Privacy policy

Information you give us

• Account details: your email address and name. If you sign up with an email and password, we store your password only as a one-way hash. We can't read it. If you sign in with Google or Apple, we receive your name, email address and profile photo from that provider, and we never see your password.
• Profile: your username, an optional profile photo, an optional "About me", whether you want to be credited by first name or username, and your language and timezone preferences.
• Content you create: recipes (names, descriptions, camera settings, tags and sample photos), collections, and the recipes you favourite.

What's public and what's private

ForgeFilm is a sharing community, so some of what you add is visible to everyone, including visitors who aren't signed in:

• Public: your username, profile photo, "About me", badges, your first name or username (whichever you choose), and any recipe or collection you set to public, including its sample photos. These appear on your creator page and wherever your work is credited.
• Never public: your email address, your full name, your password, your language and timezone settings, and any recipe or collection you keep private.

Before you publish, please make sure you're comfortable sharing it and have the right to share it, especially photos.

Photos you upload

When you upload a sample photo or profile picture, we resize and re-encode it on our servers. This removes embedded metadata (EXIF), including GPS location, camera serial number and capture time, so it isn't published with your image. The camera model and settings you type into a recipe are separate from this and are shown as part of the recipe.

Information collected automatically

• Sign-in cookie: a necessary cookie that keeps you signed in and protects forms against cross-site request forgery. The site can't work without it.
• Time zone cookie: remembers your browser's time zone and language so dates show in your local time. It isn't used for tracking.
• Analytics: we use Google Analytics to understand how the site is used, such as which pages are visited, how people find us, and what device, browser and approximate location (country or city) they use. Google Analytics sets its own cookies (such as _ga) and gives us aggregated reports. It doesn't receive your ForgeFilm account details, email address or private content. Google processes this data under its own terms. See how Google uses information from sites that use its services. If you're in the EU/EEA, the UK or Switzerland, we only set these cookies after you accept them in our cookie banner. Elsewhere they're on by default. Wherever you are, you can change your choice at any time with the "Cookie settings" link at the bottom of every page. When analytics cookies are off, Google Analytics may still receive a cookieless signal that a page was viewed, without any identifier that links visits together. You can also opt out with the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on or by blocking cookies in your browser.
• Advertising: ForgeFilm is free to use because it shows ads. We use Google AdSense to show ads on some pages, such as the recipe gallery and recipe pages, and Google Ad Manager for the short ad you can watch to send a recipe to your camera for free. Google and other third-party vendors use cookies (such as the DoubleClick cookie) and similar technologies to serve ads based on your previous visits to ForgeFilm and other websites, to limit how often you see an ad, and to measure ad performance and prevent fraud. You can turn off personalised ads from Google in Google's Ads Settings, and from many other vendors at aboutads.info. See also how Google uses advertising cookies. If you're in the EU/EEA, the UK or Switzerland, Google shows you a consent message first, and personalised ads are only shown if you agree. Without consent you may still see ads, but not ones based on your browsing.
• Server logs: like most websites, our servers briefly record technical details such as IP address, browser type and the pages requested. We use them to keep the service secure and to fix problems.

How we use your information

• To create and run your account, including verifying your email address and signing you in.
• To show your recipes, collections, badges and creator page to the community, as you choose.
• To send service emails, such as verification codes. We don't send marketing emails without asking first.
• To understand how the site is used so we can improve it.
• To show ads that pay for ForgeFilm's free features, as described above.
• To moderate content, prevent abuse and keep the community safe.
• To comply with the law.

Who we share it with

We don't sell or rent your personal information. We share it only with service providers that help us run ForgeFilm:

• Google and Apple, if you choose to sign in with them.
• Resend, which delivers our transactional emails.
• Google Analytics, for site usage statistics, as described above.
• Google AdSense and Google Ad Manager, which show ads, as described above.
• Our hosting and database providers, which store the site's data for us.

We may also disclose information when the law requires it, or to protect the rights, safety or property of ForgeFilm, our users or others. These providers may process data outside your country. Where that happens, we rely on appropriate safeguards.

How long we keep it

We keep your account information and content for as long as your account exists. When your account is deleted, we delete your profile, recipes, collections, favourites and uploaded photos. Backups and logs that contain them are cleared on their normal cycle. Google Analytics data is kept under the retention period set in our Analytics settings.

Your choices and rights

• You can update your name, photo, "About me", display preference and regional settings on your profile page, and edit, unpublish or delete your recipes and collections at any time.
• You can ask us for a copy of your data, or to correct or delete it, including closing your account, by emailing [email protected].
• You can turn analytics cookies on or off at any time with the "Cookie settings" link at the bottom of every page, or block them in your browser. Either way, ForgeFilm works the same.
• You can turn off personalised ads in Google's Ads Settings. You'll still see ads, but they won't be based on your browsing.
• Depending on where you live, for example in the UK, EU, Australia or California, you may have further rights, including objecting to or restricting certain processing and complaining to your local data protection authority. We'll honour these rights wherever they apply.

Security

We use encrypted connections (HTTPS), hash passwords, and limit access to personal data to what's needed to run the service. No online service is perfectly secure, but we work to protect your information and will tell you if a breach affects you, as the law requires.

Children

ForgeFilm isn't intended for children under 13 (or the minimum age of digital consent where you live), and we don't knowingly collect their information. If you believe a child has created an account, please contact us and we'll remove it.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as ForgeFilm grows. When we do, we'll change the date at the top. If a change is significant, we'll also let you know on the site or by email.

Contact

Questions about your privacy? Email us at [email protected].