Privacy policy

Who this covers

This policy covers the Continuum app for Android phones and tablets, Android TV and Windows, and this website. “We” means AGM Labs, the developer that publishes Continuum.

Continuum is a media player for video files you already have. It works on your devices and between your devices. The app sends us no information, so everything below describes where your information stays, not what we collect.

Information that stays on your device

Continuum keeps a local database and settings on each device. This includes:

• Your library: the folders you choose, and for each video its file name, folder location, size, length, and technical details such as resolution, audio and subtitle tracks and chapters.
• What each file was matched to, plus downloaded artwork, descriptions and subtitles.
• Your watching: where you stopped, what you finished, favourites, playlists, and a record of viewing sessions (when you watched, for how long, and on which device) used for the Journey screen.
• Viewer profiles: the names and avatar choices you give them.
• Keys you enter, such as a TMDB or OpenSubtitles API key or an AniList sign-in, and the key that pairs your devices. These are kept in your device’s secure storage.
• A log file, used to troubleshoot problems. It stays on the device; see The app’s log.

File names and folder locations are not included in anything Continuum shares or syncs.

Information shared between your own devices

When you pair devices, by scanning a QR code, they share a family key. Paired devices then exchange information directly over your local network. Every request between them is signed with that key, and a device that isn’t paired can’t read or change anything.

Finding each other

To be found, each device announces itself on your local network with its device name, device type, a device identifier and the network port the app uses. On Windows, the announcement also includes the network adapter’s hardware (MAC) address, so another device of yours can wake the PC from sleep. These announcements aren’t encrypted, so other devices on the same local network can see them.

What paired devices exchange

• Progress, finished and favourite status, playlists and viewing sessions, per profile.
• Profile names, avatar choices and the Journey rewards each viewer wears.
• Intro, recap and credits timings.
• Which titles each device holds, with their descriptions and artwork. This is the title of the film or episode, never the file name or folder.
• Corrections to matches, and file fingerprints: a short code calculated from a few samples of a file, so the same file isn’t searched for twice. A fingerprint can’t be turned back into the video.
• The list of your devices, with their names, types, local network addresses and when they were last seen.

When you ask for it

• Playing a file another device holds streams the video, and its subtitles, from that device over your local network.
• Detecting intros and credits: a Windows PC may ask another of your devices for short audio samples or small black-and-white frames from a video. They are used for detection and not kept.
• Remote control: a paired device can control playback, and can open or close Continuum or put a Windows PC to sleep, restart it or shut it down. You can turn this off in Settings.

A device can pass what it received on to your other paired devices, and to your Google Drive if it is signed in, so that devices that weren’t awake at the same time still agree. Removing a device from your family, or replacing the family key in Settings, stops a device from receiving new information.

Google sign-in and Google Drive

Signing in with Google is optional and is available on Android phones and tablets and on Windows. The Android TV app has no Google sign-in.

What Continuum asks Google for

• Your basic profile (openid, email, profile): your name, email address and profile picture, shown in the app so you can see which account is connected. They are stored only on your device.
• Its own app data folder in your Drive (drive.appdata): a hidden folder that only Continuum can see. Continuum can’t see, open or change any other file in your Google Drive.

What is kept in that folder

The same information your paired devices exchange, listed above: progress, finished and favourite status, playlists, viewing sessions, profiles and their rewards, intro and credits timings, which titles each device holds, match corrections and fingerprints, and your device list. It works as a backup for when your devices aren’t on the same network. It never contains video files, file names or folder locations.

Continuum’s use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. Your Google data is used only to show which account is connected and to keep your Continuum information in sync. It is not used for advertising, not sold, not transferred to anyone else, and not read by any person.

Announcements

On an Android phone or tablet where someone is signed in with Google, Continuum joins one announcement topic on Google’s Firebase Cloud Messaging, so that we can send occasional news about the app. Every signed-in device receives the same message; we can’t address a person or a device. Firebase gives the device a random registration token, which isn’t linked to your Google account, your email or your library, and which Continuum doesn’t collect. Signing out leaves the topic and deletes the token. A device nobody has signed in on never contacts Firebase. To stop the announcements and stay signed in, turn off the “News from Continuum” notification category in Android’s settings for Continuum.

Stopping and deleting

• Sign out in Continuum under Settings → Account & Cloud Sync. That also stops announcements.
• Remove Continuum’s access to your account at myaccount.google.com/connections.
• Delete the hidden folder in Google Drive on the web: Settings → Manage apps → Continuum → Options → Delete hidden app data.

The app’s log, which stays on your device

Continuum keeps a log of what the app did: its warnings and errors, why Android ended the app if it crashed or stopped responding, and how your files were matched. It helps you see what happened when something goes wrong. The log is a file on your device. We don’t receive it, and nothing in the app sends it anywhere. You send a log only if you choose to share it yourself, for example when you report a problem. Folder locations in it are cut down to file names.

Earlier test versions

Versions of Continuum used while the app was being tested sent a daily check-in (the device’s name, kind and system version, the app version, a random identifier for the installation and the email of the signed-in Google account), the app’s log, and how files were matched, to Continuum’s project on Google’s Firebase. That has been removed from the app and nothing is sent any more. What was sent stays until we delete it; to have yours deleted, ask us through the contact below.

Online services the app uses

To find out what your files are, and to fetch artwork, skip timings, subtitles and trailers, Continuum sends requests to these services. It never sends them your video files, and it never sends them your file names as they are, only the title and episode numbers read from them.

Permissions

Android phones and tablets

The Android TV app doesn’t ask for storage or camera access, because it holds no videos of its own and pairs by showing a code rather than scanning one. It uses the other permissions above for the same reasons.

Windows

Continuum reads the folders you choose and uses your network to reach your other devices. It can add a Windows Firewall rule so your devices can connect to it, and, if you turn it on, start when you sign in to Windows.

What we never do

• Show ads, or include advertising software.
• Include analytics, advertising or tracking software, or send logs or check-ins to us.
• Sell, rent or share your information.
• Upload your videos, folder locations or file names to any server.
• Ask you to create a Continuum account.

This website

This website uses no cookies, no analytics and no third-party scripts or fonts. It is hosted on Firebase Hosting by Google, which processes the technical information needed to deliver pages, such as your IP address, under Google’s privacy policy.

Keeping and deleting your information

• On a device: everything stays until you remove it. Clearing Continuum’s storage in Android settings, or uninstalling the app, deletes it from that device.
• On your other devices: remove a device from your family in Continuum’s Devices screen. Each device still keeps its own copy of what it already received until you clear it there.
• In Google Drive: follow the steps under Stopping and deleting.

We don’t hold your information, so we can’t access, export or delete it for you. The controls above are how you do it. The one exception is what earlier test versions sent, described under The app’s log.

Children

Continuum isn’t directed at children under 13. Viewer profiles are names stored on your devices, not accounts.

Changes to this policy

If Continuum starts handling information differently, this page will be updated before that version of the app is released, and the date at the top will change.

Contact

For questions about this policy or your information, open an issue on Continuum’s issue tracker.