Privacy Policy

Last updated: 29 July 2026

This Privacy Policy explains how bySurf Studios (“we”, “us”, “our”) processes personal data when you use bySurf TV (the “Service”), including our website, streaming platform, account area, and related features.

1. Controller

bySurf Studios
Jubaydur Rahman
Kolonnenstr. 8, 10827 Berlin, Germany
Email: contact@bysurf.studio

Details about our business are available in our Imprint.

2. Scope

This policy applies to personal data processed through bySurf TV and related account, billing, and community features operated by us, including when you connect a Discord account for Producer community access. It does not apply to third-party websites or services we link to that you use outside our integration (for example YouTube or general social media platforms), which have their own privacy policies. When you use Discord itself (outside our account linking flow), Discord’s privacy policy applies to that use.

3. Who may use the Service

bySurf TV is intended only for persons who are at least 18 years old. At registration we require your date of birth and reject sign-ups from anyone under 18. We do not knowingly collect personal data from minors. If we discover that an account belongs to a minor or was created with a false date of birth, we will permanently delete that account and associated data, and cancel any linked subscription.

4. Personal data we process

Depending on how you use the Service, we may process the following categories of data:

• Account data: email address, date of birth (for age verification), display name, password (stored in hashed form by our authentication provider), profile avatar (if uploaded), account role and membership status, and whether optional two-factor authentication is enabled on your account.
• Two-factor authentication (2FA) data: if you enable 2FA, our authentication provider stores the enrollment data needed to verify your account (for example a TOTP secret linked to your account). One-time codes from your authenticator app are used only to verify a login or sensitive action and are not stored by us. We do not receive, store, or have access to the codes generated by your app after verification.
• Usage data: watch progress, playlists or history where enabled, saved shows (“My List”), likes/dislikes on videos, comments and replies, and moderation records relating to your account (including a history of bans, unbans, and shadowban actions taken by authorized administrators).
• Billing data: subscription status, Stripe customer and subscription identifiers, billing period dates, and cancellation status. Payment card details are processed directly by Stripe; we do not store full card numbers.
• Technical data: IP address, browser/device information, approximate country and city derived from IP or network headers (used for currency display estimates, sign-in security, and active session information), session tokens, active session metadata (device, browser, approximate location, and timestamps), and server logs needed to operate and secure the Service.
• Support tickets: if you use the in-app support feature, we process your ticket title, messages, ticket status, and timestamps. Closed tickets may have message content removed from our storage while basic ticket metadata (such as status and closure reason) may be retained for our records.
• Discord linking data (optional): if you connect Discord on your bySurf account, we store your Discord user ID, Discord username (and discriminator or global display name as provided by Discord), and the date you linked. We use this to add you to our Discord server (if needed), assign or remove a members-lounge role based on your Producer membership status, and keep one Discord account linked per bySurf account. We do not receive your Discord password.
• Communications: messages you send to us for support (for example through support tickets in your account dashboard, by email, or Discord), and account-related emails we send at your request or to help you recover access (for example password reset or signup confirmation messages). We may send a new sign-in alert when someone signs in to your account from a new IP address or network, including the device/browser, IP address, and approximate location. When Support staff send their first reply on a support ticket, we send one notification email to your registered address; further replies on the same ticket are not emailed automatically. We may also email you about scheduled or immediate account deletion, including the reason and, if you had an active subscription, a link to manage billing in Stripe.

5. Purposes and legal bases (GDPR)

We process personal data for the following purposes:

• Providing the Service (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR): creating and managing your account, authenticating you (including optional two-factor authentication), delivering video content, saving watch progress, enabling comments, operating membership features, linking your Discord account for Producer community access where you choose to connect, and handling support tickets you submit.
• Payments and subscriptions (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR): processing Producer membership through Stripe, managing renewals, cancellations, and billing support.
• Security and abuse prevention (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR): protecting accounts, detecting fraud or misuse, enforcing our Terms, maintaining platform integrity, providing account recovery support where appropriate, operating sign-in protections (including Cloudflare Turnstile and rate limiting on login, sign-up, and password-reset forms), tracking active sessions, and sending new sign-in alerts when appropriate.
• Legal compliance (Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR): fulfilling tax, accounting, and other legal obligations where applicable.
• Improving the Service (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR): troubleshooting, analytics in aggregated or pseudonymized form, and improving reliability and performance.

