Your data, in plain words.

Who is responsible

AniMood is run by David Laušman, based in the Czech Republic (EU), who is the controller of the personal data described here. For privacy, safety and account questions, use the contact form or write to david@lausman.dev. AniMood has no separate data protection officer.

Controller

David Laušman, Czech Republic (EU)

Contact

Contact form · david@lausman.dev

Data protection officer

None appointed

Wherever you live

Because the controller is established in the EU, the GDPR applies to all of AniMood's processing of personal data, wherever you live and wherever you use AniMood from (art. 3(1) GDPR). If you live outside the EU, you have the same rights as everyone else and can use them in the same way.

Depending on where you live, local laws may give you additional rights, for example the UK GDPR, the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP), Brazil's General Data Protection Law (LGPD) or the privacy laws of some US states. We handle privacy requests from anywhere in the world in the same way and on the same timeline, whether or not such a law applies to AniMood.

What we process, why, and on what basis

Your right to object. Where we rely on legitimate interests (safety, contact messages, security and statistics), we have weighed them against your interests and rights. You can object at any time, on grounds relating to your situation, through the contact form (see also Your rights). We then stop, unless we have compelling reasons that override your interests or need the data for legal claims (art. 21 GDPR).

Only what you chooseNo law requires you to give us any data. To create an account you only need to choose a local name and a password; without them we cannot provide the account. Everything else, including AniList, Match, photos and a reply email in the contact form, is optional. If you leave something out, only the feature that needs it is unavailable.

Recommendations and automated decisions

Recommendations and taste-fit scores are calculated automatically from your notebook, your mood choices, your taste nudges and, if you link it, your AniList history. This is profiling in the GDPR's sense: AniMood estimates what you are likely to enjoy, only to give you the suggestions you came for. Taste nudges are what you tell AniMood directly: the chips you pick under “Less like this” after a pass or “Why it didn't work” after a title that was not for you, and the winners and losers of your This or that duels. Each nudge counts for less over time (its effect halves about every 60 days), is capped so that it steers suggestions without deciding them, and stops counting after a year. Notebook → Taste lists the nudges that still count, and you can take any of them back there. When a suggestion would be a later season, AniMood suggests the first season instead, unless your notebook or AniList shows that you finished the one before; this uses AniList's public information about how titles connect and adds no new data about you. Suggestions have no legal or similarly significant effect on you. The same applies to your taste title, a short playful name for your anime taste (for example “The Midnight Strategist”) that is generated from the themes in your notebook. AniMood does not make decisions based solely on automated processing that produce legal effects or similarly significantly affect you (art. 22 GDPR), and it does not profile you for advertising.

Once a season, and from 1 December also for the whole year, AniMood puts together a recap (“Wrapped”) of your own notes, check-ins and mood choices from that period. If you have linked AniList, Wrapped also uses the copy of your public AniList list that AniMood keeps for your recommendations (titles, statuses, scores, favourites, episode progress and your start, finish and last-update dates) to sum up the titles, hours of watching and scores of that period. AniMood reads nothing new from AniList for this: Wrapped is calculated when you open it, shown only to you and not stored, and any image you share from it is drawn on your device and never uploaded. How long the copy of your list is kept is explained under How long we keep data.

Moderation decisions, such as approving photos or restricting an account, are made by a person. Automatic rate limits can briefly pause an action, such as sending many messages in a short time or trying many wrong passwords; they do not otherwise affect your account. Wrong passwords that other people type for your name never lock out a browser you have already signed in with.

AniList data in AniMood

If you link AniList, AniMood keeps your notebook in step with your AniList list, so you do not have to mark the same title twice. When you link AniList, open AniMood or come back to it, AniMood reads your public list unless its copy is less than two hours old; “Sync now” reads it straight away, at most once every five minutes. AniMood then copies each title's AniList status (Plan to watch, Watching, Paused, Completed, Rewatching or Dropped) and your episode progress into your notebook. This covers the titles already in your notebook and the titles that changed on AniList recently: in the 30 days before the first sync, and after that since AniMood last read your list. Older entries are not copied into your notebook, but they still shape your recommendations. If a title has no reaction in AniMood yet, your AniList score fills one in, on AniList's 100-point scale: 80 and above is Loved it, 60 to 79 is It was okay, and 1 to 59 is Not for me. A title without a score gets no reaction.

