Legal

Privacy Policy

Last updated 21 September 2026

Who we are

Trace is an app that tells you which film or TV show a video clip comes from. Trace is operated by Polina Tiukavkina, who is responsible for your personal data under this policy (the “data controller”). In this policy, “Trace”, “we” and “us” mean Trace and its operator.

Questions about your data, or requests to see, correct or delete it: tracecorporations@gmail.com.

This policy covers the Trace apps for iPhone and Android and the website traceclips.com.

The short version

You can use Trace without an account. We use an anonymous ID made on your phone to keep your history and send you your results.
To identify a clip we process the link or video you give us. Uploaded videos are deleted within minutes of processing.
If you create an account, we keep your email so you can sign in and so we can send you service emails. We only send news if you switch that on.
We use service providers to run Trace (for example hosting, notifications and analytics). We don't sell your data and we don't use it for targeted advertising.
You can delete your account, and the data tied to it, in the app at any time.

What we collect and why

When you trace a clip

The clip link you paste or share (for example a TikTok, Instagram, YouTube or X link), used to find the film or show, keep it in your history, and make your Wrap.
A video you upload from your photo library, to identify the title. It is deleted within minutes of processing.
The result: the title, and where available the moment in the clip, the season and episode.

About your phone and how you use Trace

An anonymous ID created on your phone when you first open Trace. It links your traces, library, Wraps and notifications. It is not your name, your phone number or your Apple or Google account.
Device identifiers: your phone's app-vendor ID (iPhone) or Android ID, so a notification reaches the right phone.
Notification tokens from Apple or Google, so we can send you results and, if you allow them, other notifications. On iPhone this includes Live Activity tokens.
Your time zone, and when you open Trace (including whether you opened it from a notification). We use this to send notifications at a reasonable local time, never at night, and to see whether notifications are useful at all.
App version and phone type (iPhone or Android), for support and to fix problems.
Your IP address, which every internet request carries. We use it briefly to limit repeated sign-in attempts, and, when someone opens a shared Wrap link on our website, as described in “Sharing a Wrap”.
Usage events: which screens and features you use, whether a trace worked, and errors. See “Analytics”.

Things you choose to give us

Feedback: your rating and anything you write.
“Wrong movie” reports: the clip, the title we gave, and the title you expected if you tell us. We may check the clip again later and notify you if we find it.
“How did you hear about Trace?”: your answer is recorded in our analytics.
Your choices: whether clips may play in your Wrap, whether you want Wrap notifications, and whether you want Trace news by email.

Trace does not use your location, contacts or microphone. It only reads your clipboard when you tap Paste.

Accounts and signing in

You don't need an account to use Trace. If you create one, you can sign up with your name, email and a password, or continue with Apple or Google. We store your password only as a secure hash, never as plain text.

Continue with Apple or Google. We receive a sign-in token from that company and check it with them. From it we keep an ID for your Trace account, your email address and whether it has been confirmed, and your first name if they share it. We never receive your password for those accounts, and we get no access to your contacts, files or anything else in them. If you use Apple's “Hide My Email”, we only ever know the relay address Apple gives us, and we keep an encrypted token from Apple so that deleting your Trace account also ends its access.

If your email already has a Trace account, signing in with a provider that has confirmed that email opens the same account. If the email isn't confirmed, we ask you to log in with your password instead.

Your history moves with you. When you sign up or log in, the history kept under your phone's anonymous ID moves into your account, so it isn't lost and it follows you to other phones where you sign in.

Your email address

We use your email in two separate ways:

Service emails, sent to everyone with an account: things you need, such as password reset codes and important changes to your account or to Trace.
Trace news and tips, sent only if you switch on “Email me Trace news and tips”. The switch is off until you turn it on, and we record when and where you did. You can switch it off at any time in the app (account → “Email me Trace news”), or with the unsubscribe link in any news email.

We don't give your email address to advertisers, and our analytics don't receive it.

Your Wrap

Every so often, and once a year, Trace makes you a Wrap: a short, swipeable recap of what you found. To make it we use the titles you traced in that period, when you traced them, which app each clip came from, and public details about those titles. We use your time zone and usual app hours to send the Wrap notification at a good time.

The line about what kind of viewer you are. This is generated from a short summary of your viewing in that period. We don't send your name, email, device ID or any video to produce it.

Clips in your Wrap. Behind each card your Wrap can play a public TikTok video or Instagram reel. These load from TikTok or Instagram themselves, so those companies receive the request from your phone, along with your IP address and device details, and may set or read cookies under their own privacy policies. We don't download or store these videos. The creator's name is shown and opens the original post.

In the EU, EEA, UK and Switzerland, clips only play if you switch them on; the switch starts off, and without it your Wrap shows film images instead and loads no TikTok player or Instagram page. Everywhere else clips play by default, and you can switch them off in the Library.

