OnTheList privacy policy

Last updated: 30 October 2026

This privacy policy explains what information the OnTheList app (“OnTheList”, “we”, “us”) collects, how we use it, and the choices you have. OnTheList is a movie & TV bookmarking app.

Who we are

OnTheList is operated by Medland Solutions, the developer account that publishes the app on Google Play and the App Store. Medland Solutions is the data controller: it decides how your information is used and is responsible for it. For any privacy questions or requests, contact us at support@onthelist.watch. We are registered with the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) under number ZC188308.

Information we collect, and why

We only collect what’s needed to run the app. We do not sell your personal information, and we do not collect your precise location, contacts, messages, files, or payment information.

The law requires a reason (a “lawful basis”) for each use. After each item we name ours: contract means we need it to give you the app you signed up for; legitimate interests means we have a good reason that does not override your rights and freedoms; consent means you chose to turn something on, and you can turn it off again at any time.

  • Account information (from Google or Apple sign-in). OnTheList offers two sign-in methods and does not hold a password for you either way.
    When you sign in with Google we receive your email address, display name and profile photo, and a unique account identifier.
    When you sign in with Apple we receive a unique account identifier and, if you provide it, your name. Apple does not give us a profile photo. If you choose Apple’s Hide My Email option we receive a private relay address rather than your real email address, and we can only reach you through that relay. (Contract.)
  • Your photo. The photo from your Google account, or a photo you add in the app. (Contract.)
  • Region & language. The market (country) and device language associated with your account, so we can show the right streaming availability and wording. (Contract.)
  • Your username. A username you choose so friends can find you to connect. (Contract.)
  • Your lists (content you create). The movies and TV shows you bookmark (your watchlist, shortlist, and “seen” list), including the title, its identifiers, artwork reference, and the dates you added or marked them; the episodes you mark as watched; and your Loved, Liked or Not for me rating of a title you’ve seen. (Contract.)
  • Friends & sharing data. Friend requests you send or receive, the friendships you make, and the people you block. (Contract.)
  • Comments. The comments you write about films, shows and episodes, whether you post them to your friends or to everyone; the friends you mention; and the comments you like. (Contract.)
  • Reports. The comments and people you report, and the reason you give. (Legitimate interests: to keep OnTheList safe and deal with complaints.)
  • Your streaming services. If you choose to, the streaming services you tell us you have (for example Netflix or BBC iPlayer), so we can tell you when a title on your list arrives on one of them or is about to leave. The app can suggest services from the streaming apps installed on your phone; that list stays on your phone and is never sent to us. We keep a daily note of which titles we told you about, so we never tell you twice; it is deleted with your account. You can change or clear your services in Settings at any time. (Consent.)
  • Notification details. For each device you use: a messaging token (Firebase Cloud Messaging), the device type, the app version, and which kinds of notification that version can show. We use them to tell you about a friend request, a new friend, or a friend who mentions you in a comment, and, if you turn them on, new series and new episodes of shows you follow, and titles on your list arriving on or leaving your streaming services. You can turn each kind off in Settings. (Contract.)
  • Paired TVs. If you add OnTheList on a Google TV or Android TV, we keep a record of that TV under your account: a random identifier for it, its model and name, when you paired it, the version of the TV app, and the names of the other OnTheList members who share it. We use it to show your list on that TV and to let you remove the TV from Settings. Unpair the TV, and the record goes. The TV signs in with its own identity, never with your password, and never sees your email address. (Contract.)
  • App activity & diagnostics. Usage and diagnostic data via Firebase Analytics (e.g. screens viewed, crashes, device model, app version, and the region you chose in the app) to help us improve the app. It is linked to a random identifier for your copy of the app, not to your name, email address or account. Firebase Analytics also estimates a general area, such as your city or country, from your internet (IP) address. The app never uses your device’s location services. (Legitimate interests: to see how the app is used and to fix problems.)
  • App integrity signals. To protect our backend from abuse we use Firebase App Check. It uses Google Play Integrity on Android, and Apple App Attest or DeviceCheck on iPhone and iPad, to check that requests come from a genuine, unmodified copy of the app. (Legitimate interests: to protect the service.)
  • Safety records. Counters that limit how often an account can do certain things, a record that you accepted the comment rules, and any suspension from commenting. (Legitimate interests: to protect the service and its users.)

