Privacy Policy

1. Scope of this Policy

Plotline ("we", "us", or "our") cares about your privacy. This Privacy Policy sets forth our policies and operational practices regarding the collection, use, maintenance, protection, and disclosure of personal information ("Personal Data") processed through our mobile applications, web platforms, and associated services (collectively, the "Services").

This policy applies to all Personal Data collected through your interactions with the Services, in communications between you and Plotline (including electronic messages and support inquiries), and through your creation of synchronized media watchlists, reading shelves, clubs, and lists.

2. Personal Data We Collect

We collect and process several categories of Personal Data necessary to operate and enhance the Services:

• Account & Identity Information: Chosen username, display name, registered email address, authentication credentials, and optional profile photo and bio. When authenticating via Apple Sign-In or Google Sign-In, we receive unique federated user identifiers and verified email addresses authorized by your identity provider settings.
• Media Tracking & Library Records: Movie, television, and book titles logged to your profile; their status (saved for later, in progress, or completed); episode and page/chapter progress counters; personal ratings, sentiment tags, where you rank each rated title among your other ratings, and review notes; the watches and reads you log, including their dates, the friends you tag, a private club you belong to that you tag, and where you watched a movie (at home, or a movie theater you pick from our list or add yourself); and the titles you turn on release alerts for.
• Imports (Optional): If you import your history from another service, such as Letterboxd, Goodreads, or IMDb, we read the export file you upload and add its titles, ratings, dates, and notes to your library. We do not store the file itself. Titles we couldn't match, or may have matched incorrectly, are kept with the import so you can review them, and an import's details are deleted 30 days after it finishes.
• Clubs & Social Contributions: Clubs created or joined; turn order sequence positions; votes cast during club round candidate polls; text messages submitted in club chat feeds; discussion posts on titles and in clubs, and the comments and votes on them; comments posted on titles; comments, replies, and likes on activity in the social feed; reports you submit about other users' content; shared lists you create, are invited to, or join, and the titles you add to them; and user-following relationships.
• Images You Upload: Profile photos, photos you use as custom rating icons, and images you add to lists and clubs.
• Subscription & Purchase Tokens: Transaction identifiers, subscription tier status (e.g., Plus or Pro entitlements), billing cycle periods, and renewal timestamps provided by authorized platform payment processors (Apple App Store or Google Play Store). Plotline does not collect or store full credit card or bank account numbers.
• Location (Optional): The app asks for location access when you tap Show Nearby Theaters. Once you allow it, whenever you open the theater picker or search for a theater, the app sends your location, rounded to about 100 meters, to our servers to find and sort movie theaters near you. We use it only for those searches and do not store it. The app only uses your location while you are using it, never in the background. You can choose approximate instead of precise location when your device asks, and you can turn location access off at any time in your device settings.
• Device & Technical Information: As part of normal operation, we collect your IP address and device and app information, such as device model, operating system version, app version, language, and timezone. For example, sign-in sessions record the IP address and user agent used to sign in, push notification tokens are stored so we can deliver notifications to your device, and your timezone is used to schedule notifications at the right local time.
• Invite Links: When you open a Plotline invite link in your phone's web browser, we store the invite code, whether your phone runs iOS or Android, and a one-way hash of your IP address. If you then install the app, it uses these within 24 hours to fill in the invite code for you. We routinely delete these records once they are 7 days old.
• Waitlist (Optional): If you join the waitlist, we store the email address you give us and use it to confirm your spot and to send you an invite code when one is available.

We use two service providers to understand how the app is used and to fix bugs. Both store data in the United States:

• Crash & Diagnostic Data (Sentry): When the app or our servers encounter an error, we collect crash and diagnostic data such as error details, device model, operating system version, and app version. The app also sends a record of each app session, noting when it starts and ends and whether it crashed. We also collect performance data, such as load and response times, from a sample of screens, network requests, and server operations. This data is linked to your Plotline user ID.
• Product Interaction Data (PostHog): We collect information about how you use the app, such as the screens you view and the features you use, together with your Plotline user ID and a device identifier generated by the app. PostHog also receives the IP address the app sends this data from; we have turned off PostHog's IP-based location lookup. We do not include the contents of your notes, messages, or posts. You can turn this off in the app at Settings → Privacy Settings → Share Usage Data, and the setting is saved to your account.

