How we handle your data.

Without an account

Your country choice, My list, release reminders, saved Journal reads, the room you are designing in the studio and recent site settings are kept in your own browser (local storage). They are not sent to us. The Journal and its saved reads make no network requests of their own and are not linked to an account. If you ask for a sign-in link, the email address you typed is also kept in your browser for up to 24 hours so that this browser can finish signing in, and while you are signed in your browser keeps your session. Clearing your browser data removes all of this.

With an account

You sign in with a link sent to your email address; there is no password. We then store, under your account: your email address; the answers you give about genres, how you watch, your equipment and any physical media you collect; your country; your list of saved titles; the playlists you create (their names and the films in them); the upcoming releases you follow; the design-studio rooms you save (their size, finishes and where each item stands) and your plan; and whether you have opted in to release emails (and when). We use this to show your list on every device, suggest films and series, and, only if you opt in, to email you about releases.

Your email address

We ask for your email address only if you choose to sign in. We use it to send you the sign-in link, to recognise your account, and, only if you opt in, to send you release emails. Apart from the sign-in link and messages about your account, we email you only what you have opted in to.

Where it goes. You type it into the sign-in form and it is sent over an encrypted connection to our database provider, which runs sign-in, keeps the address with your account and emails you the link (the link works once and expires soon). If you opt in to release emails, our email delivery provider also receives your address and each message so it can be delivered.

What we do not do. We do not sell it, use it for advertising, or share it with advertisers or other companies for their own use. We never send it to TMDB, JustWatch or the AI service.

In your browser. The address you typed is kept in your browser for up to 24 hours so that this browser can finish signing in, and while you are signed in your browser’s saved session includes it. Signing out or clearing your browser data removes it.

Who can see it. The person who runs Home Cinema Advisor, through the database provider’s tools, and the providers above while they process it. Other members cannot: each member’s data is kept so that only that member can read it.

How long we keep it. For as long as your account exists. “Delete my account and data” on your account page erases it with the rest of your account immediately. You can also ask us for a copy of your data, or to correct or erase it, from the contact page, writing from the same address so we can confirm it is yours.

Who handles it

Our database provider stores accounts and profile data (hosted in the United States). Cloudflare hosts and delivers the site, and counts visits with its Web Analytics: the page, the site you came from, your country and your browser type, without cookies and without building a profile of you. Film and series information, artwork and where-to-watch data come from TMDB, with availability from JustWatch via TMDB; when we ask TMDB for suggestions we send genre numbers and a few saved titles from your browser, never your email or name. If you use the Ask the Advisor advisor, your message, the last few messages of that conversation, any room or sound-system details you enter and your chosen country are sent to Anthropic, the company that makes the Claude AI models behind Ask the Advisor, to write the reply. Anthropic handles that text under its own terms and Anthropic’s privacy policy; we do not send it your email address, name or account details. In the same way, in the design studio it also receives a one-line summary of your room (size, screen, speaker format and estimated reverberation) and the studio’s own calculations for it (the viewing angle and seating distance, the speakers placed and their angles from the seat, and the room’s lowest resonances), so the reply matches what the studio shows, and the studio’s “Ask AI advisor” button sends the room’s layout (its dimensions, finishes, lighting mood, acoustic estimates and the type and position of each item). To keep the free advisor fair, we count questions per visitor per day using a salted one-way hash of your IP address; the count is deleted after two days and the address itself is not stored. A hash like this can still identify a connection, so we treat it as personal data and keep it only for that time. The site’s typefaces load from Google Fonts, so your browser contacts Google when a page opens. If you opt in to release emails, an email delivery provider receives your email address and the message so it can be delivered.

If you contact us

When you send the contact form we keep what you entered (the topic, and if you gave them your name, your email address and the page or title you mentioned, plus your message), the time it was sent and a salted one-way hash of your IP address, which lets us limit how many messages one connection can send but does not store the address itself. The message is also emailed to our own inbox so we can reply. We use it only to answer you (when you left an email address) and to deal with the issue you raise, and we delete messages from the form after 12 months. The copy in our inbox is ordinary email; we delete it when the matter is closed, and within the same 12 months. We never add you to a mailing list because you wrote to us.

Your choices

You can edit your answers, remove titles, playlists and releases, turn release emails off, or sign out at any time on your account page. Signing out also removes this browser’s copies of your list and alerts, and of a saved design open in the studio. “Delete my account and data” there erases your profile, list, playlists, alerts, saved designs and sign-in record immediately. Copies can remain for a short time in our providers’ routine backups and delivery logs until those expire, and emails already delivered stay in your own inbox. We do not sell your data, show ads based on it, or share it with advertisers.

Release emails

They are opt-in only, and there are two separate choices: a reminder a few days before a release you follow arrives, and a weekly note about films due in cinemas in your country that match the genres you chose. We check the current date with TMDB before sending, so a reminder reflects what TMDB says that day; dates can still change. Every email has a one-click unsubscribe link that turns both off, and you can change either choice in your account. We keep the time you opted in and the time of your last weekly note so we do not send it twice.