Privacy Policy

Who we are

MatchWatch is operated by Foundry Studio Limited (“MatchWatch”, “we”, “us”, or “our”).

Privacy contact: privacy@matchwatch.tv

Postal address: 7 Denimes Crescent, Rolleston 7614, New Zealand

Quick summary

• We collect the information needed to run MatchWatch: your account, profile, preferences, groups, swipes, matches, watchlist, searches, nudges, support messages, and app activity.
• We use this information to provide the service, personalise your watch deck, support group matching, keep the app safe, send account and service messages, diagnose issues, and improve performance.
• We do not sell your personal information.
• We do not show ads in MatchWatch.
• We do not use your personal information for targeted advertising or cross-app tracking.
• We do not use AI-derived information to make legal, employment, credit, insurance, housing, or similarly significant decisions about you.
• You can request access, correction, export, or deletion of your personal information.
• You can delete your account in the app or through our deletion page: our account deletion page.
• MatchWatch is for people aged 13 and older. It is not directed to children under 13.

Personal information we collect

Account and login information

We collect information needed to create and manage your account, including:

• email address;
• display name;
• account identifier;
• login provider, such as Sign in with Apple, Google, or email login;
• authentication and session information handled by our authentication provider;
• account creation, sign-in, and last-seen timestamps.

If you use Sign in with Apple or Google, those providers may send us account information such as your email address and provider identifier, depending on your settings.

Profile and preference information

We collect information you provide or choose in the app, including:

• display name;
• region or country preferences;
• age bracket;
• streaming services;
• genre preferences;
• guide and onboarding state;
• notification preferences, if push notifications are enabled.

We use age bracket and region information to help filter content appropriately. We do not need your exact date of birth for this. Age recognition during onboarding helps limit available choices for younger users.

Group and social information

MatchWatch is built around private groups. We collect information needed to operate those groups, including:

• group names;
• group membership;
• invite codes and invite information;
• group creator and joined-at timestamps;
• nudges, suggestions, and “for tonight” prompts;
• match thresholds and group match outcomes;
• report, block, or support information if those safety features are used.

Other people in your group may see information needed for the group feature to work, such as your display name, membership, suggestions, nudges, and shared matches.

MatchWatch does not create public user profiles. Group activity is designed for private group contexts, not public broadcasting.

Watch activity and interaction data

We collect information about how you use the core app features, including:

• title searches;
• swipes left, right, or super;
• watchlist items;
• matches;
• title suggestions;
• card injection events;
• interaction timing and app state needed to keep the deck working;
• offline and cache state stored on your device.

This information helps us provide recommendations, avoid repeatedly showing titles you have already acted on, build group matches, keep your watchlist, and debug deck quality.

AI-derived preference information

MatchWatch uses AI systems to help generate taste profiles and review recommendation quality. This may involve:

• summaries of your watch preferences;
• recent swipes, searches, watchlist, matches, services, genres, and group context;
• generated taste profiles for you or your group;
• AI decision logs, including model name, input and output summaries, token counts, cost, confidence, and timestamps.

We use this information to improve the relevance and reliability of MatchWatch recommendations. We aim to avoid sending direct account identifiers to AI providers where they are not needed for the feature to work.

We do not use AI-derived information to make legal, employment, credit, insurance, housing, or similarly significant decisions about you.

App analytics, diagnostics, and security data

We collect limited technical information to run and improve the app, including:

• device, browser, operating system, and app version information;
• pages or screens visited;
• performance data;
• crash reports and error logs;
• IP address and approximate location inferred from network information where provided by service providers;
• security, abuse-prevention, and fraud-prevention logs.

We use this information to understand app reliability, investigate bugs, protect accounts, and improve performance.

Push notification data

If push notifications are enabled, we may collect:

• device push tokens;
• platform, such as iOS or Android;
• notification preference state;
• delivery and failure information.

We use push tokens only to send MatchWatch service notifications, such as group invites, nudges, matches, or weekly review notifications. You can turn off push notifications through your device settings or in-app settings where available.

