carlsontechsystems.com

Privacy Policy

Effective date: August 3, 2026

This Privacy Policy is issued by Carlson Tech Systems, LLC ("Company," "we," "us," or "our"). It applies to carlsontechsystems.com and to every digital product and service the Company operates, including Movie Club (movieclub.ai). Movie Club operates as a registered doing-business-as (DBA) of Carlson Tech Systems, LLC, not as a separate legal entity, and is presently our primary product.

Movie Club is a private, invite-only application: a club owner invites specific people to join, and it lets members schedule and track movie nights, rank and rate the films they watch, and get AI-assisted film recommendations from an in-app assistant called CUE. The personal information described in this Policy is collected primarily through Movie Club. carlsontechsystems.com itself is the Company's corporate site; if we operate other products in the future, they are covered by this same Policy unless we publish a product-specific supplement.

By using carlsontechsystems.com, creating a Movie Club account, or otherwise using a Company product (each, a "Service"), you agree to the collection and use of information as described in this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, please do not use the applicable Service.

1. Information We Collect

Information you provide directly

• Account information. When you sign in to Movie Club, we collect the email address associated with your account. Email is your identity on Movie Club: however you sign in, one email address maps to one account.
• Profile information. A display name, and, if you sign in with Google or Facebook, the profile photo your provider makes available to us.
• Club activity. Your club membership and role (guest, member, contributor, co-owner, or owner), RSVPs to movie nights, which films you've marked watched or interested, your film rankings and head-to-head ranking comparisons ("duels"), and any notification preferences you set.
• Assistant queries. Questions and requests you send to CUE, Movie Club's AI recommendation assistant.
• Phone number and SMS consent. If you opt in to Movie Club's text-alert program, your mobile phone number and the date and time you consented (or later opted out).
• Communications. If you contact us, we keep a record of that correspondence.

Information collected automatically

• Cookies. Movie Club uses a single, essential session cookie to keep you signed in. It is HttpOnly (not readable by JavaScript), Secure (sent only over HTTPS), and scoped SameSite=Lax. We do not use third-party advertising or tracking cookies.
• Log and technical data. Like most web services, our servers automatically record standard technical information such as IP address, browser type, device information, and request timestamps for security and diagnostic purposes. This applies across our Services, including carlsontechsystems.com.

Information we do not collect

We do not collect passwords. Movie Club sign-in happens through Google, Facebook, or a one-time emailed "magic link," so we never see or store a password for your account. Magic links themselves are stored only as a one-way hash, are valid for fifteen minutes, and can be used once.

2. How We Use Information

We use the information above to:

• create and maintain your Movie Club account and club membership;
• operate core features: scheduling movie nights, recording who watched what, and computing rankings and club scores;
• generate personalized film recommendations and power the CUE assistant;
• send transactional email (sign-in links) and, if you opt in, notification email or SMS text about new nights, ranking results, digests, or account activity;
• maintain and enrich the shared film catalogue (titles, cast, artwork, and similar public film metadata);
• secure our Services, prevent abuse, and diagnose technical problems;
• comply with legal obligations.

3. How We Share Information

We do not sell your personal information. We share information only as follows:

• Sign-in providers. If you sign in with Google or Facebook, those providers process your authentication and share your email, name, and profile photo with us as authorized by you during sign-in.
• Service providers. We use third-party vendors to operate Movie Club:
  • SendGrid (Twilio) — delivers magic-link and notification emails.
  • Anthropic (Claude) — powers the CUE assistant and film-catalogue enrichment. When you ask CUE something, your question and relevant club context (such as your club's film history) are sent to Anthropic's API to generate a response.
  • The Movie Database (TMDB) — supplies public film metadata (titles, cast, artwork) used to enrich the shared catalogue. TMDB does not receive your personal information through this integration.
  • Twilio — delivers SMS text alerts to members who opt in.
  • Linode — our infrastructure hosting provider, which stores the database and application on our behalf.
• Text messaging data. We do not share mobile phone numbers or SMS opt-in/consent information with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes. Text-message originator opt-in data and consent are excluded from every other category of information sharing described in this section and are not shared with any third party.
• Other club members. Your display name, profile photo, rankings, watch history, and roster presence are visible to other members of your Movie Club club, because that visibility is the point of the product. Some pages (like the archive and leaderboard) can be restricted by a club owner to members only.
• Legal reasons. We may disclose information if required by law, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of the Company, our members, or others.
• Business transfers. If Carlson Tech Systems, LLC is involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, information may be transferred as part of that transaction, subject to this Policy or a successor policy.

4. Data Retention

We retain your account and club data for as long as your account or club membership is active. Ranking history and watch records are the shared historical record of a club, so they generally persist even if an individual member's role changes, unless deletion is requested as described below. If you request deletion of your account, we will delete or anonymize your personal information except where we need to retain it to comply with a legal obligation, resolve disputes, or enforce our agreements.

5. Your Choices and Rights

• Access and correction. You can review and update your display name and notification preferences from your Movie Club profile.
• Deletion. You can request deletion of your account and associated personal information by emailing privacy@carlsontechsystems.com.
• Notification opt-outs. Optional emails (night created, draw result, digest) can be turned off from your notification settings at any time. Sign-in magic links cannot be turned off, since they're required to authenticate.
• SMS opt-out. Reply STOP or NO to any text message, or email privacy@carlsontechsystems.com, to stop receiving text messages immediately.
• Regional privacy rights. Depending on where you live (for example, under the GDPR in the EEA/UK or the CCPA/CPRA in California), you may have additional rights to access, correct, delete, or receive a copy of your personal information, or to object to or restrict certain processing. To exercise any of these rights, contact us at privacy@carlsontechsystems.com; we will respond within the time required by applicable law.

6. Children's Privacy

Our Services are not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13. If you believe a child has provided us personal information, contact us at privacy@carlsontechsystems.com and we will delete it.

7. Security

We use technical and organizational measures designed to protect your information, including HTTPS encryption in transit, HttpOnly/Secure session cookies, hashed (not plaintext) magic-link tokens, and database credentials scoped to the minimum privileges each part of Movie Club needs. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

8. International Data Transfers

Our Services are hosted in the United States. If you access carlsontechsystems.com or Movie Club from outside the United States, your information will be transferred to, stored, and processed in the United States, which may have different data protection laws than your country of residence.

9. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make material changes, we will update the effective date above and, where appropriate, notify members through the applicable Service. Continued use of a Service after a change takes effect constitutes acceptance of the revised Policy.

10. Contact Us

Questions about this Privacy Policy or your personal information can be sent to privacy@carlsontechsystems.com.