Privacy

Last updated: October 13, 2026

FilmFestScout (filmfestscout.org) is a tool that film festival scouts use to record the films they see at other festivals. FilmFestScout is responsible for the data on this site. Contact: [email protected].

This demo

• Everything in the demo is invented: festivals, films, people and contact details.
• You do not need an account. A cookie (ffs_demo) gives your browser a private copy of the demo. Your changes, including anything you type into the filmmaker form, stay in that copy and are deleted after 24 hours, or at once when you press "Start over".
• The demo sends no email of any kind.
• The rest of this page describes the real FilmFestScout.

What we store, and why

• Your account (scouts and festival staff): your name and email address, so that you can sign in with a one-time code. FilmFestScout is invite-only: an administrator adds you.
• Your scouting: the films you mark as seen, your ratings, notes and follow-up flags. Your festival team sees them.
• The sign-in and security log: when you ask for a code and sign in, the time, your IP address, an approximate location (country, region and city, from Cloudflare), and your browser and device type. It protects the accounts. Only the site's administrators see it. It is kept for 180 days. The sign-in code itself is never stored in the log.
• Filmmaker contact details: the name, email address and phone number that a filmmaker types into the filmmaker form on a scout's phone. The festival team uses them only to contact the filmmaker about the film. They appear only in the contact pop-up for the festival team, never on a page. A scout can also show a QR code, so that the filmmaker types their details later on their own phone; that link works for 14 days, and the scout gets an email (with the filmmaker's name only) when the details arrive.
• FilmFreeway information: from the festival's own FilmFreeway export, the film titles, directors, categories, decisions and submission dates. We do not keep submitters' email addresses, phone numbers, addresses or screener ratings.
• Invite suggestions: when a scout suggests inviting a film, an email goes to the festival's programming team. FilmFestScout never emails filmmakers.
• Team requests: when someone asks for a FilmFestScout team for their festival: their name, email address and role, the festival's name and web page, their message, and the IP address and country the request came from (against spam). Only the site's super administrators see it. A request is sent to them only after the person types the code that we email to the address.

We use this data to run the service that you or your festival asked for, and to keep it secure. Filmmakers give their contact details by their own choice, for the purpose shown in the form.

The services that run the site

• Our own server, in the United States, operated by FilmFestScout. The database and its backups are on it. It is not a public cloud service.
• Cloudflare: the secure connection (HTTPS), protection against attacks, and anonymous page statistics (Cloudflare Web Analytics, which does not use cookies).
• Zoho Mail: sends sign-in codes, invitations, invite suggestions and team request codes, from [email protected].
• Anthropic: when a festival schedule is imported, reads the text of the festival's public schedule pages to find the films. No account or contact data is sent to it.

The fonts and all other files of the site come from our own server; no other company sees your visits.

Cookies

• Sign-in cookie (filmfestscout.org): keeps you signed in, for up to 30 days. Strictly necessary.
• Demo cookie (demo.filmfestscout.org): ffs_demo, your private demo copy, for 24 hours. Strictly necessary.
• Theme cookie (both sites): ffs_theme, set only when you choose a colour theme, for one year. It holds only the name of the theme, for this device. Strictly necessary for the setting you asked for.
• Security cookies from Cloudflare may be set when Cloudflare checks that a visitor is not a bot. Strictly necessary.
• The filmmaker form keeps its state in your browser tab (session storage) while it is open.

There are no advertising or tracking cookies, so the site does not ask for cookie consent.

How long we keep data

• Accounts, scouting and filmmaker contacts: until they are removed, or until you ask us to delete them.
• The sign-in and security log: 180 days.
• Team requests: deleted after 1 day if the emailed code was not typed. A request that was approved or declined is kept as the record of that decision, with any note sent with a decline. When a request is approved, its IP address is deleted; a declined request keeps it.
• Sign-in sessions: they end after 30 days.
• Backups: daily copies are kept for 14 days; encrypted backups of the server for a limited time.

Your rights

You can ask to see, correct, export or delete your data, and filmmakers can ask us to remove their contact details at any time. Write to [email protected]; we answer within 30 days. If you live in the EU or the UK, you can also complain to your data protection authority.

Security

Every connection is encrypted (HTTPS). Sign-in uses one-time codes that expire after 10 minutes; there are no passwords to steal. Only invited people can sign in, and backups are encrypted.

Changes

When this notice changes, we update the date at the top.