Consu

Consu Privacy Policy

Last updated: 27 October 2026

This Privacy Policy explains how Consu (“the app”, “we”, “our”) collects, uses, and protects personal data when you use the Consu mobile application, and the public profile pages Consu publishes on getconsu.com.

1. Who we are (data controller)

Consu is developed and operated by:

Karl Holmes, sole developer (personal capacity). Based in Ireland. Contact: privacy@getconsu.com

For the purposes of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Irish Data Protection Act 2018, Karl Holmes is the data controller for the personal data processed through Consu.

2. What we collect

Consu is designed to minimise data collection. The following is the full list of information we or our sub-processors handle:

2.1 Information you provide directly

2.2 Information created automatically

2.3 Information we do NOT collect

Purpose Legal basis (GDPR Article 6)
Provide the core app functionality (library, stats, imports, reminders) Contract (6(1)(b))
Cloud backup and cross-device sync via Firebase Contract (6(1)(b))
The social features: following, posts, replies, reactions, sending titles, shared lists, and showing your profile to the people your settings allow, including on the web Contract (6(1)(b))
Process one-time Pro upgrade payments Contract (6(1)(b))
Diagnose crashes and improve app stability Legitimate interest (6(1)(f))
Measure aggregate product usage to prioritise improvements Legitimate interest (6(1)(f))
Verify app integrity, prevent abuse and fraud, and act on reports Legitimate interest (6(1)(f))
Comply with legal obligations (e.g. tax records for sales) Legal obligation (6(1)(c))

We do not rely on consent as the primary legal basis for the processing above, because the processing is necessary to provide the service you requested or is based on our legitimate interests where the data is minimised and the impact on you is low. You can stop all processing at any time by deleting your account (see section 8). You can opt out of crash diagnostics and analytics under Settings → Privacy and safety.

4. Third-party services and data transfers

Consu uses the following sub-processors. Each has their own privacy policy governing how they handle data.

4.1 Firebase (Google Ireland Limited / Google LLC)

Used for:

Data is processed in Google’s data centres. Consu’s Firestore instance is hosted in the europe-west2 (London, United Kingdom) region. Some core Firebase Authentication services are operated from Google’s global infrastructure, including servers in the United States; transfers outside the European Economic Area (EEA) are covered by the EU Standard Contractual Clauses in Google’s Data Processing Addendum.

Policy: https://firebase.google.com/support/privacy

4.1a Firebase Crashlytics (Google Ireland Limited / Google LLC)

Used to capture crash and error reports. Crashlytics receives:

Crash reports do not include your Firebase UID, name, email or library contents (earlier versions of the app sent the UID with them). Crash data is retained by Google for up to 90 days and then deleted.

You can turn crash reporting off under Settings → Privacy and safety → Crash reports; reports stop from the next time the app starts. The choice is kept on your device, and it stays as you set it when you delete your account or sign in to another account that already has Consu; a new install starts with crash reporting on again.

Policy: https://firebase.google.com/support/privacy

4.1b Firebase Analytics (Google Ireland Limited / Google LLC)

Used to measure how the app is used. Analytics receives:

Analytics does not receive your library contents, friend code, display name, email, Firebase UID, or anything you write. Analytics data is retained by Google for up to 14 months and then deleted. You can turn it off under Settings → Privacy and safety → Usage analytics. The choice is kept on your device, and it stays as you set it when you delete your account or sign in to another account that already has Consu; a new install starts with analytics on again.

Policy: https://firebase.google.com/support/privacy

4.2 Cloudflare Worker (Cloudflare, Inc.) — metadata proxy

Consu fetches most media metadata (descriptions, ratings, release dates) through a Cloudflare Worker that proxies requests to the third-party APIs listed in 4.3 below. The Worker:

Cloudflare, acting as an independent processor, may log request metadata in accordance with its own privacy policy.

