Privacy Policy

Last updated October 8, 2026

This policy explains what information Couchmate (“Couchmate”, “we”, “us”) collects, how we use it, who can see it, how long we keep it, and the choices you have. It covers the Couchmate apps for iOS and Android, the web app, and couchmate.com.

The short version

• You don’t have to give us anything to watch and vibe: we create an anonymous account with a random username.
• If you save your account, we keep your email address to send you sign-in codes. We don’t send marketing email.
• What you do in rooms, including your messages, vibes, reviews, reports, and joining and leaving, is kept in an activity record that we keep indefinitely, together with an approximate location based on your IP address (as precise as a postal code).
• Messages you post can be seen by everyone in the room, and stay in our records even after you delete them or your account.
• If you save your account, you can rate what you watched and write a review. A review is public once it’s approved, with your username, on couchmate.com and in search results, and like a message it stays in our records even after you remove it or delete your account. A rating on its own only counts toward an average.
• No ads, no tracking cookies and no third-party analytics. We don’t sell your information or share it for advertising.
• You can delete your account in the app at any time. For anything else, email support@couchmate.com.

What we collect

Your account

• Your username (random to start; you can change it) and an account ID.
• Whether your account is anonymous or saved, when it was created, when it was last used and when you last changed your username.
• Which version of the Terms of Service and Code of Conduct you’ve accepted.
• Your email address, if you save your account. When you ask for a sign-in code, we keep the address it was sent to, and the code in a scrambled (hashed) form, until you use the code, ask for a new one or delete your account. A code stops working after 10 minutes. We count failed code attempts against a hashed form of the address to stop guessing.
• Your signed-in sessions: when each started, when it was last used and when it ended. You stay signed in while you keep using Couchmate; a session ends after 90 days without use, or when you sign out.
• The people you’ve muted.

What you post and do in rooms

• Messages you post, including ones you later delete.
• Vibes: each tap and when it happened.
• Ratings: the score you give (1 to 10), what it’s for (an episode, a movie or a show) and when.
• Reviews you write with a rating: the text, whether it’s marked as containing spoilers, whether it’s waiting for approval, approved or rejected, and when and by whom that was decided.
• Reports you make: the reason, the reported message, and up to 10 messages either side of it (including other people’s) so we can see the conversation.
• Watches: which airings you were in a room for while they were on.
• Mutes and unmutes, username changes, and accepting the Terms.

Your activity record and approximate location

Each of the actions above, along with signing in, joining and leaving rooms, and changes to your account, is recorded as an event. Each event includes your account ID, a session ID, the time, the room, whether you’re on iOS, Android or the web, and the app version.

When you sign in or join a room, the event also includes an approximate location that our hosting provider, Cloudflare, works out from your IP address: continent, country, state or province, postal code, metro area, time zone, and the name of your internet provider. We don’t store your IP address, precise location or any device identifier.

Technical information

• We use your IP address for a moment to limit abuse (rate limiting) and to work out the approximate location above. We don’t store it.
• Like any website, our hosting provider handles standard request details, such as your IP address and browser type, to deliver and protect the Service, and may keep its own logs for a limited time.
• We don’t collect your contacts, photos, precise location, advertising ID or device IDs. The app doesn’t ask for any device permissions.

On your device

• The web app sets one cookie, cm_refresh, which keeps you signed in. It’s sent only to our sign-in service and expires after 90 days. The iOS and Android apps keep the same sign-in token in your device’s secure storage.
• Your theme, TV lineup and dismissed notices are stored on your device, not by us. Your lineup is guessed on the device from its time zone.
• The public pages on couchmate.com (shows, episodes and these documents) set no cookies. There are no analytics, advertising or social media trackers anywhere on Couchmate.

From other people

• Other users can report your messages or mute you. A report includes your account ID, your username and the message.
• TV listings come from third-party data providers and contain nothing about you.

How we use it

• To run Couchmate: signing you in, running rooms, showing messages, vibes, ratings and reviews, and remembering your mutes and settings.
• To keep it safe: rate limits and slow mode, reviewing reports, checking reviews, enforcing the Terms and Code of Conduct, investigating abuse, and stopping banned users from coming back.
• To understand and improve it: statistics such as how many people watched an airing, how the room’s vibes moved minute by minute, which shows are popular and roughly where our audience is. We publish some statistics on our public pages, such as an episode’s average rating and how its room’s vibes moved minute by minute, but never in a way that identifies you.
• To contact you: sign-in codes, and replies when you email us. Nothing else.
• To meet legal obligations: complying with the law, responding to lawful requests, and protecting the rights and safety of our users, Couchmate and others.