Your calendar (iPhone and iPad only). If you turn on Cinema reminders, the app reads your calendar on your device to find cinema trips. Your calendar never leaves your device, and we never receive it.

OnTheList is for adults aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 18. If you think someone under 18 is using OnTheList, tell us at support@onthelist.watch.

How we use your information

  • To provide the core app: sign you in, store and sync your lists across your devices.
  • To power friends: let you find people, send and accept friend requests, and show you and your friends each other’s lists.
  • To show your comments to the people you chose, and to send you the notifications you have turned on.
  • To send you emails about your account: a welcome when you join, and a confirmation when you delete your account.
  • To look up movie/TV metadata, ratings, and streaming availability (see “Third-party services”).
  • To keep the service safe: our own server refuses comments that contain a web address or a word from our list of slurs; we act on reports; and we enforce the comment rules.
  • To understand how the app is used and fix problems.

Who can see what

  • Your lists are private to you unless you add a friend.
  • Friends. You become friends in one of two ways: one of you sends a request and the other accepts, or one of you opens the other’s profile link or QR code and adds them, which makes you friends at once, with no request to accept. Friends can see the titles on each other’s lists and each other’s episode progress; each other’s display name, photo, and username; each other’s friends-only comments; and which comments each other liked. You can hide a title from friends on the title’s own page, and hide your episode progress with “Hide my episode progress” in Settings. Either of you can remove the friendship at any time to stop sharing. Friends never see which streaming services you have.
  • Search. While “Let others find me” is on in Settings (it starts on), anyone signed in to OnTheList can find you by your name or @username, and see your display name, @username and photo. Turn on “Hide my photo until we’re friends” to show your initials instead of your photo to people who are not your friends. If you turn off “Let others find me”, people can still send you a friend request by typing your exact @username, but they don’t see your name or photo.
  • Friend suggestions. If you turn on “Let friends of friends find you” in Settings (it starts off), people who share a friend with you may see you as a suggestion, with your display name, @username and photo, and how many friends you share. They never see who those friends are.
  • Your profile link and QR code. To let friends add you, the app gives you a personal link and QR code. They contain a long secret code unique to you, so your display name, photo, and username (never your lists) are visible only to someone you have given the complete link or QR code to. Your username alone reveals nothing, because without the secret the page shows only a generic OnTheList banner, and profile pages are marked not-for-indexing by search engines. You can reset your link at any time from “My code” in the app: every previously shared link and QR code immediately stops working (allow a few minutes for web previews; a preview already delivered into another app, e.g. a messaging chat, may persist there until that app refreshes it).
  • Comments. A comment you post to friends is visible to your friends only. A comment you post to everyone is visible to anyone signed in to OnTheList, with your @username and photo (or your initials, if you hide your photo), but never your display name. On a comment posted to everyone, people who are not your friends see only how many people liked it, not who. Comments never appear on the public web.
  • Activity. The Activity screen shows your friends what you do in OnTheList: the titles you mark as seen, your reactions to them, the titles you add to your list, and the comments you post to friends. Your friends see this in their Activity, and you see theirs in yours. It never shows how far through a series you are, a title you have hidden from friends, or anything to people who are not your friends. Turn off “Share activity with friends” in Settings to stop your activity appearing in your friends’ Activity; you still see theirs, your own trail, and news about your list. Activity rows are kept for 180 days and then deleted. When you remove a friend, each of you loses the other’s rows.
  • A shared TV. When more than one person pairs the same TV, everyone in the room sees the lists shown on it. Titles you have hidden from friends, and your episode progress if you have hidden it, stay off a shared TV unless someone turns on “Show what’s hidden from friends” in the TV’s settings.
  • Blocking. If you block someone, you stop being friends, neither of you sees the other’s comments, and they cannot add you again. We don’t tell them.
  • Reports. When you report a comment or a person, we see the report, the reason, your @username, and a copy of the reported comment. We never tell the person who reported them.