Policy: https://www.cloudflare.com/privacypolicy/

4.3 Third-party metadata providers

Consu displays metadata sourced from the following services. Each receives only the query (e.g. a film title or ISBN) necessary to return a result; a few lookups name several titles at once (4.2). None of them receive your Firebase UID, email, or your library as a whole. Section 4.3a explains which of them see your IP address and which do not.

Service Purpose Privacy policy
TMDB (The Movie Database) Film and TV metadata, posters, cast and crew, and streaming availability (supplied to TMDB by JustWatch) https://www.themoviedb.org/privacy-policy
OMDB Supplementary film metadata (IMDb ratings, runtimes) https://www.omdbapi.com/
IGDB (Twitch / Amazon) Video-game metadata, cover art, screenshots, release dates and ratings — Consu’s primary games source https://www.twitch.tv/p/legal/privacy-notice/
RAWG Supplementary video-game metadata and screenshots https://rawg.io/privacy_policy
Steam (Valve) Video-game store data and prices, and — only if you connect a Steam profile — that profile’s public game library, wishlist, playtimes and achievements https://store.steampowered.com/privacy_agreement/
Nintendo (Nintendo of Europe) Nintendo Switch game listings and pack art https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Privacy-policy/Privacy-policy-637785.html
Xbox (Microsoft) Xbox and Microsoft Store game listings and box art https://privacy.microsoft.com/privacystatement
PlayStation (Sony Interactive Entertainment) PlayStation Store game listings and cover art https://www.playstation.com/legal/privacy-policy/
Wikidata (Wikimedia Foundation) Awards, release dates, series order, and links between related works https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Policy:Privacy_policy
Wikipedia (Wikimedia Foundation) Author and artist biographies, critical reception https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Policy:Privacy_policy
Google Books Book metadata, covers https://policies.google.com/privacy
Open Library (Internet Archive) Supplementary book metadata, including whether a book can be borrowed free https://archive.org/about/terms
New York Times Books API Bestseller lists and book reviews https://www.nytimes.com/privacy/privacy-policy
Deezer Music track and album metadata, covers, song previews, and new albums from your artists https://www.deezer.com/legal/personal-datas
MusicBrainz Open-source music database https://metabrainz.org/privacy
ListenBrainz Listening history, only if you connect a username https://metabrainz.org/privacy
Cover Art Archive Album artwork https://metabrainz.org/privacy
Apple iTunes Search API Music and album metadata, chart listings, song previews https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/
YouTube (Google) Trailer thumbnails; a trailer opens on YouTube when you tap it https://policies.google.com/privacy

4.3a How these requests reach the provider

There are two paths, and the difference matters for your IP address. Where a request is made directly by the app, that provider receives your device’s IP address and standard HTTP request metadata, in the same way as if you had opened a page in a browser.

4.3b Artwork, previews and other images

Posters, box art, album covers, cast and author photographs, service logos, trailer thumbnails, other people’s profile photos and short song previews are loaded directly by your device from each provider’s servers while you browse — they are not proxied. The address itself is the only thing sent, but the provider’s server does receive your device’s IP address and standard HTTP request metadata, exactly as any website’s images would.

The servers involved belong to the same companies listed in 4.3 — principally TMDB, IGDB, RAWG, Steam, Nintendo, PlayStation, Xbox, Deezer, Apple, Google (Google Books covers, the New York Times’ bestseller covers, YouTube thumbnails and profile photos in Firebase Storage), Open Library and the Wikimedia Foundation (author and artist photographs come from Wikimedia Commons). Their privacy policies are the ones already linked in the table above.

A cover you set by pasting an image address (section 2.1) loads from that address on your own phone, whatever server it is on. Other people see it, on your profile in the app or on your web page, only when the address is an https address on one of these image servers: TMDB, RAWG, Open Library, Google Books, Apple, Deezer, Steam, IGDB, Nintendo, PlayStation, the Microsoft Store, the Cover Art Archive, the Internet Archive or Wikimedia; from any other address they see the catalogue’s cover instead, and Consu leaves the address out of your profile. That server receives each viewer’s IP address in the same way.