Only a change made on AniList after your last change to that title in AniMood is copied, and never while a change you made to that title in AniMood is still waiting to be sent to AniList. An older AniList state therefore never overwrites what you set here. A newer AniList change updates the title just as if you had made it in AniMood, but your AniList score never replaces a reaction you gave here. The sync only reads: it never writes anything to AniList. Copied titles are ordinary notes: they carry the “from AniList” mark until you change them here, they are in your export and they are deleted with your account. Disconnecting AniList stops the sync and deletes its record (which AniList account was read, when, and how the last sync went). In Notebook → Settings, the AniList card also has a switch for the sync alone, which is on unless you turn it off. While it is off, AniMood does not read your list for your notebook and copies nothing into it, but your recommendations still use the copy of your list that AniMood keeps for them; turning the switch back on syncs once straight away. Either way, titles already copied stay in your notebook.

AniMood's shared anime catalogue is built from AniList's public data. Besides titles and studios, it holds the Japanese voice actors of each title's characters: their names as AniList gives them and a link to their portrait on AniList. This is public information about the people who voice anime, not about AniMood members. We use it in anime details, recommendations and Wrapped, on the basis of our legitimate interest in showing who voices the characters (art. 6(1)(f) GDPR), and keep it while the title is in the catalogue. If these details are about you, you can object, or ask us to correct or remove them, through the contact form.

Match, photos and messages

Match is opt-in and restricted to adults aged 18 or older. While it is enabled, other participating members can see your account name, what you are looking for (friends, a watch buddy or dating), and the introduction, languages, optional gender, area, age, prompts, anime vibe and approved photos you choose to publish, plus a taste-fit score and your taste title. Match only shows people who share a language and have at least a little taste in common, ordered by taste fit, and dating profiles are shown only to other dating profiles. Privacy settings let you hide detailed taste overlap and shared titles; when you hide shared themes, your taste title is hidden from others too. Shared picks work only when both people turn them on. Your anime preferences are not evidence of your gender, sexuality or other personal traits.

Uploaded photos are re-encoded on our server. This removes embedded metadata such as GPS location, camera details and timestamps, and large photos are scaled down. New photos wait for moderator approval. Photos are available only to signed-in, eligible members while attached to an enabled profile. You and moderators can preview pending photos. Removing a photo removes its active server file. Someone who already saw a photo or message may have saved a copy.

Chats open only after a mutual match. They are stored on the server and are not end-to-end encrypted. An anime you share with a match, and any note you add to it, is handled like a chat message. Reporting a message submits that message and your explanation to moderators. Moderators review reports and uploads, can restrict accounts and keep an action log. The operator can access stored data for maintenance or safety.

Keep in mindChats are not end-to-end encrypted. Do not send confidential information.

Dating

If you choose dating, AniMood uses your gender and the people you would like to meet to show you only dating profiles where the interest can be mutual. Because this can reveal your sexual orientation, we ask for your explicit consent when you turn dating on, record when you gave it, and match you only with dating profiles that have also given it. Other dating members who are shown your card can therefore infer that you may be interested in people like them. You can withdraw consent at any time by switching away from dating, pausing your card or hiding your Match profile. We then delete who you wanted to meet and stop using your gender for dating; pausing or hiding your card deletes your gender too, and on a friends or watch-buddy card it stays only if you keep it there. Withdrawing does not affect matching that happened before.

Age

AniMood accounts are for people aged 16 or older. We chose 16 because it is the highest age of digital consent set by any EU country, so the same rule works wherever you live. Taste Match, including dating, is only for people aged 18 or older, and a birth year that shows someone is younger is rejected.