If you made a video that appears in a Wrap and want it removed, or you hold rights in the footage, email tracecorporations@gmail.com with the link. We remove it from every Wrap within 48 hours.

Analytics

We use a product-analytics provider to understand how Trace is used and where it goes wrong: which features are used, whether traces succeed, and errors. These events are linked to your anonymous ID (or your account ID once you sign in), your app version and phone type. The provider also receives your IP address with each request, which it can use to estimate your country. We don't send it your email or name.

We don't use advertising trackers, and we don't sell your data or share it for targeted advertising.

Who we share data with

We share data only with service providers that help run Trace, and only what each one needs. We name them where your data goes to a company you would recognise, and otherwise describe what the provider does:

Hosting and infrastructure: providers of computing, database, storage, network and website hosting, all under contract with us.
Notifications: Apple's and Google's push services and our notification provider, which receive your notification token and the notification text.
Analytics: a product-analytics provider (see “Analytics”).
Feature providers: service providers who help us deliver parts of Trace, such as your Wrap, under contract with us and only for that purpose.
Catalogue and availability information: providers of film, TV and where-to-watch information. They receive only which title and your country or region, never who you are.
Fetching clips: to read a public video from a link, we request it from the platform it's on (TikTok, Instagram, YouTube or X). They receive the link, not who shared it.
Sign-in: Apple and Google, when you choose to continue with them.
Email: our email delivery provider, to send service emails and, if you opted in, news.
Embedded content: TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, when their players or pages load in the app (see “Your Wrap”).

We may also disclose data if the law requires it, to protect people's safety or our rights, or as part of a sale or reorganisation of Trace (in which case this policy continues to apply).

How long we keep data

Anything uploaded from your phone, and any working copies made while handling your request: deleted within minutes of processing.
Your traces and library: kept so you can come back to them, until you remove them from your Library or delete your account.
Wraps, app-open records, feedback and reports: kept while you use Trace, and deleted when you delete your account.
Clip links and results not tied to any account or device: these can't identify you, so they are not personal data about you.
Unfinished trace jobs: deleted within days.
Notification tokens: removed when they stop working, or after 30 days without being refreshed.
Share-link install records (IP address, phone type, time zone): about 2 days.
Password reset codes: 30 minutes, and never written to our database.
Analytics events: kept by our analytics provider under our retention settings.

Your choices and rights

Delete your account in the app (account → Delete Account). This permanently deletes your account and the data tied to it on our servers: your traces and library, Wraps and share links, notification history, app-open records, feedback and reports, and your connection to Apple or Google. If you signed in with Apple, we also revoke Trace's access with Apple.
Without an account, email us and we'll help delete the data tied to your phone's anonymous ID.
Notifications: switch them off in your phone's settings, and Wrap notifications in the Library.
News emails: switch them off in the app or use the unsubscribe link.
Clips in Wraps: switch them off in the Library.

Depending on where you live (for example in the EU, UK or California), you also have the right to access your data, correct it, have it deleted, receive a copy, object to or restrict how we use it, and withdraw consent you gave. Email tracecorporations@gmail.com and we'll respond within one month. You can also complain to your local data protection authority.

Legal bases (EU, EEA and UK). We process your data to provide Trace to you (contract); for our legitimate interests in keeping Trace and its users secure, fixing faults, understanding which features are used so we can improve them, and checking that notifications are useful rather than a nuisance; with your consent for news emails and, where required, clips in your Wrap; and where the law requires it.

Do you have to give us personal data? No. It is not a legal requirement. Without a link or video we cannot identify a clip for you, and without an email address you cannot have an account, but you can use Trace without one.

Children

Trace is not directed at children under 13, or under 16 where local law sets a higher age for consent. We don't knowingly collect personal data from them. If you believe a child has given us personal data, email us and we'll delete it.

Security and international transfers

Data travels over encrypted connections, passwords are stored as secure hashes, and tokens that grant access to your Apple account are encrypted. No system is completely secure, but we work to protect your data and limit who can access it.

Our providers operate in the United States and other countries, so your data may be processed outside your own. Where the law requires, we rely on safeguards such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses. You can ask us for a copy of these safeguards at tracecorporations@gmail.com.

The website

traceclips.com counts visits with a cookie-free analytics tool.
The site keeps a few settings in your browser's local storage (such as the region you picked, or that you closed a banner). They stay on your device.
If you try Trace on the website, the link you paste is processed like a trace in the app, without any ID.
Business enquiries and meeting bookings are handled by service providers that receive only what you enter.
Film trailers play from YouTube's privacy-enhanced (no-cookie) player.

Changes to this policy

We'll update this page when what we collect or how we use it changes, and change the date at the top. For significant changes we'll also tell you in the app.

Contact

Trace, operated by Polina Tiukavkina. Email: tracecorporations@gmail.com.