Privacy policy

Information you give us

• Account details: your name, email address and password, or the Apple or Google account you sign in with, and, if you add them, a username, role and profile photo.
• Your work: projects, scripts, documents, boards, shot lists, schedules, call sheets, locations, files, comments, chat messages and anything else you create or upload.
• Information about other people that you add, such as the names, roles, email addresses, phone numbers, rates and notes for cast, crew and contacts.
• Backlot details, if you join Backlot: your confirmation that you are 18 or older, your profile, credits, connections, messages and callouts, as described under Backlot.
• What you send to Flowly and our other AI features, as described under Flowly and other AI features.
• Support requests: your name, email address, the topic and your message, whether you use the support form or write to us.
• Billing details: your plan, billing history and, for student pricing, the domain of the university email address you verify. Card details are entered with our payments provider and are never stored by us.

Information we collect automatically

• Usage information: pages and screens you view, features you use and actions you take, with your device, browser, screen size, approximate location from your IP address and a random device identifier.
• Session recordings in the app and on Backlot, as described under Analytics and session recordings.
• Ad click information on the website, only if you allow advertising, as described under Advertising measurement.
• Error reports: technical details when something goes wrong in the app.
• Sign in information: when and how you sign in, and when you were last active.
• For each signed in device we record an approximate location (city or country), the network provider and the device type for 30 days, to protect accounts and detect shared logins. If a shared login is detected, a summary is kept for up to 6 months. We do not store your IP address for this.
• Email records: whether the emails we send you, or send for you, were delivered, opened or clicked.
• Cookies and device storage, as described in our cookie policy.

Information from others

• Sign in with Apple or Google: if you choose one, that company tells us your email address and, where you allow it, your name.
• Collaborators: people who invite you to a project, or add you to a cast, crew or contact list, give us your name, email address and the details they enter.
• Other Backlot members, who may credit you on a film page, connect with you or message you.
• Calendars you connect to Backlot, from which we keep only the times you are busy.

You do not have to give us your personal information, but without an email address we cannot create an account for you. You can use the website without giving us anything.

• To provide the service: store your work, sync it across devices, and let you work with the people you choose.
• To run Backlot: show your profile and credits to the audience you choose, and carry your connections and messages.
• To keep accounts secure, prevent abuse, and review reports.
• To send the emails you ask for, such as invitations and call sheets, and service emails about your account.
• To send product emails, such as a welcome series. You can unsubscribe from these at any time.
• To take payment for paid plans and apply discounts and referral rewards.
• To understand how the service is used, find and fix problems, and improve it.
• To answer support requests.
• To use the details of people you add, such as cast and crew, only to provide the service to you and the people you work with: for example to send them a call sheet or invitation you address to them, and, once a project is completed, to let them claim their credits on Backlot.
• To meet our legal obligations and enforce our terms.

We record how the service is used so we can find problems and improve it. This includes the pages and screens you view and the actions you take. When you are signed in to the app or Backlot, this is linked to your account, including your name and email address.

When you are signed in to the app or Backlot, we also make session recordings of what happens on screen. Recordings stop after five minutes without activity or when the app is hidden. They hide passwords, and they hide email addresses and phone numbers shown on screen in common formats. They can include other things shown on screen, such as names, project details, locations and script text, and what you type into fields other than passwords.

When something goes wrong in the app, an error report is sent to us with technical details and your account identifier. Your name and email address are included only if you choose to send a report yourself.

Your choices:

• On the cineflow.cloud website, analytics runs only if you allow it in the cookie banner, and session recording is not used.
• In the app and on Backlot in a browser, analytics and recordings run unless you refuse them. You can refuse them by choosing Essential only in Cookie settings, at the bottom of every page on cineflow.cloud. Your choice applies in that browser.
• In the desktop and mobile apps, analytics runs as part of the app. To object to it, contact us at support@cineflow.cloud.
• Analytics and recordings never run on pages you open through a share link.

We advertise CineFlow on Google search. To learn which ads lead to people creating an account, the cineflow.cloud website uses the Google tag for Google Ads conversion measurement, provided by Google Ireland Limited and, outside the European Economic Area and the UK, Google LLC. It runs only if you allow the advertising category in the cookie banner or in Cookie settings. Until then nothing is requested from Google.

When it runs, Google receives the page address, including the ad click identifier (gclid, gbraid or wbraid) added when you click our ad, the page you came from, your browser and device details and your IP address, and the tag keeps the ad click in cookies on cineflow.cloud for 90 days. When you create an account, the app tells Google Ads that the ad click led to a sign up, so we can count conversions. We do not use it to show you personalised ads, and Google handles this information as an independent controller under its own privacy policy at policies.google.com/privacy.

