LibreTube is a free and open-source Android client for YouTube maintained by a pseudonymous volunteer team ("Team LibreTube") under the GPLv3, distributed via F-Droid and GitHub Releases rather than Google Play. Its privacy policy states the app stores only necessary data (watch history, settings, bookmarks) locally on the device, requires no Google or YouTube account, gathers no usage information, and sends no telemetry; the operator's site adds that it uses no Google services and no trackers. The design's main privacy caveat is architectural: video and metadata requests go either directly to YouTube ("Full Local Mode", where the policy concedes YouTube can see the user's IP) or through a third-party Piped instance whose operator the policy says users must trust, and an optional Piped account syncs subscriptions and playlists to that instance's server; the official Piped instance list the app reads by default currently advertises a single public instance. No breach, regulatory action, or third-party audit involving LibreTube was found; the only track-record artifacts are impersonating clone apps uploaded to Google Play by unrelated developers, and F-Droid's reproducible, F-Droid-signed builds.
TIMELINE
NO ENTRIES ON FILE YET.
TOOLS WE RECOMMEND
PLUS
RECEIPTS
12 ON FILE
COLLECTION
LibreTube's Privacy Policy states the app stores only necessary data such as watch history, settings, and bookmarks, that users may opt out of these storage features, and that the app gathers no usage information, creates no user profiles, and does not track user activity.
The F-Droid listing describes LibreTube as requiring no YouTube account and no Google Services on the device, with Piped use being optional; the listed permissions are limited to viewing network connections and running foreground services (media playback / data sync), and F-Droid flags one anti-feature: dependence on the non-free YouTube network service.
The upstream Piped project that LibreTube depends on is itself open source (AGPLv3), lists LibreTube among apps "Made with Piped", advertises no tracking and no connections to Google's servers, and directs donations to two pseudonymous maintainers — "kavin (Initial author)" and "Bnyro (Project maintainer)" — the latter also being a LibreTube maintainer handle, so the dependency chain is traceable only to GitHub pseudonyms, not to a registered entity.
LibreTube's README identifies no named individual or legal entity behind the project — it refers only to "the developer(s)", names a Matrix room as the main communication channel, and lists cryptocurrency wallet addresses for donations; the project is publicly hosted under the libre-tube GitHub organization.
LibreTube's repository publishes the app's complete source code under the GNU General Public License version 3, so the actual shipped behavior can be inspected, audited, or forked rather than taken on the operator's word.
Privacy Guides lists LibreTube on its frontends page (criteria: open-source, self-hostable, full basic functionality for anonymous users) but warns that the user's IP address will be visible to YouTube, Piped, or SponsorBlock depending on configuration.
The official Piped instance list that LibreTube's policy says the app retrieves by default (piped-instances.kavin.rocks) currently advertises a single public instance — private.coffee, located in Austria, with roughly 31,000 registered accounts and open registration — meaning users who route through Piped have effectively one third-party intermediary to choose from unless they self-host or add a custom instance.
LibreTube's Privacy Policy states the app itself does not share data with third parties and that a user who is not logged in shares nothing with Piped servers; however, logging in to a Piped account saves subscriptions and playlists to that instance, and the policy concedes that when a Piped instance is used, trust shifts to the instance owner with no guarantee about that owner's logging, while "Full Local Mode" sends requests directly to YouTube, which the policy says may then profile users by IP.
F-Droid builds and signs LibreTube itself and states each listed version is guaranteed to correspond to the published source tarball, giving users a build-integrity check independent of the maintainers; no third-party security audit, transparency report, bug-bounty program, breach, or regulatory action involving LibreTube was found in this research.
In March 2023 a user opened a public issue reporting GPL-violating copycat clones of LibreTube (package names tubevideo.playtube.mp3 and melotube.playtube.mp3) uploaded to Google Play by an unrelated developer who had also cloned NewPipe; the issue is closed. This is impersonation by third parties rather than a failing by LibreTube, but it is a real risk for users of a project that does not itself distribute via Google Play.
LibreTube's Privacy Policy states the app avoids tracking mechanisms in the third-party libraries it uses and sends no user-behavior or telemetry data to the server of whichever instance is in use; it also asks users who enable the optional SponsorBlock contribution feature (off by default) to read that project's separate privacy policy.