Plain language, no fine print games
Privacy policy
This page explains, in plain terms, exactly what happens (and what doesn't) when you use the webcam test on this site.
Your camera video is never uploaded
The webcam test runs entirely with client-side JavaScript in your own browser. The video stream from your camera is attached to a video element on the page and read there directly; it is never sent to a server operated by this site or anyone else. There is no video call, no recording pipeline, and no storage system behind this test.
You can verify this for yourself: turn off your internet connection after the camera preview has started, and the live video keeps working normally, because nothing about the preview depends on a network connection once the stream is running. If it were being uploaded somewhere, cutting the connection would break the preview immediately.
What the "take photo" button does
Clicking "Take photo" draws the current camera frame onto a canvas inside your browser and immediately triggers a download to your own device as a PNG file. That file goes straight from your browser to your downloads folder. This site never receives, stores, or has any access to that image, before, during, or after the download.
What the "copy report" button does
The "copy report" button builds a short text summary, camera name, resolution, measured frame rate, browser, and a timestamp, and copies it to your device's clipboard using your browser's built-in clipboard feature. That text is not sent anywhere by this site; it only goes wherever you personally choose to paste it afterward, whether that's a support chat, an email, or nowhere at all if you decide not to use it.
Optional feedback
If you use the thumbs-up or thumbs-down feedback control on the test page, that single anonymous vote is recorded so we can tell whether the tool is working well for visitors. It does not include your camera video, your name, your email address, or any other personally identifying information. Voting is entirely optional; the test works identically whether you vote or not.
Anonymous engagement measurement
This site measures a small set of anonymous, aggregate engagement signals so the tool itself can be improved: how quickly a visitor starts interacting with the page after it loads, whether the webcam test was actually used (the camera preview started successfully), whether a visitor left again within 10 seconds without interacting at all, and roughly how long a visitor stayed on the page (bucketed into ranges, not an exact duration). It also records a coarse category for where a visit came from (Google, Bing, a direct link, or "other"), never the full referring URL or any search terms.
None of this identifies you: there is no cookie, no session identifier, no stored IP address, and no browser fingerprinting anywhere in this measurement. Each page view is treated as a standalone, anonymous event sent once when you leave the page, using your browser's built-in sendBeacon mechanism to this site's own backend (not a third-party tracker). It cannot be linked back to a specific visitor, a specific device, or your camera stream.
Cookies and tracking
This site does not set advertising or cross-site tracking cookies, and it does not use any third-party analytics pixel, third-party tag, or fingerprinting script. The only measurement on this site is the anonymous engagement signal described above, sent directly to this site's own backend, not a cookie and not a third party. If that ever changes, this page will be updated to say so plainly before it happens, not after.
Hosting and infrastructure
The site itself (the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files that make up this page) is served from a content delivery network so it loads quickly wherever you are. That's standard web hosting, the same kind almost every website uses, and it's separate from the camera test: the hosting provider serves you the page, but has no role in, and no visibility into, your camera stream once the page has loaded, since that stream never leaves your browser in the first place.
Children's privacy
This site is a general-purpose technical utility and is not directed at children. It does not knowingly collect personal information from anyone, of any age, since the test itself doesn't collect personal information from anyone in the first place.
Camera permission is controlled by your browser
When you click "Start webcam test", your browser, not this site, shows the permission prompt and remembers your choice. You can revoke camera access for this site at any time in your browser's own site settings; doing so has no other effect, since this site stores nothing tied to that permission. For the full technical walkthrough of what happens at each step, see how the webcam test works.
If your camera doesn't seem to be working at all, that's usually a permission or driver issue rather than a privacy setting on this page. The webcam troubleshooting guide covers the most common causes step by step.
Changes to this policy
If this policy ever changes in a way that affects what happens to your data, the change will be reflected on this page directly. There's no separate mailing list or account to notify, since the site doesn't have accounts; checking back here is the way to see the current version.
Contact
Questions about this policy or the site in general can be sent to contact@webcam-test.xyz.