If we learn that a Match profile belongs to someone under 18, we hide it and may suspend Match for that account. If we learn that an account belongs to someone under 16, we may suspend it and delete its data. If you think a child is using AniMood, please tell us through the contact form.

Who else receives data

NeverWe do not sell personal data, do not share it for targeted advertising, and do not use advertising, analytics or tracking tools.

AniMood runs on a server operated by the controller, not on a hosting provider. Messages sent through the contact form are read only by the operator and AniMood's moderators.

If you link AniList, AniMood exchanges data with AniList (anilist.co) at your request: it reads your public list (when you link it, then at most every two hours while you use AniMood, or straight away when you press “Sync now”) and, if you enable writing, sends the status changes you choose. Anime covers and other pictures, such as voice actors' portraits, load directly from AniList's image servers, which receive your IP address and browser details when your browser fetches an image. Trailers are plain links: anime details load nothing from YouTube (run by Google), and YouTube only receives data from you if you tap a trailer link, which opens it in a new tab. AniList is an independent service with its own privacy policy. Links to AniList, YouTube and Patreon follow those services' own policies.

If you give a reply email in the contact form, we answer from david@lausman.dev, and the email passes through the email providers involved, including yours. We disclose data to authorities only where the law requires it, for example to report child exploitation.

Where data is stored and transfers outside the EEA

AniMood's database, uploaded photos and server logs are kept on a self-hosted server in the Czech Republic, operated by the controller. AniMood itself does not transfer personal data to countries outside the European Economic Area (EEA).

Two things involve independent services that may process data outside the EEA:

• Anime covers and images load directly from AniList's image servers into your browser. Your browser sends those servers your IP address, browser details and the fact that the request comes from AniMood. We rely on our legitimate interest in showing you the covers that make AniMood usable (art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). Trailer links send nothing to YouTube (Google) until you open one; then your browser talks to YouTube directly, under Google's privacy policy.
• If you link AniList, AniMood sends AniList what is needed to carry out your request: your AniList name to read your public list and, if you enable writing, your access token and the status changes you choose. To the extent this is a transfer outside the EEA, it is necessary to provide the connection you asked for (art. 49(1)(b) GDPR). AniList then handles the data under its own privacy policy.

Cookies and device storage

We use one essential session cookie, animood_session, to keep you signed in. When you sign in, create an account or recover it, Keep me signed in is ticked unless you untick it. Ticked, the cookie lasts up to 30 days, so you stay signed in after closing the browser. Unticked, it is deleted when you close the browser, which is the better choice on a shared device. The choice applies to that sign-in only and is not stored anywhere else. The cookie also protects forms, such as the contact form and the deletion page, against forged requests. Two more security cookies are set when you sign in or try to, create an account or recover it, and are sent only to AniMood's account addresses: animood_device remembers that this browser signed in to your account, so wrong passwords typed by other people never lock it out, and animood_browser is a random key, tied to no account, that lets us count failed sign-ins per browser. Both last 400 days. The server keeps only a one-way hash of the device key, a coarse label such as “Chrome on Android” and dates; you can see and forget remembered browsers in Notebook → Settings. If you pick a language, the animood_lang cookie remembers it on this device for a year; when you are signed in, your account keeps the choice too, so your other devices open in it after you sign in. Without a choice, AniMood follows the language your browser asks for. The web app stores its public shell for offline loading, and keeps on your device local preferences (such as your moods and filters, or whether Wrapped plays music and sound effects), choices waiting to be sent, the “How was it?” questions for titles you finished on AniList (both waiting and dismissed ones), your account name and an internal profile id while you are signed in, and a note that this device has signed in before. Your account name and profile id are removed when you sign out; the rest stays until you clear this site's data in your browser (deleting your account, in the app or on the web deletion page, clears it for you). When you share a link or text to the installed app from another app, it arrives in the page address, so it can appear in the server logs described above; AniMood only uses it to open what you shared and does not save it to your account. The native app uses the same backend and private session cookies. No cookie or stored item is used for advertising, analytics or tracking, and no third party can read them. Because this storage is needed for the service you ask for, or only remembers a choice you made, we do not show a cookie consent banner.

