Wherever We Roam Video Uploader is a private tool used by the two people who run wherever-we-roam.com to publish our own travel videos to our own YouTube channel.
It is not a product, a service or an app anyone else can sign up for. There are no accounts, no public interface and no other users. It runs on our own laptop and talks to exactly one YouTube channel: @Wherever-We-Roam, which we own.
What it does
We travel full time in an RV and write up each place we stop. Some of those write-ups include video. Doing that by hand — uploading a clip, waiting for YouTube to finish processing it, copying the link, pasting it into the right post — is slow and easy to get wrong, so this tool does it for us:
- We choose which photos and video clips from a trip are worth publishing.
- The tool uploads the chosen clips to our own YouTube channel as unlisted videos, with the titles and descriptions we wrote.
- It then checks each video until YouTube reports that processing has finished, because an embed link does not play until that happens.
- Once a video is ready, it inserts the embed into the matching draft post on wherever-we-roam.com, and the post is published.
That is the whole of it. It uploads our videos and it reads back their processing status.
Why it asks for access to a Google account
The tool asks the owner of the channel — us — to sign in with Google and grant two permissions. Here is exactly what each one is for and why the tool cannot work without it.
Upload YouTube videos youtube.upload
This is the tool’s entire purpose. Placing a video on our channel is not possible without it. It is used only to upload video files we selected, with the title and description we wrote, to the channel we own. It is never used to change, delete or reorganise anything already on the channel.
View your YouTube account youtube.readonly
Used for two things:
- Checking processing status. After an upload, YouTube spends some minutes processing the video, and its embed will not play until that is done. The tool polls each video until it reports success, so it never publishes a post containing a video that does not yet play. The upload permission on its own cannot read this status back — that is the only reason read access is requested.
- Confirming the right channel. On first sign-in the tool reads the channel name so it can show which channel it is about to upload to, and warn us if the wrong account was authorised. It would be very easy to publish two years of family travel to the wrong channel by accident.
No other Google service is touched. The tool does not request or receive access to Gmail, Drive, Photos, Contacts, Calendar or any profile information beyond the name of the channel it uploads to.
What it stores, and where
- An OAuth refresh token, so we do not have to sign in again every time. It is held in a file readable only by the owner’s user account on our own laptop. It is never copied to the website, never sent to any third party, and never leaves that machine except to talk to Google.
- The video ID and processing status of videos this tool itself uploaded, so it knows what is finished and never uploads the same clip twice.
Nothing else is retained. No Google user data is stored on the website, on any server we rent, or anywhere else.
Who the data is shared with
Nobody. Information obtained from Google APIs is not sold, rented, transferred or disclosed to any other person, company or service. It is used solely to place our own videos on our own channel and to tell when they are ready to embed.
Wherever We Roam Video Uploader’s use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
Withdrawing access
Access can be revoked at any time from your Google account permissions page. Doing so immediately stops the tool from uploading or reading anything. Deleting the stored token file on the laptop has the same effect locally.
Privacy policy and contact
How this tool and this website handle information is set out in full in our privacy policy. See also our terms of service.
Questions about the application, or about this page, go to christy@wherever-we-roam.com.