Last updated: 2 October 2026
Cinecase ("the app", "we") is a local-first movie/Blu-ray collection app. This policy explains what data the app handles, where it goes, and the choices you have. In plain terms: your collection lives on your device unless you choose Google Drive sync; optional Google sign-in for shared scan lookups does not send your collection to us. We do not store or sell your library.
Developer: Canadilian Soft
Contact: canadiliansoft@gmail.com
1. Cinecase metadata lookup service - When you search for a title, scan a disc, or view a library someone shared with you, the app may contact Cinecase's lookup service to resolve public movie or barcode metadata while keeping third-party API keys off your device. For cached barcode matches, the service receives the barcode number. The service stores shared public barcode-to-movie mappings so the same disc can resolve faster for future users. To keep the service available and prevent abuse, the lookup service records a one-way hash of your IP address and a one-way hash of the search text for each title-search request, together with the date. The raw IP address and raw search text are not stored, these hashes are not linked to your Cinecase identity or collection, and they are used only to apply rate limits.
The app also checks short cast lists in the background after launch. For each eligible film or TV series, it sends its public TMDb ID and media type to the lookup service, which requests public cast credits from TMDb. These requests carry no Google identity, shelf names, notes, ratings, or collection backup. Public cast responses may be cached for reuse. Uncached requests use the same abuse limits as title search, including a hashed IP address and a hashed lookup key with the date. Assessment and retry records stay on your device.
If you turn on the Shared scan database toggle in Settings, accept the contextual Help make barcode scans faster prompt, or approve sharing a barcode correction, the app signs you in with Google only for identity. This identity-only sign-in does not request Google Drive scope. For first-time barcode resolution and user-approved corrections, the app may send a Google ID token to confirm the request is from the app and apply abuse limits; the service stores only an opaque Google user id for rate-limiting and consensus, not your email or collection. If you manually correct a barcode match and choose to share it, the service receives the barcode and public movie metadata for that correction. If the release is a box set and you choose to share it, that public metadata includes the list of films the case holds, in order, with each film's public catalogue details, such as its title, format, edition, barcode, release year, TMDb id, season numbers for TV, runtime, directors, cast, genres, artwork and its colours, and description. That describes the retail release, not your library. It does not receive your shelf contents, library names, notes, ratings, reviews, loan details, what you have watched, your watch history, or your own cover photos.
2. The Movie Database (TMDb) - When you search for a title or scan a disc, the app or Cinecase lookup service sends the search text and, for scans, the looked-up title/year to TMDb (and, when you view a library someone shared with you, the lookup service sends that library's titles and years) to fetch movie details and artwork. Artwork images, such as posters, load from TMDb's public image CDN. Cinecase may cache the selected poster on your device for faster/offline display as described above. See TMDb's privacy policy at themoviedb.org. This product uses the TMDb API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDb.
3. Barcode lookup (UPCitemdb / optional Barcode Lookup) - When you scan a disc, the app or Cinecase lookup service may send the barcode number to a barcode database to identify the product. No collection contents are attached to these requests.
4. Camera and photo selection - For barcode scanning, camera frames are processed on your device to read the barcode and are not stored or transmitted. If you explicitly choose Take photo or Choose photo for custom cover artwork, Cinecase stores the selected/captured image in its private app storage on that device. Custom-cover images are not sent to Cinecase's lookup service, TMDb, barcode providers, or product-event service. They are included in a JSON backup you explicitly export and in the Cinecase backup file stored in your own Google Drive if you enable sync, so they can be restored with the collection.
5. Google Sign-In and Google Drive - Google Sign-In is optional and can be used in two separate ways:
6. Google Play Billing (Android) / the App Store (iOS) - The optional one-time "Cinecase Pro" purchase is processed by Google or Apple. The app only records whether Pro is unlocked; we never receive your payment details.
7. First-party product events - Cinecase may send a small set of product events to understand whether core flows are working, such as scan started, scan succeeded, scan failed, import started, import completed, paywall viewed, purchase started, purchase completed, sync enabled, restore attempted, correction shared, or a support report being started. These events include only the event name plus coarse platform and app version metadata. They do not include movie titles, barcodes, TMDb IDs, poster paths, ratings, reviews, shelf names, notes, loan details, or collection contents. You can turn product diagnostics off in the app settings. If the device is temporarily offline, Cinecase may keep up to 100 of these same coarse events on the device and retry them when a connection becomes available. The pending queue contains no additional fields, drops its oldest entries when full, and is cleared immediately if you turn product diagnostics off.
