What we keep, and why.

Last updated October 6, 2026

This policy covers cinq.watch, the CINQ apps for iPhone and Android, and the CINQ browser extension. It is written to be read. If anything here is unclear, ask us at hello@cinq.watch.

What we collect

Your account. Email address, username, display name, password (stored only as a hash), and anything you add to your profile: photo, bio, location, pronouns, birthday, what you are here for, the genres you like, and links to other sites.

Sign-in with Google or Facebook. If you use it, we receive your name, email address, the provider’s account identifier and your profile picture. We never see your password there and never post on your behalf.

What you watch. Titles you mark as watched, watching or to watch, ratings, notes, how many times you have seen something, and, when the extension or a paired TV reports it, which service you watched on and where you left off in each episode. Watch history you import from a streaming service is stored as a list of titles and dates.

What you do on CINQ. Posts, comments, reactions, channels, messages, friend and follow relationships, invitations, watch parties you start or join, party chat and reactions, CINQ+ Match choices (like, pass, watch), matches and watch dates, and who viewed your profile.

Contacts, only if you ask. If you use “find friends”, we upload the contacts you share and keep them in your CINQ contact book: names and email addresses, and phone numbers where the place you pick has them. That place is your phone’s contacts (in the CINQ app, once you agree, every contact with an email address that your phone lets it read; in a browser, the ones you pick), your Google contacts, a file you upload, or addresses you paste. We use them to show which of them are already on CINQ, to suggest you to those members as someone who has them in their contacts, to tell you when one of them joins, and to send the invitations you choose to send. We do not message your contacts on our own. You can delete them any time in Settings with “Forget my contacts”.

Technical data. IP address, browser and device type (in the CINQ apps, the app’s version and whether it runs on iPhone or Android), pages visited and timestamps, in server logs kept for a short period for security and debugging. Cookies keep you signed in and remember preferences such as a collapsed sidebar; we do not use advertising cookies.

Browser notifications. If you let your browser show CINQ notifications, we keep the push address and keys your browser gives us for that. They are deleted when you turn notifications off or the browser stops accepting them.

Site analytics. We count page views and presses of our main buttons with our own, cookie-free analytics. For each we keep the page, the site that sent you (its name only), your browser and device type, and your approximate location (country, region and city, as our host reads it from your connection). Your IP address is not kept: visits are counted with a one-way code that changes every day, so no visit can be linked to another day or to you. If you are signed in, the view is linked to your account so we can see how members use CINQ.

Payments. CINQ+ payments are handled by Stripe. We never see your full card number. We keep your Stripe customer and subscription identifiers, the plan, and the dates it started and ends.

The browser extension

The extension is where most questions come from, so here is exactly what it does.

It runs only on the streaming sites listed in its permissions and on cinq.watch. It does not run on other websites and does not read your browsing history.
On a streaming site it reads the title and episode shown by the player and the player’s position, and sends that to CINQ so your log and your place in each episode stay current. You can switch this off in Settings under “Detect what I’m watching”, and nothing is sent.
During a watch party it sends play, pause and seek events so that everyone stays in sync, and shows the party beside the player. Video and audio from the streaming site are never captured, recorded or transmitted.
Your camera and microphone are used only when you join a party and only after your browser asks you. Party video and audio go directly between participants (peer to peer, encrypted by your browser); CINQ relays only the connection setup and text chat, and does not record calls.
It checks whether this browser is signed in to Netflix, Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube TV and Crunchyroll by looking at whether each site’s own sign-in cookie is there (never at what is in it) and, on Netflix’s own pages, whether Netflix shows you as a member, so CINQ can show “Signed in” or “Sign in” beside each service. The answer stays in this browser: it is shown on cinq.watch pages and is never sent to CINQ.
It stores a pairing token for your CINQ account in the browser’s extension storage. Removing the extension or disconnecting it deletes the token; you can also revoke it from Settings on cinq.watch.
It never sells or shares this data, and does not use it for advertising. This section is our disclosure under the Chrome Web Store User Data Policy.

In the CINQ apps

The apps for iPhone and Android can use a few parts of your phone. Your phone asks your permission before the app can use your contacts, camera, microphone or notifications (and, on iPhone, your local network), and you can take that permission back in your phone’s settings at any time.

Contacts. Only when you choose to find friends from your contacts and agree. The app then uploads the name and email addresses of each contact your phone lets it read (contacts without an email address are left out); phone numbers and everything else stay on your phone. They are kept in your CINQ contact book and used as described under Contacts above. Delete them any time in Settings with “Forget my contacts”.
Camera and microphone. In a watch party call they are used only live, so the others can see and hear you. Call video and audio go between the people in the call, encrypted (through a relay server that can’t see or hear them when a direct connection isn’t possible), and are never recorded or stored by CINQ. If you take a photo or record a reel to post, the app opens your phone’s camera, and only what you post is uploaded.
Notifications. If you allow them, the app gives us a push token: a code for this install of the app that Apple or Google use to deliver notifications to it. We keep it with your account to tell you about messages, friend requests, party invites and other activity. A notification can carry a short preview, such as the first line of a message, which passes through Expo (our push service) and Apple or Google on its way to your phone. The token is deleted when you sign out of the app or delete your account.
Streaming apps. The app checks which of the streaming apps CINQ works with are installed on your phone, so it can show “Installed” or “Get the app” beside each service. It asks about those apps only, the answer stays on your phone and is never sent to CINQ, and it can’t see whether you’re signed in to them.
Local network. To make your phone a remote for your TV, the app looks for TVs on your Wi-Fi and sends remote buttons straight from your phone to the TV. That search and those buttons stay on your phone and your network; they do not go through CINQ. If you add a TV to your account, we keep its name, model and address on your home network so your phone can find it again. Remove it any time.

