Privacy Policy

1. What we collect

• Your account — your name, email address and avatar from Google when you sign in, plus the username, display name, avatar and bio you choose here.
• What you post — ratings, reviews, comments, posts, projects, lists, watchlists, system profiles and photos of your setup, follows and reactions. Most of this is public by design — that is the point of the site. Watchlists and private lists are the exception.
• Moderation records — if something you posted is reported or removed, we keep the report, a copy of the content as it was, and the outcome.
• If you use the contact form — your name, email, message, IP address and browser details, sent to us as an email.
• Technical logs — every visit is logged by our servers and content delivery network with your IP address, approximate country, browser and device, the pages you requested, and timing information. These logs never contain your cookies.
• Cookies and browser storage — listed in full in our Cookie Notice.

2. Why we use it

• To run your account and publish what you post. This is what you signed up for, so under UK and EU law our basis is performing our agreement with you.
• To keep the site working and free of abuse — security, moderation, debugging and understanding traffic levels. Our basis is our legitimate interest in running a reliable service, and you can object to it.
• To measure usage and, in future, to show ads. Only with your consent, which you can give or withdraw at any time.
• To comply with the law where we are required to keep or hand over information.

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not use your content to train machine learning models.

3. Who receives it

• Anyone, for the things you post publicly. Public profiles, ratings and reviews can be read by visitors and indexed by search engines.
• Google — for sign-in, and for Google Analytics if you accept analytics cookies. Analytics receives your truncated IP address, the pages you view and general device information. How Google uses this data.
• Google AdSense — we are not showing ads yet. When we do, the ad script loads only if you accept advertising cookies.
• Amazon Associates and Crutchfield — if you click one of our affiliate links, that retailer sees the visit and may set its own cookies.
• Amazon Web Services hosts the site, and Google Workspace carries our email. Both process data on our behalf, under contract, in the United States.
• The Movie Database (TMDB) supplies film information. We send them no personal data about you.

4. How long we keep it

• Technical logs — 90 days, then deleted automatically.
• Notifications — 90 days, then deleted automatically.
• Your account and posts — for as long as your account is open, or until you ask us to delete them.
• Moderation records — kept while they are relevant, so that a decision can be reviewed or appealed.
• Affiliate link clicks and contact emails — kept until we no longer need them. Click records hold no IP address.

We are a small team, so some deletion is done by hand rather than on a timer. Ask us and we will do it — see below.

5. Your choices and rights

• See and correct your information — most of it is editable in your account settings. For a copy of everything we hold, just ask.
• Delete your account — email us and we will disable it and remove your data. Allow up to 30 days.
• Object to how we use it, or ask us to restrict it, while we look into a concern.
• Change your cookie choice at any time using Cookie Preferences in the footer. If your browser sends a Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control signal we treat that as a refusal and do not show you the banner.
• Turn off emails — in your notification preferences, or from the unsubscribe link in any email we send.

To use any of these, email privacy@howdoesitsound.io. We reply within 30 days, and within 45 days for requests under California law.

If you are in California

You have the right to know what we hold, to have it deleted or corrected, to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information, and not to be treated differently for asking. We do not sell personal information. "Sharing" covers advertising that follows you between sites; refusing advertising cookies, or sending a Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control signal, opts you out of it.

If you are in the UK or the European Economic Area

Akira International LLC is the controller of your data. You have the rights listed above, plus the right to receive your data in a portable format and to withdraw consent at any time. Your data is held in the United States, where we are based, and our providers handle it under contract. If you are unhappy with how we have responded, you can complain to your national data protection authority, or to the Information Commissioner's Office in the UK.

6. Children

HDIS is not intended for children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their personal information. If you believe a child has given us data, email us and we will remove it.

7. Contact

8. Changes to this policy

We update this policy from time to time. The date at the top is the last revision, and for anything significant we will say so on the site.