Privacy Policy

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The short version: We collect only what we need to run FilmScout. We never sell your personal information. We never show you ads.

1. What We Collect

When you use FilmScout, we may collect:

• Email address. When you sign up via Google, Apple, or email, used to identify your account and send you transactional and marketing emails.
• Name. Provided by Google or Apple Sign In if you use those methods.
• Family preferences and content settings. Answers to the content questionnaire you complete in the app, used to personalise your FilmScout experience.
• Device fingerprint. A non-reversible hash of your browser/device used to enable the free guest experience and prevent abuse.
• Movie search and request history. Which movies you have searched for or requested, used to improve catalog coverage and personalise recommendations.
• Companion use. When you open the Companion for a movie, we record that it was opened, which movie, when, and the country your connection comes from, linked to your account if you are signed in. When the Companion syncs to your movie or you enter its runtime, we also record the timing it found for that movie and streaming platform. Used to understand how the Companion is used and to improve scene timing.
• Feedback and suggestions. Movie requests, feedback, and other input you choose to send us, including any screenshot you choose to attach, attributed to your account so we can investigate and respond.
• Push notification token. If you enable notifications on iOS, we store the device token Apple assigns so we can deliver the alerts you asked for. It does not identify you beyond your account and device.
• Username and previous usernames and emails. If you set a username, it is used for your referral link and creator code. When you change your username or email address, we keep the previous ones on your account so old referral links keep working, so you can recover the account through an address you used before, and so no one else can claim them. They are deleted with your account.
• Newsletter and guide signups. If you join our email list or request a free guide (such as The Scenes We Forgot), we store your email address, where you signed up, which guide you asked for, when, and whether you agreed to marketing emails. The guide you download is stamped with the email address it was sent to. You can unsubscribe at any time.
• Creator program applications. If you apply to the creator program, we store the name you give us, your username (which becomes your creator code), your account email, when you applied, and which accounts used your code.
• TV show interest. When you tap to ask for a TV show, we store a one-way hash of your IP address with the show and the time, only so each connection counts once. The hash cannot be turned back into your IP address and is not linked to your account.
• Referral activity. If you share a referral code, we record which accounts used it so we can grant the rewards.
• Microphone audio (Scout Companion). When you use the Scout Companion feature, the app listens to the movie's audio through your device microphone to sync scene alerts to the movie. This audio is processed on your device in real time. It is never recorded, stored, or transmitted to us or anyone else.
• Apple Watch. If you use the watch app, your iPhone sends the current movie's flagged scenes and playback position to your watch through Apple's WatchConnectivity. This passes directly between your own devices and is not sent to us.
• Session tokens. Short-lived tokens stored in our infrastructure to keep you signed in across visits.
• Marketing email preference. Whether you have opted in to or out of marketing emails.
• Last login date. Used to determine eligibility for re-engagement emails and to detect inactive accounts.
• Payment information. Handled by our payment processors. On the web, payments are processed by Stripe. In the iOS app, purchases are processed by Apple. We never see or store your card details.

2. What We Don't Collect

• We don't track what you watch on streaming services
• We don't access your streaming accounts
• We don't track your precise location. We use the country your connection comes from (derived from your IP address) to show your country's age ratings and streaming platform timing, and we store that country, never anything more precise, with Companion use records.
• We don't record, store, or transmit microphone audio. The Scout Companion listens only on your device to sync alerts, in real time
• We don't use advertising trackers or third-party analytics
• We never sell your personal information. Ever. We may share or sell aggregated statistics that cannot identify you or your family, such as the percentage of families who skip a certain type of scene, with partners such as studios or theatres. These statistics are always about large groups, never about you, and your personal trigger and phobia settings are never included.

3. How We Use Your Data

• To provide and improve FilmScout's scene alert service
• To manage your subscription and process payments via Stripe (web) and Apple (iOS)
• To personalise your experience based on your content preferences
• To improve our catalog coverage and scene timing accuracy
• To prevent abuse of the guest experience and free features
• To produce anonymous, aggregated viewing-preference statistics (never including your personal trigger or phobia settings)
• To send transactional emails you have requested or that are required to operate your account (email verification, password resets, movie-ready notifications)
• To send marketing and onboarding emails, which you can opt out of at any time (see Section 6 below)

4. Data Storage and Retention

Your data is stored on Cloudflare's global infrastructure (D1 database and Workers KV) using industry-standard security practices.

