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Privacy Policy

Effective date: October 8, 2026. Version 3.0.

Bantr Collective Incorporated ("Bantr", "we", "us") makes the Bantr app for iPhone and Android and the website bantr.org. Bantr is a place to talk about TV shows episode by episode without spoilers. This policy explains what personal information we collect, why we use it, who receives it, how long we keep it, and the rights you have.

Bantr works to meet the requirements of the EU and UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and US state privacy laws, including the California Consumer Privacy Act. You can use your privacy rights at any time in the app or by emailing help@bantr.org.

Who is responsible for your data (the controller): Bantr Collective Incorporated, c/o United Corporate Services, Inc., 800 North State Street, Suite 304, Dover, DE 19901, United States. Email: help@bantr.org.

1. What we collect

When you sign up and set up your profile

  • Your phone number. We use it to sign you in with a one-time code sent by text message.

  • Your full name, username and email address.

  • Your date of birth. From it we work out an age, a generation label and a star sign, which we store and use for taste features.

  • Your gender.

  • Your state or region and country, and a ZIP code if you join a local community group.

  • A profile photo, if you add one.

What you create in Bantr

  • Prompts, comments, polls, ratings, quiz answers, reactions and swipes.

  • Messages in direct chats, group chats and live episode rooms, and photos you attach.

  • Your watch list, which episodes you have watched and how far into a show you are. We use this to keep spoilers away from you.

  • Friends, invitations, people you block, and reports you make about content or other users.

  • Your notification settings.

What is collected automatically

  • Device information: your device type and the push notification token that Apple or Google issues for your device.

  • App usage events (analytics), such as "opened a chat" or "finished a profile step". Each event carries your internal Bantr account number and a random app installation identifier. Events do not carry your name, phone number, email address or the text of your messages.

  • Crash reports: technical details about app crashes. They do not include your Bantr account number.

  • Server logs: your IP address, the requests the app makes, and in some logs your username.

Voice search. If you search for a show by voice, your phone's built-in speech recognition (from Apple or Google) turns your speech into text, and that may happen on their servers. Bantr receives only the text and does not keep it or any audio.

Advertising identifier. On iPhone, Bantr never asks for permission to track you, so it does not receive the advertising identifier and does not track you across other companies' apps or websites. On Android, the Google Analytics for Firebase software in the app may read the Android advertising ID. You can reset or delete it in your Android settings.

We do not collect your precise location, your contacts or payment card details.

Our website. bantr.org is hosted by Wix. If you use a form on the site (for example the account deletion form or the mailing list), we receive what you enter, such as your name and email address. Wix sets cookies the site needs to work and may set analytics cookies. You can control cookies in your browser settings.

2. Why we use it, and our legal bases

People in the European Economic Area (EEA), the UK and Switzerland have a right to know the legal basis for each use.

  • Create your account and sign you in with a text message code. Data used: phone number, username, device and session data. Legal basis: performing our contract with you.

  • Run Bantr: profiles, chats, prompts, comments, watch tracking, spoiler protection, notifications. Data used: profile, your content, watch data, push tokens. Legal basis: performing our contract with you.

  • Taste and local features (taste match, community groups). Data used: date of birth and what we derive from it, gender, region, ZIP, watch and rating data. Legal basis: performing our contract with you.

  • Keep people safe: screen posts for abuse, handle reports and blocks, enforce our rules. Data used: your content, reports, block records. Legal basis: our legitimate interest in a safe service; legal obligations.

  • Understand how the app is used and fix crashes. Data used: analytics events, crash reports. Legal basis: our legitimate interest in improving Bantr.

  • Keep the service secure and prevent misuse. Data used: logs, device data. Legal basis: our legitimate interest in security.

  • Answer your requests and meet legal duties. Data used: the records needed. Legal basis: legal obligation.

Where we rely on legitimate interests, you can object (see section 6).

We do not sell your personal information. We do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, and we do not show ads today. We do not make decisions about you based solely on automated processing that have legal or similarly significant effects.

3. AI

Bantr's app features do not send your messages, posts or profile to AI model providers. We use AI assistants from Anthropic (Claude) and OpenAI (Codex) to help us build, run and support Bantr. When we investigate a problem, a support request or a safety report, these tools can see the account and content records involved. If we add AI features to the app, we will update this policy before they go live.

4. Who receives your information

We share personal information only with the service providers that run Bantr for us, with other users as the product requires, and when the law requires it.

  • Amazon Web Services. What they receive: all account, content and log data. Why: hosting, database, file storage, backups, logs. Where: United States.

  • Google (Firebase Analytics, Crashlytics, Cloud Messaging). What they receive: analytics events, crash reports, Android advertising ID, Android push tokens and notification content. Why: analytics, crash fixing, Android notifications. Where: United States and other Google locations.

  • Google Workspace. What they receive: emails you send us. Why: our email. Where: United States and other Google locations.

  • Apple (Push Notification service). What they receive: iPhone push tokens and notification content. Why: iPhone notifications. Where: United States.

  • Telesign. What they receive: your phone number and the sign-in code message. Why: sending sign-in text messages. Where: United States and other Telesign locations.

