Privacy Policy

The short version

• We collect what you give us (your name, email, ratings and choices) and what we work out from it (your taste profile).
• We use it only to run Group Watch for you and the people in your group.
• We do not show ads, we do not sell your data, and we do not share it with anyone other than the service providers listed below.
• Email us and we will delete your data within 30 days.

What we collect

Most of this you give us directly, or we work it out from what you give us. The rest comes from Google if you choose Google sign-in, or from your browser when you use the app.

Account details. The name you choose, and your email address if you add one or sign in with email.

If you sign in with Google. We ask Google only for basic sign-in information (the "openid", "email" and "profile" permissions). From that we keep your Google account ID, your email address and whether Google has verified it, and we use your first name as your display name unless you already have one. We do not receive or store your Google password, and we do not access your contacts, calendar, files or anything else in your Google account.

Your taste and activity. Titles you rate and how you rated them, titles you skip for now, notes you write about your taste, how you respond to the taste traits we suggest, content you tell us to avoid, titles you describe or search for, picks you approve or pass on, what you mark as watched, and what you thought afterwards.

What we work out from it. A taste profile: a short list of traits that describe what you tend to like, built from your ratings and notes with the help of AI models. For example, several high ratings for slow-burn thrillers can become a trait like "slow-burn tension". We keep a record of each of these AI runs (what went in and what came out) so we can check and fix the results.

Your group. Which group you are in, its invite code, when you joined or left, and your shared picks and watch history, including which of you did what. If you disconnect from a partner we keep your shared history so that reconnecting with the same person restores it.

Sign-in and security records. Session and sign-in codes are stored only in scrambled (hashed) form. When you ask for a sign-in email we store a short description of the browser and device that asked (for example "Chrome on Mac") so the email can show it. To limit abuse we count sign-in attempts per IP address and per email address, stored only in hashed form.

Which version of the app you use. We are moving Group Watch to a new design. If you are signed in and using the new design, we record which of its pages were shown to you and when you switched between the new and the classic app, with the time, tied to your account. We use this only to decide when the classic app can be retired, and we keep it tied to you no longer than that: once the classic app is retired we remove the link to your account from these records. You can ask us at nathanael@snowbear.llc to remove it sooner. We also record how long those pages took to load, with the time, tied to your account, to measure how fast pages load. These page speed records hold only which page it was, whether it loaded, whether our server had just started, and how many milliseconds each step took. For a page in the new design they also hold whether you opened it fresh or tapped to it from another tab in the app, whether it finished showing or you left the browser tab first, and, for a fresh open, how your browser reached the page (for example a link, a reload or the back button) and its own load timings: how long until our server first answered, until the page finished arriving, and until it was ready to read. They hold nothing you typed and no titles. We keep them tied to you for the same time as the records above and remove that link in the same way, including sooner if you ask.

Saved Tonight picks. So the Tonight picks on your home page load quickly, we save a ready copy of them, tied to your account: which titles were picked for you, in order, and the titles of the movie night menu we start from them (for the two of you, if you are in a group), plus a fingerprint of the inputs we used so we can check the copy is still current and which rebuild saved it. Names, posters and reasons are looked up fresh each time and are not saved. A saved copy is overwritten when we save a newer one, and we do not show one that is more than six hours old. We do not delete old copies on a timer, so a copy stays stored until it is overwritten or erased. We may also keep small records tied to your account and group: a record of each check comparing the saved copy with a fresh one (when it ran, a short piece of the fingerprint, its outcome, for example matched, not saved yet or different, which parts differed and, if part of the check could not run, which part; they hold no titles and no names), a short record of when a refresh of your picks was last requested, and an entry for each rebuild of your saved picks (when it was requested and ran, for example at the end of a set of ratings, whether it finished, and how many saved copies it changed; no titles and no names). We do not delete these on a timer either; they stay until they are erased. So the Rate page opens quickly, we may also save a ready copy of your next titles to rate, tied to your account: the titles in order with what each card shows (title, year, poster, genres, a short description, why it was suggested and your content notes), the taste traits we would ask you to confirm with your own titles, and a fingerprint of the inputs, plus an entry each time we build that copy (when it ran and whether it finished; no titles and no names). We do not show that copy once your ratings or settings have changed since it was built, or once it is more than six hours old, and we do not delete it on a timer. When you disconnect from a partner, or join a different group, we delete the saved picks, the match-check records, the refresh record and the rebuild entries for you and for the group you leave, and your saved Rate titles and their entries, and the disconnect or join does not go through if that deletion fails. The icon each of your taste traits shows, which we save so it does not change, is separate: it stays while you have an account and is deleted with your account. To have your account and everything saved with it deleted, email nathanael@snowbear.llc.

Cookies and your device

We use a small number of cookies, all needed to make the app work:

• A session cookie that keeps you signed in.
• Short-lived cookies that protect the sign-in steps (Google sign-in and email codes).
• Cookies that let someone join a single movie night as a guest without a full account.

While you rate your first titles, your progress is saved in your browser so you do not lose it. We do not use advertising cookies, and we do not use third-party analytics or tracking tools.

How we use it

• To sign you in and keep your account secure.
• To build your taste profile and recommend titles for you and the people in your group.
• To explain picks to your group, for example how your tastes overlap and who chose what.
• To send sign-in emails.
• To find and fix problems and make recommendations better.
• To decide when the classic version of the app can be retired.

Who sees your data

People in your group see your name, your shared picks and watch history, and how your tastes fit together.

Service providers that process data for us to run Group Watch:

• Vercel hosts the app. Like any website host, it receives your IP address and browser details when you load a page.
• Neon hosts our database, where all the data above is stored, including the record of which version of the app you use.
• Google provides Google sign-in, the web fonts the app loads (your browser fetches them from Google), and Gemini AI models.
• AI model providers (Google Gemini, Mistral AI, and models reached through Vercel AI Gateway, which passes the request to the provider hosting the chosen model) receive your rated titles, your ratings, notes you write about your taste, taste traits you kept or rejected, and text you type to describe titles you like. We do not send your account name or email address to these providers. Anything you type into a free-text note is sent as written, so leave personal details out of notes.
• Resend sends sign-in emails (from signin@mail.groupwatch.app), so it receives your email address and the email we send.
• TMDB (The Movie Database) supplies title details. When you search for a title, the search text is sent to TMDB, and your browser loads poster images from TMDB's image servers. Streaming availability is JustWatch data that we get through TMDB; nothing about you is sent to JustWatch.

We do not sell your data, share it for advertising, or give it to anyone else, unless the law requires us to.

Google user data

We use the information we receive from Google only to sign you in and to fill in your account details as described above. We do not use it for advertising, we do not sell it, and we do not share it with anyone other than the service providers above. Group Watch's use of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

Your choices and deleting your data

We keep your data while you have an account. Sign-in codes expire after a few minutes. You can sign out at any time, and you can disconnect from a partner on the Connections page.

To delete your account and data, email nathanael@snowbear.llc and we will delete your data within 30 days.

Security

The app is served over HTTPS, and session tokens and sign-in codes are stored only in hashed form. No system is perfectly secure, so please tell us at nathanael@snowbear.llc if you notice anything wrong.

Children

Group Watch is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect data from them. If you think a child under 13 has given us information, email nathanael@snowbear.llc and we will delete it.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy we will post the new version on this page and update the date at the top.

Contact

Snowbear Ventures LLC, nathanael@snowbear.llc