CineX and Privacy

CineX is designed to protect your information and to let you choose what you share

What counts as personal data at CineX?

At CineX we strongly believe in and respect fundamental privacy rights, and we believe those rights should not depend on the country or region you live in. To be clear: CineX is a tool that runs on your device — we operate no servers and do not require you to register an account (sign-in goes through Apple's Sign in with Apple). That means the nickname and avatar you fill into your local profile are personal data; so is data that cannot identify you directly but can do so by reasonable inference — your playback positions, the make-up of your media library, and the number of videos your devices have successfully converted.

Personal Data CineX Collects

We are confident that CineX can give you an excellent local playback and transcoding experience while doing everything possible to protect your privacy. Because of our local-first architecture, the data we collect is strictly limited to the minimum — in fact, close to nothing.

Your Creative Work Is Not Used for Model Training

CineX itself uses no machine-learning or artificial-intelligence model to process your content. We promise plainly: your video, audio and subtitle content is never uploaded, and never used to train, fine-tune or improve any algorithmic model. All conversion happens on your device, and intermediate files are released as soon as they are no longer needed. One thing must be said honestly: when you play video in the system player, iOS may use Apple's own on-device models to generate or translate subtitles. That is Apple's feature under Apple's terms — CineX does not participate in it and receives none of its output (see the section "System and on-device capabilities").

Safe Even Offline

CineX is designed to be fully usable offline. Try using every feature of the app in Airplane Mode — playback, transcoding, subtitles — and you will see that your data really is in your hands. Only three things need a network connection, and none is initiated by CineX: buying and restoring purchases is handled by the App Store; the free-quota counter and the Sign in with Apple identifier are synced by Apple through iCloud Keychain between your own devices; and Sign in with Apple authentication is performed by Apple.

A Local Profile, Not a Cloud Account

CineX operates no account servers of its own and does not ask you to register. Sign-in uses Apple's Sign in with Apple: we receive only the opaque user identifier that Apple issues to the developer, and we keep it in your own Keychain (it syncs through iCloud Keychain across devices signed in with the same Apple Account) so that CineX can recognize you when you reopen the app and can check with the system whether that authorization is still valid. We neither request nor store your email address, name, identity token or authorization code, so we cannot use that identifier to work out who you are. The profile you see in the app (nickname and avatar) remains a local record stored on this device. Your media library, conversion queue and playback positions exist only inside the sandbox on your device, which the developer cannot access.

Zero-Knowledge Access Architecture

The videos, subtitles and conversion outputs you import are stored in this device's app sandbox and processed locally on the device. The app's normal operation does not give the developer a copy of, or a remote read path to, this content, so the developer cannot view, decrypt or access any of your media content. Three further items in your Keychain may be synced by Apple between your own devices: the free-allowance counter (a single integer), the opaque user identifier returned by Sign in with Apple (used to recognise you when you reopen the app), and a marker recording that you have deliberately signed out (whose only value is “yes”, so that signing out on one device is not undone by automatic sign-in elsewhere). None of the three contains or points to any media content.

Zero-Tracking Commitment and Diagnostics

We integrate no third-party tracking SDK and operate no analytics, telemetry or crash-reporting intake at all — so today we receive none of your crash reports or usage data. Your taps and time-in-app are entirely yours. If we ever add such a channel, this policy will be updated before it ships.

Who processes your data

Your media files are held by you and processed by your own device: all transcoding compute comes from your device's chip, and the developer receives, stores or remotely inspects none of that content through any server of its own, nor holds any key that could decrypt or retrieve it. But 'processing happens on the device' does not by itself settle legal roles, so we do not assert here that either party is or is not a controller or processor under the GDPR or any other law. What actually happens, by actor: the app processes the media you import, locally on your device; Apple performs sign-in authentication and handles App Store purchase transactions; Apple's Keychain syncs that one quota integer between your devices; and support email you choose to send us is received and handled by us. The purpose, lawful basis, recipients and retention for each are described in the relevant sections below, and the rights you hold as a data subject are unaffected by the fact that your data lives only on your device.

Your media content is stored and processed locally on the device. The app's normal operation does not give the developer a key or an interface for retrieving that content remotely. Three items in the device Keychain may be synced by Apple between devices signed in with the same Apple Account: the free-allowance counter (a single integer), the opaque user identifier returned by Sign in with Apple, and a marker recording that you have deliberately signed out (whose only value is “yes”). None of the three contains or points to any media content; we do not receive them, and there is no back end of ours that could look them up.

