Legal

Privacy Policy

The short version: we collect nothing about you. Your downloads are your business.

Effective: January 2024 — Last updated: October 2026

What we collect

Downl.one is designed to be as privacy-preserving as possible. We collect the minimum amount of data necessary to make the service work and nothing more.

Your IP address Used only for rate limiting. Never logged or stored beyond the current session window.
URLs you submit Processed in memory only to fetch media info, and never associated with you. The one exception: if fetching a link fails because of a fault on our side, that link is included in an error report to our team (see Error reports).
Media files Never stored on our servers. All media streams directly from the source platform to your device via our proxy.
Cookies & tracking No cookies, no analytics, no tracking pixels. We use your browser's localStorage only to remember your preferences (theme, format, playlist mode). The one third-party script is Cloudflare's Turnstile security check on the download form (see Cloudflare).

How requests work

When you submit a URL, Downl.one acts as a proxy between you and the source platform. Here is the full flow:

  1. Your browser sends the URL to our server via an encrypted HTTPS request.
  2. Our server fetches the media information from the source platform (YouTube, Reddit, etc.) using our processing backend.
  3. We return a list of available streams to your browser, with the video's thumbnail passed through our server too, so your browser never contacts the platform itself. Your browser then requests a download via our proxy.
  4. Our server proxies the media stream from the source platform directly to your device. The file is never written to our disk at any point.
  5. Once the stream ends, nothing is retained on our end.

Caching

To improve performance, we cache media metadata (title, thumbnail URL, stream links) for a short period — typically 30 minutes. Cached entries contain no personal information and no media content. They are stored in a temporary file cache and expire automatically.

Third-party platforms

When you request media from a platform (YouTube, TikTok, etc.), our server communicates with that platform's servers on your behalf: the platform sees the link being fetched, but from our server, not from you. Those platforms have their own privacy policies which govern how they handle server-to-server requests. Downl.one does not share any of your personal information with these platforms.

A few details of how those requests are made:

  • Requests to YouTube and X leave through Cloudflare's WARP network rather than directly from our server, because those sites often block data-centre servers.
  • Some links can only be fetched by a signed-in viewer (for example, X posts marked as sensitive). Those are fetched as one of Downl.one's own accounts on that platform, so the platform sees our account requesting the link. These accounts belong to Downl.one, never to you, and you never sign in to anything.

Cloudflare

Downl.one runs behind Cloudflare, which delivers the site and protects it from attacks. Like any network in between, Cloudflare handles your requests to Downl.one, including your IP address, under its own privacy policy, and may set its own security cookies if it needs to check that a visitor isn't an automated attack. The download form uses Cloudflare Turnstile, an alternative to CAPTCHAs that checks you're a person, usually without you having to do anything; Cloudflare handles the data that check uses under its privacy policy, and says it isn't used for advertising.

Server logs

Standard web server access logs (Apache/nginx) may record your IP address, request time, and request path. Because the site runs behind Cloudflare, they normally record Cloudflare's address rather than yours. These logs are retained for a maximum of 7 days for the purpose of diagnosing server errors and abuse detection. They are never shared with third parties.

Error reports

If fetching a link fails because something went wrong on our side (rather than, say, the video being private or deleted), you see a short message saying so, and an error report is emailed to the Downl.one team so the fault can be fixed. The report contains the link you submitted, the technical error, and when it happened. It never contains your IP address, browser details or anything else about you. The same fault is reported at most once an hour. Reports are sent through our email provider, kept only as long as needed to fix the fault, and never shared with anyone else.

Children's privacy

Downl.one does not knowingly collect any information from children under the age of 13. The service is intended for general audiences and should not be used by children without parental supervision.

Changes to this policy

If we make material changes to this policy, we will update the "last updated" date above. Continued use of Downl.one after changes are posted constitutes acceptance of those changes.

Contact

Questions about this policy? You can reach us at [email protected].