Support and communications

If you contact us, send feedback, report abuse, or request help, we collect the information you provide, such as:

• your name or email address;
• message content;
• support history;
• screenshots or diagnostic details you choose to send.

We use this information to respond to you and handle support, safety, privacy, or legal requests.

Website and marketing-page information

When you visit our public website, we may collect basic website analytics and technical logs.

The public website may also use:

• a mailing list signup, where we collect the email address and related signup details you provide;
• Google Analytics, to understand website traffic and performance;
• cookies, local storage, or similar technologies for location-based redirects, preference storage, analytics, and basic website operation.

We do not use these tools to sell personal information or serve targeted advertising.

Where required by law, we ask for consent before setting non-essential analytics or marketing cookies. Strictly necessary storage, such as login/session storage or security storage, may be used without consent where it is needed to provide the service you request.

Information we do not intentionally collect

MatchWatch does not intentionally collect:

• precise GPS location;
• address book or phone contact lists;
• microphone, camera, or photo library data, unless you choose to send a screenshot or image to support;
• payment card details;
• government identity numbers;
• health information;
• biometric information.

If our practices change, we will update this policy and any app-store privacy disclosures before collecting new categories of information.

Where we get information from

We collect information:

• directly from you when you create an account, edit your profile, choose preferences, search, swipe, join groups, or contact us;
• automatically when you use the app or website;
• from login providers when you choose to sign in with Apple or Google;
• from other group members when they invite you, interact with your group, nudge you, suggest a title, or report an issue involving you;
• from service providers that help us run the app;
• from title and content data providers when we fetch movie and TV metadata.

Some information about you may be collected indirectly, for example when another group member invites you, nudges you, suggests a title to you, or reports a safety issue involving you. Where reasonable, we use this policy, in-app notices, and support responses to explain that collection and how it is used.

How we use personal information

We use personal information to:

• create, authenticate, and manage accounts;
• provide onboarding, profile, group, discovery, swipe, match, watchlist, nudge, search, and notification features;
• personalise your deck and group recommendations;
• filter titles by region, availability, preference, and age bracket;
• send service messages such as invites, nudges, matches, account notices, deletion confirmations, and support responses;
• provide push notifications if you enable them;
• maintain app security, prevent abuse, investigate reports, and enforce our terms;
• diagnose crashes, bugs, poster-loading issues, sync issues, and performance problems;
• generate and review AI taste profiles and recommendation quality;
• understand aggregate app usage and improve reliability;
• comply with legal obligations and respond to lawful requests;
• protect our rights, users, and service.

We do not use personal information for targeted advertising. We do not sell personal information.

If information is optional and you choose not to provide it, some MatchWatch features may not work as intended. For example, without streaming-service preferences, recommendations may be less useful; without push notification permission, we cannot send push alerts.

Legal bases for EU and UK users

Where EU or UK data protection law applies, we rely on the following legal bases:

• Contract: to provide the MatchWatch service you request, including accounts, groups, recommendations, swipes, matches, watchlist, and support.
• Legitimate interests: to keep the service secure, debug and improve the app, prevent abuse, understand performance, maintain records, and improve recommendation quality, where those interests are not overridden by your rights.
• Consent: where we ask for optional permissions, such as push notifications, non-essential cookies where required, or other optional features.
• Legal obligation: where we need to keep or disclose information to comply with applicable law.

You may withdraw consent where processing is based on consent. Withdrawal does not affect processing already carried out before withdrawal.

Who we share information with

We share personal information only where needed to run, protect, or improve MatchWatch, or where required by law.

Service providers

We use service providers for hosting, authentication, database storage, file storage, analytics, diagnostics, email delivery, AI processing, app distribution, and push notifications. These providers may process personal information for us.

We require service providers to protect personal information, use it only for the services they provide to us where they act as our processors, and apply appropriate security and confidentiality measures.

Current providers include, depending on the feature you use:

• Supabase, for authentication, database, edge functions, and storage;
• Vercel, for hosting and analytics;
• Sentry, for crash, error, and performance diagnostics;
• Anthropic, for AI taste-profile and recommendation-quality processing;
• Resend, for transactional email;
• Apple, for Sign in with Apple, App Store distribution, and APNs push notifications if enabled;
• Google, for Google login, Google Play distribution, Google Analytics, and related Google services;
• TMDB, OMDb, TVmaze, TheTVDB, and Trakt for movie and TV metadata;
• Google Fonts, where fonts are loaded from Google-hosted font services.