3. How We Collect Personal Data

Plotline collects information through three primary channels:

• Direct User Provision: Information you provide directly when registering for an account, building watchlists, uploading images, participating in clubs, casting votes, or submitting support inquiries.
• Automated Collection: The technical information described in Section 2 (such as IP address, user agent, device and app details, push notification tokens, and timezone) that your device sends to our servers as part of using the Services. The app also sends crash, diagnostic, app session, and performance data to Sentry and product interaction data to PostHog, which act as our service providers and process this data only on our behalf. We do not use advertising SDKs.
• Authorized Third Parties: Authentication status and purchase receipt verification tokens delivered by Apple, Google, or our cloud backend providers.

4. Purposes of Data Processing

Plotline processes Personal Data for legitimate business purposes, including:

• Operating, synchronizing, and delivering your media tracking shelf across all authorized personal devices;
• Coordinating club activities, calculating turn sequence rotations, tallying round candidate votes, and delivering turn notifications;
• Sending the notifications you turn on, such as release-day alerts for the titles you pick;
• Filling in an invite code for you after you open an invite link and install the app;
• Verifying subscription tier entitlements and unlocking paid premium features;
• Computing personalized entertainment metrics, aggregate statistics, and reading milestones;
• Ranking how many titles you have rated against other Plotline users, once a day, to show "Top X%" badges on your profile. These badges are visible to anyone who can see your profile;
• Protecting system integrity, detecting and mitigating abusive behavior, and maintaining network and server security.

5. Information Disclosures & Service Providers

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising.

We may disclose aggregated, anonymized, or de-identified information about our users that cannot reasonably be used to identify you, for statistical analysis and service optimization.

Plotline may disclose personal data that we collect or that you provide only as described in this Privacy Policy:

• Service Providers: To vendors that process data on our behalf, under confidentiality obligations and only as needed to provide their services to us:
  • Cloud hosting and database providers;
  • File and media storage and delivery providers, for profile photos and images you upload;
  • Email delivery providers, for account emails such as password resets, and for waitlist and invite emails;
  • Push notification delivery services (Expo, Apple, and Google);
  • Sign-in providers (Apple and Google), when you choose to sign in with them;
  • Payment processing through the Apple App Store and Google Play;
  • Error and performance monitoring through Sentry (Functional Software, Inc.), which receives crash and diagnostic data, a record of each app session, and performance data from a sample of screens, network requests, and server operations, linked to your user ID, stored in the United States;
  • Product analytics through PostHog, Inc., which receives product interaction data, your user ID, an app-generated device identifier, and your IP address, stored in the United States; and
  • Media metadata providers (TMDB for movies and TV, Open Library for books), which receive search queries but not your account information.
• Public Contributions & Community Feeds: Your profile, library, ratings, notes, and activity are visible to other Plotline users by default. If you make your account private, only the followers you approve can see your library, ratings, notes, and activity; other users still see your basic profile, such as your name, photo, and bio. Notes are Public unless you set a note to Private when you write it (the app remembers your choice for your next note), and Private notes are visible only to you. Public notes are visible to the people who can see your ratings, and in a private club they appear with your rating of the club's picks. Activity in the social feed, and comments on that activity, are visible to the people who can see that activity. When you log a movie at a theater, the feed shows that theater, and your profile stats show the theaters you visit; watches at home are not shown in the feed. When you tag a private club, its members see the club's name, while other people who can see your activity only see that you were with a private club. If you are a Pro subscriber and set custom rating icons, they are shown on your profile to other Plotline users, even if your account is private.
• Shared Lists: Members of a shared list can see the list, its titles, its other members, and who added each title. If the list is public, other Plotline users can see this too.
• Mergers, Asset Sales & Business Transfers: To a buyer, investor, or successor in the event of a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, financing, acquisition, or other sale or transfer of some or all of Plotline's assets, whether as an ongoing enterprise or as part of bankruptcy or insolvency proceedings, in which personal data held by Plotline is transferred as part of the business assets.
• Legal, Regulatory & Safety Compliance: To comply with any court order, subpoena, law, or legal process; enforce our Terms of Service; or protect the rights, safety, and property of Plotline, our users, or the public.

6. Data Security & Comprehensive Breach Disclaimer

Plotline maintains commercially reasonable administrative, physical, and technical safeguards designed to protect Personal Data against accidental loss, destruction, and unauthorized access or alteration. We use encryption in transit (TLS/HTTPS) between the app and our servers, and our hosting providers encrypt stored data at rest.