The exceptions are described in 4.2: album covers from the Cover Art Archive, and the images Consu draws for you to share, are fetched through the Cloudflare Worker instead.

Many screens link to other services: where to watch, buy, play, read or listen (for example TMDB’s watch page, Google Play, Amazon, Steam, the PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo stores, the App Store, Epic Games, GOG, itch.io, the Internet Archive, Open Library, Kindle, Audible, Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Deezer, Tidal, album.link and Last.fm), trailers on YouTube or the video host a game’s listing names, Wikipedia, a title’s official website and New York Times reviews. A link carries what is needed to open the right page, such as the title or ISBN. Consu sends nothing to these services unless you tap the link. Once you tap, you are on that service’s own site and its privacy policy applies.

This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB. Similarly, Consu is not affiliated with or endorsed by any of the other metadata providers listed.

4.4 App-store billing and store services (Apple / Google)

If you purchase Consu Pro, the payment is processed by the app store you bought it through — the Apple App Store (Apple Distribution International Ltd.) on iOS, or Google Play Billing (Google Ireland Limited) on Android. Consu never sees your card details. The app also uses each store’s own services to show its rating prompt and, on Android, to check whether an update is available.

Policies: https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/ · https://policies.google.com/privacy

4.5 RevenueCat (RevenueCat, Inc.)

RevenueCat acts as the purchase-validation layer between the app store (Apple App Store or Google Play) and Consu. Each time the app starts it gives RevenueCat your Firebase UID, whether or not you have bought anything, so RevenueCat can say whether your account owns Consu Pro; if you buy Pro, RevenueCat also receives the standard purchase receipt from Apple or Google. RevenueCat does not receive your name, email, or library contents. When you delete your account, our monthly clean-up deletes your customer record at RevenueCat (your account ID and the receipts it was given); a purchase stays with Apple or Google.

Policy: https://www.revenuecat.com/privacy

4.6 Google Fonts (Google Ireland Limited / Google LLC)

Consu’s default typeface is built into the app. The other typefaces are loaded from Google Fonts: each time the app opens while you have one of them chosen, whenever you open the font picker under Settings → Look → Font (which loads each font it offers), and while you try a Pro font. The stylesheet comes from fonts.googleapis.com and the font files themselves from fonts.gstatic.com. Google therefore receives your device’s IP address and standard HTTP request metadata, along with the names of the typefaces being requested. It receives nothing else — no Firebase UID, no email, no library contents — and these requests set no cookie and load no Google script.

Policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy

4.7 getconsu.com (Cloudflare, Inc.)

The website at getconsu.com, including the public profile pages described in section 10.6, is served by Cloudflare. It sets no cookies and loads no analytics and no third-party scripts. Cloudflare receives your IP address and standard request metadata in order to serve the page, as for any website. A profile page is built from the public profile index (section 10.6) each time it is requested, and Cloudflare may hold a copy for up to a minute. The cover images and profile photo on a profile page load from the same image servers as in the app (4.3b).

Policy: https://www.cloudflare.com/privacypolicy/

5. Where your data is stored

6. How long we keep your data

7. Your rights under GDPR

If you are in the EEA, UK or Switzerland you have the right to:

To exercise any of these rights, email privacy@getconsu.com. We will respond within one month.

8. How to delete your data

In the app: scroll to the bottom of Settings, tap Delete account, type DELETE and confirm. Deleting needs a connection: if Consu cannot reach our servers, nothing is deleted and the app says so. If your account is linked to Google or Apple, you may be asked to sign in again to confirm it is you. This removes, from our servers:

The account record and the sign-in go last. If any step fails, the app lists what is still on our servers and offers to try again. For users who signed in with Apple, we also revoke the Apple sign-in token as part of deletion. If you never linked Google or Apple and your session is old, Firebase can refuse to delete the bare sign-in record (a random ID with nothing attached to it) once everything else is gone; the app then clears your phone and signs you out at once, and our monthly clean-up removes the record. The same clean-up removes, within a month, the notifications and replies you sent to someone you no longer followed and who no longer followed you, the titles you sent them with an earlier version of the app, and your customer record at RevenueCat (section 4.5).