How we use it

To run CINQ: show you your cinema, your friends’ activity, parties, messages, and what is playing on your TV.
To make suggestions: people with similar taste, titles you might like, and, in CINQ+ Match, members who fit what you said you are looking for. These are computed from your watches, reactions and profile; we do not sell or share them.
For AI. CINQ’s own AI accounts write with AI models from Anthropic, our AI provider. Those accounts are not shown to members and do not message, match or interact with you, so nothing you share is sent to Anthropic for them. If we add a feature that uses AI, we will say so on it and send Anthropic only what that feature needs; Anthropic processes it for us and does not use it to train models.
To keep CINQ safe: detecting abuse, spam and fake accounts, and acting on reports.
To email you about your account (welcome, password reset, billing) and, if you opt in, about CINQ news. Every marketing email has an unsubscribe link.

Who sees what

Your profile, posts and what you watch are visible to other CINQ members, or only to your friends if you set your profile to “Friends only” in Settings. Presence (“online now”, “watching X”, “free tonight”) is visible to members. In CINQ+ Match, your card is shown only to other members who also turned Match on and who fit your preferences; incognito mode hides you from everyone you have not liked. Messages are private to their participants. Nothing on CINQ is public to the open web except your public profile page, and only if it is set to public.

Who we share it with

Service providers that help us run CINQ, under contracts that limit what they can do with your data: Vercel (hosting), Neon (database), Stripe (payments), Anthropic (AI features), Expo (delivering notifications to the CINQ apps, through Apple and Google), TMDB (film and TV data; we send title names, not your identity), YouTube (trailers), Google (only if you connect Google contacts), and an email provider for account mail. We share data with authorities only when legally required, and we will tell you when we are allowed to. We never sell your data.

Your choices

Edit your profile, visibility and detection settings in Settings.
Turn off Match mode, incognito, or presence at any time in CINQ+ settings.
Delete your account in Settings, in the apps or on cinq.watch, or by emailing us: hidden immediately, restorable for 30 days, then permanently erased. Or choose immediate permanent deletion. Deleting also cancels CINQ+ billing, signs you out everywhere and stops notifications to your phones. Backups are purged within 30 days after that. Delete your account has the steps, and you don’t need to sign in to read it.
Export your data by emailing us; we will send it within 30 days.
Revoke the extension’s access by disconnecting it, Google contacts access from your Google account, and the apps’ access to your contacts, camera, microphone and notifications (and, on iPhone, your local network) in your phone’s settings.

If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or a US state with privacy rights, you have rights of access, correction, deletion, portability and objection, which the controls above and our email address let you exercise. We process your data because you asked us to provide the service (contract), because you consented (contacts, camera and microphone, notifications, marketing), and for our legitimate interest in keeping CINQ safe.

Retention and security

We keep your data while your account exists. Server logs are kept for 30 days. Party chat is kept with the party; signalling data for calls is discarded once the call is over. Push tokens are kept until you sign out of the app, delete your account or your phone stops accepting notifications. Billing records are kept as long as tax law requires. Data is encrypted in transit and at rest with our providers; passwords are hashed; access inside CINQ is limited to what is needed to run and support the service.

Children

CINQ is only for adults: everyone on it must be 18 or older. We do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 18. If you believe someone under 18 has an account, report them or email us and we will close it. Our Child Safety Standards explain how we handle anything that puts a child at risk.

Reporting, blocking and how to reach a person

Anything a member makes can be reported: a profile, a post, a comment, a reel, a member-made quiz, a direct-message conversation and a watch party all carry a Report control that asks for a reason and an optional note. Reports are private — the person is not told who reported them — and they go to a queue a person reads.

You can block anyone from their profile. Blocking is mutual in effect: they stop seeing you and your posts, you stop seeing theirs, your friendship and any follows end both ways, and neither of you can message the other. Messages already sent stay in the thread they were written in. Everyone you have blocked is listed in Settings, with an Unblock beside each one.

Report a problem. To reach a person directly about a report, an account, this policy, or anything the controls above don’t cover, write to support@cinq.watch.

Changes and contact

If this policy changes in ways that matter, we will post a notice on cinq.watch and, for material changes, email you before they take effect. Questions, requests and complaints: hello@cinq.watch. Our Terms of Service set out the rest of the relationship.