Privacy policy · Fan Town

Fan Town (fan.town) is a place to log, rate and review YouTube channels and videos. It's run by Lupchoo Ltd, a company registered in New Zealand ("we", "us"). This policy explains what we collect, why, and the choices you have. Questions go to [email protected].

The short version

Your reviews, ratings, logs and profile are public. That's the point of the site.
Your email address is private. We never sell your data or show you ads.
Signing in with Google also gives us read-only access to your YouTube account. We use it to bring in the channels you subscribe to and log the videos you've liked. We can't post or change anything on YouTube, and we keep no ongoing access to your Google account.
If you import your YouTube watch history, it stays private to you, and you can delete it at any time.
You can disconnect Google at any time, and delete your account, with everything in it, from Settings.

What we collect

When you create an account

You join by signing in with Google. We take your email address, name and profile picture from your Google account, and pick a username you can change. We don't have a password for you. You can add a bio.

What you post

Logs, star ratings, reviews, comments, votes, follows, the channel communities you join and your four favourite channels. All of this is public and appears on your profile and on channel and video pages.

When you sign in

We set a single cookie that keeps you signed in. With each session we store the IP address and browser name it came from, so we can spot misuse and you can see where you're signed in. We don't use advertising or analytics cookies, and we don't track you across other sites.

If you sign in with Google

Signing in with Google, or choosing Connect YouTube in Settings, asks for three permissions:

Your email address, to find or create your Fan Town account.
Your name and profile picture, to fill in your profile. You can change either afterwards.
Read-only access to your YouTube account (youtube.readonly). We use it for two things: reading the channels you subscribe to, and reading the videos you've liked. Google lets you untick this permission. You can still sign in, and we skip both.

Your subscriptions

We read the list of channels you subscribe to, and the date you subscribed to each. Any subscribed channel with at least 1,000 subscribers that isn't on Fan Town yet gets added, as a public channel page like any other. Smaller channels aren't added, so personal and family channels stay off the site. For every subscribed channel on Fan Town, you join its community and get a "Subscribed since" badge with the date. Your membership and badge are public, so people can see which Fan Town channels you subscribe to. We don't store the subscription list itself.

Your liked videos

We read up to your 500 most recent liked videos, and when you liked each one. Each video you liked is logged in your diary, hearted, and dated the day you liked it. These logs are public on your profile, like any log, but they don't appear in your followers' feeds or count toward trending channels. To remove them all and stop importing likes, use Remove imported likes in Settings. You can also delete any single log.

How long we can access YouTube

Google gives us a temporary access token each time you sign in with Google or choose Check YouTube again. It expires within an hour, and we don't keep it. We don't ask Google for a refresh token, so Fan Town can't go back into your YouTube account between sign-ins.

We never use YouTube access to post, comment, like, subscribe, upload or change anything. We don't read your watch history, playlists or private videos.

If you import your YouTube watch history

You can upload the watch-history file that Google Takeout produces. We read it and store, for each video you watched, the video's ID and title, its channel, and when you watched it. Ads and YouTube Music plays are skipped. We delete the uploaded file as soon as it's read.

Your imported history is private. Only you can see it. It doesn't appear on your profile, and nothing is posted or logged until you choose to log or rate something. Delete it any time with "Delete my imported history" on your watch history page. The history is also deleted with your account.

Creators who claim a channel

To prove a channel is yours, you add a short code to its YouTube description. We check for it with YouTube's public data, and we keep a record of the claim.

Google API Services and YouTube

Fan Town uses YouTube API Services. By using Fan Town you also agree to be bound by the YouTube Terms of Service, and Google's handling of your data is covered by the Google Privacy Policy.

Fan Town's use and transfer to any other app of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. In particular, we don't:

sell Google user data, or use it for advertising;
transfer it to anyone, except as needed to run Fan Town, to comply with the law, or as part of a merger or acquisition with notice to you;
let any person read it, except with your consent, for security, or where the law requires.

Channel and video details on Fan Town, such as titles, thumbnails and subscriber counts, come from YouTube's public data. We refresh them regularly and remove what YouTube no longer makes available.

How we use your information

To run your account and show what you post.
To work out rankings, reputation and recommendations from public activity on Fan Town.
To contact you about your account if we need to. We don't send marketing email without asking.
To keep Fan Town safe: preventing spam, abuse and fake accounts.

Who we share it with

We don't sell personal information. We use a few providers to run Fan Town, and they process data only on our behalf:

Hetzner Online hosts the servers and database, in Germany.
Cloudflare handles traffic to fan.town and stores encrypted database backups.
Google provides sign-in and YouTube data, under the terms above.

We may also disclose information if the law requires it, or to protect people from harm.

Your information is stored and processed outside New Zealand. We use providers whose privacy and security safeguards are comparable to those required by New Zealand's Privacy Act 2020.

Keeping and deleting your data

We keep your account until you delete it. Use Delete account at the bottom of Settings. It deletes your account straight away, with everything in it: your profile, logs, ratings, reviews, comments, threads you started (and the replies under them), votes, follows, community memberships, favourite channels, imported likes and watch history. Copies can remain in database backups for up to 30 days, until those backups expire. If you can't sign in, email [email protected] from the address on your account and we'll delete it for you.

To disconnect Google, use "Disconnect Google" in Settings. That removes your Google link and your verified-fan badges straight away. You can also remove Fan Town from your Google account on Google's third-party access page.

Your rights

You can see and change most of your information in Settings. You can also ask us for a copy of your personal information, or ask us to correct or delete it. Email [email protected] and we'll reply within 20 working days. If you're not happy with how we handle your request, you can complain to the New Zealand Privacy Commissioner, or to your local data protection authority.

Children

Fan Town isn't for children under 13, and you must be at least 13 to create an account. If you're under the age of consent where you live, you need a parent or guardian's permission. If we learn that a child under 13 has an account, we'll delete it.

Security

Everything goes over encrypted connections, sign-in goes through Google, and access to our servers is restricted. No system is perfectly secure. If a breach puts your information at risk, we'll tell you and the Privacy Commissioner as the law requires.

Changes

If we change this policy, we'll update the date above. If a change affects you significantly, we'll tell you on the site or by email first.

Contact

Lupchoo Ltd (operator of Fan Town), New Zealand. [email protected]