If you arrive from one of our ads, the website also passes the ad click identifier to the app in its sign up and log in links, so the app can apply your advertising choice to it. You can withdraw consent at any time: turn advertising off in Cookie settings, at the bottom of every page on cineflow.cloud, and save. We then tell the Google tag your consent is withdrawn, delete its cookies in that browser and reload the page without it.

Some features use artificial intelligence. Content is sent to our AI features provider only when you start one of these features, and only the content that feature needs:

• Flowly, the help assistant in the app: your question, the earlier messages in that conversation and the address of the screen you are on.
• Ask Flowly on the website: your question and the address of the page you asked it on. Nothing that identifies you is sent.
• Creating a project from a brief: the text of the brief, or the image you upload. The brief is also saved as a document in the new project.
• Importing contacts or a gear list: the text, image or file you provide.
• Turning marked up script pages into shots: images of the pages you have marked up.
• Building your Backlot profile from a CV or a website: the text of the CV, or of the web page we fetch at your request, with email addresses and phone numbers removed first. The CV and the page are not stored.

Requests from your account carry a coded identifier instead of your name, email address or account identifier. We keep a record of each AI request with that coded identifier, the feature used and its size and cost, but not what you sent or what came back. We do not use your content to train AI models.

We keep your five most recent Flowly conversations with your account, so they follow you across devices, until you close your account. Ask Flowly on the website stores nothing on our side: your questions and answers stay in your own browser for 30 days. To limit how many questions can be asked, it uses your IP address briefly, only in a scrambled form that cannot be turned back into the address, and forgets it.

If you connect your own AI assistant to your CineFlow account, it can read and change your data with your permission. We keep a log of each change it makes, including the previous value, which you can see in your settings, for 400 days, or until you close your account if that comes first.

Backlot is for people aged 18 or older. When you join, you confirm that you are 18 or older, and we keep that confirmation with the time you gave it. We do not ask for your date of birth.

Your profile

Your profile shows your name, username and photo from your CineFlow account, and whatever you add: a headline, a short biography, your town or city, the roles you work in and are looking for, links, a showreel, and banner and still images. Backlot never shows your email address, phone number or street address. You choose one of three visibility settings:

• Unlisted, the default for a new profile: signed in members can open it if they have its exact address. It does not appear in search, and search engines are asked not to index it.
• Connections: only your connections can see it.
• Public: anyone can see it, including people who are not signed in. It can appear in Backlot search, in search engines and in link previews, which show your name and your headline or roles.

If you use your town or city, we store it as a place from our own list of places, so the text you type is not sent to any other service.

Credits and film pages

• A film page is visible only once its owner publishes it, and shows the people credited on it. A published film page cannot be deleted, only taken offline.
• A project owner can invite people to claim their credits, by username or by email. An invitation email tells the person who credited them, on which project and in which role. If a credit's email address matches the confirmed email address of your account, it is linked to you.
• You can remove a credit that is linked to you. Your link to it is removed and your name stays on the film page as plain text.
• Signed in members may see the names and credited roles of cast and crew who are not members, taken from completed CineFlow projects, so those people can be invited to claim them. We never show their contact details or photo, never show these to people who are not signed in, and never offer them to search engines. The project's owner can hide them, and anyone named can ask us to remove them by writing to support@cineflow.cloud.
• We count how often a film page is viewed and saved, to show its owner how it is doing.

Connections and contacts

When you and another member connect, each of you is added to the other's CineFlow contacts with your name and your first Backlot role, and nothing else. A contact you already had is never overwritten. When a connection is removed or declined, or one of you blocks the other, the contact it created is removed, unless it has been changed or used on a cast or crew list, in which case it stays as an ordinary contact.

Messages

You can message only people you are connected with, and only the people in a conversation can read it. When you delete a message you sent, its text is erased for both of you, and both of you see that a message was deleted. Clearing a conversation removes it from your own view only. Messages are kept until they are deleted or an account is closed. When you close your account, each of your conversations is deleted for both people. Notifications about a new message name the sender but never include the message.

Callouts

A callout describes a project and the roles it needs, each with its own details, where and when, and its pay and conditions. Members can see a public callout, and only your connections can see a callout you limit to them. A public callout may also be shown to people who are not signed in, but callouts are never offered to search engines. Publishing a callout needs a paid plan, except that an account verified with a student email may publish 3 callouts free of charge each calendar month. Each callout counts once, however many roles it has. Unused callouts do not carry over, and the allowance resets on the 1st of each month. When you apply to a role, the member who posted it sees your name, username, photo, headline, roles and the note you write, and no one else does. Callouts and applications are kept until they are deleted or an account is closed.