On your phone. Deleting your account also removes everything Consu keeps on the phone you delete it from: your library, the app’s copies of what it looked up and read from our database, the files it saved in its own folder (exports, calendar files and the images it drew for you to share) and your settings, except your crash-report and analytics choices. The app then starts again as a new guest, at the first-run screens.

What may survive in someone else’s account, and how to have it removed. Some things you create are, by design, records held by other people:

If anything of yours is still visible after deletion, or the in-app flow fails for any reason, email privacy@getconsu.com from the address linked to your account — or with your display name and friend code — and we will delete it manually.

9. Children

Consu is intended for users aged 13 and over and is not directed at children under 13. The age ratings shown on the Apple App Store and Google Play describe content suitability and are set through each store’s own questionnaire; the minimum age for using Consu is the one stated in our Terms of Service.

In countries where the digital age of consent under GDPR is higher than 13 (Ireland: 16; Germany: 16; Netherlands: 16; Italy: 14; France: 15; etc.), users under that age must have the consent of a parent or legal guardian to use Consu. If we become aware that we have collected personal data from a child below the applicable age without parental consent, we will delete it.

Parents: to request deletion of a child’s data, email privacy@getconsu.com.

10. Profile visibility — who else can see your data

What other people can see depends on the visibility setting you choose for your profile, and on the switches beside it, under Social → Profile → Privacy. Firestore and Firebase Storage enforce security rules for each kind of record. A guest who has not linked Google or Apple cannot set up a profile, publishes no part of their library and posts nothing (a display name set as a guest in an earlier version of Consu stays on its profile record, and 10.2 applies to it); what follows applies once you sign in and set up a profile.

10.1 The three settings

A new profile starts as Private, and nothing is published until you choose. When you set up your profile, Consu asks who sees your library (Public, Mutuals or Private, each with what it shows); if you close the question without answering, your profile stays Private. Every switch starts on. You can change the setting at any time. Other people’s apps keep a copy of what they last read, so a change reaches them the next time their app reads your profile from our servers.

10.2 What other people can see whatever your setting

Some things can be read by other Consu users at every setting, because the social features need them:

Searching your exact friend code finds you at any setting. A Private profile then shows its name, avatar and counts, with a note that it is private.

10.3 Your posts, the Feed and Right now

When you finish something, and when you start something if Post when I start is on, Consu writes a post: the title, its cover, category and genres, the platform or service you used, your score (and your earlier score, when you finish something again), the days you started and finished, how long it took, how many times you have finished it, and your review if Share my reviews is on. Your mutuals see your posts in their Feed and can react and reply. People who follow you without being followed back see stories built from your public profile instead, while it is Public; they cannot react to them.

Your current titles appear on Right now with how far through you are (for example “S2 · E7”) and the day you last moved them; titles on your Upcoming shelf appear in your people’s Upcoming row with their release dates; and a title’s page shows which of your mutuals have it, on which shelf and with what score. Your mutuals see these while your profile is Public or Mutuals; at Private, Right now, Upcoming and a title’s page show nothing of yours. Right now shows your titles only while Post when I start is on. People who follow you without being a mutual see your Right now and Upcoming titles through your public profile, while it is Public and the Current and Backlog switches are on.

10.4 The switches

At Public, these seven switches show or hide parts of your profile: Top rated, Current, Backlog, Taste DNA, Completed count (which shows or hides your whole list of finished titles, not only the count), Hours, and Achievements & streak. They govern what people who are not your mutuals can see. Mutuals see your full library regardless of them — that is what choosing the Mutuals tier means.

