The short version
MovieBuzz works without an account. If you never sign in, your library stays on your phone and nothing about you is stored on any server we control. The app fetches film and TV information from TMDB, which sees what you search for and which titles you open, but not who you are.
Signing in is optional and exists for one reason: so your library survives a new phone or a reinstall. If you sign in, we keep your email address and one small backup of your library on Google's Firebase. You can delete both from inside the app at any time. There are no ads, no analytics and no crash reporting in MovieBuzz.
1. What stays on your phone
Everything below lives in MovieBuzz's private app storage, which other apps cannot read.
| Data | Where | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Your library: shows and films you track, episodes you have watched, when you watched them, your ratings, and any tags and notes you add | App database (Room) | The core of the app: progress, Up Next, history and stats |
| Title information from TMDB (names, posters, episode lists, air dates) | App database and image cache | Lets the app work offline. Cached entries older than 180 days are deleted automatically, as TMDB's terms require |
| Recent searches | App database | Shown under the search box. Never uploaded, and you can clear them from Search |
| Settings: theme, region, content language, your streaming services, whether you have seen onboarding, a count of episodes checked off, and the time of the last cloud backup | App preferences (DataStore) | Remembers your choices. The check-off count decides when to suggest signing in or rating the app, once each |
| The email address you typed for email sign-in, while the link is pending | App preferences (DataStore) | Completes sign-in when you tap the emailed link. Removed once sign-in finishes |
The home-screen widget reads this same local database. It makes no network requests of its own.
Android's automatic cloud backup is turned off for MovieBuzz (allowBackup="false", and the data-extraction rules exclude everything), so your library is not copied into your Google device backup. The only cloud copy is the optional one described in section 2.
2. If you sign in (optional)
You can sign in with Google or with a one-time link sent to your email address. There is no password. Until you choose one of these, no account exists for you anywhere: MovieBuzz does not create anonymous accounts in the background.
Your account
Accounts are handled by Firebase Authentication, a Google service. It stores your email address, a random user ID, and the times you created the account and last signed in. If you use Google sign-in, Google also passes your name and profile photo address to Firebase as part of the standard sign-in. MovieBuzz does not use the photo, and uses your name and email only to show you which account is signed in.
Your library backup
While you are signed in, MovieBuzz keeps one compressed backup of your library as a single record in Cloud Firestore (Google Firebase), which only your account can read or write. Each new backup replaces the previous one. It contains:
- The TMDB ID numbers of the shows and films in your library, whether you are tracking or have finished each, and when you added it.
- For each episode you watched or rated: the show's ID, season and episode number, when you watched it, and your rating.
- For each film: whether you watched it, when, your rating, and how many times you rewatched it.
- Any tags and private notes you added to a show or film.
- How many episodes each show has aired, so progress is correct straight after a restore.
- The time the backup was made, the format version, and your phone's model name (for example "Pixel 8"). The model name is shown back to you when restoring, so you can tell which phone a backup came from.
It does not contain titles, posters or any other TMDB content, your recent searches, your settings, or anything identifying beyond what is listed. A typical backup is a few kilobytes; the service refuses anything over 1 MB.
Backups run at most once a day, only when your library has changed and your phone is online, plus whenever you tap Back up now and once when you sign out. Signing out keeps your library on the phone and stops further backups.
How long it is kept
Your account and its backup are kept until you delete them (section 7). We do not delete inactive accounts automatically. If you would like an account you no longer use removed, email us and we will delete it.
3. What the app does not do
- No account is required. Every feature except cloud backup works signed out.
- No advertising. Version 1.0.0 contains no advertising SDK and does not use your advertising ID.
- No analytics, telemetry or crash-reporting SDKs. Firebase Analytics and Crashlytics are deliberately not included.
- No access to your location, contacts, camera, microphone, photos or other files. Files are touched only when you pick one yourself (section 6).
- No selling, renting or sharing of your data with anyone for marketing.
- No streaming or hosting of films or TV. MovieBuzz only tells you where a title is available.
