Privacy policy
Last updated: 11 September 2026
RealView is a Chrome extension that changes which view metric YouTube Studio displays. This page describes everything it does with data.
The short version
RealView collects nothing, transmits nothing to its developer, and shares nothing with anyone. There are no accounts, no analytics, no tracking, and no advertising. Every figure it handles stays in your browser.
What it processes
RealView runs only on https://studio.youtube.com. On those pages it reads the
analytics data that YouTube Studio has already loaded for your own channel: view
counts, the figures behind the charts, and the tables that break those figures
down. It uses them to work out which numbers to replace, and replaces them
before Studio draws the page.
To get the engaged-view figures, RealView asks YouTube’s own analytics service
for them, at the same studio.youtube.com address Studio itself uses, using the
session you are already signed in with. Those requests go to YouTube and nowhere
else. The answers are used to draw the page and are held in memory only. Most
are kept for a minute, so that moving between screens does not ask the same
question twice. The last good answer to each question is kept for up to fifteen
minutes, so that a screen can still show engaged figures if YouTube’s service
fails to answer. Your videos’ publish times are kept while the page is open.
None of this is written to disk.
This processing happens entirely on your computer. None of it is sent to the developer of this extension or to any third party.
What it stores
RealView stores four settings, the ones shown in its toolbar popup:
- whether to show engaged views
- whether to colour the charts red
- whether to show the update notice in Studio
- whether to write diagnostic messages to the browser console
They are stored with the Chrome storage.sync API, which is what Chrome
provides for keeping a user’s settings across the browsers they are signed into.
If you have Chrome sync switched on, Chrome carries these four settings to your
other Chrome profiles, in the same way it carries your bookmarks. That transfer
is between you and Chrome. The developer of this extension cannot see it.
So that it can tell you what changed after an update, RealView also stores three
small values on this computer only, with the Chrome storage.local API:
- the last version whose changes you have seen
- whether an update is waiting to be read
- the version whose update notice has already been shown
These are version numbers and a yes-or-no flag. They say nothing about you or your channel, and they never leave your browser.
Nothing else is stored. RealView does not use cookies, the page’s local or session storage, or a database, and it keeps no record of the analytics figures it reads.
What it does not do
- It does not collect personally identifiable information, health information, financial information, credentials, personal communications, or location.
- It does not read your browsing history or record what pages you visit. It runs on one site and does nothing anywhere else.
- It does not track clicks, scrolling, mouse movement or keystrokes.
- It does not sell or transfer any data, and it does not use data for anything unrelated to replacing the view figures in YouTube Studio.
- It does not modify your channel. It changes what Studio shows you. Your viewers, your public view counts and your channel’s data are untouched.
Permissions
RealView requests two permissions, both needed for the single purpose above:
storage, required by the Chrome APIs that save the settings and the update record.- Access to
https://studio.youtube.com/*, the one site whose figures it changes. No other site is matched, and no request is made to any other domain.
Removing your data
The settings and the update record are the only data that persists. Removing the extension from Chrome deletes both. You can change the settings at any time from the popup.
Children
RealView is a tool for people who manage a YouTube channel. It is not directed at children and collects nothing from anyone.
Changes
If this policy changes, the updated version will appear here with a new date at the top.
Contact
Questions and problems can be raised at https://github.com/RealViewExtension/RealViewExtension/issues.
This page mirrors the PRIVACY.md file in the extension’s repository.