Introduction
Welcome to FlixPicker. We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal data. This privacy policy explains how we collect, use and protect your information when you use our website and our iOS and Android apps, including details about accounts, cookies, analytics, advertising and your rights.
The Data We Collect About You
We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you, including:
- Account Data: your nickname, email address, and password (stored in encrypted form). Optionally, your full name, a short biography, and links to your social media profiles, if you choose to add them.
- Sign-In Data: if you sign in with Google or Apple, we receive your name, email address (or a private relay address, in the case of Apple), and, where available, a profile photo, along with a unique identifier from that provider.
- Profile Content: any profile photo you upload, and other content you choose to add to your account or playlists.
- Diary and Usage Data: what you log as watched (with the date, and any rating, vibes or episodes you add), your recaps, watch time and streaks, your ratings, watchlists and playlists, and what you save from our suggestions.
- Imported Data: if you import from IMDb or Letterboxd, the file you upload, and then the titles, ratings, dates and lists it contains (see Importing and Exporting Your Data below).
- Social Data: if you use our social features, information such as who you follow and who follows you, playlists you collaborate on with other users, and related activity, in accordance with your visibility settings.
- Game Data: if you play Game Night (GuessTheFlix), the games you join or start, your nickname and photo as other players in that game see them, and your answers and results.
- Notification Data: if you allow push notifications in our apps, a device token and your device type, so we can send them to your phone.
- Technical Data: IP address, browser and device type and version, operating system, time zone, and the country your IP address is in (country level only, never GPS or precise location).
- Subscription Data: if you purchase a premium subscription, your device confirms your purchase and subscription status directly with the Apple App Store or Google Play Store. We do not receive or store this information on our servers, and we do not collect or store your card details.
How We Use Your Personal Data
We use your personal data to:
- Create and manage your account, including sign-in via Google or Sign in with Apple.
- Provide personalised movie and TV show recommendations.
- Keep your diary, recaps, streaks and achievements, and track which content you have seen to improve your recommendations.
- Import your history from IMDb or Letterboxd, and export your diary, when you ask us to.
- Generate AI-assisted playlist descriptions, where you choose to use this optional feature.
- Enable social features, such as following other users and collaborating on playlists, and run Game Night games with the friends you invite.
- Send account-related and social activity notifications by email and push notification, where enabled in your settings.
- Protect the service: limit abuse, prevent fraud and investigate security problems.
- Respond to your enquiries or requests.
- Show ads in our apps and measure their effectiveness.
- Analyse website usage and traffic patterns, if you accept analytics cookies.
Signing In With Google or Apple
You may create a FlixPicker account or sign in using Google or Sign in with Apple. When you do, we receive your name, email address, and, where available, a profile photo from that provider, along with a unique account identifier. We use this information only to create and manage your FlixPicker account. We never receive your Google or Apple password.
Recommendations
FlixPicker suggests what to watch next from what other members logged and rated. It runs on our own servers, overnight, and does not send your data to an outside service. Your diary and ratings take part in these calculations in combined form, whatever your profile visibility settings are: they decide what other people can see, not what is counted. A title is only suggested to others when several members have logged it, and we never show who they are.
Importing and Exporting Your Data
You can bring your history from IMDb (a CSV file) or Letterboxd (a ZIP file) into your FlixPicker diary and playlists. The file you upload is read by our servers to find the titles on TMDB, and is deleted as soon as it has been read. We keep a short record of each import, and the entries you choose to import become normal diary entries and playlists in your account. FlixPicker is not connected to IMDb or Letterboxd, and we never ask for your password with either site: you export the file yourself and give it to us.
You can also download your data at any time from your settings: your diary in Letterboxd's import format, your whole diary as a CSV, or one of your playlists. These files are made when you press Download and are not kept on our servers.
AI-Generated Playlist Descriptions
FlixPicker offers an optional feature that uses Google's Gemini AI service to generate a suggested description for a playlist. If you choose to use this feature, we send the playlist title, any notes you have written for it, and the titles and genres of the films and shows it contains to Google Gemini for processing. We do not include your name, email address, or any other account information in this request. You will be asked to confirm before this information is sent, the first time you use this feature. Google's handling of this data is governed by its own privacy policy, available at Google's Privacy Policy.
Cookies and Similar Technologies
We use cookies on our website, and comparable technologies such as device identifiers and local storage in our apps, to keep the service running properly and, if you allow it, to understand how it is used. Cookies are small files placed on your device. You can instruct your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, some features may not function properly without cookies.
Types of Cookies We Use
- Essential Cookies: Needed for the website to work, and always on. They keep you signed in (fp_jwt and fp_refresh), hold your session, and protect forms against forgery. Cloudflare may also set security cookies, for example when it checks that a sign-up is made by a person.
- Your Cookie Choice: Your answer to our cookie banner is remembered in your browser's local storage, not in a cookie.
- Analytics Cookies: Help us understand how visitors interact with our website (see Google Analytics below). These are only used if you click "Accept" on our cookie banner.
- Third-Party Cookies: Set by third-party services, such as YouTube when you play an embedded trailer, and Google or Apple when you use their sign-in buttons.
If you click "Decline", we do not load analytics. For more information, see the Google Cookie Policy.