7. Subscriptions & Financial Information

All financial billing, credit card processing, and transaction management for Plotline's paid subscription tiers are handled exclusively by third-party in-app purchase intermediaries (the Apple App Store or Google Play Store) in accordance with their respective privacy policies and PCI-DSS compliance frameworks. Plotline never accesses or stores your raw payment card data.

8. Data Subject Rights & Account Deletion

Plotline gives you ways to access and delete your Personal Data:

• Access to Your Data: You may request a copy of your personal data by emailing support@theplotline.app from the email address on your account. We respond within the time required by applicable law (typically 45 days).
• Permanent Account Deletion: You may permanently delete your account directly within the application (Settings → Manage Account → Delete Account). Upon deletion, your profile, library and ratings, notes, follows, likes and votes, club memberships, notifications, sign-in sessions, and uploaded images (profile photos, rating icon photos, list images, and club images) are permanently deleted. Some content that other people use stays, as described below.
• Deletion by Email: You can also request deletion by emailing support@theplotline.app from the email address on your account. See Delete Your Plotline Account for details.
• Email Opt-Out: Non-essential emails, such as waitlist and invite emails, include an unsubscribe link. You can also opt out by replying "unsubscribe" or emailing support@theplotline.app with the subject "Unsubscribe". We honor opt-out requests within 10 business days. Account emails you request, such as password resets, are still sent.

Some things you contributed stay after deletion because they are part of other people's conversations and clubs. They are shown as from a deleted user and are no longer linked to your account: comments and replies you posted on other people's feed activity, comments on titles, discussion posts and their comments, club chat messages, and your picks and questionnaires in clubs. Your own feed activity is deleted, along with the comments on it. Theaters you added to the shared theater list stay on it without being linked to you, and theaters you added only for yourself are deleted. Reports you submitted about other users' content stay in our moderation records.

If you own a club, ownership passes to its longest-standing active member, and the club images you uploaded are removed. A club with no other active members is deleted, along with its content.

Shared lists work differently because other people use them. Titles you added to someone else's shared list stay on that list, but they are no longer linked to your account. If you own a shared list that has other members, ownership passes to the member who joined first, and the list's cover image is removed. Shared lists with no other members are deleted.

9. U.S. State Privacy Rights

Plotline does not sell your personal information and does not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising. If this ever changes, we will update this Privacy Policy and give you notice and any required choices before doing so.

Residents of certain U.S. states (including California, Virginia, and Colorado) have rights to access, correct, and delete their personal data, and to opt out of certain processing. You can exercise these rights by emailing support@theplotline.app. We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of these rights.

10. Cookies & Local Storage

The Plotline website does not use advertising or tracking cookies. It stores your language preference in your browser's local storage. The website loads fonts from Google Fonts, which receives your IP address when the fonts load. When you open an invite link on your phone, the website sends the invite code to our servers, which keep it with a one-way hash of your IP address as described in Section 2.

The Plotline app stores session and preference data on your device to keep you signed in and remember your settings.

The app's analytics and crash-reporting tools (PostHog and Sentry) store an app-generated identifier in the app's storage on your device. They do not use cookies. This data is not sold, and it is not used for advertising or to track you across other companies' apps or websites. You can turn off analytics in the app at Settings → Privacy Settings → Share Usage Data.

If we add analytics or other non-essential cookies, we will update this section and ask for your consent where required.

11. Children's Privacy

You must be 13 or older to use the Services. The Services are not directed to children under the age of 13, and Plotline does not knowingly collect Personal Data from children under 13. If we discover that Personal Data has been inadvertently collected from a child under 13, we will promptly delete such information from our records.

12. Data Retention & International Transfers

We retain Personal Data for the duration of your active account relationship and as reasonably necessary to fulfill the purposes described in this policy, enforce our Terms of Service, resolve disputes, prevent fraud, and comply with applicable statutory retention requirements. When you delete your account, your data is deleted from our active systems promptly and from backups on their normal rotation, except the content described in Section 8 that stays without being linked to your account.

13. Changes & Contact Information

We reserve the right to amend this Privacy Policy at any time. When we make material changes, we will provide notice, such as by updating the "Last Modified" date at the top of this document, displaying an in-app notice, or sending an email to your registered email address, and we may ask you to accept the revised Privacy Policy before you continue using the Services. Where required by law, we will ask for your consent before using Personal Data we already hold in a materially different way. Continued use of the Services after the effective date of a revised Privacy Policy constitutes your acknowledgment and acceptance of it.

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or our data protection practices, please contact us at:

Plotline
1178 Broadway, 3rd Floor #3993
New York, NY 10001
United States
Email: support@theplotline.app