Media and podcast players
VLC Media Player privacy rating
Cross-platform media player from the non-profit VideoLAN project that plays most audio and video formats, discs and network streams without extra codecs.
Summary
VLC Media Player scores 50 out of 100 (grade D) on the media and podcast players criteria. It meets 2 of 4 criteria: open source and no ads or data sales. It does not meet no trackers or telemetry and independent audit. It is based in France: Nine Eyes member; EU member (GDPR).
Score 50 out of 100. How scoring works
Criteria
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Yes
Open source Weight 3 of 3
Is all the source code needed to run the product public?
GPL-2.0 and LGPL-2.1.
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No
No trackers or telemetry Weight 3 of 3
Are the website and apps free of third-party trackers, with any analytics anonymous and any telemetry off by default?
VLC collects no telemetry, but the videolan.org website uses Google Analytics.
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Yes
No ads or data sales Weight 2 of 3
Is the product funded without advertising, ad targeting or selling user data?
Developed by the non-profit VideoLAN, funded by donations, with no ads.
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No
Independent audit Weight 2 of 3
Has an independent security or privacy audit been published within the last three years?
No independent audit is published.