We retain your data for as long as your account is active. If you delete your account, it is deactivated immediately and your data is permanently and irreversibly purged within 180 days. This grace period exists solely to allow recovery if a deletion was accidental. Feedback you sent is kept in anonymised form after your account is deleted, with nothing that identifies you. Payment transaction records may be retained longer where required by applicable tax or financial regulations.

Session tokens expire automatically after 30 days of inactivity.

5. Third-Party Services

• Stripe. Payment processing. Stripe Privacy Policy
• Google OAuth. Optional sign-in. Only your email and name are shared with us. Google Privacy Policy
• Apple. Optional sign-in (only your email and name are shared with us) and, in the iOS app, In-App Purchase processing for subscriptions and purchases. Apple handles iOS payments; we receive confirmation of the purchase, not your card details. Apple Privacy Policy
• Resend. Email delivery. Your email address is passed to Resend to deliver transactional and marketing emails on our behalf. Resend Privacy Policy
• Google Fonts. Web font delivery. Fonts are loaded from Google's servers (fonts.googleapis.com), which may log your IP address and browser type as part of normal CDN operation. Google Privacy Policy
• YouTube. Some movies include behind-the-scenes videos played through the official YouTube embedded player. FilmScout uses YouTube API Services to show these videos. Each video's thumbnail image is loaded from YouTube's servers (img.youtube.com) when the list is shown, before you play anything, which lets YouTube log your IP address and browser type as part of normal CDN operation. When you play one, YouTube (Google) receives standard playback information and may set cookies, as described in the Google Privacy Policy. We do not send YouTube your FilmScout account details.
• TMDB. Movie poster images are loaded from The Movie Database (image.tmdb.org), which may log your IP address and browser type as part of normal CDN operation. TMDB Privacy Policy
• Amazon image CDN. Some movie posters are loaded from Amazon's image servers (m.media-amazon.com), which host IMDb poster images and may log your IP address and browser type as part of normal CDN operation. Amazon Privacy Notice
• jsDelivr. The web app loads a small open-source component (the emoji picker) from the jsDelivr CDN (cdn.jsdelivr.net), which may log your IP address and browser type as part of normal CDN operation. jsDelivr Privacy Policy
• Cloudflare. Hosting and infrastructure. Cloudflare Privacy Policy

Preferences stored in your browser. The website remembers a few choices on your own device using browser local storage: your light or dark theme and the age you last picked on the age guides. These stay on your device, are not sent to us, and are not used to identify or track you. Clearing your browser data removes them.

6. Marketing Emails

When you create an account, you are subscribed to occasional onboarding and product update emails. Every marketing email includes an unsubscribe link in the footer. You can also opt out at any time by emailing info@getfilmscout.com.

Unsubscribing from marketing emails does not affect transactional emails (email verification, password resets, movie-ready notifications). Those are sent regardless of your marketing preference because they are required to operate your account.

7. Your Rights

You have the following rights with respect to your personal data:

• Access. You can request a copy of the data we hold about you by emailing info@getfilmscout.com.
• Correction. You can update your content preferences and account settings directly in the app at any time. You may also request correction of any other inaccurate data by emailing us.
• Deletion. You can request deletion of your account through app Settings or by emailing us. Your account is deactivated immediately and all associated personal data is permanently deleted within 180 days. Feedback you sent is kept in anonymised form.
• Opt-out of marketing. Use the unsubscribe link in any marketing email, or email us at info@getfilmscout.com.
• Portability. You can request a structured export of your account data by emailing info@getfilmscout.com.
• Restriction. You may ask us to restrict processing of your personal data in certain circumstances (for example, while a correction request is being resolved).
• Objection. You may object to processing based on our legitimate interests at any time. We will stop processing unless we can demonstrate compelling grounds that override your interests.
• Withdraw consent. Where processing is based on your consent (such as marketing emails), you may withdraw that consent at any time without affecting the lawfulness of processing before withdrawal.