Script sharing

A member who posts a callout can attach a copy of a script. To read it you ask for access, and the member who posted it decides whether to allow it and for how long. While you read, each page shows your name and the date. Every time you open the script we record who opened it, when, the kind of device and how far you read, and the member who posted it can see that record. We delete these records after 24 months.

Calendar

• Your Backlot calendar is private to you. If you create a calendar link, your calendar app can show your bookings and holds, with your own labels, and the shoot days and titles of projects you own or edit. Anyone who has the link can read that calendar, so keep it to yourself. We keep only a scrambled form of the link. Resetting or turning off the link stops the old one at once.
• If you connect a calendar, by pasting its private link or by signing in to the calendar service, we read only the times you are busy and keep only those times, never event titles, places, notes or guests. We read it about every 12 hours, and sooner when you open your calendar or the calendar service tells us it has changed. The link or access you give us is stored encrypted. When you remove the calendar, we delete it and its busy times. If we cannot reach a connected calendar for more than 72 hours, we delete its busy times. Busy times for days that have passed are deleted after two days.

Blocking

When you block someone, each of you is hidden from the other on Backlot: profiles, search, film page lists, messages, callouts and scripts. Your connection ends, pending invitations and credit requests between you are closed, and notifications between you are cleared. The person you block is not told. Existing messages are not deleted, but neither of you can open the conversation. A block does not change access to CineFlow projects you already share, and it cannot stop someone seeing your public profile or public film pages without signing in.

Reports and moderation

• You can report content to us in Backlot or by writing to support@cineflow.cloud. A report made in Backlot includes a copy of what was reported as it was at that moment, so we can review it. For a message, this includes up to ten earlier messages in the same conversation that you could see.
• The person you report is never told who reported them.
• We delete a report's copy of the content 24 months after the report is resolved, or as soon as the account whose content it holds is closed, unless we must keep it longer for a legal reason. If you close your account after making a report, the report and its copy stay without your name.
• Our moderators can hide content and suspend accounts. We keep a record of moderation actions for as long as we run the service. When an account is closed, its identity is removed from those records.

Notifications

Backlot can tell you about connection requests, messages, credits and callouts by email and in your browser. You can change these in your notification settings.

When you close your account

Your Backlot profile, connections, messages, callouts, applications and calendar are deleted. Credits on other people's film pages stay as your name in plain text, without a link to you. Film pages you created for past work are deleted.

We do not sell your personal information. We share it only as follows.

People you choose

• Collaborators on your projects and workspaces see the project content and the names and photos of other members.
• Anyone with a share link you create can see what it shares. Most share links expire after 30 days, and you can turn any link off at any time. If you open a shared document as a guest, the name you give is shown to others on the document.
• People you email a call sheet to see the call sheet. We record when each recipient opens and confirms it and show this to the sender.
• On Backlot, what others can see depends on your settings, as described above.

Service providers acting for us

We use service providers for:

• hosting and database, file storage, and delivery of the website and the app;
• analytics and session recordings;
• error monitoring;
• email delivery;
• payments;
• AI features;
• maps, address lookup and weather forecasts;
• creating PDF files when you export;
• link previews when you paste a link;
• notifications on your phone and in your browser; and
• software updates for the desktop app.

They may use the information only to provide their service to us.

Other services you use through CineFlow

Some services are not acting for us and handle information under their own policies:

• Sign in with Apple or Google, if you choose one.
• Google Ireland Limited and Google LLC, for Google Ads conversion measurement, if you allow advertising, as described under Advertising measurement.
• Embedded videos, maps and design files that you or other people add. Their content loads from those services, which may set their own cookies.
• Profile pictures for people added to a project, looked up from a public picture linked to their email address or social media handle.
• The feedback board, if you open Feedback or What's new in the app, which receives your name, email address and profile photo so your posts carry your name.
• Your calendar app, if you give it your Backlot calendar link, and a calendar service you connect to Backlot.

Legal and safety reasons

We may share information when the law requires it, to protect people from harm, to protect our rights and the service, or with a buyer if the service is sold, in which case this policy continues to apply to your information.

Our main database and file storage are in Australia. Some of our service providers store or process personal information in other countries:

• European Union: analytics and session recordings, error monitoring, and some map and weather lookups.
• United States: delivery of the website and the app, payments, AI features, email delivery, creating PDF files, link previews, maps, address lookup and weather, notifications, software updates for the desktop app, and Google Ads conversion measurement if you allow advertising.
• Japan: email delivery.

