Privacy Policy

This policy explains what information Spek Screens, Spek Videos, Spek Podcasts and Spek Essentials collect, how it is used, and the choices you have. Spek is a small independent project made by Blair. If you have any questions, email hello@spekapps.com.

The short version: we ask for as little as possible, we don't sell or share your information, and you can delete everything at any time.

Who this covers

This policy applies to the Spek Screens web app (screens.spekapps.com), the Spek Videos web app (videos.spekapps.com), the Spek Podcasts web app (podcasts.spekapps.com) and the Spek Essentials web app (essentials.spekapps.com).

Using the apps without an account

Spek Screens can be used with no account at all. Your lists, taste profile, and settings are kept only in your own browser and are never sent to our servers. Clearing your browser's data, or using a different browser or device, starts a fresh, empty profile — there is nothing on our end to lose or recover in that case, other than a backup file you chose to save yourself from within the app.

Spek Essentials needs no account either. Your Address Book, photos, notes and checklist are kept only in your own browser, on your device, and are never sent to our servers unless you turn on sync (below). That makes them only as safe as the browser: clearing its data loses them, so the app offers a backup file, locked with a passphrase of your choosing.

Spek Videos and Spek Podcasts also open with no sign-in. So that your channels, shows and lists are still there next time, each quietly creates an anonymous account for you on our sign-in provider, Supabase. That account holds no name, email address, or anything else that identifies you — only what you follow and save in the app, as described below. It lives in that browser: clearing your browser's data, or using another device, starts fresh, unless you have signed in.

Signing in is optional in all three apps, and only needed if you want to sync your lists between your devices — which also backs them up, so they aren't lost if you clear your browser or replace a device. If you sign in to Spek Videos or Spek Podcasts later, your Google account is attached to the same anonymous account, so nothing is lost. While the apps are being tested, signing in with Google is by invitation.

Signing in

If you choose to sign in — to any of the apps, to sync and back up your lists — you do so with your Google account through our sign-in provider, Supabase. During sign-in, Google provides your Google account ID, email address, display name, and profile photo to the sign-in provider, which keeps them in its own secure records.

Within the apps themselves, we only ever use your email address — it's shown on your account screen and used to recognize the account owner. Your name and profile photo are not read, displayed, or copied anywhere by the apps.

We do not receive or store your Google password. We never post anything to your Google account.

What the apps store

Once you're signed in, we save your choices so the apps work the way you left them. This information is stored against your account and includes:

Spek Screens: your taste preferences from the onboarding quiz (which titles you rated up, neutral, or down), your decision lists (titles you chose to try, passed on, or marked as seen), your streaming services, your watch region, your discovery and exclusion settings, a record of which titles have been checked for streaming availability, and onboarding progress.

Spek Videos: your list of followed channels (chosen in the app, or imported from YouTube if you choose to), the videos pulled from those channels, and your feed settings — including which videos you've watched or dismissed within the app, and when. This watched-within-Spek record is our own note of your taps in the app; it is not your YouTube watch history, which we never request or receive.

Spek Podcasts: the shows you follow (each show's feed address — which, for a paid podcast, can include your personal subscription link — its name and picture), your Up Next list, the episodes you've finished and when, and which episodes or shows you've skipped or sent away. How far you've listened into each episode is kept only on your device.

Spek Essentials: only if you turn on sync between devices (by invitation while in testing): your Address Book entries, photos, notes and checklist, and your settings. They are encrypted on your device before they are sent, so our servers never hold a readable copy. The weather place you choose (below) stays on the device and is not synced.

Encrypted with your passphrase. Once you sign in with Google, each app asks you to set a passphrase. The lists and settings it saves to your account are then encrypted on your device, with a key that only your passphrase (or your one-time recovery code) can unlock, before they're sent to us — so nobody at Spek can read them. Your email address and the return-visit count below aren't part of that. Without signing in, an anonymous account's lists are stored as they are, not encrypted.

We also keep a simple return-visit count: one entry per day noting your account and which app you opened. This tells us roughly how many people come back each week. It does not record what you looked at.

We do not collect IP addresses, device details, location, or anything else beyond the choices described above.

On your device, the apps keep your settings and your signed-in session in your browser's local storage, so they work the way you left them when you come back. They don't use advertising or tracking cookies.

Spek Videos and YouTube

Channels can be found and followed inside Spek Videos with no YouTube permission at all; their new videos come from YouTube's public feeds. Only if you choose to import your subscriptions from YouTube does Spek Videos ask for a separate, read-only YouTube permission. This access token stays in your browser for the session only and is never stored on our servers. We use it to read your subscribed channels and their uploads — the new ones, and, when you open a channel under Find, its uploads from the last six months — nothing else. Videos play in the standard embedded YouTube player, so YouTube sees playback as it normally would on its own site.

Spek Videos uses YouTube API Services. By using Spek Videos, you agree to be bound by the YouTube Terms of Service. Google's own handling of your information is described in the Google Privacy Policy.

Spek Podcasts and podcast feeds

Podcasts are read from each show's own feed. Your browser fetches the feed, the pictures and the episodes' audio straight from the show's host, as any podcast app does, so that host sees your IP address. When a host won't let a browser read its feed or picture, a small Spek server function fetches it for you and passes it back; it doesn't store or log the address.

