Privacy policy
Last updated 20 September 2026
The Ocean Station runs live aquarium streams on YouTube, starting with The Endless Aquarium. Viewers can play along by
typing commands such as !adopt in the stream's live chat. This page explains what we keep when you do,
and why.
What we collect
Only what the aquarium needs to remember you and your fish, taken from the public live chat of our own broadcasts:
- Your YouTube channel ID and display name, when you send a chat message to the stream. The ID tells your fish apart from everyone else's; the name is shown on stream next to your fish. Names that break our rules are replaced with a neutral one before they appear.
- Your fish and what happens to it: its species, colours, the name you give it with
!name, and keepsakes you helped find. - Group photos: when chat asks for one with
!photo, we keep the picture of the tank and the display names of the viewers who asked, and show them in the album. The picture is of the fish only — no chat, no text, nobody's face. - Moderation records: if you are banned or timed out by us or by YouTube's own moderation, we keep that record so it stays in effect.
Chat messages themselves are read, acted on and then discarded; we don't store what you wrote. We don't collect email addresses, locations, payment details or anything from outside the live chat.
How we use it
Only to run the aquarium: to hatch and keep your fish, show your name next to it, answer your commands, and keep the chat safe. We don't sell or rent your data, don't use it for advertising and don't share it with anyone except as needed to run the service (the server host that stores it) or when the law requires it.
YouTube API Services
The Ocean Station uses YouTube API Services to read the live chat of its own broadcasts and to start and keep those broadcasts live. By watching or chatting you are also using YouTube, under the YouTube Terms of Service; Google's handling of your data is covered by the Google Privacy Policy.
Viewers never sign in to The Ocean Station with Google; only the channel owner does, to connect the stream to the channel. Access granted that way can be withdrawn at any time on the Google security settings page.
How long we keep it
Fish are part of a long-running aquarium, so your fish and the name shown with it are kept for as long as the aquarium runs, unless you ask us to remove them. Group photos are kept until newer ones take their place (the album holds a few hundred). Backups are kept for up to 14 days. Server logs are kept for a short time for troubleshooting.
Your choices
Email aquarium.endless@gmail.com and tell us your YouTube channel name to ask what we hold about you, to correct it, or to have it removed. Removing your data takes your name off your fish; the fish itself stays in the tank as an ordinary resident.
This website
This site sets no cookies and runs no analytics or ads. Everything it shows, fonts included, comes from this site.
Children
The streams are for a general audience and are not made for children under 13. We don't knowingly collect data from children under 13; if you believe we have, email us and we'll remove it.
Changes
If this policy changes, we'll update this page and the date at the top.
Contact
The Ocean Station, aquarium.endless@gmail.com.