Effective date: May 12, 2026 · Last updated: September 29, 2026
Watchtower ("the app," "we," "us") is a personal media-tracking app built by McSchneider Design Studios. This policy explains what information is collected, how it is used, and your rights regarding that information.
Account information. When you create an account, we collect your email address and a user ID. If you sign in with Google or Apple, we also receive your name and profile photo as part of the authentication flow. If you do not have a photo, a generated pixel-art avatar is used in its place.
App content. The data you add to the app is stored in your personal account:
Social features. If you add friends, we store the connection between your accounts and your invite code. Your display name and photo are visible to people you are connected to, along with activity such as adding or finishing a show, and any comments or reactions you leave. Notes marked as shared are visible to your friends; private notes are not.
Notifications. If you turn reminders on, we store a notification token for each device, together with an identifier for that device (the Android ID on Android, the vendor identifier on iOS). The identifier is what lets us send each reminder once per device rather than once per registration — without it, reinstalling the app leaves more than one token registered to the same phone and reminders arrive twice. We also record the device model and operating system version alongside the result of registering, so we can tell why notifications failed to arrive on a particular device.
Usage analytics. The app uses Firebase Analytics, which collects an app instance identifier and records events such as signing in, adding a show, changing a filter, or opening a screen. This tells us which features are used. It does not record what you type into search.
What we do not collect. We do not collect your location, contacts, payment information, camera or microphone data, or advertising identifiers. We do not track you across other apps or websites, and none of the above is used for advertising or profiling.
We do not sell, rent, or share your information with third parties for advertising or marketing purposes.
The app relies on the following third-party services. Each has its own privacy policy.
Your data is stored for as long as your account is active. You can delete your account at any time from the Profile screen inside the app. Deletion is permanent and removes your account credentials, your library, your lists, your notes, and the notification tokens and device identifiers held for your devices.
Friend connections, activity posts and comments are stored separately, because other people can see them, and are not removed automatically when you delete your account. Email us and we will delete those too.
You do not have to delete your account to remove individual things: a show, a list, a note, a comment, or a device's notification token can each be removed in the app. Full instructions, including how to request deletion if you cannot reach the app, are here: mcschneiderdesigns.com/watchtower/delete-account/.
The app is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us and we will delete it.
If we make material changes to this policy, we will update the effective date above. Continued use of the app after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.
Questions or requests regarding your data: