Your Data Stays on Your Device. Period.

Privacy policies are usually long documents full of legal hedging that amount to "we collect your data but promise to be responsible with it." CineMan's approach is different. We do not promise to be responsible with your data. We never have it in the first place.

CineMan is built on a local-only architecture. There is no backend server that stores user data. There is no database of taste profiles. There is no analytics pipeline tracking what you watch. The entire system runs in your browser, on your device, and your data never leaves it. This is not a policy decision. It is an architectural one. The capability to collect your data does not exist.

The Local-Only Architecture

Every piece of data CineMan generates or processes is stored in chrome.storage.local, which is a sandboxed storage area that Chrome provides to extensions. This storage is tied to your browser profile and cannot be accessed by websites, other extensions, or remote servers. Here is what the architecture looks like in practice:

• Your taste profile (tag weights, category scores, maturity tier) is computed in your browser and stored locally.
• Your Netflix viewing history (if you choose to import it) is scraped from Netflix's UI, processed in your browser, and stored locally. Netflix's servers are never contacted by CineMan directly.
• Your Discovery Mode ratings (likes, dislikes, skips) are stored locally and used to update your local taste profile.
• Cached movie metadata (TMDB data, IMDb scores, Rotten Tomatoes ratings) is fetched from public APIs and cached locally to reduce redundant network requests.
• Your onboarding preferences (genre preferences, era preferences, platform selections) are stored locally.
• Score caches (pre-computed taste match scores for titles you have encountered) are stored locally for performance.

None of this data is ever transmitted to a CineMan server because there is no CineMan server to transmit it to. The extension's code runs locally. The only network requests CineMan makes are to public APIs (TMDB for metadata, YouTube for trailers) to fetch information about movies. These requests do not include any user-identifying information.

No Accounts. No Sign-Up. No Email.

CineMan has no account system. There is no registration form, no login page, no email field, and no password. You install the extension from the Chrome Web Store and it works immediately. Your identity, as far as CineMan is concerned, is the data stored in your local browser. There is no user ID, no session token, and no way to link your activity across devices or browsers.

This means you cannot sync your taste profile across multiple computers. That is a deliberate trade-off. Syncing would require a server, a server would require user accounts, and user accounts would mean storing your data externally. We chose not to build that.

No Analytics on Viewing History

Some extensions that claim to respect privacy still run analytics on aggregated user behavior. They might not track you individually, but they collect anonymized data about what users watch, which titles are popular, or how the extension is used. CineMan does not do this either.

There is no analytics SDK in the extension. No Google Analytics, no Mixpanel, no Amplitude, no custom telemetry. CineMan does not know how many active users it has through its own code. It does not know which movies are popular among its users. It does not know how often Discovery Mode is used. The only usage data that exists is what the Chrome Web Store itself reports (install counts, Chrome version distribution), which is standard for all Chrome extensions and not controlled by CineMan.

What IS Stored (All Local)

For full transparency, here is a complete list of everything CineMan stores on your device:

What Is NOT Stored (Anywhere)

For equal transparency, here is what CineMan does NOT store, collect, or transmit:

• No personal information. No name, email, age, gender, location, or any identifying data.
• No browsing history. CineMan does not track which pages you visit, how long you spend on Netflix, or what you search for on any platform.
• No viewing behavior telemetry. CineMan does not record when you start watching a movie, how long you watch, whether you finish it, or when you pause.
• No cross-site tracking. CineMan operates only on supported streaming platforms (Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+). It does not monitor activity on any other website.
• No server-side data. There is no CineMan database, no user table, no analytics warehouse, and no backup of your data on any remote system.
• No third-party data sharing. Because CineMan has no user data on its servers, there is nothing to share with advertisers, partners, or anyone else.

How CineMan Compares to Alternatives

Most movie recommendation tools and rating extensions follow a client-server model. They require you to create an account, which means your viewing history and preferences are stored on their servers. Here is how CineMan's approach differs:

The trade-off is clear. CineMan sacrifices cross-device sync and collaborative filtering (recommendations based on what similar users like) in exchange for absolute privacy. Your data is yours. No one else can see it, analyze it, sell it, or lose it in a data breach.

What Happens When You Uninstall

When you remove CineMan from Chrome, the browser automatically deletes all data in chrome.storage.local associated with the extension. Your taste profile, viewing history, ratings, cached metadata, and preferences are permanently erased from your device. Since no data was ever sent to a server, there is nothing else to clean up. You do not need to email anyone, submit a deletion request, or worry about residual data. It is gone.

If you reinstall CineMan later, you start fresh with no profile. There is no way to recover previous data because it existed only on your device and was deleted with the extension.