Privacy at LightStream

LightStream collects as little as it can get away with. There is no advertising network on the site, no third-party tracking scripts, and nothing about your viewing is sold or shared for marketing. This page describes exactly what is stored, where, and why.

Data stored in your browser

Most of what LightStream remembers never leaves your device. It is kept in cookies and in local storage, and clearing your browser data removes it.

  • A language cookie recording whether you are browsing in English or Russian.
  • A theme cookie recording the colour theme you picked, so the first paint is correct.
  • Local storage holding your bookmarks, watch progress, player preferences (autoplay, auto-next-episode, skip length, keyboard shortcuts) and subtitle appearance settings.

Data stored when you have an account

Creating an account is optional; the site works without one. If you create one, LightStream stores the email address you registered with, a hashed password - never the password itself - and the account creation date. Session and refresh tokens are set as HTTP-only cookies so the browser can keep you signed in.

An account also syncs your bookmarks and watch progress - which titles you saved, and how far into an episode or film you got - so they follow you between devices. That progress is tied to your account and is deleted with it.

Analytics

Page views are counted with a self-hosted Umami instance running on analytics.lightstream.ws. It records aggregate information such as the page, the referrer, the approximate region and the type of device. It does not set advertising cookies, does not build a cross-site profile, and the data is not shared with anyone.

Third parties

Two external services are involved in delivering the site, and your browser contacts them directly when a page loads.

  • The Movie Database (TMDB) supplies catalogue metadata and images. Poster and backdrop images are loaded from image.tmdb.org, and an image proxy is used as a fallback when that request fails.
  • Video sources are resolved on demand when you start playback. LightStream does not host video files.

Your choices

You can browse without an account, clear cookies and local storage at any time to reset every stored preference, and ask for an account to be deleted by emailing hello@lightstream.ws from the registered address. Deleting an account removes the email address, the password hash and the synced bookmarks and watch progress.

Changes to this page

If what LightStream stores changes, this page changes with it and the date below is updated. Questions about anything here go to hello@lightstream.ws.

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