Platform Policy Watch

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YouTube's "Other" category in this dataset bundles snippets from the YouTube API Services Terms of Service (the Developer Agreement governing third-party apps/sites that use the YouTube API) — distinct from the consumer-facing Terms of Service tracked separately. The captured passages cover three areas: (1) commercial-use restrictions on API Clients (e.g., a ban on selling ads on pages built from YouTube API Data unless independently valuable content is also present, plus a list of permitted commercial uses), (2) Child-Directed API Client obligations under COPPA/GDPR — the US and EU child-privacy laws (compliance, notifying Google, no personalized ads to children), and (3) branding/user-experience requirements (API Clients can't alter the YouTube look-and-feel without approval, and must clearly attribute YouTube as the content source).

What this wiki found — complete, every page

AI trainingRoyalty-freeSublicensablePerpetual / irrevocableTransferableDerivative works

Presence facts, not verdicts — each flagged term links to its definition and the exact clause on this page. Absence of a badge means the term isn't currently flagged here, not that the page is risk-free.

Independent reviews, where they had something to say

YouTube – Other

Dataset: PGAv2 (Platform Governance Archive v2) — 25 platforms, 2022–2026

PGAv2 (Platform Governance Archive v2) is this wiki’s legacy dataset: pre-tagged JSONL records covering 25 major social-media, messaging, and content-sharing platforms, with risk scores and keywords assigned via systematic extraction of 1,736 high-risk clauses from each platform’s Terms of Service, Privacy Policies, and Community Guidelines, spanning 2022–2026.

Note: This page contains documented policy clauses. Risk assessment is qualitative and context-dependent. For analysis of patterns across platforms, see:

Source: sources/jsonl/YouTube_Other.jsonl Last updated: 2025-12-05

Overview

YouTube’s “Other” category in this dataset bundles snippets from the YouTube API Services Terms of Service (the Developer Agreement governing third-party apps/sites that use the YouTube API) — distinct from the consumer-facing Terms of Service tracked separately. The captured passages cover three areas: (1) commercial-use restrictions on API Clients (e.g., a ban on selling ads on pages built from YouTube API Data unless independently valuable content is also present, plus a list of permitted commercial uses), (2) Child-Directed API Client obligations under COPPA/GDPR — the US and EU child-privacy laws (compliance, notifying Google, no personalized ads to children), and (3) branding/user-experience requirements (API Clients can’t alter the YouTube look-and-feel without approval, and must clearly attribute YouTube as the content source).

Important caveat: none of the 9 unique snippets captured in this file actually contain the literal keyword they were tagged with — sublicense, derivative works, create derivative, and scrape do not appear anywhere in any of the quoted text below (verified programmatically). This looks like a scraper window-alignment issue (the keyword match likely occurred just outside the captured snippet boundary) rather than a real instance of these clauses, and is flagged here per the wiki’s rule against inventing connections that aren’t actually supported by the text. The content quoted is still genuine YouTube Developer Terms text — just not verified examples of sublicensing, derivative-works, or scraping language specifically.

Across all 16 scrapes (2022-07-11 to 2025-12-05), there is no genuine wording change anywhere in this file’s history — only scraper window-size variation (slightly wider/narrower paragraph crops) and a one-time cosmetic character substitution (curly “’” → straight “’” apostrophe).

Flagged Keywords & Risks

Legal Context & Research Significance

This page’s documented keyword/snippet mismatches — sublicense, derivative works, create derivative, and scrape all tagged onto passages where the literal term does not appear — are exactly the kind of extraction-quality problem Javed & Sajid (2024) highlight as a limitation of automated privacy-policy analysis: their review found that only 42.57% of the literature even used ML/NLP-based extraction, with an F1 score of just 84% reported for one cited tool, meaning a sizable fraction of automated keyword-to-clause matches in datasets like this one should be expected to land near, but not on, the actual supporting text. The “Monitoring and Audits” clause this page does capture accurately — “YouTube reserves the right to survey, monitor, and/or audit your access to or use of YouTube API Services… to verify your compliance with the Agreement” — falls under wearetosed’s “unilateral control” category, since YouTube alone defines and enforces compliance for third-party API Clients. Atkinson’s (2025) contract-notice framework would apply most cleanly to the branding/no-interface-alteration clause if it were paired with an actual anti-scraping provision, but as flagged above, this page’s scrape-tagged snippet is not that provision.

