Privacy Policy

Effective date: [publication date]

Power Hour (joinpowerhour.com) is a free party game run by [registered business name], a registered business in Ontario, Canada (“we”, “us”). This policy explains what we collect, why, who sees it, how long we keep it and what you can do about it. Questions or complaints: privacy@joinpowerhour.com.

The short version

• We collect what the game needs: a handle, a picture, the songs you add and what you do in a party.
• People in your room see your handle, your picture and what you add. Anyone with the link to an uploaded photo can see it.
• We never record what anyone drinks. No ads, no selling your data, and analytics only if you say yes.
• Our providers store data in the United States.
• You can delete your account at any time.

What we collect

To sign you in

• Hosts: your email address, how you signed in, and when. If you use Google, Google shares your name, email address and profile picture with us, and our sign-in provider keeps them with your sign-in record. The game doesn’t use your Google name or picture. That’s all we ask Google for, and we never get access to your YouTube account.
• Guests: a random ID and a sign-in cookie. No email.

Your profile

• A public handle.
• A generated avatar, or a photo you upload.
• Your country, which you pick yourself. We don’t fill it in from your IP address.
• Your comfort settings: the kinds of content you’re up for. We never show these to the room.
• Your alcohol-free default.
• A record that you confirmed your age, and when you accepted our policies.

When you play

• Parties: the name, join code, host, settings, who’s in it and when each person was last seen.
• The queue: for each round, the YouTube video ID, title, channel and thumbnail link, the start and end points, who added it, whether it was auto-picked, and any one-line note. Notes appear on screen with your handle.
• Game moments: start, pause and next-round events (so a device that rejoins can catch up), your answers to in-game prompts, round check-ins (“cheers”, “glass tap” or “sitting out”), blind-picks guesses and MVP votes. Check-ins show you’re in the round. They aren’t drink counts.
• Reactions: sent live to the room. We keep only a count of each reaction per round, not who sent it.
• Your stats: for each finished party, the rounds you were there for and played, how long it ran, whether you hosted or played alcohol-free, the clips you added and a participation score. These power the private badges and stats on your account page.
• Crews: if you save a crew, its name, members, theme, favourites, awards, hours together and next party time.
• Technical data: our hosting and database providers process your IP address and browser details to deliver the site and keep it secure, and keep short-term logs.

What we never collect

• No YouTube video or audio files, ever, in any form, including caches.
• No record of what anyone drinks. The product does not track consumption.
• No camera or microphone. If you add a photo, you pick it from your device.

How we use it

• To run your account and the game: rooms, invites, the queue, synced playback, badges and stats.
• To keep Power Hour secure and song search fast.
• To understand how the app is used, only if you allow analytics.
• To send sign-in links and reply to you. No marketing email unless you opt in.
• To enforce our Terms and Community Rules, and meet legal duties.

YouTube

Power Hour uses YouTube API Services to search for songs and to read a video’s title, channel, length and where it can play. Google’s use of that information is covered by the Google Privacy Policy.

Metadata retrieved from the YouTube Data API is refreshed or deleted within thirty days, consistent with the YouTube API Services Terms. We keep it in two places: in each party’s queue, to show its rounds, and in a shared song list, so search can answer without asking YouTube every time. The song list holds each song’s video id, title, channel, length, where it can play, and how many times it has been added. It never records who added a song or which party it was in.

To keep search quick, we also hold YouTube search results for up to 24 hours and public playlists you paste for up to 1 hour. A log of which videos were added, and when, feeds the song list and is cleared every day. None of these are linked to you or your party.

Clips play through YouTube’s own embedded player. When it loads, YouTube receives basic information such as your IP address and browser details, and it may set its own cookies.

Power Hour never asks for access to your YouTube account. If you signed in with Google, you can remove Power Hour’s access in your Google security settings.

Analytics and cookies

Google Analytics loads only after you choose “Allow analytics.” It shows us visits and a few product actions, such as creating or joining a party, adding a song, starting a session and reaching the finale. We never send Google party codes, song choices, messages, display names, email addresses, profile details or drink preferences. Google may process browser, device and approximate location information. Advertising storage, Google signals and ad personalization are off. Saying no costs you nothing, and you can change your mind under “Analytics choices” in the footer. Read how Google uses information from sites that use its services.

On your device we store:

• Sign-in cookies, which keep you signed in. The game can’t work without them.
• Browser storage for your analytics choice, demo-mode state, display settings and a draft of the “name the room” form. The draft can hold the email you typed for a sign-in link, for up to 1 hour.
• Google Analytics cookies, only if you allow them.

