What Overhead does with information

Effective 30 September 2026

In short: Overhead reads the live chat of its own YouTube broadcast to carry out viewers' requests. It uses your YouTube display name to credit your request on screen. It does not store chat messages, it does not sell or share anything, and the website sets no cookies and has no tracking.

Who we are

Overhead is a live 3-D picture of the airliners at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), broadcast on YouTube on the LAX Plane Spotters channel. It is made and run by Wilfred Schmidt, who is responsible for this policy. You can reach him at wilfred@j4z2.com.

The live chat and the YouTube API Services

Overhead uses the YouTube API Services to read the live chat of its own broadcast, so that viewers can direct the broadcast by typing commands such as !arrival or !show UAL123, and to post an occasional message in that chat (the list of commands, for example). By using the chat commands you agree to be bound by the YouTube Terms of Service. Google's handling of information is described in the Google Privacy Policy.

When you write in the chat of an Overhead live stream, YouTube gives Overhead what it shows everyone in that chat: your public display name, your YouTube channel ID, whether you are the channel owner or a moderator, and the text of your message. Overhead uses them only as follows:

Your message is checked for a command. Anything that isn't a command is ignored and never stored, shown or passed on.
Your display name credits your request on the broadcast, for example "@sam cam" on the viewer cam or "requested by sam". Like your chat message, it is visible to everyone watching.
Your channel ID keeps requests fair: one per viewer every 90 seconds, and the operator can block accounts that abuse the chat.

What is kept, and for how long

Chat messages are not stored. They are read, acted on and discarded.
While your 90-second wait between requests runs, Overhead's server remembers your channel ID and when you last asked, in memory only. After that it forgets it.
For the operator's control page, the server keeps a short list of the latest requests (display name, the command and whether it ran), in memory only, at most 20 of them and none older than 24 hours.
A daily count of how many YouTube API units have been used is stored in a database. It contains numbers only, nothing about any viewer.
Nothing is kept on disk about any viewer, and everything in memory is gone when the server restarts.

Sharing

Overhead does not sell, rent or share information about viewers with anyone, and does not use it for advertising or profiling. It does not currently send chat messages to any other service. If that ever changes (for example to understand requests written in plain words), this policy will be updated first.

This website

overhead.j4z2.com is a static website. It sets no cookies, runs no analytics or advertising, and the server keeps no visitor logs. The pages load their fonts from Google Fonts, so your browser contacts Google's servers, under the Google Privacy Policy.

Flight information

The aircraft on the broadcast are drawn from the position reports aircraft broadcast publicly (ADS-B), collected by community receiver networks, and from public aircraft registries. This is information about aircraft and flights, not about the viewers of the broadcast. Sources and licences.

Your choices

You can watch without using the chat commands. Nothing is read about you then.
Your display name is set in your YouTube account.
Only the channel owner signs in to Overhead with a Google account. That access can be withdrawn at any time on Google's security settings page.
Questions or requests about your information: wilfred@j4z2.com.

Children

The broadcast is for a general audience and is not directed at children under 13. Overhead does not knowingly collect information from children.

Changes

If this policy changes, the new version will be posted on this page with a new effective date.