How long we keep data

Deleting your account

In Notebook → Settings, open Privacy settings to export your account data, hide Match or delete your account. You may also use the web deletion page, including for a suspended account. Deletion requires the local name and password.

Deletion removes active account records, notebook (including taste nudges), imported profile history, Match profile, uploaded photos, likes, passes, blocks, reports involving the account, conversations on both sides, in-app notices, recovery codes, remembered browsers, and your AniList link with its stored tokens, queued writes, sync record and cached list. Existing sessions lose account access. File cleanup failures are queued for operator review. The shared anime catalogue and aggregate statistics remain; a one-way deletion receipt and moderation log entries with account references removed remain for operational auditing (log entries for up to 3 years). Messages you sent through the contact form are unlinked from the account and kept as described above, because they can be the record of a request.

Every night the server makes a backup copy of AniMood's database, checks it for errors, compresses it and keeps it for 30 days, on the same server in the Czech Republic, with no third party involved. Deleting your account does not change copies that already exist, but each copy is deleted after 30 days, so your account disappears from the backups within 30 days of its deletion. Backups are only used to recover from a failure, never to bring back a deleted account. Contact us with any question about backups or an outstanding deletion.

Go to the deletion page →

Your rights

Under the GDPR you have the right to:

• Art. 15

  access your data and receive a copy of it;

• Art. 16

  have inaccurate data corrected;

• Art. 17

  have your data erased;

• Art. 18

  restrict its processing;

• Art. 20

  receive it in a portable format, which is what the export in Privacy settings gives you;

• Art. 21

  object to processing based on legitimate interests;

• Art. 7(3)

  withdraw consent at any time where processing is based on consent, without affecting processing before the withdrawal;

• Art. 22

  not be subject to decisions based solely on automated processing with legal or similarly significant effects; AniMood makes no such decisions;

• Arts. 77, 79

  complain to a supervisory authority (art. 77) and go to court (art. 79).

The export covers the data linked to your account, including your taste nudges, the “from AniList” mark on copied titles and the record of your AniList syncs, the likes, passes, blocks and reports you made, the messages you received and the browsers remembered for sign-in (browser family and dates). It never includes your password, recovery codes, the keys that remember your browsers or your AniList token. It leaves out other people's likes, blocks and reports concerning you, to protect them, and the cached copy of your public AniList list. If you want a copy of anything it does not include, ask us.

How to make a request

Many things you can do yourself in Notebook → Settings → Privacy settings: export your data, change what Match shows, hide Match or delete your account. For anything else, use the contact form with the topic “Privacy request (GDPR)” or write to david@lausman.dev.

• 無

  Free of charge. Only if a request is manifestly unfounded or excessive, for example because it keeps being repeated, may we charge a reasonable fee or refuse it, and we will explain why (art. 12(5)).

• 月

  Within one month. We answer without undue delay and at the latest within one month of receiving your request. For complex requests, or many requests at once, this can be extended by up to two further months; if so, we will tell you within the first month and explain why (art. 12(3)).

• 証

  Identity check. We act only once we are reasonably sure a request about an account comes from its owner (art. 12(6)). AniMood does not collect email addresses at sign-up. Sending the request while signed in helps, because the form then records your account name; otherwise we may ask for information that confirms the account is yours. Never send your password, by email or in the form.

• 返

  A way to reply. Add a reply email in the form if you want an answer. Without one, we cannot write back to you.

Make a privacy request →

Complaints

We would like the chance to put things right, so please tell us first if something is wrong. You can also complain to the Czech supervisory authority, Úřad pro ochranu osobních údajů, Pplk. Sochora 27, 170 00 Praha 7, uoou.gov.cz, or to the authority where you live or work, or where you think an infringement took place. If you live outside the EU, you can contact the Czech authority or your local data protection authority.

Changes to this notice

When this notice changes, the date at the top changes too. Significant changes will also be announced in the app.