YouTube’s player may set its own cookies. You can clear all of these in your browser. That signs you out, and a guest can’t get back into their guest profile.

Who sees your information

• People in your room see your handle, your avatar or photo, the songs you add, your notes, your prompt answers, the end-of-night awards and anything else the game shows. If the host uses the TV display, so does anyone who can see that screen.
• Your crew sees the crew’s details and who’s in it.
• Anyone with the link to an uploaded profile photo can view it. The link is hard to guess, but it isn’t private.
• Power Hour never shows other players your comfort settings, the stats and badges on your account page, or your email address.

Service providers handle data so we can run Power Hour: Supabase (database, sign-in, photo storage, live updates), Vercel (hosting), Google (Google sign-in if you choose it, Analytics if you allow it, YouTube search and playback) and an email delivery service for sign-in links.

We may also share information when the law requires it, to protect someone’s safety or to enforce our terms. If our business is sold or merged, the new owner can take over your information under this policy. We don’t sell personal information or share it for targeted advertising.

We’re in Canada. Our providers store and process data in the United States and may process it in other countries. Local laws apply to it there, and courts, law enforcement and national security authorities there may be able to access it.

How long we keep it

• Account and profile: until you delete your account. Guest profiles are also deleted after 6 months without use.
• Profile photos: we delete the file when you remove or change your photo, or delete your account.
• Parties (queue, notes, answers, guesses, votes, check-ins, events, reaction counts): until the host deletes the party or their account.
• Stats, badges and crews: until you delete your account.
• YouTube data: refreshed or deleted within 30 days. Search results: 24 hours. Pasted playlists: 1 hour. Song log: 1 day.
• Sign-in email in your form draft: up to 1 hour, on your device only.
• Google Analytics data: 2 months.
• Technical logs: a short period set by our providers.

How we protect it

Every table in our database has access rules that limit who can read and change its data. No online service is perfectly secure. If a breach creates a real risk of significant harm to you, we’ll tell you and the privacy regulators, as the law requires.

Your choices and rights

• Remove your photo in the app at any time.
• Delete your account from your account page. We delete your sign-in record, profile, photo files, stats, badges, the crews you created and your place in other crews, and every party you host with its queue and history. People who played in your parties keep their own stats. In other people’s parties, we delete everything you added: your songs and notes, answers, guesses, check-ins and any MVP votes by or for you. The song list isn’t linked to anyone, so it doesn’t change. Deletion starts when you confirm and is complete within 7 days.
• Ask us for a copy of your information (including in a common machine-readable format), to correct or delete it, or anything else about it, at privacy@joinpowerhour.com. We may need to confirm it’s you. We’ll reply within 30 days.
• Change your analytics choice any time under “Analytics choices”.
• Complain to us first, and we’ll try to put it right. You can also contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada or your local regulator below.

Children

Power Hour is for people 18 and over who are of legal drinking age where they live. We don’t knowingly collect information from anyone younger. If you think someone underage has an account, email us and we’ll delete it.

If you live in Quebec

• Our person in charge of the protection of personal information is our founder, at privacy@joinpowerhour.com. They approve our privacy practices, handle requests and complaints, and keep our register of privacy incidents.
• Your information is communicated outside Quebec, to us in Ontario and our providers in the United States. We assessed the privacy risks first, and our providers are bound by written terms to protect it.
• You can access, correct or get a portable copy of your information, withdraw consent, and complain to the Commission d’accès à l’information.
• If a privacy incident creates a risk of serious injury, we’ll notify you and the Commission.

If you live in the EU or UK

• [registered business name] is the controller. Contact: privacy@joinpowerhour.com.
• Legal bases: providing the service you asked for; our legitimate interests in keeping Power Hour secure and working, keeping search fast and enforcing our rules; your consent for analytics, which you can withdraw any time; and legal obligations.
• Transfers: the EU and UK recognize Canada as giving adequate protection. For the United States, we rely on our providers’ data protection terms, such as standard contractual clauses or the EU-US Data Privacy Framework.
• Your rights: access, correction, deletion, restriction, objection, portability and withdrawing consent. You can complain to your local data protection authority.
• To play, you need a handle, an age confirmation and acceptance of our terms, and hosts need to sign in. A photo is optional.

Changes

When we change this policy, we’ll update the date at the top. For significant changes, like a new use of your information, we’ll tell you in the app before they take effect and ask for consent where the law requires.

Contact

[registered business name], Ontario, Canada. privacy@joinpowerhour.com