Changes Summary

DateWhat changed
2022-07-11Baseline version (first scrape in this dataset) — 3 unique snippets covering commercial-use restrictions, Child-Directed API obligations, and branding/UX requirements.
2022-09-08No changes from previous version.
2022-09-13No changes from previous version.
2022-09-20All three keywords’ snippets widened slightly (more surrounding paragraph text captured) — same underlying clauses as 2022-07-11, no wording change.
2022-11-05 through 2025-07-16No changes from previous version (covers 2022-11-05, 2024-04-18, 2025-01-24, 2025-03-18, 2025-06-28, 2025-07-08, 2025-07-16 — 7 consecutive scrapes spanning nearly 3 years).
2025-07-18sublicense updated wording — but the only difference is a curly apostrophe (’) rendered as a straight apostrophe (’); no real text change.
2025-10-02sublicense and scrape re-captured with a wider window (and the same apostrophe-style difference) — both are window-crop variants of the same underlying paragraphs already seen, not new clause text.
2025-10-03derivative works, create derivative, and scrape reverted to the narrower 2022-09-13-era window; sublicense unchanged from 2025-10-02.
2025-10-23No changes from previous version.
2025-12-05No changes from previous version.

Version History

2022-07-11

Clause: sublicense

sell advertising, sponsorships, or promotions on any page or screen that contains YouTube API Data unless other data, content, or material not obtained from YouTube appears on the same page and offers enough independent value to justify such sales if the YouTube API Data were removed. 2. Permitted Actions All of the following commercial use cases are permitted subject to your and Your API Clients’ compliance with all other terms of the Agreement, including the prohibited actions detailed in the previous section: 1. Selling an API Client; 2. Promoting your own business or artistic enterprise by uploading original audiovisual content to YouTube or maintaining channel(s) on YouTube; 3. Developing ad-enabled API Clients, such as an ad-enabled blog or website, that use YouTube API Services subject to compliance with all other terms of the Agreement, including the restrictions in section III.G.1.d; 4. Placing your own branding in an API Client as long as that branding complies with the YouTube Branding Guidelines and does not interfere with YouTube audiovisual content playback or any YouTube Brand Features; 5. Selling or distributing devices that contain or run an API Client; ### H. Monitoring and Audits YouTube reserves the right to survey, monitor, and/or audit your access to or use of YouTube API Services to ensure quality, to improve YouTube products and services, and to verify your compliance with the Agreement.

Clause: derivative works, create derivative

Child-Directed API Clients 1. If your API Client (or any part thereof) targets or directs itself to children (as defined under applicable law(s) including the U.S. Children’s Online Privacy (COPPA) and E.U. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)) (referred to herein as a “Child-Directed API Client”), you and your Child-Directed API Client must: 1. ensure that your Child-Directed API Client, including its access to and use of any YouTube API Services, is compliant with COPPA, GDPR, and any other applicable laws or regulations at all times; 2. notify Google of the child directed nature of your Child-Directed API Client using the tools provided in here. Each Child-Directed API Client notified to Google using such tools or otherwise is referred to herein as a “Known Child-Directed API Client”; and 3. not use personalized ads (including remarketing) to target past or current activity by any user of your Child-Directed API Client. 2.

Clause: scrape

Taking both of those points into account, your API Clients must not change or interfere with user interfaces in YouTube Applications unless you have obtained YouTube’s prior written approval. You can request that approval at this form. 2. Branding 1. Any API Client page or feature that displays YouTube content – including, without limitation, search results, YouTube videos, channels, playlists, thumbnails, and YouTube players – must make clear to the viewer that YouTube is the source of the relevant content by displaying YouTube Brand Features in accordance with the requirements below and the YouTube Branding Guidelines (https://developers.google.com/youtube/terms/branding-guidelines). In some cases, an API Client might need to display YouTube Brand Features next to multiple individual content elements to make the attribution clear to the viewer. For example, an API Client that displays search results from YouTube and from other sources on the same page needs to clearly identify YouTube as the source of only the search results from YouTube, including text, images, and other information pertaining to YouTube search results. The API Client cannot provide one general set of attribution for all search results from various sources. 2.