If we self-host fonts or stop using a provider, this list may be updated.

Login providers

If you sign in using Apple or Google, that provider processes your login according to its own privacy policy. We receive the information needed to create and authenticate your MatchWatch account.

Content metadata providers

We use external providers to retrieve movie and TV metadata, posters, ratings, availability, and related title information. We try not to send account-identifying information to title metadata providers unless technically necessary.

Other users in your group

Group members may see information needed for shared group features, such as your display name, group membership, nudges, suggestions, and shared matches.

Legal and safety disclosures

We may disclose information if we reasonably believe it is necessary to:

• comply with law, court orders, regulator requests, or lawful government requests;
• protect the rights, safety, and security of MatchWatch, users, or others;
• investigate abuse, security incidents, or terms violations;
• complete a merger, acquisition, financing, or sale of assets, with appropriate notice where required.

International transfers

MatchWatch is operated from New Zealand. We may process and store personal information in countries other than where you live. Our providers may operate in New Zealand, Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Economic Area, and other locations.

Where required, we use appropriate safeguards for international transfers, such as provider data-processing agreements, contractual protections, standard contractual clauses or equivalent transfer terms, security controls, and service-provider commitments.

For New Zealand users, this means we take steps intended to ensure overseas recipients provide comparable privacy safeguards where New Zealand law requires it. For Australian, UK, and EU users, this means we take reasonable steps or use lawful transfer mechanisms where those laws require them.

How long we keep information

We keep personal information only for as long as needed for the purposes described in this policy, unless a longer period is required or permitted by law.

In general:

• account, profile, preference, group, swipe, match, watchlist, nudge, search, and user-level AI profile records are kept while your account is active;
• if you delete your account, account-linked records are deleted or anonymised unless we need to keep limited information for legal, security, fraud-prevention, dispute, or operational reasons;
• support messages are kept for up to 7 years, because they may be needed to manage disputes, legal requests, safety issues, or privacy requests;
• security and abuse-prevention logs are normally kept for up to 24 months, unless we need them for an active investigation, legal request, or security incident;
• crash, error, and performance logs are normally kept for 90 days to 12 months, depending on provider settings and operational need;
• website and app analytics records that identify or could reasonably identify a user are normally kept for up to 26 months, unless a shorter provider setting applies;
• AI decision logs and recommendation-quality records that identify or could reasonably identify a user are normally kept for 90 days to 12 months, unless needed for a safety, security, legal, or dispute reason;
• anonymised or aggregated analytics and recommendation-quality records may be kept for longer where they no longer identify you;
• backups may retain deleted information for a limited period before automatic expiry, normally no longer than 90 days unless a provider, legal, or security requirement makes a longer period necessary.

We review retention settings as the service changes. The aim is simple: keep what we need to run MatchWatch properly, and get rid of what no longer needs to be attached to you.

Account deletion and data deletion

You can request deletion of your account and associated personal information:

• in the app, from account or profile settings; or
• on the web through the account deletion page; or
• by contacting us at privacy@matchwatch.tv.

When you delete your account, we will delete identifying account information associated with your account and anonymise retained shared history, unless we need to retain limited information for legal, security, fraud-prevention, dispute, or operational reasons.

Deletion includes or anonymises:

• your account and authentication record;
• profile information;
• streaming service and genre preferences;
• search history;
• watchlist;
• swipes and personal title interactions, or identifiers linking those records to you;
• nudges and suggestions associated with you;
• user-level taste profiles;
• AI decision logs and review records that identify you, or identifiers within those records;
• push tokens;
• support records where deletion is legally and operationally appropriate.

Shared group history may be anonymised rather than removed, so that other group members do not lose shared group records, such as historical matches. If retained, those records will no longer identify you.

If you used Sign in with Apple, we will also take steps required to revoke Apple tokens when your account is deleted.

Where service providers process account-linked data for us, we will take reasonable steps to delete or anonymise that information from those providers as part of the deletion process, unless retention is legally or operationally required.

We aim to complete deletion requests within 30 days. If a request is complex, legally restricted, or cannot be completed immediately, we will tell you what to expect and complete it within the period required by applicable law.

Your privacy rights

Depending on where you live, you may have rights to:

• access the personal information we hold about you;
• correct inaccurate or incomplete information;
• delete your personal information;
• receive a copy of your information in a portable format;
• object to or restrict some processing;
• withdraw consent where processing is based on consent;
• opt out of sale, sharing, targeted advertising, or profiling where applicable;
• complain to a privacy regulator.

To exercise these rights, contact us at privacy@matchwatch.tv or use the account deletion page.

We may need to verify your identity before responding to a request. We will not discriminate against you for exercising privacy rights.

If you make a privacy complaint, we will acknowledge it and respond within a reasonable period. Where required by law, we will explain the outcome and any steps we have taken.

California and other US state privacy rights

If a US state privacy law applies to your information, you may have rights to know, access, correct, delete, port, or opt out of certain uses of personal information.

MatchWatch does not sell personal information and does not share personal information for cross-context behavioural advertising.

MatchWatch does not knowingly sell or share the personal information of users under 16.

If our practices change, we will update this policy and provide any required opt-out mechanisms.

Children and teenagers

MatchWatch is for people aged 13 and older. It is not aimed at children under 13, and children under 13 must not create an account or use the service.

If we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under 13 without appropriate consent, we will delete it.

MatchWatch may be used by teenagers aged 13 and older if permitted by their parent or guardian and by applicable law. The app includes onboarding age recognition that limits choices for younger users. For teen users, we aim to minimise data collection and reduce risk by:

• collecting age bracket rather than exact date of birth;
• not selling personal information;
• not showing ads;
• not using personal information for targeted advertising;
• not creating public user profiles;
• limiting group and social features to private group contexts;
• using age bracket information to help filter content and choices;
• allowing account deletion and data requests;
• avoiding unnecessary device permissions;
• avoiding precise location collection;
• limiting profiling to watch-preference and recommendation features within MatchWatch.

Parents or guardians can contact us at privacy@matchwatch.tvto ask about a child's information, request deletion, or raise a privacy concern.

Cookies, local storage, and offline data

MatchWatch uses local storage, IndexedDB, service workers, and similar technologies to:

• keep you signed in;
• remember preferences;
• support offline or poor-network use;
• cache deck data and posters;
• improve app performance.

The public website uses cookieless Vercel Analytics for basic aggregate page measurement. Google Analytics loads only after you choose Accept analytics. Mailing-list forms and cookies or similar technologies may also be used for location-based redirects and basic website operation.

Some storage is strictly necessary for the service to work. Some storage is used for preferences or analytics. Where law requires consent for non-essential storage, we ask for consent before using it.

We do not use advertising cookies or cross-app tracking cookies.

You can manage browser storage through your browser settings. If you clear local storage, some app preferences or offline data may be removed.

Security

We use technical and organisational measures designed to protect personal information against unauthorised access, loss, misuse, alteration, or disclosure.

No online service is completely secure. Please keep your login credentials safe and contact us if you believe your account or information has been compromised.

If we become aware of a privacy or security incident that requires notification, we will notify affected users and regulators where required by law.

Third-party links and services

MatchWatch may link to third-party websites, app stores, login providers, or content providers. Their privacy practices are governed by their own policies. We are not responsible for third-party privacy practices.

Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. If changes are material, we will take reasonable steps to notify users, such as updating the effective date, posting a notice, or providing an in-app notice where appropriate.

Contact us

For privacy questions, requests, or complaints:

Email: privacy@matchwatch.tv

Postal address: 7 Denimes Crescent, Rolleston 7614, New Zealand

Account deletion: open the deletion page

You can also reach us through our contact page.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you may be able to complain to your local privacy regulator, including the New Zealand Privacy Commissioner, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, the UK Information Commissioner's Office, an EU data protection authority, or a US state privacy regulator where applicable.