Version 2.0 · Effective August 31, 2026 — AI-assisted legal review; not reviewed by a licensed attorney
Movie Snob is made by Maximus Development LLC, a small independent company in Texas. This policy explains what information the App touches, how it is used, and what choices you have. Where this policy says "we" or "us," it means Maximus Development LLC.
The short version: almost everything stays on your phone. We do not have an account system, and there is no database of your movies on our end.
Sign-in information (optional). Movie Snob offers Sign in with Apple so you can sync across devices. This is optional — the App works fully without it. If you do sign in, Apple shares your name and email, or a private relay address if you choose to hide your email. That information is stored only on your device and is never sent to us, to our analytics tool, or to any third party.
Movie data you create. Your movie logs, ratings, notes, reviews, and watchlist are information you generate by using the App. See Section 3 for where it lives.
Location (optional, one-time). If you ask Movie Snob to show current box-office movies for your region, we request "when in use" location from iOS and convert it on the spot into a two-letter country code. Only that country code is used or stored. See Section 7.
Product analytics. We use PostHog to understand how the App is used — which screens get opened, which recommendations get watched. These events are tied to a random identifier generated by PostHog and are not linked to your name, email, Apple ID, or any other identifier that identifies you to us. We do not use session recording or screen replay, and we do not use Apple's advertising identifier for analytics. You can turn analytics off entirely — see Section 10.
Advertising data. We show non-personalized ads through Google AdMob. See Section 6.
By default, your data stays on your device. We do not operate an account system or a server-side database of your movie data.
If you turn sync on, your ratings, watchlist, notes, reviews, and favorites sync through Apple's CloudKit into your own private iCloud account. That is Apple's private per-user storage — we cannot access it, and it is not stored on any server we control. Sync is free for everyone. If that ever changes, we will update this policy.
If sync is off, your data stays on your device only.
Movie information requests from your device go through a small server we operate, which forwards them to The Movie Database and returns the results. This exists so that our access credentials are not embedded in the App itself.
The relay receives your device's IP address and the movie or search term you are looking up. It does not receive your name, email, Apple ID, movie logs, ratings, notes, or watchlist.
We do not retain logs of these requests.
We do not sell your personal information, and we are not a data broker.
Movie Snob shows native, in-list ads through Google AdMob to keep the App free. Every ad request the App makes is explicitly marked non-personalized. We do not request IDFA-based ad personalization, we do not share Apple's advertising identifier, and the App does not show an App Tracking Transparency prompt, because it is not doing IDFA-based tracking.
Even for non-personalized ads, Google processes some technical information in order to serve ads, measure their performance, and prevent fraud — including device type, IP address and the general location it implies, the app you are using, and coarse ad-interaction data. Google acts as an independent data controller for that processing. We do not control what Google or its ad partners do with it, and Google's own privacy policy governs it.
Movie Snob also includes Apple's SKAdNetwork identifiers, which let ad networks measure ad effectiveness without tracking individual users.
There is no way to turn ads off today. An ad-free option may be part of a future paid tier, and we will update this policy if that happens.
Movie Snob can optionally use your location to show current box-office movies for your region. If you allow it, iOS provides "when in use" location, and we use Apple's Core Location and geocoding to convert it into a two-letter country code such as "US." Nothing more precise than that is stored or used.
That country code is sent to TMDB, through our relay, to filter box-office results. We never store your precise coordinates and never send them to TMDB, PostHog, AdMob, or anyone else.
This is entirely optional. You can decline the prompt, or turn it off later in iOS Settings, and pick your country manually instead, with no loss of any other functionality.
Data stored only on your device is deleted when you delete the App.
Data synced through CloudKit lives in your own iCloud account. Deleting the App does not automatically delete it — that is how iCloud works for every app. You can manage or delete it through your Apple iCloud account settings.
You can export a CSV copy of your diary and watchlist at any time from Settings > "Export My Data." You can permanently erase your diary, watchlist, ratings, and rank — on this device and in your iCloud sync — from Settings > "Delete My Data." There is no account behind any of this, so there is nothing further you need to ask us to do.
Two things that button cannot reach, so that you know. Product analytics events are not linked to your identity, which means we cannot pick out one person's events to delete — but you can turn analytics off entirely in Settings, and we will stop collecting them. And any technical data Google holds from serving ads is governed by Google's own privacy policy and controls.
We do not retain your precise location at all — see Section 7. Relay request logs are covered in Section 4.
Movie Snob is not directed at children and we do not knowingly collect information from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided us with information, contact us at moviesnob@icloud.com so we can remove it.
Where your app store tells us your age category, we use it only to make the App behave appropriately for your age. We never receive the underlying identity documents or verification method — only the category. See Terms of Use, Section 4.
Movie Snob is a small, independent project. Rather than offering different rights depending on where you happen to be, we offer the same choices to everyone:
We do not sell your personal information and we are not a data broker. We do not have a legal or compliance team, and we are not claiming certification under any particular privacy framework. What we are claiming is that this policy accurately describes what the App does. If it ever stops being accurate, that is a bug and we want to hear about it.
Movie Snob is currently offered in the United States and Canada only.
We rely on Apple's built-in security for on-device storage, iCloud and CloudKit, and Sign in with Apple. Our relay server holds no movie data, no account data, and no credentials belonging to you. No method of storage or transmission is completely secure, but we do not operate a database of your personal movie data that could itself be a target.
We may update this policy as the App evolves. If a change is material, we will show it to you in the App and ask you to accept it before you continue. For minor changes, we will update the version and date at the top.
Questions about this policy: moviesnob@icloud.com.