How we use cookies

What are cookies and local storage?

Cookies are small files a website can store in your browser. “Local storage” is a related browser mechanism that lets a site keep small pieces of data on your device. Both let a site remember things between page loads. Below we explain every category we use and why — for both cookies and local storage.

1. Essential — keeping you signed in

When you log in, FilmVault stores a short-lived access token and a refresh token in your browser's local storage (not in cookies). These are strictly necessary: without them we can't keep you authenticated as you move around the app, and the app refreshes the token automatically so you aren't logged out mid-session. Clearing them (see “Your choices” below) simply signs you out.

2. Payments — Stripe at checkout

We use Stripe to process payments. When you go through checkout, Stripe sets its own cookies on its domains to process the transaction and to detect and prevent fraud. These are set by Stripe, governed by Stripe's privacy policy, and are necessary for payments to work securely. We never receive or store your full card details.

3. Fonts — self-hosted

Our web fonts are hosted on our own servers and shipped alongside the rest of the site. No request is ever made to Google Fonts, Adobe Fonts, or any other third-party font CDN — so no third party sees your IP address when a page loads its typography.

4. Viewing analytics on share links

When you share a film through a private watch link, we record basic, first-party viewing data — such as how many times it was opened and roughly how long it was watched — so that you, the film's owner, can see engagement. This is our own aggregate analytics for your benefit; it is not sold, and it is not powered by a third-party advertising or tracking network.

5. Site analytics — Google Analytics

We use Google Analytics 4 to understand how the site is used in aggregate — which pages people visit, how they arrived, and where they drop off. It sets its own cookies in your browser (named _ga and _ga_*) to tell repeat visits from new ones. Google Analytics 4 does not log or store IP addresses.

Because FilmVault puts one-time login keys and private screener tokens in URLs, we do not send the raw address of the page you're on. Every URL is stripped of its tokens and identifiers before it reaches Google, so a private screener link can never be reconstructed from our analytics. We don't send your name, email, or any other identifying detail either, and we don't use Google Analytics for advertising or remarketing.

Alongside page visits we record three milestones, so we can tell how many people get from the landing page to a working account:

• Creating an account — recorded with the method used (password, Google, or an email link), never with the address you signed up with.
• Signing in — the same, and again without your address.
• Completing a purchase — recorded with the payment reference and what type of plan it was. No card details, no amount, and nothing that identifies you.

Nothing you upload is measured: your films, masters, subtitles, artwork and metadata never reach Google, and neither do the titles of your films.

If you're in Europe or the UK, we ask first. Analytics stays switched off until you choose, and if you decline it stays off — Google receives only an anonymous, cookieless signal that a visit happened. Elsewhere, analytics is on by default and you can turn it off using the options below. We work out where you are from your browser's time zone setting, which means we never look up your location or your IP address to decide.

6. Content and sign-in loaded from other services

A few parts of FilmVault are served by other companies, which means those companies see that your browser asked them for something — including your IP address — and may set their own cookies under their own policies:

• Google sign-in. If you use “Continue with Google”, the sign-in button itself is loaded from Google. It appears on the sign-in page whether or not you use it.
• Trailer embeds. Where a film's page shows a trailer hosted on YouTube or Vimeo, the player is loaded from them.
• Poster artwork. When a film's poster comes from The Movie Database, the image is loaded from their servers.
• Profile photos. A profile photo from a Google account is loaded from Google's image servers.

None of these are advertising or tracking services, and we don't send them anything about you — they simply see the request your browser makes to fetch the content.

7. Email outreach measurement

Links in festival outreach emails use a first-party identifier so we can record email opens, CTA clicks, visits to FilmVault, and whether that visit leads to account creation. The attribution identifier is kept in browser storage for up to 30 days. Email opens are approximate because mail clients may block or proxy images. We do not use this identifier for advertising or cross-site tracking.

What we don't do

• No advertising or retargeting cookies.
• No ad pixels and no advertising networks.
• No cross-site tracking of your activity on other websites.
• No selling or renting of personal data.

Your choices

You can control this at any time from your browser:

• Clear site data / local storage for FilmVault to remove the login tokens — this signs you out.
• Block or clear cookies in your browser settings. Blocking Stripe's cookies may prevent checkout from working.
• Most browsers also let you browse in a private/incognito window, which discards this storage when you close it.
• Change your analytics choice here: reset my analytics consent — the page reloads and asks again if you're in a region where we ask.
• Opt out of Google Analytics anywhere with Google's official browser opt-out add-on, or by blocking analytics in your browser or an extension. Nothing about FilmVault depends on analytics, so blocking it breaks nothing.

Changes to this notice

If we introduce anything new that uses cookies or similar technologies, we'll update this page and, where required, ask for your consent first.

Contact

Questions about cookies or privacy? Email hello@filmvault.pro. See also our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.

This notice describes how the product uses cookies and similar storage today, and complements our Privacy Policy, which covers how we handle personal data.