How CineX Uses Personal Data

We process data on your device only to the extent necessary to provide local playback and transcoding features:

Hardware Encoding and On-Device Processing

CineX's transcoding calls the hardware encoder on your device directly to perform the computation. This means your video files never need to leave the device at any point, and no cloud computing resources are involved.

File Parsing and Format Handling

When you import non-standard containers such as MKV or AVI, or export transcoded outputs and subtitles, all parsing and generation is completed locally on the device in a closed loop. We make no external API calls, which ensures absolute privacy and stability in Airplane Mode or in any environment with no network at all.

How CineX Shares Personal Data

We follow a zero-sharing principle: your videos, subtitles, playback records and transcoding queue are stored and processed locally on the device, and the app's normal operation does not make that content available to the developer or to any third-party service interface. This commitment is scoped to media content. Three items in your Keychain may be synced by Apple between your own devices: the free-allowance counter (a single integer), the opaque user identifier returned by Sign in with Apple (used to recognise you when you reopen the app), and a marker recording that you have deliberately signed out (whose only value is “yes”, so that signing out on one device is not undone by automatic sign-in elsewhere). None of the three contains any media content.

No Third-Party API Use

Because CineX makes no external API calls, your data is not transferred to third-party service providers for recognition, conversion, or processing. All processing is done locally and offline on the device, keeping your media library away from outside scrutiny. Note, however, that if you actively use the iOS system-level share sheet or file sharing to send files to a third-party app (such as a cloud drive or another device), that transfer is not controlled by CineX.

Media content stays on your device

Your media and app data exist only in the sandbox of this device, and are read and written by CineX running on it; the app's normal operation does not give the developer a copy of that data. Three further items in your Keychain — the free-allowance counter, the opaque user identifier returned by Sign in with Apple, and a marker recording that you have deliberately signed out — are synced by Apple between your own devices through iCloud Keychain. We do not receive those three items and cannot read what they hold; none of them contains or points to any media content.

Unsolicited Sensitive Data

When seeking technical support, please do not send attachments containing your private videos, home footage, or screenshots of your media library. If you send us such unsolicited sensitive information, you authorize us to view it in order to resolve the technical issue, and CineX will not owe a higher duty of confidentiality with respect to that unsolicited information than it owes for ordinary business communications. We reserve the right to delete such sensitive attachments from our support systems immediately and without notice.

System and On-Device Capabilities

Two things genuinely happen on your device but are carried out by iOS rather than CineX.

System-generated and system-translated subtitles

CineX plays video using Apple's system player. On supported devices running iOS / iPadOS 27 or later, Apple's system may use on-device models during playback to generate English subtitles from supported English audio, or to generate subtitles in other system-supported languages from available English subtitles. Supported devices, languages, regions, and availability follow Apple's then-current documentation. This capability is provided and processed by the operating system: CineX performs no speech recognition and no subtitle translation, does not control whether the system capability is available or executed, and does not receive the subtitles it generates. You can manage the relevant choices using the subtitle controls provided by the system player. Apple's then-current documentation, terms, and privacy policies govern how this system capability processes data.

The free-allowance counter

To enforce the free tier's conversion limit, CineX keeps a single integer in the device Keychain: the number of conversions that have succeeded. A conversion is counted once, and only when it completes successfully: attempts that fail or are cancelled are not counted, starting a retry does not by itself add a count, but a retry that later succeeds counts as one conversion, and deleting a finished file does not restore a used conversion. The number contains and points to no video, subtitle, file name or media library information. When iCloud Keychain is on, Apple may sync this record to your other devices signed in with the same Apple account; when sync is off or unavailable, the counts on different devices may differ. CineX reads and updates this record locally, on the device, in order to tell whether the free quota is used up - that is a precondition of the feature working. The developer operates no server that receives this record and has no back end that can query your conversion count. Deleting the app does not guarantee the record is reset, and turning off Keychain sync does not undo the copies already on your other devices.

Your Privacy Rights at CineX

At CineX, we respect your ability to know about, access, correct, port, restrict the processing of, and delete your personal data. We provide these rights to every one of our users worldwide. If you choose to exercise these privacy rights, you have the right not to be treated differently by CineX and to receive the same level of service quality from CineX as you would have received had you not exercised them. If you are asked to consent to CineX processing your personal data, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.