4. Permissions
This is the complete list from the release build. None of them shows a permission prompt.
| Permission | Why |
|---|---|
INTERNET |
Fetches title information and images from TMDB, and talks to Firebase if you sign in. |
ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE |
Lets background jobs wait until you are online. It reveals whether a connection exists, not what travels over it. |
WAKE_LOCK, RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED, FOREGROUND_SERVICE |
Added by Android's WorkManager library, which runs the daily cache clean-up, the widget refresh and the optional daily backup, and reschedules them after a restart. |
USE_BIOMETRIC, USE_FINGERPRINT |
Added by Android's Credential Manager library, used for Google sign-in. Android may ask you to confirm with your screen lock during sign-in. MovieBuzz never receives fingerprint or face data. |
com.google.android.providers.gsf.permission.READ_GSERVICES |
Added by the Firebase libraries to read Google Play services configuration. |
com.zenocanvas.moviebuzz.DYNAMIC_RECEIVER_NOT_EXPORTED_PERMISSION |
Added by AndroidX to keep the app's internal messages private from other apps. Never shown to you. |
5. Third-party services
| Service | When | What it receives | Their policy |
|---|---|---|---|
| TMDB api.themoviedb.org, image.tmdb.org |
Browsing, searching, opening a title, and refreshing your library | Your search text, the IDs of titles you open, your chosen region and language, MovieBuzz's API key, and your IP address (as with any web request). No account details, ever. | TMDB Privacy Policy |
| Firebase Authentication |
Only if you sign in | Your email address, and with Google sign-in your Google account's name and profile photo address. Google also processes your IP address to run and secure the service. | Firebase Privacy |
| Cloud Firestore |
Only while signed in | The library backup described in section 2. | Firebase Privacy |
| Google Play services | Fonts on first launch; the in-app rating prompt | The app's fonts are downloaded through Google Play services, which requests the font names only. If you leave a rating from the in-app prompt, Google Play handles it; MovieBuzz never sees your rating or review. | Google Privacy Policy |
| YouTube Google, embedded player |
Only when you play a trailer | The ID of that trailer video and your IP address. The player is embedded from youtube-nocookie.com; from then on YouTube's own policy applies. | Google Privacy Policy |
"Where to watch" information comes from JustWatch, delivered through TMDB. MovieBuzz never contacts JustWatch directly.
All of these connections use HTTPS. Google may store Firebase data on servers outside your country; Google's terms govern how it protects that data in transit and at rest.
MovieBuzz uses TMDB and the TMDB APIs but is not endorsed, certified, or otherwise approved by TMDB.
6. Things that leave the app only when you ask
- Backup and CSV export: Settings → Your data saves a JSON backup or a CSV of your watch diary to a location you pick with Android's file picker. After that the file is yours; MovieBuzz keeps no copy of where it went.
- Restore and import (TV Time, Letterboxd, IMDb): the files you pick are read once to load your library and are not uploaded anywhere. Importing looks up each title on TMDB by name and year to match it.
- Trailers play in an embedded YouTube player, or open in the YouTube app or your browser if you choose. YouTube's own policy applies to playback (section 5).
- Send feedback: opens your email app with a draft to
info@zenocanvas.online. Nothing is sent until you send it. - Rate MovieBuzz and the privacy policy link: open Google Play and this page.
7. Deleting your data
- Delete your account and cloud backup: Settings → Account → Delete account & data. MovieBuzz deletes your backup first, then your Firebase account, so no orphaned backup is left behind. Afterwards it asks separately whether to also erase the library on this phone. If Firebase needs you to sign in again before it allows the deletion, the app will tell you; your backup is already gone at that point.
- Clear the library on this phone: Settings → Your data → Clear all data. You are asked twice, and offered a backup first.
- Clear recent searches: from the Search tab.
- Uninstall: removes everything stored on the phone. It does not delete your account or cloud backup; use option 1 for that, or the email route below.
Deleting your account without the app
If you no longer have MovieBuzz installed, email info@zenocanvas.online from the address you signed in with, with the subject "MovieBuzz account deletion". We will delete your account and your cloud backup within 30 days and reply to confirm. Nothing is kept afterwards, because there is nothing else to keep.
8. Your rights
You can see what we hold, correct it, take a copy, or have it deleted. In practice the app already gives you all of these: your library is on screen, the JSON backup is a full copy in a portable format, and section 7 covers deletion. For anything else, or if your local law gives you further rights, email us and we will respond within 30 days.
9. Children
MovieBuzz is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child has created an account, email us and we will delete it.
10. Changes to this policy
If a future version of MovieBuzz changes what it stores or sends, for example by adding advertising, this page will be updated with a new date before that version is released.
11. Contact
Questions about this policy or about anything the app does:
Zeno Canvas
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Email: info@zenocanvas.online
Last updated: 15 October 2026