How your information is stored and shared

  • Hosting / processing. Your account, lists and comments are stored using Google Firebase (Firebase Authentication, Cloud Firestore, Cloud Functions, Cloud Storage, Cloud Messaging, App Check, Analytics), acting as our data processor. Your data is stored in Google’s data centres in the United States; our server code runs in London.
  • Email. Resend, an email delivery company, sends our emails as our data processor, from the United States. That includes your welcome and deletion emails, and the email we receive about each new report.
  • Protection for data in the United States. Google and Resend are both certified under the UK Extension to the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (the “UK-US data bridge”). Their data processing terms also include the UK’s approved contract clauses. You can read them at firebase.google.com/terms/data-processing-terms and resend.com/legal/dpa.
  • Metadata providers. To show details, ratings, and streaming links we query TMDB, MDBList, and the Streaming Availability API from our backend. Those requests contain only the title’s identifiers, never your personal information.
  • Artwork and photographs. Posters, backdrops and cast photographs are loaded by your device directly from TMDB’s image service, so TMDB receives your IP address when a poster or a face is shown.
  • Sharing a link to the app. When you share a link into OnTheList from another app, your device fetches that page directly from the site the link points to (or, for YouTube and TikTok links, that site’s public description of the video) to learn the title, as a messaging app does for a link preview. That site receives your IP address and the link; nothing about you or your account is sent, and we never see or store the page. Nothing is fetched for a link the app already understands, such as an IMDb or Letterboxd link.
  • Sharing a picture to the app. When you share a screenshot or photo into OnTheList, the words in it are read on your phone, and the picture is never stored or uploaded. On Android the reading is done by Google’s text reader, which sends Google diagnostic details about your phone and the app (make, model, Android version, the app’s version, a per-install code, and how long the read took); none of it is linked to your name or account, and it runs only while “Share app statistics” is on in Settings. On iPhone, Apple’s own reader does the reading and sends nothing.
  • Cast and crew. Cast and crew names, roles and photographs are published information supplied by TMDB. We show them to identify a film or series. Corrections are made at TMDB and reach the app within a day.
  • We do not sell your data or share it with advertisers. We do not send your comments to any outside service to be checked.

How long we keep it

  • Your account, lists, comments and friendships: for as long as your account exists.
  • A report about a comment, with its copy of the comment: 12 months from the report, so that we can deal with complaints. Then it is deleted automatically. This applies even if the person who wrote the comment deletes their account. Reports you made are deleted with your account.
  • App activity & diagnostics: Google Analytics deletes this data automatically, after 14 months at most. We do not keep a copy.

Deleting your account

  • Sign out at any time in Settings.
  • Delete your account in Settings (“Delete account”; in the latest version it is on the Account page). This permanently removes your profile, your photo, your watchlist/shortlist/seen lists, your comments, likes, blocks and the reports you made, your username reservation, and any friend requests/friendships involving you, and deletes your sign-in account. This cannot be undone.
  • Alternatively, request deletion by emailing support@onthelist.watch or following the steps on our Delete Account & Data page.

Your rights

Under UK data protection law you can ask us to: give you a copy of your information; correct it; delete it; limit how we use it; and give it to you in a form you can take elsewhere. You can also object to any use that relies on legitimate interests. Email support@onthelist.watch; we will reply within one month. You can export your lists yourself at any time, from Settings in the app.

We don’t make decisions about you by automated means that have legal or similarly significant effects.

If you are unhappy with how we handle your information, please complain to us first, at the same address. We will confirm we have received your complaint within 30 days. You also have the right to complain to the ICO, at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or on 0303 123 1113.

Security

Data is encrypted in transit (HTTPS/TLS) and encrypted at rest by Google Firebase. Access requires authentication, and our backend enforces App Check and per-user rate limits. Only we can act on reports, through an admin page that needs our own sign-in.

Third-party services

OnTheList relies on these services, each with its own privacy policy:

  • Google Firebase / Google Play services: firebase.google.com/support/privacy
  • Apple (Sign in with Apple, App Attest, notifications on iPhone and iPad): apple.com/legal/privacy
  • Resend (email delivery): resend.com/legal/privacy-policy
  • TMDB: this product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.
  • JustWatch: “where to watch” streaming availability is sourced from JustWatch (via TMDB).
  • MDBList, Streaming Availability API (Movie of the Night): for ratings and streaming links.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy; material changes will be reflected by updating the “Last updated” date.

Contact

Medland Solutions: support@onthelist.watch

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