We do not collect or store your movie collection. Cinecase has no email/password account, advertising, or third-party tracking. Optional Google sign-in creates an opaque Cinecase identity for shared-registry requests. The metadata lookup service handles the public barcode/search data needed to make lookups work; the hashed IP address, hashed search or cast-lookup key, and date used to rate-limit metadata lookups; and, for rate-limited first-time barcode resolution, either that hashed IP address or an opaque Google user id; and, for user-approved corrections, that opaque Google user id. Turning on the free shared-scan identity sign-in does not transmit your collection and does not grant Drive access. Cinecase may store the limited first-party product events described above. Your full collection is transmitted only to your own Google Drive if you enable sync. All such transmission uses encrypted (HTTPS) connections. Custom-cover photos and the on-device poster cache are not collected by Cinecase's developer services. Custom covers may leave the device only inside a user-created/shared JSON backup or the optional backup in the user's own Google Drive; cached posters are excluded from both.
The Contact support row in Settings prepares a bug report or question and hands it to your own email app. Cinecase does not send it and does not keep a copy: the message goes from your mail account to ours the same way any other email you write does, and you can edit or delete any part of it first.
To save a round trip, the message is prefilled with technical details: the app version, your platform and OS version, your locale and text size, which shelf theme and display mode you use, whether Pro is unlocked, in Cinecase 1.10 and later whether the app store was able to offer Pro (a status plus fixed store or purchase error codes, never a purchase or account identifier), your cloud-sync status, and a count of how many films and libraries you have. It may also include the first line of the last few errors the app recorded. Those error notes are kept only in memory, are never written to storage, and are discarded when the app closes unless you send them.
In Cinecase 1.10 and later, the technical details are built to leave out movie titles, barcodes, ratings, reviews, shelf contents and account identifiers. Your sync status is described only as signed in or not, sync on or off, and a fixed status message such as "Synced just now", and the app strips links, email addresses, file paths, quoted text and long numbers it can recognise from error lines before keeping them. It cannot recognise every identifier, so read the text before you send it.
In earlier versions, the cloud-sync status can show the email address of the Google account you signed in with, and error lines are kept as the app recorded them, so they can contain anything an error message named, such as a title or a file name.
Tap "What will be sent" in that screen to read the exact text before sending. If you attach a backup file yourself, that file contains your collection as described under "Sharing your collection" below.
If you start a report from a failure, using the Report this link that appears when a barcode lookup or a title search does not work, the message is prefilled with what failed: the barcode that was scanned, or the words you searched for, plus the error the app showed. That text sits in the editable part of the message, above the technical details, so you can change or delete it before sending.
Export and "share my shelf" features send a file (JSON, CSV, XML, PDF, or image), and "Share wishlist" (Cinecase 1.10 and later) sends a plain-text list of your wishlist titles, which can include each title's year, release type, format and edition, only when you choose to, through your device's standard share sheet, to the destination you pick. Once you have shared a file, what happens to it is up to you and whoever you sent it to: Cinecase cannot recall or expire a file that has already left your device.
Share my library makes a Cinecase library file (.cinecase) of one of your libraries, or all of them, that someone else can browse in Cinecase as a read-only shelf. Nothing is sent until you pick a destination in your device's share sheet, and the file goes from your device to that destination, not through Cinecase's servers.
What the file contains: the library's name, your shelf finish, the date and time it was made, and, for each title you own in it, the title, year, format, edition, shelf name, the box set it belongs to, and your own custom cover photo if it has one (resized, without the photo's metadata). It does not include your wishlist, notes, prices, ratings, reviews, watched state, loans, barcodes, account details or Google identity. It carries a random identifier for that library, so that a newer copy you send later replaces the older one on the recipient's device. The same identifier goes to everyone you share that library with, so people who compare files could tell they came from the same library. As with any file you share, Cinecase cannot recall a copy once sent.
When you receive one: Cinecase asks before saving a library file you open. The copy is kept in Cinecase's private storage, separate from your own collection: it is never added to your libraries, JSON backups, exports or Google Drive sync, and no one can change your collection through it. While you view a shared library, your Cinecase looks up posters for titles that have no cover photo. It sends each title and year from the file, up to 150 per visit, to Cinecase's lookup service, which searches TMDb for them. These are handled like the title searches in section 1: the service keeps a hashed IP address and hashed search text with the date for rate limits, and the searches count toward the daily search allowance for your connection's IP address. The poster results are stored beside the copy. Removing the copy deletes it and its poster results; poster images already downloaded may stay in the on-device poster cache until the cache is pruned, you clear Cinecase's data, or you uninstall it.
Cinecase is not directed at children under 13 or the equivalent minimum age in your country, and we do not knowingly collect data from them.
We may update this policy as the app evolves. Material changes will be reflected by the "Last updated" date above and, where appropriate, noted in the app or store listing.
Questions about privacy? Email canadiliansoft@gmail.com.