We don’t use your information for advertising, we don’t sell it, and we don’t share it for targeted advertising.

Who can see it

• Anyone, on Couchmate’s public pages and in search results, can see an approved review with your username, the score you gave, whether you watched live and the date you wrote it. Your other ratings are shown only as part of an average and a count, never with your name.
• Other users in a room see your username and your messages, and a count of how many people are watching. Vibes are shown only as totals, never with your name. Other users never see your email address.
• Couchmate’s admins, a small team using an access-controlled tool, can see account details including email addresses, all messages (including deleted and hidden ones), activity records and approximate locations, reports, and ratings and reviews, including reviews waiting for approval. They use this for moderation, safety, support and running the Service, and every change they make, such as hiding a message, resolving a report or approving a review, is logged.
• Our service provider, Cloudflare, hosts the Service, stores our data and sends our email, on our behalf.
• Our email inbox: emails you send to support@couchmate.com, our alerts about reported messages (which include the message, and the usernames and account IDs involved), and our alerts about new and edited reviews (which include the review, its score and your username) are kept in our inbox, which is hosted by our email provider.
• Authorities, when the law requires it, or when we believe in good faith it’s needed to prevent harm. We report apparent child sexual exploitation to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, as US law requires.
• A new owner, if Couchmate is transferred (for example, to a company we form), your information moves with it and stays covered by this policy.

How long we keep it

Deleting your account

You can delete your account in the app, under Profile. We immediately delete your account, email address, mutes, sessions and watches.

Your activity record and any reports involving you stay. They’re kept under your account ID, which no longer leads to an email address or a saved username, though reports keep the username you had at the time. Anything you wrote in a message stays as you wrote it, so if a message identified you, it still does.

Your ratings stay too, without your account: they still count toward averages. Your reviews stay, shown as by “Deleted account”, and one still waiting for approval can still be approved. To take a review down, remove it (or its rating) in the app before you delete your account.

Your choices and rights

In the app you can change your username, mute people, delete your messages (which removes them from the room; our record keeps them), and delete your account.

You can also email support@couchmate.com to:

• ask what information we have about you and get a copy;
• correct information that’s wrong;
• ask us to delete information beyond what deleting your account removes; or
• ask a question or raise a concern about how we use your information.

We’ll confirm the request comes from you, usually by sending a code to the email address on the account, and we’ll reply within 30 days. If you ask us to delete information, we’ll delete it or remove what links it to you, unless we need to keep it for safety, security, enforcing our rules or a legal reason, and we’ll tell you what we kept and why.

United States. Some states, such as California, give residents rights to know, access, correct and delete their information, to opt out of its sale, sharing or use for targeted advertising, and not to be treated differently for using these rights. We don’t sell your information or use it for targeted advertising, so there’s nothing to opt out of. We honor the requests above wherever you live in the US. Couchmate doesn’t track you across other websites, so there’s nothing for “Do Not Track” or Global Privacy Control signals to switch off.

Canada. You can access and correct your information, and withdraw your consent to our using it (though without it we may not be able to provide the Service). If you’re not satisfied with our answer, you can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada or your provincial privacy commissioner.

Teens and children

Couchmate is for people 13 and older, or older where local law requires (for example, 14 in Quebec). We don’t knowingly collect information from children under 13. If we learn that we have, we’ll delete the account. If you’re a parent and think your child under 13 is using Couchmate, email support@couchmate.com.

Users aged 13 to 17 can use Couchmate with a parent’s or guardian’s permission. We collect the same information from them as from adults, as described above, and never use it for advertising. Rooms are public spaces shared with strangers; our Code of Conduct has zero tolerance for behavior that puts young people at risk.

If you’re under 18, you or your parent can ask us to remove content you posted by emailing support@couchmate.com. We’ll remove it from the Service; it may stay in our records as described above.

Security

Connections to Couchmate are encrypted, sign-in codes and tokens are stored only in hashed form, and access to our admin tools is restricted to approved people. No system is perfectly secure. If a breach affects your information, we’ll tell you as the law requires.

Where your information is processed

Couchmate is run from the United States. Your information is stored and processed by Cloudflare on its global network, which may include servers outside your country. The laws there may differ from yours; for example, information about Canadian users may be accessible to US authorities under US law.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy. When we do, we’ll change the date at the top. If a change is significant, we’ll tell you in the app before it takes effect.

Contact

Questions or requests about your privacy: support@couchmate.com.