Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

Welcome to VidScio ("we," "our," or "us"). We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal data. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you visit our website (www.vidscio.com) or use our browser extension.

By accessing or using our Service, you signify that you have read, understood, and agree to our collection, storage, use, and disclosure of your personal information as described in this Privacy Policy.

2. Information We Collect

A. Personal Data

We may collect personal information that you voluntarily provide to us when you register for the Service, express an interest in obtaining information about us or our products and services, or otherwise when you contact us.

• Identity Data: Name, username, and profile picture (via Google Sign-In).
• Contact Data: Email address.

B. Usage & Technical Data

When you access the Service, we generally collect certain information automatically, including:

• Device Information: Browser type, operating system, and device type.
• Log Data: IP address, time of access, and pages visited.
• Interaction Data: Movie search history, watchlist additions, and other actions taken within the app.

C. Content Data for Analysis

To provide our core service—identifying movies from web content—we process:

• Page Content: Text snippets, video titles, descriptions, and comments from the webpage you are viewing when you actively trigger the extension or submit a URL.
• URLs: The web address of the page you are asking us to analyze.
• YouTube-Derived Data: When relevant to your request, we may process publicly available transcript or metadata excerpts from YouTube content.

3. Data Controller & Contact

VidScio is operated by an individual developer. For all privacy-related requests, the data controller can be reached at support@vidscio.com. We currently operate remotely and do not maintain a public mailing address, so email is the fastest way to reach us and is monitored regularly.

When you contact us, please provide enough detail to verify your identity and describe the request. We respond in line with applicable legal requirements and operational capacity.

4. Legal Basis for Processing

We rely on the following lawful bases under GDPR/UK GDPR and similar regulations:

• Contractual necessity: Processing account data and watchlists so we can deliver the Service you request.
• Your request and actions in the Service: Sending URLs, prompts, and related inputs to AI and data providers only when needed to fulfill the feature you asked us to run.
• Legitimate interests: Improving reliability, preventing abuse, and performing aggregated analytics. We balance these interests against your rights.
• Consent (where required by law): Optional communications and certain analytics settings.
• Legal obligations: Retaining data needed to comply with tax, security, or regulatory requirements.

5. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect or receive:

• To Provide the Service: Identifying movies, managing your watchlist, syncing data across devices, and powering the AI chat assistant including storing your conversation history.
• AI Processing: We send the necessary text content and URLs to third-party AI providers (such as Google Gemini, OpenAI, or similar) to perform the identification analysis.
• To Improve User Experience: Analyzing usage patterns to enhance our features and performance.
• To Communicate: Sending you service-related notices or responding to your support requests.

6. Third-Party Services & AI

We employ third-party companies and services to facilitate our Service ("Service Providers"), to provide the Service on our behalf, or to perform Service-related services.

• Supabase: For database hosting, authentication, and backend services.
• Google Sign-In: Account authentication via Google through Supabase Auth.
• AI Providers (Google Gemini, OpenAI, DeepSeek, etc.): We utilize these advanced AI models to process text and identify media references. These providers may process data in accordance with their own privacy policies.
• PostHog: For product analytics to understand how users interact with our Service. We run PostHog in a privacy-minimized mode by default and strip known PII fields from client analytics payloads. If you accept analytics cookies, we may enable persistent analytics storage (cookies and localStorage) and richer interaction analytics. If you decline, PostHog remains limited to our default privacy-minimized configuration.
• Sentry: For error tracking and performance monitoring. Sentry collects error logs, stack traces, and browser technical context to help us diagnose and fix issues. We configure Sentry in a privacy-minimized mode on the web app (for example, no default PII collection).
• OMDB API: For retrieving movie and TV show metadata such as titles, ratings, cast, and plot information.
• YouTube Data Sources: We may use YouTube-derived transcript and metadata tools to support identification features.
• JustWatch: We interact with JustWatch's public interfaces to provide streaming availability information.
• Google Cloud Platform: We may use Google Cloud services (such as Cloud Storage or Cloud Vision) for temporary processing of images or related media provided by users.