When you search in Find, the words you type (or a pasted Apple Podcasts link) go to Apple's public podcast search to find the show. Spek doesn't store your searches.

Spek Essentials and the weather

Spek Essentials' Today page can show the day's weather for a town or city you choose by hand in Settings. It never uses your phone's location: there is no GPS and no location prompt. The place is kept on your device as a name and map coordinates rounded to about 1 km.

The forecast comes from Open-Meteo, a free public weather service. When you search for a place, the letters you type are sent to its place search; each forecast sends the rounded coordinates. Like any website, it sees your connection's address. Nothing that identifies you is sent, and nothing is stored there. The "Forecast" link opens that place's page on a public weather service (Environment Canada, the US National Weather Service, or yr.no elsewhere) in your browser.

How we use information from Google

Spek Screens', Spek Videos' and Spek Podcasts' use and transfer to any other app of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

In plain terms, for the information we receive from Google (your sign-in details and, in Spek Videos, your YouTube subscriptions and their uploads):

• We use it only to provide the features you see in the apps — signing you in, and building your Spek Videos feed.
• We don't transfer it to anyone else, except the services listed below that run the apps for us, or if the law requires it.
• No person reads it, unless you ask us to (for example, to help with a problem), it's needed to investigate abuse or a security issue, or the law requires it.
• We never use it for advertising, and we never sell it.

How we protect your data

This applies to everything the apps store, including what we receive from Google (your sign-in details and, in Spek Videos, your YouTube subscriptions and their uploads):

• Encrypted in transit. Everything travels over HTTPS (TLS) between your browser, the apps, our database host Supabase, and Google. Nothing is ever sent unencrypted.
• Encrypted at rest. Supabase keeps our database, and its backups, encrypted on disk.
• Encrypted with your passphrase. Once you sign in, the lists and settings an app saves to your account are encrypted on your device, with a key only your passphrase or recovery code can unlock, before they are sent. Nobody at Spek can read them. An anonymous account's lists, kept before you sign in, are protected by the access rules below but not by a passphrase.
• Each account reaches only its own data. Every table in our database has access rules (row-level security) that let an account read and change only its own records. One person's information can never be read through another person's account.
• The YouTube permission is read-only and short-lived. The access token Google gives Spek Videos stays in your browser's memory for that session only. It is never sent to or stored on our servers.
• Very limited staff access. Only Blair can reach the database and the services that run the apps, and every one of those accounts (Supabase, Google Cloud and Vercel) is protected by two-step verification.
• Only what's needed is kept. We collect only what's listed above, and deleting your account removes your stored information.
• If something goes wrong. If there is ever a breach that affects your information, we will tell the people affected promptly, by email where we have one, and say what happened and what we are doing about it.

Services we rely on

Running the apps requires a few trusted services, which receive only what they need:

• Supabase — hosts sign-in, stores the information described above, and runs the small server functions that fetch podcast feeds and pictures for you.
• Google — handles sign-in, provides the YouTube data for Spek Videos, and serves the embedded video player and web fonts. Google sees your IP address on those requests, as it would on any site using them.
• TMDB (The Movie Database) — Spek Screens sends it search terms, title lookups, and your watch region to return results and poster images. No information identifying you is sent to TMDB.
• Open-Meteo — Spek Essentials sends it the place you chose (to about 1 km) to get the day's weather, and the letters you type when searching for a place.
• Apple — Spek Podcasts sends it what you type in Find, to search its public podcast directory.
• Podcast hosts — Spek Podcasts reads each show's feed, pictures and audio from the show's own host, which sees your IP address as it would in any podcast app.
• Anthropic — to suggest similar channels in Spek Videos and similar shows in Spek Podcasts, a Spek server sends a channel's or show's public details (its name, description and category, and a list of other public channels or shows to choose from) to Anthropic's Claude model. Nothing about you is ever sent — not who follows it, not your lists.
• Vercel — hosts the apps and provides basic, privacy-friendly page-view counts that use no cookies and do not identify you.

Some parts of the apps link out to other sites (such as JustWatch, Rotten Tomatoes, or YouTube channel pages). Those are ordinary links; we don't send your information to them.

What we don't do

• We do not sell your information.
• We do not share it for advertising, and the apps contain no ad or tracking SDKs.
• We do not use your data to train AI. The apps' only use of AI is the similar-channel and similar-show suggestions described above, which never include anything about you.

Your choices and deleting your data

You're in control of your information:

• You can clear your data and sign out from the Account section of each app.
• Deleting your account removes your stored information automatically.
• You can remove Spek's access to your Google account (including the YouTube permission) at any time on Google's third-party access page (security.google.com/settings/security/permissions). That stops Spek Videos reading your subscriptions; what it has already saved stays until you delete it in the app or ask us to.
• You can email hello@spekapps.com at any time to ask what we hold or to request deletion.

Children

The apps are not directed at children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect information from them.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, we'll update the date at the top. For anything significant, we'll do our best to let signed-in users know.

Contact

Questions about privacy? Email hello@spekapps.com.