2022-09-08

All clauses unchanged from 2022-07-11 (see above).

2022-09-13

All clauses unchanged from 2022-09-08 (see above).

2022-09-20

Clause: sublicense (new snippet added — see Changes Summary; wider scrape window, same underlying paragraph as 2022-07-11, no wording change)

sell advertising, sponsorships, or promotions that are placed on or within YouTube audiovisual content or the YouTube player without YouTube’s prior written approval; or 4. sell advertising, sponsorships, or promotions on any page or screen that contains YouTube API Data unless other data, content, or material not obtained from YouTube appears on the same page and offers enough independent value to justify such sales if the YouTube API Data were removed. 2. Permitted Actions All of the following commercial use cases are permitted subject to your and Your API Clients’ compliance with all other terms of the Agreement, including the prohibited actions detailed in the previous section: 1. Selling an API Client; 2. Promoting your own business or artistic enterprise by uploading original audiovisual content to YouTube or maintaining channel(s) on YouTube; 3. Developing ad-enabled API Clients, such as an ad-enabled blog or website, that use YouTube API Services subject to compliance with all other terms of the Agreement, including the restrictions in section III.G.1.d; 4. Placing your own branding in an API Client as long as that branding complies with the YouTube Branding Guidelines and does not interfere with YouTube audiovisual content playback or any YouTube Brand Features; 5. Selling or distributing devices that contain or run an API Client; ### H.

Clause: derivative works, create derivative (new snippet added — see Changes Summary; wider scrape window, same underlying paragraph as 2022-07-11, no wording change)

J. Child-Directed API Clients 1. If your API Client (or any part thereof) targets or directs itself to children (as defined under applicable law(s) including the U.S. Children’s Online Privacy (COPPA) and E.U. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)) (referred to herein as a “Child-Directed API Client”), you and your Child-Directed API Client must: 1. ensure that your Child-Directed API Client, including its access to and use of any YouTube API Services, is compliant with COPPA, GDPR, and any other applicable laws or regulations at all times; 2. notify Google of the child directed nature of your Child-Directed API Client using the tools provided in here. Each Child-Directed API Client notified to Google using such tools or otherwise is referred to herein as a “Known Child-Directed API Client”; and 3. not use personalized ads (including remarketing) to target past or current activity by any user of your Child-Directed API Client.

Clause: scrape (new snippet added — see Changes Summary; wider scrape window, same underlying paragraph as 2022-07-11, no wording change)

User Experience 1. YouTube Look and Feel Innovative user experiences and user interface designs are among the most valuable contributions that API Clients can provide to the YouTube community. That said, YouTube’s designers and engineers put a lot of thought into designing YouTube Applications to ensure that those Applications provide a great user experience. Taking both of those points into account, your API Clients must not change or interfere with user interfaces in YouTube Applications unless you have obtained YouTube’s prior written approval. You can request that approval at this form. 2. Branding 1. Any API Client page or feature that displays YouTube content – including, without limitation, search results, YouTube videos, channels, playlists, thumbnails, and YouTube players – must make clear to the viewer that YouTube is the source of the relevant content by displaying YouTube Brand Features in accordance with the requirements below and the YouTube Branding Guidelines (https://developers.google.com/youtube/terms/branding-guidelines). In some cases, an API Client might need to display YouTube Brand Features next to multiple individual content elements to make the attribution clear to the viewer.

2022-11-05

All clauses unchanged from 2022-09-20 (see above).

2024-04-18

All clauses unchanged from 2022-11-05 (see above).

2025-01-24

All clauses unchanged from 2024-04-18 (see above).

2025-03-18

All clauses unchanged from 2025-01-24 (see above).

2025-06-28

All clauses unchanged from 2025-03-18 (see above).

2025-07-08

All clauses unchanged from 2025-06-28 (see above).

2025-07-16

All clauses unchanged from 2025-07-08 (see above).

