Privacy policy

Information we use

Account information. We use your email address and account identifier to create your account, sign you in, protect access, and send confirmation, password-recovery and account messages. Your password is sent to our authentication provider when needed for sign-in, signup or a password change.

Profiles and tastes. We save the profile names and avatars, streaming-service selections, preferences, ratings, watched and hidden titles, saved lists and shared choices you enter. We also keep saved versions of discovery history. We use this information to make and explain recommendations, manage lists, avoid watched titles when appropriate, and combine the tastes of the profiles you select.

Feedback and support. Feedback submitted from your account is linked to it. If you email us, we receive your message, sender information and any attachments you choose to send. We use these reports to help you, investigate problems and improve Matchlight.

Access and security information. We process your confirmation that you are at least 18 and eligible to use the service in the United States and, when required for a private test, an invitation code. We keep a minimal admission record to enforce those access rules. We do not request your date of birth, street address or GPS location. Our hosting and authentication providers process request times, requested pages or endpoints, response and error information, IP addresses, browser or device information, and authentication events to operate and protect the service. Authentication events can be associated with your account.

Selecting a streaming service records a preference in Matchlight. It does not connect your streaming account. We do not ask for your streaming-service passwords or automatically import those services’ viewing histories.

Profiles share an account

Everyone who can sign into an account can view and manage its profiles and shared information. A profile is not a separate login or a private space within the account. Use separate accounts if you do not want to share access.

Matchlight uses the information you save to personalize recommendations. We do not sell your profile information, use it for targeted advertising, or combine it with other companies’ data to track you for advertising.

On your phone and in your browser

The iPhone app keeps session credentials in the device’s secure Keychain, with a separate item for temporary confirmation or recovery state. That session storage does not save your raw password.

In versions with the expanded catalog, Browse sends your search text and selected profile identifiers to Matchlight’s server to find and rank titles. We use the search text to answer that request; Matchlight does not save it as search history, write it to application logs, or send it to catalog providers. Earlier iPhone versions search their bundled catalog entirely on your phone.

In iPhone versions that include Apple’s age check, the app checks whether Apple requires an age-range check for your Apple Account. When required, it uses the range shared by Apple on your phone to decide whether you can use Matchlight’s adult features. The app does not save that range or send it to Matchlight’s server, and does not request your date of birth. This is separate from the adult and U.S. eligibility confirmation you provide when joining.

The website uses browser session storage to maintain sign-in and local storage for a temporary email-link return marker. A search on the public website can appear in the page address and ordinary hosting request records. Artwork may be held in normal network or image caches.

Signing out clears the app’s active stored session through its sign-out flow. Uninstalling the app does not request account deletion and should not be relied on to remove every Keychain item.

Services that help run Matchlight

Supabase provides authentication and application data storage. Vercel hosts the website, API and artwork. Gmail delivers account emails and receives messages sent to our support address. These providers, and the email services involved in delivery, process the information needed for those roles.

The primary application database is hosted in the United States. Our providers may perform other processing in locations where they operate; a database location does not mean every part of the service runs in that location.

Apple distributes the iPhone app. If you use a TestFlight beta, Apple’s TestFlight service collects beta usage and crash information and can make reports and feedback available to us. An email invitation may associate that information with your name or email address. This beta reporting is separate from information sent by the public App Store app. Read Apple’s TestFlight privacy information for Apple’s practices.

We may disclose information when required by law, to respond to a lawful request, or when necessary to protect accounts, prevent abuse or defend legal rights.

Catalog sources and outside links

Catalog sources supply title information and viewing options. Our catalog credits identify those sources. They are separate from a connection to your personal streaming account.

Opening a watch option, trailer or outside search sends a request to another service and may include the title being searched. Its accounts, charges and privacy practices apply. Matchlight does not attach your Matchlight sign-in token to those destination links.

How long we keep information

We keep account, profile, discovery-history and account-linked feedback records while your account remains active so we can maintain your preferences, lists, history and feedback. Deleting a title or profile from normal browsing does not by itself remove earlier saved versions. Account deletion includes those account-linked records in the removal process.

We keep support messages and diagnostic reports for as long as needed to handle the request, investigate the issue and follow up. We may retain information that is still needed to protect the service, resolve a dispute or meet a legal requirement. You can ask us to review or remove information you sent to support.

Deletion cases have a separate schedule. The verified notification contact is encrypted and kept for seven days after the sending service accepts a confirmation message, so we can investigate delivery problems. Acceptance by the sending service does not prove inbox delivery. If a send is unsuccessful or its outcome is uncertain, we review the case and close it after fourteen days from the first attempt, removing the local contact without claiming the message was delivered.

We retain a minimal deletion-case record for ninety days after the case is closed. It records the request reference, removal checks, notification outcome and contact cleanup. Restricted admission, denial and restore-suppression records, including the minimum sign-in identifiers needed to identify the right account, may remain when needed to prevent access by a deleted or revoked account and to keep its information from being restored. These safeguards are separate from the closed-case record and remain until the relevant access and backup risks have been resolved.

Our providers maintain backups and service records under their operating schedules. Deleted information can remain in backups until those copies expire. Support-mail copies, provider security records and necessary deletion safeguards are separate from the local notification contact. We do not treat removal from the active account database as proof that every retained copy has already been erased.

Your choices and account deletion

You can update your tastes, ratings and profiles in Matchlight. Open Your account in the app or account options on the website to review data downloads, deletion options and request status. You may need to sign in. A history download may have several parts; download every part for the complete export.

If the in-app deletion option is not available, email nathanking960@gmail.com to request deletion.

Account deletion affects every profile in the account. Sending a deletion request can pause access while the remaining steps are completed. Nathaniel King reviews requests daily, with a target of removing active account and sign-in data within seven days. If an issue delays that work, we will communicate the delay.

A request receipt is not a completion notice. After active account and sign-in removal is verified, we send a factual confirmation to the account’s verified email address. That notice explains that some backup, service-log and deletion-request records may remain. If delivery fails or you need help with a request, email nathanking960@gmail.com.

You can also contact us to request access, correction or deletion if you cannot use the account controls. We may need to verify that you control the account before releasing information or making changes. Deleting the app from your phone is different from deleting your Matchlight account.

Adults only

Matchlight is intended for adults aged 18 and over in the United States. A movie’s content rating is a preference setting, not permission for a child to create an account. Contact us if you believe a child has provided personal information so we can review and remove it.

Security, changes and contact

We use measures including encrypted network connections and controlled access to protect information. Please leave passwords, invitation codes, private confirmation or reset links, and other people’s personal information out of support reports. Review screenshots before sending them.

We will update this page when our practices change and revise the date above. For questions or requests, contact Nathaniel King at nathanking960@gmail.com.