Canvas and whiteboard content may be stored in other countries within our hosting provider's network. Pages and files also pass through servers in other countries close to you as they are delivered. Services you choose to use through CineFlow, such as Sign in with Apple or Google, handle information in the countries where they operate.

• Your account and your work: while your account is open.
• Projects and documents you delete: deleted straight away, and they cannot be restored. We keep a record that they were deleted, including the project's title.
• Organisation workspaces you delete: you can restore them for 30 days. After that we delete them permanently, with their projects and files. Whiteboard content can take longer to remove.
• When you close your account: we delete your account, your profile, the workspaces and projects you own, and your own content in other people's projects, such as your chat messages and comments. Projects you own are deleted with everything in them, including what other members added. Files you uploaded are deleted, except where they are still used in someone else's project. We ask our analytics provider to delete your record and its events, and our email provider to delete your contact.
• Details about you that other users entered in their own records, such as their crew lists, contacts and call sheets, belong to their projects and are not deleted with your account. You can ask us about them.
• Email records: we keep records of the emails we sent. When you close your account, your email address is removed from them.
• Sign in device records: an approximate location, network provider and device type for each signed in device, kept for 30 days. A shared login summary is kept for up to 6 months.
• Payment records: kept by our payments provider to meet tax and accounting obligations.
• AI request records: kept with the coded identifier only, which is not linked to your account once it is closed.
• Backlot records: as described under Backlot.

We encrypt information in transit, use access rules in our database that limit each person to the information they are allowed to see, require a second sign in factor for our own administrative access, and encrypt the calendar links and access you give Backlot. No system is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security. If we become aware of a data breach that is likely to cause serious harm, we will tell you and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner as the law requires.

• Access and correction: you can see and change most of your information in the app and on Backlot. You can also ask us for a copy of the personal information we hold about you, or ask us to correct it. We will not charge you for asking.
• Export: you can export your work from the features themselves, for example scripts as Final Draft, Fountain or PDF files, documents as Word files, slides as PowerPoint, PDF or image files, and call sheets, shot lists and gear lists as PDF files.
• Closing your account: to close your account and delete your information, contact us at support@cineflow.cloud. We confirm the request and then delete your account. If you have a paid plan, it must be cancelled first.
• Product emails: you can unsubscribe from the email itself or turn them off in your notification settings.
• Analytics: you can refuse or object to analytics as described under Analytics and session recordings.

To make a request or a complaint about how we handle your personal information, write to support@cineflow.cloud. Tell us what happened and how we can reach you. We may need to confirm your identity before we act on a request. We respond within 30 days. If we refuse a request, we will tell you why and how to complain.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at www.oaic.gov.au. If you are in the European Union or the United Kingdom, you can also complain to your local data protection authority.

Leonhard Frankeser trading as CineFlow (ABN 51 560 056 874) is the controller of your personal information. The legal bases we rely on are:

• Contract: to provide the service you signed up for, including your account, your work, collaboration, Backlot, the AI features you start, and payments.
• Legitimate interests: to keep the service secure, prevent abuse and review reports; to understand how the app and Backlot are used, record sessions and monitor errors so we can fix and improve them; and to send product emails to existing users. You can object to these at any time.
• Consent: for analytics and advertising measurement on the website, and for calendars you choose to connect to Backlot. You can withdraw consent at any time.
• Legal obligation: to keep records the law requires and to respond to lawful requests.

You also have the right to have your information erased, to restrict how we use it, and to receive the information you gave us in a portable form. To use any of these rights, write to support@cineflow.cloud.

Your information is transferred to Australia, where we are based and where our main database is, and to the other countries listed under Overseas disclosure. You can ask us for information about how these transfers are protected.

We do not make decisions about you based solely on automated processing that have legal or similarly significant effects. AI results are suggestions you choose whether to use.

The service is not for children. You must be 16 or older to use CineFlow, and 18 or older to use Backlot. If we learn that someone under 16 has an account, we will close it and delete their information, and if we learn that someone under 18 is using Backlot, we will remove their Backlot profile.

We may update this policy. We will post the new version here and change the date at the top. If a change materially affects how we handle your information, we will also tell you by email or in the service before it takes effect. Our terms explain the rest of our agreement with you.

Leonhard Frankeser trading as CineFlow (ABN 51 560 056 874), based in Australia. Questions, requests and complaints about privacy: support@cineflow.cloud.