Privacy Policy

Last updated: April 20, 2026

This Privacy Policy describes how Cliffhanger (“we”, “us”, or “the app”) collects, uses, and shares information about you when you use the Cliffhanger mobile application.

By using Cliffhanger, you agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this policy.

1. Information We Collect

Account information

When you create an account, we collect:

• Email address
• Password (stored as a secure hash — never in plain text)
• Display name and username
• Profile picture (your choice of TV character avatar or uploaded image)

Usage data you provide

While using the app, we collect information you voluntarily create:

• Shows you add to your watchlist and their status (Want to Watch, Currently Watching, Watched, Dropped)
• Episodes you mark as watched and their timestamps
• Ratings you assign to shows
• Lists you create and the shows/characters in them
• Friend requests and accepted friendships
• Chat conversations, messages, and any GIFs or show references shared within them
• Notification preferences (e.g., push notifications for new episodes)

Device data

To deliver push notifications, we store your Expo push token (a device-specific identifier). We do not collect your device’s location, contacts, photos (outside of what you explicitly upload as a profile picture), or any other system-level data.

2. How We Use Your Information

We use your information to:

• Create and maintain your account
• Provide the app’s core features (tracking shows, viewing friends’ activity, chatting)
• Send push notifications you’ve opted into (new episodes of shows you watch)
• Display your watchlist and activity to your friends, per your settings
• Detect and prevent abuse (spam, harassment, fake accounts)

We do not sell your data to third parties. We do not serve advertising. We do not use your data to train machine-learning models.

3. Who Sees Your Data

Your friends. When you accept a friend request, that friend can see your watchlist, your ratings, your progress on shows you share, and chat with you in conversations you’ve joined. You can unfriend or block users at any time.

The app itself. Data is stored on servers we operate via our hosting providers (see below). Our team may access data to operate, debug, or improve the service.

Nobody else. Your data is not shared with advertisers, data brokers, or other third parties beyond the service providers listed below.

4. Third-Party Services

Cliffhanger uses the following services to operate:

• Supabase (database, authentication, file storage): hosts your account, watchlist, friends, and chat data. See Supabase Privacy Policy.
• Expo / Expo Push Service (app runtime, push notifications): delivers notifications to your device. See Expo Privacy Policy.
• Sentry (error monitoring): when the app encounters an error, a diagnostic report is sent to Sentry so we can fix the issue. Reports include a stack trace, device model, OS version, app version, and — to help us trace the error to an affected user — your user id and email address. Reports do not include your watchlist, ratings, messages, or other personal content. See Sentry Privacy Policy.
• TVMaze (read-only TV metadata): we fetch show details, episode lists, and schedules from TVMaze. No personal information is sent to TVMaze. See TVMaze Terms.
• Giphy (GIF search, used in chat): when you search for a GIF to send in chat, your search query is sent to Giphy. Your identity is not. See Giphy Privacy Policy.

These providers have their own privacy practices. We have no control over, and are not responsible for, their policies.

5. Data Retention

We retain your data as long as your account exists. If you delete your account (Settings → Delete Account), we remove your profile, watchlist, ratings, messages, and all associated data from our active database, typically within 30 days. Some backups may persist for up to 90 days before being purged.

Chat messages you sent in group conversations remain visible to other participants (with your display name) even after you leave or delete your account, since those messages are part of the shared conversation record. If this is a concern, delete individual messages before leaving a conversation.

6. Your Rights

You can, at any time:

• Access your data by using the app (everything we store about you is visible in the UI)
• Update your display name, username, avatar, email, or password from Settings and Profile
• Delete your account permanently from Settings → Delete Account
• Block or report another user from their profile or via chat message long-press

If you’re a resident of the EU, UK, California, or another jurisdiction with data-protection laws (GDPR, CCPA, etc.), you may have additional rights including data portability and the right to object to processing. Contact us at the address below to exercise those rights.

7. Children’s Privacy

Cliffhanger is not intended for children under 13. We do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has created an account, please contact us and we will delete the account.

8. Security

We use industry-standard measures to protect your data: passwords are hashed, data in transit uses TLS, and access to our backend is restricted to authorized personnel. No system is perfectly secure, but we take reasonable steps to protect your information.

9. International Transfers

Our servers are located in the United States. If you use Cliffhanger from outside the US, your data will be transferred to and processed in the US. By using the app, you consent to this transfer.

10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy as the app evolves. When we make material changes, we’ll notify you in the app and update the “Last updated” date at the top of this document. Continued use of the app after changes means you accept the updated policy.

11. Contact

Questions about this policy, or about data we hold on you?

Email: cliffhanger.support@gmail.com