Where we rely on legitimate interests, we balance those interests against your rights. You may object to processing based on legitimate interests as described in Section 10.

6. Cookies and local storage

We use cookies, local storage, or similar technologies where necessary to:

• keep you signed in to your account;
• remember preferences and session state;
• protect the Service against unauthorized access.

Third-party providers embedded in the Service (for example Stripe Checkout or the video player) may set their own cookies. Please refer to their privacy policies for details.

6a. Telekommunikation-Digitale-Dienste-Datenschutz-Gesetz (TDDDG) and streaming

Where the German Telekommunikation-Digitale-Dienste-Datenschutz-Gesetz (TDDDG) applies to our digital services (including the website, TV apps, and related streaming clients), the following information describes how telecommunications- and streaming-related processing works on bySurf TV:

• Access and session data. When you use the Service we process technical data needed to establish and maintain the connection (for example IP address, device/app type, timestamps, and approximate network region). This is required to deliver pages and streams, protect accounts, and keep the Service reliable.
• Streaming delivery. Video is delivered via our streaming partners (including Mux and content delivery networks). Playback typically involves requesting a playback token or stream URL after we check your membership access, then transferring media segments to your device. Playback quality may adapt automatically to your bandwidth (adaptive bitrate). We and our processors may process technical telemetry such as stream start/stop, buffering events, bitrate changes, and error codes to keep playback working and to diagnose outages.
• Watch progress and personalization storage. If you are signed in, we store watch progress, My List, preview/completion state, and similar preferences so you can continue watching across devices. On the website this may use cookies or local storage; in native TV apps this may use secure local app storage plus our backend databases.
• End-device information and consent. Where TDDDG requires consent to store or access information on your end device beyond what is strictly necessary to provide the digital service you requested, we ask for that consent (for example through our cookie banner on the website). Strictly necessary storage for sign-in, security, and core playback does not require optional consent. You can change cookie preferences on the website where available.
• No sale of traffic data. We do not sell your connection or streaming traffic data. Processors listed in Section 7 receive data only as needed to host, secure, encode, and deliver the Service.

Legal bases under GDPR for this processing are typically Art. 6(1)(b) (contract / service delivery) and Art. 6(1)(f) (legitimate interests in security and reliability), and Art. 6(1)(a) where optional end-device storage requires consent under TDDDG.

7. Recipients and processors

We use trusted service providers to operate bySurf TV. They process data on our behalf only as needed to provide their services:

• Supabase, authentication, database, and backend infrastructure.
• Stripe, payment processing and subscription management.
• Mux, video hosting, encoding, and streaming delivery.
• Cloudflare, website hosting, bot protection (Turnstile), and content delivery.
• Cloudflare R2, storage and delivery of images and other media assets.
• Resend, delivery of transactional emails (for example account notices, new sign-in alerts, and the first support-ticket reply notification).
• Discord, community server access and role management when you connect Discord through our website (OAuth). Discord processes your authorization according to its own privacy policy; we receive only the profile identifiers needed to link your account and manage lounge access.
• IP geolocation and exchange-rate services, approximate country detection and localized price estimates (for example ipwho.is, ipapi.co, and open.er-api.com).
• Font and CDN providers, delivery of fonts and JavaScript libraries (for example Google Fonts and jsDelivr).

We may disclose data if required by law, court order, or to protect the rights, safety, and security of users, ourselves, or others.

8. International transfers

Some of our processors are located outside the European Economic Area (EEA), including in the United States. Where data is transferred outside the EEA, we rely on appropriate safeguards such as Standard Contractual Clauses or equivalent mechanisms offered by our providers, unless an adequacy decision applies.