Advertising in Our Apps
We use Google AdMob to display advertisements within the FlixPicker apps. AdMob may use device advertising identifiers to deliver and measure ads. On iOS, we ask for your permission through Apple's App Tracking Transparency framework before any identifier is used for tracking, and you can change this at any time in your device settings. On Android, ad personalisation can be managed through your device's Google settings. You can learn more about how Google uses data in advertising at the Google Advertising Policy.
Google Analytics
If you accept analytics cookies, we use Google Analytics to collect information about how visitors use our website. Google Analytics uses cookies to collect information such as your IP address, browser, device information, and pages visited. This data is used to analyse website usage and improve our service. For more information, see the Google Privacy Policy and Google Analytics Data Practices.
Country Detection
Our website is served through Cloudflare, which tells us which country a visit comes from, based on the IP address. We use that country only to show where a title can be watched in your region. We do not use a separate IP lookup service, and we do not collect or use precise location data (such as GPS or Wi-Fi).
Security and IP Addresses
We use your IP address to limit abuse (for example, too many sign-in attempts or uploads), to record security events, and to keep our servers running. Cloudflare protects the website and checks that sign-ups are made by people. These records are kept for a limited time and are not used for advertising.
YouTube Videos
Our website embeds YouTube videos using privacy-enhanced mode. YouTube may set cookies and use them to track your viewing habits when you play a video. For more information, see Google's Privacy Policy.
Push Notifications
If you allow notifications in our apps, we store a device token for your phone and send notifications through Google's Firebase Cloud Messaging (Android) or Apple's push notification service (iPhone). We use them for things like activity on your account, game invitations, your daily suggestion and the progress of an import. You can turn them off in your device settings or your FlixPicker settings.
Game Night
Game Night (GuessTheFlix) games are played in real time through Google's Firebase. Players in the same game can see your nickname and photo, and your moves and results in that game. Game records are kept so you can see your results and stats.
Social and Community Features
FlixPicker includes optional social features. If you use them, other users may be able to see your nickname, profile photo, and activity, such as playlists you create, follow, or collaborate on, depending on the visibility settings in your account. You can control what other users can see through the privacy settings in your account.
Content You Provide
You may choose to upload a profile photo or add a biography and links to your social media profiles. This content is shown to other users in accordance with your profile visibility settings, and you can change or remove it at any time from your account settings.
Subscriptions and Payments
If you purchase a premium subscription through our apps, payment is handled entirely by the Apple App Store or Google Play Store, and your device confirms your subscription status directly with them. We do not collect or store your payment card details, and this purchase and subscription information is not sent to or stored on our own servers.
Email Communications
We use a third-party email delivery provider to send account-related emails, such as email verification, password resets, and notifications about activity on your account, for example when another user follows you or interacts with your playlist. You can manage which notification emails you receive in your account settings.
Data Sharing and Third Parties
We do not sell your personal data. We share data only where necessary to provide our service, with:
- Service providers who help us operate the website and apps, such as hosting and email delivery providers, and Cloudflare for security and delivery.
- Google, for sign-in, analytics (if you accept), advertising in our apps, push notifications, Game Night, and AI-assisted playlist descriptions, as described above.
- Apple, for sign-in and push notifications to iPhones. Subscription purchases made through the App Store are handled directly between your device and Apple; we are not part of that exchange.
- Subscription purchases made through Google Play are handled directly between your device and Google, in the same way.
- TMDB and other providers of film and TV data, ratings and artwork. We ask them for information about titles, and we do not send them your account details. Some artwork may be loaded from their servers, which can then see your IP address.
We only work with providers who are contractually bound to protect your data to a standard consistent with this policy. Other members can see what you choose to share with them, as described in Social and Community Features.
Data Retention
We retain your personal data for as long as your account remains active. If you delete your account from your settings, your account and the data linked to it (your diary and recaps, playlists, followers, ratings, settings, notifications and profile photo) are deleted. Copies may remain in our backups, and in security and server records, for a short period, and we may keep certain information where we are required to for legal or security purposes.
International Data Transfers
Some of the third parties we work with, including Google, Apple and Cloudflare, may process data outside your country of residence. Where this happens, we take reasonable steps to ensure your data continues to receive a standard of protection consistent with this policy and applicable law.
Children's Privacy
FlixPicker is not directed at children under the age of 16, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you believe a child has provided us with personal data, please contact us so that we can remove it.
Data Security
We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data against unauthorised access, loss, or misuse. No method of transmission over the internet is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.
Your Data Protection Rights
Under GDPR and other applicable laws, you have the following rights:
- Access: Request copies of your personal data.
- Rectification: Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete information.
- Erasure: Request erasure of your personal data, under certain conditions.
- Restriction: Request restriction of processing, under certain conditions.
- Object: Object to our processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.
- Data Portability: Request transfer of your data to another organisation or to you, under certain conditions.
You can do two of these yourself: download your diary from your settings (Export), and delete your account from your settings. For anything else, or if you make a request, please contact us. We have one month to respond.
Changes to This Policy
We may update this privacy policy from time to time. We will update the "Last Updated" date at the top of this page when we do, and we encourage you to review it periodically.
How to Contact Us
If you have any questions about this privacy policy or our privacy practices, please contact us at:
Email: [email protected]