The other switches shape what you share beyond your profile. Post when I start, Share my reviews and Tell people when I take their picks (10.5) apply to your posts; reviews reach only your mutuals, never your public profile, Explore or the web. The monthly board puts your month’s finishes, their covers and your hours on the leaderboards, as far as your Completed count and Hours switches allow (those two still apply to the board’s counts and hours at Mutuals, where the sheet does not show them; the covers your mutuals see there come from your posts): the Everyone board lists Public profiles, and the Friends board shows your mutuals. On the web (Public only) controls your web page (10.6). At Mutuals the Privacy sheet shows only these switches, apart from On the web, with your hidden posts and Hidden categories; at Private, where nothing is published or posted, it shows only your hidden posts.

While your profile is visible, a few things are not covered by any switch: your favourites (the five you pick), your highest-rated finished title in each medium, or the one you pinned for it in an earlier version (shown as your favourites if you have not picked any), how many titles you have in each medium (all shelves together), your last-active time, and, on each title shown, its genres and runtime, your score, earlier score and dates, how many times you have finished it, how far through it you are, and your favourite character in it.

Hidden categories hides a medium from your profile at every setting, mutuals included: those titles are removed before your profile is written out, so they never leave your device as part of it. No posts are made for titles in that medium and nobody is told when you take their picks in it (10.5), and when you hide a medium, the app deletes the posts you had already made in it. Showing the medium again does not bring those posts back.

10.5 Things your visibility setting does not cover

Setting your profile to Private does not retract these, so they are worth knowing about:

Separately, you can block another user from their profile’s ⋯ menu, and review or undo that under Settings → Privacy and safety → Blocked people. Blocking ends both follows, so neither of you follows the other, and they cannot follow you again, react to or reply on your posts, send you titles or notify you while the block stands. Their profile, posts, reactions and board place are hidden from you. If your profile is Public, they can still open it, as anyone can. Hide in Explore hides a person from your own Explore and name search only (their exact friend code still finds them). Your block list, with each person’s account ID, display name and avatar, and your hide list of account IDs are kept on your phone and in your own backup. Each block is also recorded in our database (their account ID and when), readable only by you, so that our security rules can refuse those actions.

10.6 Your web page

While your profile is Public and On the web is on (it is on unless you turn it off), getconsu.com/u/ followed by your friend code shows your profile to anyone with the link, no account needed. The page shows your name, avatar or photo, profile colour, Pro badge, friend code, when you joined, your follower count, your favourites and how many titles you have in each medium, and the parts your switches allow: covers from your library, how many titles you have finished and your average score, your hours and streak, your recent finishes with your scores, what you are on now, and your genres and how you score. A link to it pasted into a chat app previews your name, how many titles you have finished, your average score and your first three favourites (or your top three genres).

The page asks search engines not to list it, but your friend code is part of your Explore entry, which anyone using the app can read. Turning off On the web, or leaving Public, removes the page within about two minutes. Consu tells you about the page when you choose Public (the choice names it, or a notice on the Social tab does, with the choice to turn it off), and On the web turns it off at any time.

11. Security

No system is perfectly secure. If you believe your account has been compromised, contact privacy@getconsu.com and change your linked Google or Apple account password immediately.

12. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy to reflect changes to the app, legal requirements, or sub-processors. The “Last updated” date at the top of this document indicates when the most recent change was made. Material changes will be announced in the app before they take effect.

Earlier versions of the app. This policy describes Consu 4.0.1. A phone still running an earlier version, yours or someone else’s, behaves as that version did until it updates. On a second phone of yours it can still post about titles in a category you hide, and publish your profile without your hidden posts, so they show again in your mutuals’ feeds until your updated phone next opens Consu. On other people’s phones it can still let people who follow you without being followed back react to your posts, and someone on an earlier version who sends you a title stores their note with the copy beside your posts. Our security rules apply to every version: nobody else can read your posts while your profile is Private, and once your phone runs this version, nobody you have blocked can follow you, react to or reply on your posts, or send you titles.

13. Contact

For any privacy-related question, request or complaint:

Karl Holmes — privacy@getconsu.com