  • Wix. What they receive: what you enter on bantr.org, website visit data. Why: hosting bantr.org. Where: Wix locations.

  • Anthropic and OpenAI. What they receive: the records involved in a task we give them (section 3). Why: helping us build, run and support Bantr. Where: United States.

  • Other Bantr users. What they receive: your username, profile photo and the content you post or send them; notifications can show your username and a preview of what you sent. Why: the social features of Bantr. Where: anywhere.

We may also disclose information if the law requires it, to protect someone's safety, or as part of a merger or sale of the business, where the new owner must respect this policy.

International transfers. Bantr is based in the United States and stores your data there. If you use Bantr from outside the United States, your data is processed in the United States. Where a provider is certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and its UK and Swiss extensions, we rely on that certification. Otherwise we rely on the Standard Contractual Clauses in the provider's data processing terms.

5. How long we keep it

  • Account, profile and watch data, notifications, sessions. How long: until you delete your account.

  • Messages, prompts and comments. How long: until you delete them or your account. When you delete your account, the text is erased; an empty placeholder can remain so other people's conversations still make sense.

  • Photos and attachments. How long: deleted within about 24 hours of account deletion, unless we must keep them for a legal reason.

  • Safety records (reports and block history). How long: kept after account deletion, with your name and contact details removed, for as long as needed to protect other users and handle disputes.

  • Server logs. How long: 14 days.

  • Automatic database backups. How long: 10 days.

  • Archived database snapshots. How long: We keep a small number of archived database copies made in March and April 2026 for disaster recovery. They contain the data of accounts that existed then, access to them is restricted, and we do not use them to bring back data you deleted.

  • Data export files you request. How long: 7 days.

  • Analytics data at Google. How long: no more than 14 months.

  • Crash reports at Google. How long: 90 days.

  • Sign-in text records at Telesign. How long: as Telesign needs to deliver the message and meet its own legal duties.

  • Emails you send us. How long: as long as needed to answer you and keep a record of your request.

We may keep statistics that do not identify you, such as how many people watch a show.

6. Your rights and how to use them

Wherever you live, you can:

  • See and correct your information: edit your profile in the app under Profile.

  • Get a copy of your data: in the app, go to Settings, Download your Bantr data. This gives you your profile, watch list, episode progress, ratings, poll and prompt answers, groups, settings and quiz history in JSON and CSV files. For a full copy of everything, including your messages and posts, or if the download option is not available in your version of the app, email help@bantr.org.

  • Delete your account: in the app, go to Settings, Delete account. Deletion happens right away. If you cannot sign in, use https://admin.bantr.org/DeleteAccount/RequestDeleteAccount and confirm with the code we text to your phone, or use the form at https://www.bantr.org/manage-account, or email help@bantr.org. Section 5 lists what remains and for how long.

  • Object to analytics, or to any use based on legitimate interests: email help@bantr.org.

  • Turn off notifications: in the app or in your device settings.

EEA, UK and Swiss residents also have the right to restrict processing, to object to processing, to data portability, and to complain to your local data protection authority (in the UK, the Information Commissioner's Office). We would like the chance to help first, so please contact us.

US residents, including California. You have the right to know what personal information we collect, use and disclose; to get a copy of it; to delete it; to correct it; and to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information. We do not sell or share personal information, so there is nothing to opt out of today. The only sensitive personal information we hold is the content of your messages, which we use only to provide Bantr, so you do not need to ask us to limit it. We will not treat you differently for using any of these rights.

Categories we collected in the last 12 months: identifiers (phone number, email address, username, device and app identifiers, IP address); personal records (name); characteristics of protected classifications (age, gender); internet or other electronic network activity (app usage events, logs); general location (state or region, country, ZIP); audio, electronic or visual information (photos); sensitive personal information (message content); and inferences (taste profiles). Sections 1 to 5 describe where it comes from, why we use it, who receives it and how long we keep it.

How we handle requests. We answer within one month in the EEA, UK and Switzerland and within 45 days in the US. Where the law allows, we may extend this once and will tell you if we do. Before acting on a request we verify your identity, normally with a code sent to your phone. Someone you authorize may make a request for you with your signed permission. If we turn down a request, we will explain why and how to appeal.

7. Children

Bantr is not intended for children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If we learn that a child under 13 has an account, we delete it. Parents can contact us at help@bantr.org. We do not sell or share the personal information of anyone under 18.

8. Security

Your data travels between the app and our servers over encrypted connections. Access to our production systems is limited to Bantr's founder and the tools he authorizes. No system is perfectly secure. If a breach affects your personal information, we will tell you and the authorities as the law requires.

9. Data stored on your device

The app does not use browser cookies. It stores your sign-in tokens, settings and a local cache on your device. Deleting your account signs you out, clears your sign-in session on the device and resets the analytics identifier on your device. Deleting the app removes everything it stored.

10. Changes to this policy

When we make a material change, we will update the effective date and tell you in the app before the change takes effect.

11. Contact

Bantr Collective Incorporated, c/o United Corporate Services, Inc., 800 North State Street, Suite 304, Dover, DE 19901, United States. Email: help@bantr.org.

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