Did you know AI Tool 'YouTube-Tools' Scrapes Comments to Build User Profiles, Raising Privacy Alarms

 

A controversial web service called YouTube-Tools is now offering AI-generated background reports on YouTube users—based entirely on the comments they’ve left across the platform. For $20 a month, anyone with an email and a credit card can use it to gather inferred data about another user’s location, language, and cultural or political views.

The tool operates by scraping YouTube comment data—up to “20 billion comments” from “1.4 billion users,” according to the site—and feeding it into a custom AI model based on technology from French startup Mistral. Within seconds, the system returns a written summary of the user’s possible region, interests, and behavioral patterns.

The developer behind the tool has a track record. This is the latest in a suite of OSINT-style tools, which include LoL-Archiver (originally built to investigate League of Legends usernames), nHentai-Archiver (for tracking comments on the adult manga platform), Kick-Tools (which surfaces user chat and ban history from Kick), and Twitch-Tools (which indexes public chat logs from over 39,000 Twitch channels).

While the developer insists these services are intended for law enforcement agencies, journalists, and private investigators, access is immediate—no license check required. A representative told 404 Media that the site uses a "targeted KYC" process, but in practice, it allows anyone to register and begin scraping data within minutes. The site’s own Terms of Service say it's restricted to licensed professionals, yet there’s little friction in place to prevent casual or malicious use.

The developer, who claims to be based in Europe and have a background in OSINT (open-source intelligence), reveals that law enforcement agencies in Portugal, Belgium, and other EU countries are already using the tools. They’ve also stated that access is revoked for users with "illegitimate purposes," though one cited example involved merely identifying a temporary email address.

YouTube’s policies explicitly prohibit unauthorized scraping. According to its documentation, “public search engines may scrape data only in accordance with YouTube's robots.txt file or with YouTube's prior written permission.” Whether YouTube is enforcing that rule in this case remains unclear—the company did not provide comment so far.

The AI summaries, currently unique to the YouTube-Tools product, are designed to streamline what might otherwise be a time-consuming review of comment histories. In one test, the system linked a user to Italy based on language and cultural references, and flagged patterns in their social commentary without identifying explicit political leanings.

Still, experts warn that tools like this blur the line between public data analysis and digital profiling. The ability to scrape, index, and infer personal details at scale—especially without oversight—opens the door to abuse. Researchers have already observed some harassment-focused online groups experimenting with the developer’s other tracking tools.

With similar platforms—like the now-defunct Discord scraper Spy Pet—having already been banned, the rise of YouTube-Tools signals growing tension between open internet data and individual privacy. While the comments are public, users rarely expect them to become fuel for AI-powered profiling.

As aggregation becomes indistinguishable from surveillance, the question isn’t whether your data is out there—it’s who’s putting it together, and why.