Privacy Policy
Last updated October 24, 2026
Surreel is an app for ranking the films and shows you've watched and sharing them with your friends. This page explains what we collect when you use it, why we need it, and what you can do about it. If something here doesn't make sense, write to us at hello@surreel.watch.
A few things up front. We don't sell your information. We don't show ads. We don't use tracking tools or outside analytics. You can delete your account from the app at any time.
What we collect
Your account. When you sign in with Apple, Google or an email address, we get your email address and, if Apple or Google send it, your name, which we don't show anyone. Your account gets an ID number, and you choose a username.
What you put in. Your rankings, lists and watchlist, how you felt about a film, and the takes you write. Your friends and friend requests. Movie nights you host or join, including the time, any place you type in, and when you tap I'M ON MY WAY to tell the host you're coming. Only the host is told. Requests to join someone's open night. Squads you start or join, and who is in them. Messages you send in a night's chat or a squad's chat. Reports you send and people you block.
Your profile photo, if you add one (a Surreel+ feature). If your Surreel+ ends, the photo is kept but hidden from everyone, you included, until you join again or remove it.
A rough idea of where you are. This is only for open nights. When you post one you'll meet at in person, we save the rough area of the place you name: your phone looks it up with Apple's map search, which Apple runs, and we keep only a patch of map about 20 by 40 kilometers around it. When you post one you'll watch apart, we save the rough area you're in, the same size of patch. We never save an exact location. To show you open nights nearby, your phone works out which patches are around you and asks for nights in those. Your position itself isn't stored.
When you use the app. We note the days you open it and the points you earn, because they count toward your score and the charts.
Your history, for Month and Year in film. At the end of each month we keep your top 10 films and shows. We also keep your place on the weekly chart if you're on it, the episodes you finish, and how many searches you followed into a film or show each month. That's only a number. We never keep what you typed. We also count how many messages you send in each squad each year, for your Year in film. That's a number too, never the words: squad messages themselves are still deleted after 7 days.
Surreel+. If you buy it, Apple sends us a signed record of the purchase. We keep which plan you have, when it renews or ends, and Apple's number for the purchase, so we know you're a member. Apple handles the payment. We never see your card or your bank details.
A notification token. If you turn on notifications, we keep the code your phone gives us so we can send them to it.
We don't access your contacts, your microphone or your camera. We don't collect payment details or your browsing.
How we use it
To run the app. That means backing up your rankings so they follow you to a new phone, showing your activity to your friends, sending the notifications you turned on (an invite, someone asking to join your night, being let in), working out scores and charts, checking what people write before others can read it, and keeping people safe when they meet up.
Who can see what
Your friends can see your rankings, how you felt about films, the takes you write and what you've been watching.
Anyone signed in can see your username and profile photo. They can also open your profile. It shows your rankings, your pinned quote and the numbers on your profile page. People you block can't open it. You can make your profile private in Settings under Private Profile. Then others see only your username and photo.
Your username and rank can appear on the public chart. You can turn that off in Settings under Public Chart.
If you host an open night, people near it can see your username, the film, the time, its rough area and how many people are going. If the night is at a cinema, they can see which one. Any other place, like a home, is only shown to the people you let in. Nobody outside the night can see who is going: they see a coloured ring for each person, with no name or picture.
Inside a night, everyone who is in can see the names and pictures of everyone else who is in, whether or not you're friends. If you tap CAN'T MAKE IT, you leave the night and your seat goes for everyone.
A night's chat can only be read by the people going to that night. Before a message is posted, our server checks it the way it checks everything you write (see OpenAI under the services we use). Messages are deleted about a day after the night ends. If you report a message, we keep a copy of it with your report so we can review it.
A squad is seen only by the people in it and the friends its owner invites. Its name is checked the same way before anyone else can see it. It also keeps the time zone set on its owner's phone (only the zone's name, like Europe/London, not where you are), so the quote pinned to it changes over at midnight on Monday there, and who pinned it. A night started for a squad is sent to everyone in it. A squad's chat can only be read by the people in the squad, is checked the same way, and each message is deleted 7 days after it is sent. Reported messages are kept with the report, as above.
Reports can't be read by anyone but us, so the person reported can't tell who reported them.
The services we use
Google Firebase handles sign-in, stores your data and photos, sends notifications and runs our servers. Your data is stored in the United States.
Apple and Google handle sign-in if you choose them. Apple delivers notifications to iPhones.
Apple sells and renews Surreel+. It tells our servers when a membership starts, renews, is cancelled or is refunded, so your membership stays right.
Amazon Web Services checks each profile photo for nudity and text before anyone else can see it. The photo is sent only for that check.
Resend delivers the email that confirms your address when you sign up with email. It receives your email address, your username and the confirmation link, only to send that email.
OpenAI checks what you write for other people to read (takes, chat messages, meet-up places and your username) before anyone else sees it, so that insults, threats and hate aimed at people don't get posted. Swearing on its own is fine. Only the words are sent, not your account or who you are. OpenAI may keep them for up to 30 days to watch for misuse of its service, and doesn't use them to train its models. If OpenAI can't be reached, a checker running on our own servers reads them instead.
Film and show details, search and where to watch come through our own servers, which look them up from TheTVDB, Wikipedia, Wikidata and the Streaming Availability API by Movie of the Night. You need to be signed in to ask, but what you search for isn't saved to your account, and nothing personal is sent to those services. Posters and pictures load straight from TheTVDB's and Movie of the Night's image servers, the "cancelled" label on a show is checked with Wikipedia and Wikidata, and episode air times come from TVmaze, all from your phone, so those services can see your IP address the way any website does.
YouTube. Surreel uses YouTube API Services to find trailers, and trailers play in YouTube's own player. When you watch one, YouTube receives what any YouTube video receives, under YouTube's Terms of Service and the Google Privacy Policy. We don't send YouTube anything about you or your account. If you tap a YouTube, Google Play, Fandango at Home or other store or streaming link, that service's own privacy policy applies from there.
If you import your ratings from Letterboxd or IMDb, the file is read on your phone and isn't uploaded. Only the rankings that come out of it are saved.
Keeping and deleting your data
We keep your data for as long as you have an account. To delete it, go to Settings and tap Delete account under Sign Out. We then erase your account and everything tied to it from our servers, and check again an hour later to catch anything that came in after.
Two things stay. Reports other people sent about you are kept, because they're part of how we keep people safe. And if you hosted a night where other people earned points, that night stays in their history, with your account and the place removed.
Deleting your account removes your Surreel+ record too. It doesn't cancel the subscription with Apple, so cancel that in your Apple account settings first.
Anything saved on your phone stays there until you delete the app.
Your choices
You can turn off notifications or location in your phone's settings. Without location you won't see open nights, or be able to post one you'll watch apart, but everything else works. You can leave the public chart, block anyone, and delete your account. For a copy of your data, go to Settings and tap Download my data. If you can't get into the app or need something corrected, email us and we'll reply within 30 days.
If you live in California, the EU or the UK, you have rights over your data, including the right to see it, correct it and have it deleted. Email us to use them. We use your data to provide the app you signed up for and to keep it safe. We don't sell it or share it for advertising.
Children
Surreel isn't meant for children under 13. If we find out a child under 13 has an account, we'll delete it.
Changes
If we change this policy, we'll update it here and change the date at the top.
Contact
Email hello@surreel.watch, or write to Surreel, 6421 N. Florida Ave, Suite D, Tampa, FL 33604, USA.