7. Data Retention

We retain your personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected:

• Account Data: Retained until you delete your account or request deletion.
• Watchlist Data: Retained until you remove items or delete your account.
• Chat Conversation Data: Message history is retained until you delete individual conversations or your account. You can delete any conversation at any time from the chat sidebar.
• Usage Quota Data: Counters reset on platform-defined schedules. Aggregate usage and quota records are retained according to backend operational settings and may be stored for abuse prevention, fraud analysis, and service operations.
• URL Cache Data: Cache entries use configurable expiry windows to improve performance and reduce redundant API calls. Expired rows may remain until periodic database cleanup runs.
• Analytics Data: Retained according to our analytics providers' configured retention policies.
• Error Logs: Retained according to provider configuration and operational needs for debugging and security monitoring.

8. Cookies, Local Storage & Consent Controls

We use cookies and similar technologies to enhance your experience:

• Essential Cookies: Required for authentication and core functionality.
• Analytics Storage (Cookies and localStorage): Used by PostHog to persist richer analytics settings when analytics cookies are accepted.
• Local Storage: The browser extension uses local storage to save your watchlist and preferences locally on your device. The web app may also use localStorage for analytics persistence when analytics cookies are accepted.

PostHog can persist analytics state in both cookies and localStorage. Blocking cookies alone may not remove existing analytics state stored in localStorage. To limit persistent analytics storage, use the analytics cookie controls to decline analytics cookies. If you previously accepted analytics cookies and want to remove existing client-side analytics state, clear this site's localStorage and cookies in your browser settings.

Sentry is used for essential reliability and security monitoring on the web app. Declining analytics cookies disables persistent analytics storage and richer interaction analytics, but does not disable privacy-minimized analytics and error logging needed to operate, improve, and secure the Service.

If you do not make a choice, we apply the same privacy-minimized defaults as limited analytics mode: non-persistent analytics settings and essential error logging only.

The extension does not share your watchlist or browsing history with advertisers, and we do not sell personal data.

9. International Data Transfers & Safeguards

Your information may be transferred to and processed in countries other than your own. Our service providers (Supabase, AI providers, Sentry, PostHog) may process data in the United States and other jurisdictions. When data leaves your region, we may rely on safeguards made available by providers (such as Standard Contractual Clauses where applicable), and we limit shared data to what is needed for the requested feature.

We regularly review provider terms and safeguards and may update integrations or data flows to maintain compliance.

10. Disclaimer & AI Accuracy

Accuracy of Results: VidScio uses artificial intelligence to identify movies and TV shows. While we strive for high accuracy, AI models can make mistakes. The information provided by our Service is for general informational purposes only and is provided on an "AS IS" basis. We do not guarantee the absolute accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any result.

No Legal Advice: The Service is not intended to provide legal or professional advice.

11. Data Security

We use administrative, technical, and physical security measures to help protect your personal information, including encrypted transport channels (such as HTTPS/TLS) for data in transit, access controls, and audit logging. While we have taken reasonable steps to secure the personal information you provide to us, please be aware that no method of data transmission can be guaranteed against interception or misuse.

12. Your Data Rights

Depending on your location, you may have the following rights:

• Access: Request access to the personal data we hold about you.
• Correction: Request correction of inaccurate personal data.
• Deletion: Request deletion of your account and personal data.
• Portability: Request a copy of your data in a machine-readable format.
• Objection: Object to certain processing of your personal data.

California and other US state residents may also opt out of the "sharing" of personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising (we do not currently engage in this) and can request that we limit the use of sensitive personal data. EU/UK residents may lodge a complaint with their local supervisory authority. To exercise any rights, contact support@vidscio.com. We verify requests before acting and respond as required by applicable law.

13. Children's Privacy

Our Service is not directed to anyone under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children under 13. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has provided us with personal information, please contact us immediately so we can delete the information.

14. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page and updating the "Last Updated" date. For significant changes, we may also notify you via email if you have an account with us.

15. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us:

• By email: support@vidscio.com