2025-07-18

derivative works, create derivative, scrape unchanged from 2025-07-16.

Clause: sublicense (updated wording — see Changes Summary; cosmetic smart-quote-to-straight-quote character substitution only)

sell advertising, sponsorships, or promotions that are placed on or within YouTube audiovisual content or the YouTube player without YouTube’s prior written approval; or 4. sell advertising, sponsorships, or promotions on any page or screen that contains YouTube API Data unless other data, content, or material not obtained from YouTube appears on the same page and offers enough independent value to justify such sales if the YouTube API Data were removed. 2. Permitted Actions All of the following commercial use cases are permitted subject to your and Your API Clients’ compliance with all other terms of the Agreement, including the prohibited actions detailed in the previous section: 1. Selling an API Client; 2. Promoting your own business or artistic enterprise by uploading original audiovisual content to YouTube or maintaining channel(s) on YouTube; 3. Developing ad-enabled API Clients, such as an ad-enabled blog or website, that use YouTube API Services subject to compliance with all other terms of the Agreement, including the restrictions in section III.G.1.d; 4. Placing your own branding in an API Client as long as that branding complies with the YouTube Branding Guidelines and does not interfere with YouTube audiovisual content playback or any YouTube Brand Features; 5. Selling or distributing devices that contain or run an API Client; ### H.

2025-10-02

derivative works, create derivative unchanged from 2025-07-18.

Clause: sublicense (updated wording — see Changes Summary; cosmetic quote-character/window-crop variant, no substantive change)

sell advertising, sponsorships, or promotions on any page or screen that contains YouTube API Data unless other data, content, or material not obtained from YouTube appears on the same page and offers enough independent value to justify such sales if the YouTube API Data were removed. 2. Permitted Actions All of the following commercial use cases are permitted subject to your and Your API Clients’ compliance with all other terms of the Agreement, including the prohibited actions detailed in the previous section: 1. Selling an API Client; 2. Promoting your own business or artistic enterprise by uploading original audiovisual content to YouTube or maintaining channel(s) on YouTube; 3. Developing ad-enabled API Clients, such as an ad-enabled blog or website, that use YouTube API Services subject to compliance with all other terms of the Agreement, including the restrictions in section III.G.1.d; 4. Placing your own branding in an API Client as long as that branding complies with the YouTube Branding Guidelines and does not interfere with YouTube audiovisual content playback or any YouTube Brand Features; 5. Selling or distributing devices that contain or run an API Client; ### H. Monitoring and Audits YouTube reserves the right to survey, monitor, and/or audit your access to or use of YouTube API Services to ensure quality, to improve YouTube products and services, and to verify your compliance with the Agreement.

Clause: scrape (updated wording — see Changes Summary; cosmetic quote-character/window-crop variant, no substantive change)

That said, YouTube’s designers and engineers put a lot of thought into designing YouTube Applications to ensure that those Applications provide a great user experience. Taking both of those points into account, your API Clients must not change or interfere with user interfaces in YouTube Applications unless you have obtained YouTube’s prior written approval. You can request that approval at this form. 2. Branding 1. Any API Client page or feature that displays YouTube content – including, without limitation, search results, YouTube videos, channels, playlists, thumbnails, and YouTube players – must make clear to the viewer that YouTube is the source of the relevant content by displaying YouTube Brand Features in accordance with the requirements below and the YouTube Branding Guidelines (https://developers.google.com/youtube/terms/branding-guidelines). In some cases, an API Client might need to display YouTube Brand Features next to multiple individual content elements to make the attribution clear to the viewer. For example, an API Client that displays search results from YouTube and from other sources on the same page needs to clearly identify YouTube as the source of only the search results from YouTube, including text, images, and other information pertaining to YouTube search results. The API Client cannot provide one general set of attribution for all search results from various sources.

2025-10-03

sublicense unchanged from 2025-10-02.

derivative works, create derivative, scrape reverted to the 2022-09-13 wording (see above).

2025-10-23

All clauses unchanged from 2025-10-03 (see above).

2025-12-05

All clauses unchanged from 2025-10-23 (see above).