each post we made	To link you to the post and to fetch its numbers. TikTok only gives us a video id once a post is public.
Views, likes, comments and shares	To show you how each video did. TikTok only reports these for public videos, so a private post shows no numbers.

Each time you post, we also ask TikTok which privacy options and interaction settings your account allows, so the choices on the posting page match your account. That answer, including your TikTok username, is used for that page and that post and is not stored, apart from the link to the finished post. We only ever ask TikTok about videos we posted for you — we do not read your other videos, your followers, your messages or anyone else's content.

To post, we upload the finished video file directly to TikTok. That is the only copy of the video TikTok receives from us.

4. Google and YouTube data

SubstackToYT's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs to any other app will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

SubstackToYT uses YouTube API Services. By connecting your YouTube account, you agree to the YouTube Terms of Service, and Google's Privacy Policy applies to your use of YouTube.

You can revoke SubstackToYT's access to your Google and YouTube data at any time from Google's security settings page, as well as with Disconnect on our Account page.

What we do not do with Google user data:

We do not use it for advertising.
We do not sell it.
We do not let people read it, unless you have given us permission, it is needed for security (such as investigating abuse), or the law requires it.
We do not use it to train AI models.

5. Where your article text goes

Making a video means sending parts of your article to services that can do things we cannot do ourselves. Each is a processor acting on our instructions, under its own privacy policy:

Anthropic — receives your article text to write the script. (Privacy policy)
fal.ai — receives the image descriptions from that script to generate the visuals. (Privacy policy)
ElevenLabs — receives the narration text to record the voiceover. (Privacy policy) Microsoft Edge text-to-speech is used as a fallback when ElevenLabs is unavailable.
Stripe — handles payment. We store your Stripe customer and subscription ids; we never see or store your card number. (Privacy policy)
Twilio — sends the one verification SMS. (Privacy policy)
Resend — sends our transactional email: the notice that your video is ready, and the messages you send us through the support form. It receives the recipient's email address and the content of the message. (Privacy policy)
Google — sign-in and YouTube. (Privacy policy)
Meta — Instagram and Facebook. (Privacy policy)
Pinterest — (Privacy policy)
TikTok — posting to and reading statistics from the TikTok account you connect. (Privacy policy)

We do not send your name, email, phone number or account details to the script, image or voice services. They receive the article and nothing about you.

6. Technical data

One session cookie, so you stay signed in. It is strictly necessary, and it does not follow you to other sites. We use no advertising, analytics or third-party tracking cookies.
Server logs containing IP addresses and request times, kept for up to 30 days, used to investigate abuse and errors.

7. Disconnecting an account

Every connection can be removed on its own, at any time, from the Account page — there is a Disconnect button beside each one. Disconnecting deletes that platform's token immediately, so we can no longer post there or read anything from it.

You can also remove this app from the platform's own settings. If you do that on Instagram or Facebook, Meta tells us, and we delete that platform's tokens automatically.

For TikTok, Disconnect also withdraws SubstackToYT's authorisation at TikTok itself, then deletes the tokens, your open_id, display name and avatar link from our database. If you instead remove SubstackToYT in TikTok's own app settings, TikTok does not notify us, but our tokens stop working; we delete them the next time we try to use them, and you can also press Disconnect to delete them straight away.

Videos already published stay published. They live on the platform, not here, so removing a connection does not take them down — delete those from the platform itself. Our record of what we posted (the post id, link and last figures) stays on your dashboard until you delete that video or your account.

8. Deleting everything

Delete my account, at the bottom of the Account page, removes all of it: your account, every video and its files, every connected account and every token, and every stored post link and performance figure. Any subscription is cancelled, your YouTube authorisation is withdrawn at Google, and your TikTok authorisation is withdrawn at TikTok. It asks you to type the word DELETE first, and it cannot be undone.

Instagram and Facebook data deletion requests

If you ask Instagram or Facebook to delete the data an app holds about you, Meta sends that request to us automatically and we act on it without you needing to do anything here. Those requests reach us at:

https://substacktoyt.com/instagram/data-deletion
https://substacktoyt.com/facebook/data-deletion

We delete that platform's token, the connected account's id and name, and the post ids, links and figures for anything we posted there. You then get a confirmation code and a page showing exactly what was removed and when. A request about Instagram removes Instagram data only — it does not touch your other connections, your videos or your account. To remove those as well, use Delete my account above.

TikTok data deletion

To delete what we hold about your TikTok account, press Disconnect beside TikTok on the Account page — that removes the tokens, open_id, display name and avatar link and withdraws our authorisation at TikTok. To remove the record of your TikTok posts and their figures too, delete those videos or use Delete my account. You can also email us at the address in section 15 and we will do it for you.

9. How long we keep things

Account data: for as long as your account exists.
Video files: 30 days after posting, or 30 days on the free plan if never posted. Pro accounts keep unposted videos until deleted.
Tokens: until you disconnect, delete your account, or the platform expires them.
Deletion receipts: kept after the data is gone, so a confirmation code still works. They record what was deleted and when — never what it was.
Server logs: up to 30 days.

10. How we protect your data

Security procedures are in place to protect the confidentiality of your data, and we use encryption to protect your information both in transit and at rest. In practice, that means:

Encrypted in transit. Every connection to SubstackToYT uses HTTPS (TLS), and a plain-HTTP request is redirected to HTTPS. Our sign-in cookie is only ever sent over HTTPS and cannot be read by scripts on the page. Our connections to Google, Meta, Pinterest, TikTok, Stripe and the other services listed in section 5 are encrypted too.
Connection tokens encrypted at rest. The access and refresh tokens that let us post to YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and TikTok are encrypted (AES-128 with an HMAC-SHA256 integrity check) before they are written to our database, and are decrypted only in memory when they are needed to post or to fetch statistics. The encryption key is kept separately from the database, so a copy of the database on its own does not reveal them.
Secrets kept out of our code. API keys, the encryption key and every other credential are stored as environment variables with our hosting provider, Railway — never in our source code or its repository.
Restricted access. Access to our production servers, database and hosting account is limited to the founder.
Only the permissions we need. For each platform we ask only for what posting your approved videos and reading their statistics requires — section 3 lists what each connection is used for. We never ask for access to your messages or your contacts.
Payments handled by Stripe. Card details are entered on Stripe's own checkout page and go directly to Stripe. They never touch our servers; we keep only your Stripe customer and subscription ids.
Keeping as little as possible. Disconnecting an account deletes its token immediately (section 7), Delete my account removes everything (section 8), and video files are removed automatically on the schedule in section 9.
If something goes wrong. If a security breach affects your personal data, we will notify you, and the authorities where required, as the law requires.

11. Your rights

You can see everything we hold about you in the app itself, change your connections at any time, and delete all of it from the Account page. If you would rather ask us, email jpeschenbach@gmail.com and we will respond within 30 days. Depending on where you live you may also have the right to a copy of your data, to correct it, or to object to how it is used — the same address covers all of those.

12. We never sell your data

Not to advertisers, not to data brokers, not to anyone, in any form.

13. Children

SubstackToYT is not for children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect anything from them. If you believe a child has given us personal information, contact us and we will delete it.

14. Changes to this policy

If we change something material, we will email registered users. The date at the top of this page always reflects the most recent revision.

15. Contact

Questions, concerns, or something here that does not match what the app actually does? Email jpeschenbach@gmail.com.