Privacy policy

Kinema is a free, open-source media library and video player, made by one maintainer (basswaves on GitHub). It has no account, no server of its own and no telemetry: it collects no usage statistics, crash reports or anything else about you, and nobody behind Kinema receives your data. This page covers the apps for Windows, Linux and Android, and this website.

Last updated: 25 October 2026. Every change to this page is in its history on GitHub.

What leaves your computer

This list is the same text Kinema shows in Settings → Privacy. A test fails when the code contacts a host the list lacks, so the list stays true.

What stays on your device

Your library is kept in one database on your own device: the folders you added, what each file was matched to, the details and pictures fetched for it, what you have watched and where you stopped, and your settings. Keys you type in (TMDB, OMDb) and the sign-ins of services you connect (SIMKL, Trakt, OpenSubtitles) are kept there too, and each is sent only to the service it belongs to.

SIMKL and Trakt are kept as the service's own sign-in token, never your password, which you type only on their page. The one password Kinema keeps is OpenSubtitles', if you give one: on Windows it is encrypted to your Windows user, on Linux it is kept in Kinema's data folder, which only your account can read. On Android, sign-ins to network shares are locked with a key held by the system and never leave the device.

Windows: %APPDATA%\com.kinema.app\

Linux: ~/.local/share/com.kinema.app/

Android: the app's private storage, which other apps cannot read.

Beside the library are a safety copy made before each database upgrade, and the logs.

Logs and bug reports

Kinema writes two logs on your device (app.log and mpv.log, kept for the last five sessions) so that problems can be found. They are never sent anywhere by Kinema. Send a report, in Settings, packs them with the equipment check (screens, sound devices, graphics card) into one zip in your Downloads folder and says where it is; your home folder's name is replaced by ~, film and folder names stay. On Android, Share the log hands the file to the app you choose. Only if you then attach the file to a bug report on GitHub does anyone else see it, and it is public there.

The services' own terms

What a service does with a request once it receives it is covered by that service's own privacy policy, not this one: TMDB, TVmaze, Wikidata and Wikipedia, IMDb, Trakt, GitHub, and the sites of OMDb, TheIntroDB, IntroDB, OpenSubtitles and SIMKL. Like any request on the internet, each one carries your IP address.

Removing your data

On your device. On Windows, uninstalling Kinema removes the program, its shortcuts and its file associations, and asks, with a checkbox, whether to delete the library and settings as well. On Linux, delete the folder above after removing the package. On Android, uninstalling removes everything Kinema kept.

At a service. Disconnecting SIMKL or Trakt stops anything more being sent and asks the service to end Kinema's sign-in. What was already sent to your SIMKL or Trakt history stays in your account there, where you can delete it; Kinema never removes anything from it.

This website

This site is hosted on GitHub Pages. It sets no cookies, has no analytics and loads nothing from other sites. GitHub, as the host, receives each visitor's IP address under its own privacy statement.

Questions

Ask in Discussions or open an issue. For anything that should not be public, use GitHub's private reporting, which only the maintainer sees.