Privacy: your playlist is never uploaded
The short version: the file you open is read by the page you are looking at, and nothing about it is sent anywhere. The rest of this page explains how that is true and what it does not cover.
What happens to your file
When you select a file, the browser exposes its text to the page through the File API. The page parses that text in memory, renders the results, and forgets it when you close or reload the tab. There is no request carrying the file, no server-side parser and no stored copy — the tool has no upload step to disable because none was built.
The same is true of text you paste. It stays in the form field and in the page's memory. Downloads are generated in the browser from the data you can already see, using a local object URL rather than a server round trip.
Why this matters more for playlists than for other files
A playlist is not always a public document. Subscription playlists commonly embed a username, a password or a token in the stream addresses, so anyone who obtains the file can watch the account and, in some cases, spend against it. Uploading one to a free “checker” is handing that access to an unknown operator and hoping their retention policy is what the page says it is.
Playlists also reveal viewing habits: which countries, which channels, which languages. That is a profile even when the URLs themselves carry no credentials.
What the site itself collects
No analytics, no cookies, no third-party scripts, no fonts loaded from another domain, no advertising. The pages are static files and one stylesheet. Server logs are the only record any host keeps by default, and they contain the page requested rather than anything from inside your file.
If that changes — for example if a measurement tool is added later — this page will say so on the date it changes, and the change will be listed here rather than buried.
What this page does not promise
The tools do not check whether a stream is live or legal to watch, and this page is not a statement about the content of any playlist you open. Files you edit are yours: what you do with an exported playlist, and whether you have the right to use the streams in it, is outside anything a text parser can decide.
Last reviewed . Questions or corrections: editor@m3uplaylist.net.