You can exercise your privacy rights in the following ways:

Because CineX keeps no media content in the cloud, you never need to send us a data access request — the content is on your device right now. You can delete movies, episodes, conversion tasks or your whole local profile inside the app, or uninstall the app. Please also understand what uninstalling does not do: it does not delete source files that live elsewhere on the device or in your own iCloud Drive, and it does not guarantee removal of Keychain records — the single free-quota integer may persist, and may already be synced to your other devices. Purchase transaction records are managed independently by Apple under its own policies. To revoke this app's Sign in with Apple authorization, use Settings → Apple ID → Sign In and Security → Apps Using Apple ID; on its next launch the app checks that the authorization was revoked and returns to a signed-out state.

How CineX Protects Personal Data

CineX believes that strong privacy protection must be built on excellent security. We rely on the security mechanisms provided by iOS itself to protect your data, and we continually improve these protections to keep your media content safe at all times.

The security measures we take include:

Boundaries for providing data externally

Your media content is stored only locally on your device and is not actually held by us, so we cannot provide a copy of it directly. We handle relevant requests on the basis of the information we actually hold, applicable law and valid legal process. What needs to be told apart here are the three Keychain items (the allowance counter, the Sign in with Apple identifier, and a marker recording that you have deliberately signed out): Apple stores and syncs them under its own policy, and they contain and point to no media content.

Children and Personal Data

CineX is designed for users aged 13 and over. We understand how important it is to protect minors' personal data, and the most effective protection is this: we do not collect any identifying information at all.

No Reliance on Any Account System

CineX has no account system of its own — sign-in goes through Apple's Sign in with Apple, and the profile inside the app is only a local record on this device with no server-side account behind it — so there is no such thing as a 'minors' account' here. Apart from the opaque user identifier Apple provides (kept in your own Keychain and possibly already synced to your other devices), we do not collect any user personal information at the app layer, including from minors. Parents can manage how the app is installed and used on the device through iOS Screen Time and Content & Privacy Restrictions.

We do not actively identify or distinguish between child and adult users — and technically we cannot. All users' data is protected to the same standards described in this Privacy Policy. If a parent needs to manage media content on a device, they can do so using the built-in parental controls in iOS.

No Targeted Advertising

CineX contains no advertising content aimed at children or adults, and does not build user profiles for advertising purposes.

Data Transfers

Your media content, transcoding queue and playback records do not leave your device, so no cross-border data transfer is involved. Three kinds of processing fall to Apple's system services: (1) when you buy Opus membership the transaction is completed by Apple through the App Store, and the related payment and purchase information is managed by Apple under its own privacy policy — we do not receive your payment credentials; (2) the free-allowance counter (a single integer) is kept in your iCloud Keychain and synced by Apple between your own devices; we neither receive it nor have any back end that could look it up; (3) authentication for Sign in with Apple is performed by Apple, and CineX stores the opaque user identifier Apple returns in your own Keychain, alongside a marker in the same Keychain domain recording that you have deliberately signed out (whose only value is “yes”), which Apple syncs between your devices under the same rule. None of the above contains any media content; how Apple handles related data when providing these services is governed by Apple's terms and privacy policy.

All of the business logic runs locally on your device.

Data Retention

CineX retains data only for as long as necessary to fulfill the functional purpose, and that "storage" takes place on your device, so how long it is kept is entirely up to you. You can delete specific movies, series, or transcoding tasks, or an entire media folder, at any time.

Once you exercise your right to erasure, the related data is removed from your device, and CineX keeps no copy of any media content or playback record. The three Keychain items are handled differently: the Sign in with Apple identifier and the “deliberately signed out” marker are cleared together when you delete your account inside the app, while the free-allowance counter is deliberately not cleared on account deletion or uninstall — otherwise deleting and signing in again would simply hand out a fresh allowance.

Local Storage Technologies

CineX uses on-device local storage technologies to implement its core features.

Strictly Necessary Storage

We write data locally on your device — inside the app's sandbox — to remember playback progress and the state of your conversion queue. The sandbox also holds your converted output files, subtitle and segment intermediate files, and the thumbnail cache. Wiping the app's data loses these records, because no second copy of them exists anywhere.

Media and File Caches

To speed up browsing, we cache video thumbnails in your device sandbox. The system may automatically clear these caches when storage runs low.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time and will publish the updated version and its effective date inside the app. If a change to our data processing may materially affect your rights, we will give appropriate notice before it takes effect. Where applicable law requires renewed consent, we will obtain valid consent before carrying out that processing — continuing to use the app does not by itself substitute for that consent.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about exercising your privacy rights, please contact us at [email protected]. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant supervisory authority.

We will respond to your request as soon as we receive it, usually within 7 days.

Last updated: September 25, 2026