Privacy policy

CouchApproved (couchapproved.com) is run by Michael Freeman in Victoria, Australia (“we”, “us”). This policy explains what the site stores, what stays on your own device, and the choices you have. Questions go to hello@couchapproved.com.

The short version

• There are no accounts. We never ask for your name, email address or phone number.
• Your kids’ ages, and any names you give them, are kept in a cookie in your own browser. Our server reads that cookie to show whether a title suits them, but never saves it.
• The only thing we store on our server is a movie-night list, if you make one.
• We don’t use analytics or tracking tools. When we show ads, they come from Google AdSense, which uses its own cookies (see below).

Cookies we set

• ca_kids: the ages you enter in “Who’s watching”, plus an optional first name or nickname for each child. It lets every page show a verdict for each child. Kept for one year.
• ca_country: the country you picked, so ratings and streaming services match where you live. Kept for one year.
• ca_guest: a random code created when you first add a title to a list, so you (and only you) can edit your lists. We store a scrambled (hashed) copy of it next to your lists, never the code itself. Kept for one year.
• ca_list: the short code of the list you’re adding to, so the site can show “View list”. Kept for one year.

These cookies are needed for the features you use and aren’t used for advertising or tracking. You can delete them at any time in your browser’s settings. The site still works without them, but it will forget your kids and your country.

Movie-night lists

If you create a list, we store its name, the titles in it and when it was changed, together with the hashed code described above. Anyone who has a list’s link can view it, so please don’t put personal details in a list name. You can remove titles and rename a list yourself. To delete a list completely, email hello@couchapproved.com with its link.

Your country

We work out which country’s ratings to show from the country you pick, or otherwise from a country code supplied by the network in front of our server, falling back to the United States. We use it only to choose ratings and streaming services, and we don’t store it or your IP address. Our site doesn’t keep visitor logs. Like any website, the hosting infrastructure handles your IP address briefly in order to send you pages.

Other services your browser talks to

• TMDB (The Movie Database): posters and backdrops load straight from TMDB’s image servers, so TMDB receives your IP address and browser details when you view them. See TMDB’s privacy policy.
• YouTube, JustWatch, streaming services and Wikipedia: we only link to these. Nothing is sent to them unless you follow a link, and then their own privacy policies apply.
• Google AdSense: when ads are shown, Google and its partners use cookies to show ads, limit how often you see them and measure them. They may personalise ads based on your visits to this and other sites. You can read how Google uses information from sites that use its services and turn off personalised ads in Google’s ad settings. Visitors in the European Economic Area, the UK and Switzerland are asked for consent before ad cookies are used.

Children

CouchApproved is made for parents and carers, not for children, and we don’t knowingly collect personal information from children. The ages and names you enter about your kids stay in the ca_kids cookie on your device. If you’d rather not store a name, leave it blank or use a nickname: ages alone are enough.

Where information is kept

Lists are stored on a server we rent from Hostinger in Jakarta, Indonesia. By creating a list you agree to it being stored there. We take reasonable steps to protect it: the server is only reachable over encrypted connections and the database isn’t exposed to the internet. We keep lists until you ask us to delete them, and we may delete lists that haven’t been used for a long time.

Your rights

You can ask us what we hold about you, and ask us to correct or delete it, by emailing hello@couchapproved.com. Because there are no accounts, the only way we can find your data is through a list link, so include it. We don’t sell personal information.

We handle personal information in line with the Australian Privacy Principles in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). If you’re unhappy with how we’ve handled a request, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. If you’re in the EU or UK, you also have rights under the GDPR and UK GDPR, including to object to processing and to complain to your local data protection authority. We rely on our legitimate interest in running the features you use (preferences and lists), and on consent for ad cookies where the law requires it.

Changes

If we change this policy we’ll update the date at the top. See also our terms of use and how we rate.