watchd

Privacy policy

Last updated 1 November 2026

watchd keeps track of the shows you watch and where you are in each one. It's run privately for a small group of invited friends and family. This page explains exactly what it stores, why, and what you can do about it. In short: it only collects what it needs to keep your library, it never sells or shares it, and there are no ads or tracking.

Who runs it

This copy of watchd is run by an individual for people they've invited, not by a company. For questions or requests about your data, contact the person who runs this watchd (the one who invited you).

What watchd stores

  • Your account. When you sign in with Google, watchd receives your name, email address and profile picture. Your email decides whether you're invited; your name and picture appear in the app.
  • What you watch. For each episode the extension reports: the site, the page address, the page title, the show and episode watchd works out from it, how far into the video you got, and when. This is your watch history.
  • Your library. The shows you've added, which list each is on, your ratings, which episodes you've watched, and the matches you've confirmed in your inbox.
  • Extension connections. When you connect the extension, watchd creates a token for it. Only a one-way fingerprint (hash) of the token is stored, plus when it was created and last used.
  • Invite requests. If you ask for an invite: your email, the optional name and note you give, and a scrambled (salted hash) form of your network address, used only to stop the form being abused. Your request is deleted once you're invited or turned down.

Show details (titles, posters, episode counts) come from public databases and are shared by everyone using this watchd; they aren't about you.

What the browser extension does

  • It only looks at pages on Netflix, Crunchyroll, Disney+ and Prime Video, YouTube channels you choose to track, and other sites you turn on yourself. On any other site it does nothing.
  • On those pages it reads the page title, the main heading, the page address and the video player's position. It doesn't read what you type, your passwords, other page content, or your browsing history.
  • It sends what it reads only to your watchd server, using its token. It keeps its settings and any not-yet-sent episodes in your browser's extension storage.
  • It asks for access to all websites so it can work on the sites you turn on (and inside video players embedded from other sites); the rules above still apply.

How it's used

Only to run watchd for you: to show your library, work out which show and episode you watched, remember where you stopped, and tell you about new episodes. Nobody else using this watchd can see your library or history. There's no advertising, no analytics or tracking scripts, no profiling, and your data is never sold or given to anyone.

Services watchd relies on

  • Google handles sign-in. Google knows you signed in to this app. Your profile picture is loaded from Google's servers.
  • MongoDB Atlas hosts the database where everything above is stored.
  • AniList, TVmaze and TMDB provide show details. watchd's server asks them about show titles it has seen; those requests don't include who you are. Posters and images are fetched by the server too, so these services don't see your browser.
  • The server and its hosting may keep standard technical logs (such as network addresses and requests) to keep it running.

Cookies

watchd sets only the cookies needed to keep you signed in and to protect sign-in. There are no advertising or analytics cookies.

Keeping and deleting your data

  • Your data is kept for as long as you have an account.
  • You can download everything in your library at any time from Settings (Backup).
  • You can delete your account yourself from Settings. That removes your account, library, watch history, extension connections and invite straight away.
  • To remove the extension's local data, uninstall it from your browser.
  • For anything else, such as a copy of what's stored or a correction, contact the person who runs this watchd (the one who invited you).

Security

watchd is only open to invited accounts, connections to it are encrypted (HTTPS), and extension tokens are stored only as fingerprints. No system is perfectly secure, but your data is limited to what's listed above.

Children

watchd isn't meant for children under 13, and doesn't knowingly hold their data.

Changes

If this policy changes, the date at the top changes with it. Big changes will be pointed out in the app.