Reel Time: Privacy Policy

Reel Time by Hall House Labs · Last updated: October 16, 2026

The short version: Reel Time keeps everything on your device. We don’t have servers, accounts or analytics, and the extension sends nothing about your browsing anywhere. The only network call is an optional one-time license-key check with Gumroad if you buy the unlock. We can’t see your data, because we never receive it.

What Reel Time stores

In your browser’s local extension storage (chrome.storage.local) on your device, Reel Time saves:

• How many seconds you spent on short-video pages today and on recent days (per site: YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, TikTok), kept for up to about 120 days so it can show streaks and a weekly chart.
• Your settings: daily budgets, which sites are limited, and display options.
• The date you installed it, and, if you buy the unlock, your license key.

This data stays in your browser profile. It isn’t sent to Hall House Labs or anyone else. “Delete all my history” in Settings, or removing the extension, erases it.

What the extension looks at on youtube.com, instagram.com and tiktok.com

• It checks the address (URL path) of the page to tell whether you’re on a short-video page (for example a YouTube Shorts page), and whether the tab is currently visible. That is how it counts time.
• When your budget is spent it shows a break card over the page and pauses any playing video.
• It does not read page text, account names, comments, messages, search terms, video titles or what you watch. It does not read cookies, passwords or form fields.
• Pages on other websites are never touched. The extension only runs on the three sites above.

What we don’t do

• No accounts or sign-in.
• No analytics, telemetry, crash reporting, advertising or tracking.
• No network requests, except one optional check: if you buy the unlock and click Activate, your license key is sent to Gumroad (api.gumroad.com) to confirm it is valid. Nothing else is ever sent: no watch time, no page addresses, no browsing information. No remote code is loaded.
• No selling, sharing or transferring of user data.

License keys and payment

The free version limits YouTube Shorts to 15 minutes a day. A one-time unlock adds Instagram Reels and TikTok, custom budgets per site, and streak stats. Reel Time itself does not collect payments or payment details. Gumroad license keys are checked once with Gumroad when you click Activate (Gumroad’s own privacy policy applies to that request); after that, the result is saved on your device. Keys we issue directly are checked on your device with a digital-signature check. The extension asks Chrome for permission to contact api.gumroad.com only at that moment.

Not affiliated

Reel Time is an independent tool by Hall House Labs. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by YouTube, Google, Instagram, Meta or TikTok. Those names belong to their owners and are used only to describe the pages the extension works on.

Children

Reel Time is a general-purpose tool and isn’t directed at children under 13. We don’t collect any personal information from anyone.

Changes

If this policy changes, the new version will be published with the extension update and the “last updated” date above will change.

Contact

Questions: german@hallhouselabs.com