What we keep, and why.

What we collect

An account is an email address and a password. First name is required to sign up; last name, a display name, a profile photo, a bio and a few links are optional, and anything you add there is shown on your public profile and in chat. The password itself is held by our authentication provider and never reaches ShowCast in a form anybody here can read.

If you add a phone number we use it to let you into chat rooms tied to your number, and, only if you turn texting on, to send you text messages.

Date of birth and zip code and state are both optional, both typed by you, and never read from your phone’s location. We ask for them for age limited giveaways, for an average age and a breakdown by area in our own reports, and because sponsors can aim ads at a zip code or a radius around it. We never use your favorites or your listening history to choose which ads you see.

If you pick genres or categories when you create your account, we keep those preferences to suggest things to you later. They are never used to pick ads.

While you listen or watch we record how many seconds of what, and which station or episode it was. When an advert plays we record that it played, and whether it was clicked or skipped. Sponsors are shown counts, never who you are, and audience numbers reported to hosts and sponsors are totals.

Messages you send in a chat room, your favorites and ratings, your giveaway entries, and anything you submit through the contact form are kept so we can answer, so moderators can do their job, and so a giveaway draw is fair.

If you buy a membership, a Channel Subscription or a ticket on the website, we keep the fact that you have it and when it renews. The app only reads that status; see Payments below.

Camera, microphone and photos

The app asks for your photo library only when you tap to change your profile picture.

The app asks for the camera and microphone only when you tap the camera button in chat or tap Go live on a show you are cleared to host. Nothing is recorded in the background, and we never ask for this before you take one of those actions.

A video reply in chat is a short clip with sound, up to seven seconds, and it is visible to everyone else in that chat room. We keep it for 30 days and then remove it.

Going live sends your show’s camera and microphone to our video provider so your audience can watch, for as long as you are cleared to broadcast that show.

Push notifications

If you allow notifications, the app registers a push token with Apple’s or Google’s own push service so we can tell you when a show or station you follow goes live or releases something new.

Turn notifications off at any time in Notification Preferences in the app, or for a single show or station right there in your notifications list; you still follow it, you just stop hearing about it. Your push token is removed when you sign out.

What we use it for

To play the right thing, to keep your favorites and ratings, to tell hosts how their shows are doing, to run a fair giveaway, and to bill a membership.

Audience numbers reported to hosts and sponsors are totals. Nobody is shown an individual listener.

Text messages

We only text people who have turned texting on, and only about what they chose: alerts about shows and stations they follow, live events, giveaways, and account notices.

Your mobile number and your opt-in consent are never sold, and never shared with third parties or affiliates for their own marketing.

Reply STOP to any text to stop, and HELP for help.

Payments

Memberships, Channel Subscriptions and tickets are bought on our website and handled by Stripe. Your card number is entered on Stripe and never touches ShowCast. We keep the fact that you have a membership, subscription or ticket and when it renews; the app only reads that status, it never collects a card number.

The device identifier used when you are signed out

While you listen or watch signed out, that activity is tied to a random identifier made by the app and kept on your phone, or, on the website, stored in your browser, rather than to you by name. Signing in links what you do afterward to your account.

Who else sees what we keep

Everything ShowCast keeps lives in our own database or our own file storage. We do not sell your personal information, and we do not hand your listening history, your favorites or your chat messages to advertisers. We do not track you across other apps or websites, and we do not read any advertising identifier from your phone.

A short list of companies act on ShowCast’s behalf to run the service and never use what passes through them for themselves: our database and sign-in provider, our hosting and file storage provider, our push notification provider and Apple and Google’s own push services, our text messaging provider, our email provider, Stripe for payments, and our video provider for live video and playback.

Some shows play inside YouTube’s own embedded player, and some live video plays inside our video provider’s own embedded player. Those companies run their own privacy policies for anything that happens inside their player; we pass them nothing about you.

Children

ShowCast is not meant for children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. ShowCast Kids, where it is turned on, does not ask anyone to log in or type anything in: it hands the player a random identifier made fresh each time it opens and collects nothing else about the person watching.

Deleting your account

Delete your account any time from Profile, Delete my account, in the app. If you do not have the app, use the contact form and say so.

Deleting removes your profile, your chat messages, your giveaway entries, your favorites and your daily listening totals. A few things stay on our side with your account taken off them rather than deleted outright: the seconds-level listening and ad records kept for 90 days, and any contact form messages you already sent, which still hold the name and email you typed into them. We also keep one line recording that the account deleted itself, with the email address it used.

Deleting your account stops a Channel Subscription’s renewals right away. A website membership has to be canceled separately; ask us through the contact form and we will take care of it.

To ask for a copy of what we hold, or for it to be deleted, use the contact form and say so.