How TranscriptBinder works without uploading your data
Most "YouTube transcript" tools work by sending the video link to a server, which fetches the captions and sends the text back. TranscriptBinder takes a different route: your own browser reads the captions, and the document is built on your computer. There is no account, no upload, and no server that ever sees which videos you collect. This guide explains what actually happens, step by step, and what the extension's permissions are for.
The three pieces
- The dashboard (
binder.hogisimlab.com/app) is a web page served as static files. It has no login and no database. It shows the forms, builds the Word, PDF, TXT and Markdown files, and keeps your history. - The extension is a small program you add to Chrome or Edge once. It opens a separate browser window, visits each video and reads its public captions, then hands the text to the dashboard.
- Your browser's storage holds the collected transcripts and the list of past jobs. Nothing is copied anywhere else.
What happens when you press Start
- The dashboard gives the extension your list of links. For channels and playlists, the extension first opens the channel or playlist page to read the video list.
- For each video, the extension opens the YouTube watch page in its small window, turns captions on, and reads the caption text that YouTube sends to the player — the same text you would see with the CC button. It does not download the video or audio.
- The text goes straight to the dashboard page in your browser and is saved in the browser's local storage (IndexedDB).
- When you press Word booklet, the dashboard assembles the file in the page and hands it to the browser's download. The Save as PDF button uses your browser's own print dialog.
At no point does the transcript, the link, or your identity travel to a TranscriptBinder server. The site's host (Cloudflare) sees only the ordinary web requests for the page files, as any website host does; see the privacy policy.
What the extension's permissions are for
| Permission | Why |
|---|---|
| Access to youtube.com | To open video pages and read captions in the collector window |
| Access to binder.hogisimlab.com | To talk to the dashboard page |
| Scripting | To run the small reading script inside the YouTube page it opened |
| Storage | To remember the current job and today's count, so a job can resume |
| Alarms | To keep a long job going in the background |
| Power | To keep the computer awake while collecting, so the job is not interrupted |
The extension cannot see other websites, your browsing history, your bookmarks or your passwords. It contains no remote code and no third-party libraries, and it does not run on any page except the dashboard and the YouTube pages it opens itself.
What stays on your computer
- Collected transcripts and the Past jobs list — in the browser's storage for this site.
- Today's usage count (the 50-videos-a-day limit) — in the extension's storage.
- The files you download — wherever you save them.
Clearing the site's data in your browser removes the transcripts and history. Removing the extension removes its storage. Downloaded files are yours and are unaffected.
What we can and cannot see
We cannot see which videos you collect, how many, or what you do with the files, and we have no way to recover a job you deleted. If you write to us for help, you decide what to include. The dashboard contains no advertising and no analytics scripts.
Why build it this way
Reading captions in your own browser means there is nothing to store, nothing to leak, and no running cost that would have to be paid for with your data. It also means the tool respects YouTube's own rules: it uses the public captions YouTube serves to any viewer, nothing more. The trade-off is that collecting takes real time — about 10–30 seconds per video, with the window visible — rather than being instant. We think that is a fair price for keeping your reading list private.