We will respond to all data rights requests within 30 days. We do not use automated decision-making or profiling that produces legal or similarly significant effects on you.

8. Canadian Users (PIPEDA)

FilmScout is operated by DXB Creative Co., based in Alberta, Canada. We are subject to Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). We collect, use, and disclose personal information only for the purposes described in this policy. You may withdraw consent for non-essential uses (such as marketing emails) at any time without affecting your access to the service. Our infrastructure providers (Cloudflare, Stripe, Resend) store and process data outside your province and outside Canada, including in the United States; we choose providers with strong contractual and technical safeguards. To exercise your rights under PIPEDA or to contact our privacy officer, write to us at the address in Section 13 below or email info@getfilmscout.com.

9. European Users (GDPR)

If you are located in the European Economic Area (EEA) or the United Kingdom, the following applies to you.

Legal bases for processing. We process your personal data under the following legal bases:

• Performance of a contract (Art. 6(1)(b)). Operating your account, delivering the FilmScout service, processing payments, and sending transactional emails you have requested.
• Legitimate interests (Art. 6(1)(f)). Fraud prevention, abuse detection (device fingerprint), and improving the accuracy of our catalog. We have balanced these interests against your rights and concluded they do not override your fundamental freedoms.
• Consent (Art. 6(1)(a)). Marketing and onboarding emails. You may withdraw consent at any time without affecting the lawfulness of prior processing.

International data transfers. Your data is processed on infrastructure operated by Cloudflare, Inc., headquartered in the United States. Cloudflare relies on Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) approved by the European Commission to lawfully transfer personal data from the EEA and the UK to the United States. A copy of the applicable SCCs is available at cloudflare.com/cloudflare-customer-scc. Payments are processed by Stripe, Inc., which also relies on SCCs for EEA-to-US data transfers.

Your GDPR rights. In addition to the rights listed in Section 7, EEA and UK residents have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection supervisory authority. A list of EU supervisory authorities is available at edpb.europa.eu. UK residents may contact the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk.

We do not transfer your personal data to countries outside the EEA other than through the mechanisms described above.

10. California Users (CCPA / CPRA)

If you are a California resident, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) gives you the following rights:

• Right to know. You may request disclosure of the categories and specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you in the past 12 months, the categories of sources, the business or commercial purposes for collection, and the categories of third parties with whom we share it.
• Right to delete. You may request deletion of personal information we have collected from you, subject to certain exceptions.
• Right to correct. You may request correction of inaccurate personal information we hold about you.
• Right to opt out of sale or sharing. We do not sell or share your personal information with third parties for cross-context behavioral advertising. No opt-out action is required, but you may confirm this by emailing us.
• Right to limit use of sensitive personal information. We do not use sensitive personal information (such as your content preferences) for any purpose other than providing the FilmScout service.
• Right to non-discrimination. We will not deny you service, charge you a different price, or provide a different level of quality because you exercised any of these rights.

Categories of personal information collected in the past 12 months: identifiers (email address, account ID, username, and previous usernames and emails), personal records (name when provided via Google or Apple sign-in), commercial information (subscription status, purchase history via Stripe and Apple), and inferences drawn from your content preferences to personalise the service.

Categories of personal information disclosed to third parties for business purposes: email address and name disclosed to Resend for email delivery; payment information handled by Stripe (web) and Apple (iOS), so that we do not receive or store card details.

To exercise your California privacy rights, email info@getfilmscout.com with the subject line "California Privacy Request." We will respond within 45 days as required by law.

11. Children's Privacy

FilmScout is intended for adults aged 18 and older to inform family viewing decisions. Account holders must be at least 18 years old. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe we have inadvertently collected information from a child, please contact us at info@getfilmscout.com and we will delete it.

12. Changes

We may update this policy as the service evolves. Significant changes will be posted at the top of this page with a clear effective date, and the "Last updated" date at the top of this page will reflect any changes. We encourage users to review this policy periodically.

13. Contact

Questions or requests regarding this Privacy Policy can be sent to:

• Email: info@getfilmscout.com
• Mail: DXB Creative Co., PO BOX 20073 RPO STN CROSSING, Fort Saskatchewan, AB T8L 4C8, Canada