Privacy policy

Information we collect

When you create an account, we store the details needed to identify and manage it, such as your display name, email address, password hash, email-verification status, membership status and account preferences.

Interactive features may store favourites, watchlist items, series links, reminder preferences, ratings, comments, community posts, replies, subscriptions and TV interests. Plus members may upload a profile picture.

If you use Google or Facebook sign-in, TVGuideUK stores the provider name, the provider's stable account identifier and basic profile details returned for sign-in such as name, email address and an available profile-picture URL. Provider access tokens are used only for the server-to-server sign-in request and are not stored in your TVGuideUK account.

What we do not do

• We do not sell personal data.
• We do not share member data with advertisers.
• We do not store card numbers.
• We do not use performance telemetry to identify individual visitors.

How we use information

We use account and preference data to provide the guide, personalise Today/Tonight picks, manage watchlists and series links, send on-site, browser and email notifications you have enabled, support reminders, show community identity/status, and protect the site from spam or abuse.

New member accounts are activated only after the registered email address is verified. Passwords are stored as password hashes. Verification and password-reset tokens are short-lived, single-use and stored only as cryptographic hashes.

Google or Facebook may be connected as optional sign-in methods to the same local TVGuideUK member account. We do not silently merge an existing account merely because a provider returns the same email address.

If a member removes/deauthorises TVGuideUK in Facebook, Meta may notify TVGuideUK through a signed server callback. After that callback is verified with the Meta app secret, the linked Facebook identity record is disconnected from TVGuideUK. The local TVGuideUK account is not automatically deleted by deauthorisation.

Profile pictures and social sign-in

Plus members may upload a profile picture. Uploaded images are stored locally and reduced to an optimised avatar. If you explicitly choose to use a connected Google or Facebook profile picture, TVGuideUK downloads and stores a local copy rather than permanently hotlinking it.

Notifications, cookies and sessions

TVGuideUK uses essential cookies and session storage to keep you signed in, protect forms, remember preferences and support installed-app behaviour. Signed-in members may also receive an essential trusted-device cookie so a normal login session can be restored when a browser or installed app discards the short PHP session.

If you enable background Web Push, TVGuideUK stores the browser's push subscription endpoint and browser-generated encryption/authentication keys so encrypted notifications can be routed to that device. Member notification emails are controlled from Account settings. Optional app-install reminder emails are sent only after a member explicitly asks for an email reminder; they are limited to two messages, at least seven days apart, and every app-install email provides a route to stop further app-install emails.

Payments

When billing is enabled, Plus payments are handled through Stripe Checkout. TVGuideUK stores subscription status and Stripe customer/subscription identifiers. Card details are handled by Stripe and are not stored by TVGuideUK.

Performance and search diagnostics

TVGuideUK records lightweight aggregated technical statistics to improve speed and reliability and may import aggregated Google Search Console performance data such as clicks, impressions, average position and query text. This data is used to improve the service and public pages, not to build advertising profiles.

Member feature journey diagnostics

For signed-in members, TVGuideUK may use existing account activity such as favourites, watchlist items, series links, ratings, Community contributions, notification state and onboarding progress to understand whether features are useful after signup. A small allow-list of member milestones may also be recorded, such as opening the Getting started guide, selecting a tutorial task, opening a TVGuideUK notification, seeing/dismissing the member app-install prompt, sending/turning off the limited app-install email reminders, or using/installing the web app. These member diagnostics do not store IP addresses, browser user-agent strings or device fingerprints and are used to improve TVGuideUK rather than for advertising.

Retention and your choices

Account data is kept while your account remains active. Time-limited security tokens expire automatically. You can update account settings and available sign-in methods from your account area, or contact TVGuideUK to request help with access, correction or deletion.

For account/data deletion instructions, see TVGuideUK data deletion.

Contact

For questions about TVGuideUK, this privacy policy or your account, email hello@tvguideuk.com.