Flixel Privacy Policy

Effective Date: July 2025

Welcome to Flixel (“we”, “us”, or “our”). Flixel is a personalized movie discovery app that lets you browse, watch trailers, add to a watchlist, leave comments, and—soon—book cinema tickets. Your privacy is important to us. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, and your rights.

1. Information We Collect

1.1 Personal Information You Provide

• Authentication & Profile: If you sign in via email/password or Google, we store your unique user ID, name, email, and optional avatar URL in Firebase Authentication and Firestore.
• User Profile & Preferences: Display name, favorite genres, notification preferences, watchlist, and comments you post.
• Watchlist & Comments: Movies you add/remove from your watchlist and any comments or ratings you submit.

1.2 Automatically Collected Information

• Usage Analytics: We use Firebase Analytics to understand feature usage (e.g. which genres are most popular), crash reporting (Firebase Crashlytics), and to improve the app. These analytics collect device model, OS version, timestamped events, and anonymized identifiers.
• Push Notifications: If you opt in, we collect your device’s push token (via Firebase Cloud Messaging) to deliver alerts such as new trailer releases or ticket reminders.
• Location (Optional): If you enable location-based showtimes, we request coarse location (city/region) to surface nearby cinemas. You can opt-out at any time.

2. How We Use Your Information

• To authenticate and uniquely identify you within the app.
• To store and sync your watchlist, comments, and preferences across devices.
• To send you personalized recommendations and push notifications (if enabled).
• To power in-app analytics and crash reporting, helping us to fix bugs and improve features.
• To display showtimes and price alerts for cinemas near you (if location access granted).

3. Information Sharing

• Service Providers: We use Google Firebase services (Authentication, Firestore, Cloud Messaging, Analytics, Crashlytics) and TMDb API. These providers process data on our behalf under confidentiality obligations.
• Legal Requirements: We may disclose information to comply with laws, legal processes, or governmental requests; or to protect rights and safety.
• Aggregate Data: We may share aggregated or anonymized data that cannot reasonably be used to identify you.

4. Your Choices & Rights

• Account Deletion: You can delete your account at any time via the Profile → Settings screen; this will erase your profile, watchlist, and comments.
• Notifications: You may opt out of in-app notifications or push alerts in Settings, or via your device’s notification settings.
• Location: You can revoke location permission at any time in your device’s privacy settings.
• Analytics Opt-Out: You can disable analytics collection from within the app’s Settings screen.
• Access & Correction: Contact us to request a copy of your data, or to correct any inaccuracies.

5. Data Retention

We retain your account and profile data for as long as you use Flixel. If you delete your account, we will remove your personal data within 30 days, except for any anonymized logs or backups that cannot be linked back to you.

6. Security

We follow industry best practices to secure your data in transit and at rest (HTTPS / TLS, Firebase security rules, encrypted storage). However, no system is 100% secure—please use a strong, unique password for your account.

7. Children’s Privacy

Flixel is not intended for children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe we have inadvertently done so, please contact us to request deletion.

8. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy as Flixel evolves. We will post the revised policy here with a new “Effective Date.” Your continued use after changes constitutes acceptance.

9. Contact Us

If you have questions or requests regarding this Privacy Policy, please email us at hello@empyrealworks.com.

Thank you for using Flixel!