9. Retention

We retain personal data only as long as necessary for the purposes described above:

• Account data is kept while your account exists and for a reasonable period afterward for legal, tax, or dispute-resolution purposes.
• If you request deletion, we apply a grace period before permanent removal unless we delete your account immediately for enforcement reasons (see our Terms of Service).
• Billing records may be retained as required by German commercial and tax law.
• Comments and community content may remain visible until deleted by you or us, or until your account is deleted, subject to moderation and backup retention limits.
• Moderation history (for example prior bans or shadowbans, including after an account is unbanned) may be retained for a reasonable period to enforce our Terms, handle repeat violations, and resolve disputes.
• Support ticket message content is removed when a ticket is closed; related metadata may be kept for a limited period for support and abuse-prevention purposes.
• Active session metadata is kept while a session remains active and for a reasonable period afterward for security and troubleshooting.
• Server logs are retained for a limited period necessary for security and troubleshooting.

10. Your rights

If you are in the EEA or another jurisdiction with similar rights, you may have the right to:

• access your personal data;
• request correction of inaccurate data;
• request deletion (“right to be forgotten”) where applicable;
• request restriction of processing;
• object to processing based on legitimate interests;
• data portability, where applicable;
• withdraw consent at any time, where processing is based on consent (without affecting prior lawful processing);
• lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. In Germany, you may contact the authority responsible for your place of residence or work.

To exercise your rights, email contact@bysurf.studio. We may need to verify your identity before responding. If you request a copy of your personal data, we may provide it in a structured, commonly used format (for example JSON) covering your account profile, saved shows, watch history, likes and dislikes, comments, and related subscription information where applicable.

11. Discord community linking

Producer members may optionally connect a Discord account on their bySurf account. When you click Connect Discord, you are redirected to Discord to authorize our application. If you approve, we receive your Discord user ID and username (via OAuth scopes such as identify and, where needed, guilds.join to add you to our server).

We use this information only to:

• link one Discord account to one bySurf account;
• add you to the bySurf Discord server if you are not already a member;
• grant or remove a members-lounge role when your Producer membership is active or ends;
• post release announcements in designated channels (these messages do not include your private account data).

You can disconnect Discord at any time in your account membership settings. Disconnecting removes the link in our database and we will remove the members-lounge role where our systems can do so. Messages you post in Discord remain subject to Discord’s policies and our community rules.

For Discord’s own processing, see Discord’s Privacy Policy.

12. Comments and public profile information

If you post comments, your display name and avatar (if set) may be visible to other users. Do not post personal information you do not want to be public. We may remove comments that violate our Terms or applicable law.

Profile photos you upload must comply with our Terms. Authorized administrators may remove a profile photo without deleting your entire account if it is inappropriate, unlawful, or otherwise violates our rules (for example offensive, misleading, or non-profile imagery).

13. Security

We implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect personal data. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure; we cannot guarantee absolute security.

You may optionally enable two-factor authentication (2FA) in your account settings. 2FA uses a time-based one-time password (TOTP) compatible with authenticator apps such as Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, Authy, 1Password, or any other app that supports the same standard setup flow we provide. You choose and manage the app on your own device; we do not operate or control that third-party app, and its use is subject to that app’s own terms and privacy policy.

When 2FA is enabled, you will be asked for a code from your authenticator app when signing in and for certain sensitive account actions. You can review active sessions in your account Security settings and revoke sessions you do not recognize. We may email you when a sign-in occurs from a new IP address or network. Authorized administrators may see whether 2FA is enabled on your account (for example when handling a support request). They cannot view your one-time codes, your authenticator app, or the secret stored for your enrollment.

If you contact us because you cannot access your account, we may assist after verifying your identity. Authorized administrators can trigger a password reset email to your registered email address, resend a signup confirmation email where applicable, or disable 2FA on your account if you have lost access to your authenticator app. We do not know or store your password in plain text and cannot tell you what it is; password changes are completed by you through the secure reset flow we send to your email. We may refuse or limit account recovery if we cannot reasonably verify that you are the account holder.

Authorized administrators may access account data stored on bySurf TV when necessary to operate the Service, respond to support requests, fulfill your data-subject rights, comply with law, or investigate abuse. This may include exporting a copy of your activity (such as saved shows, watch history, likes and dislikes, and comments) when you request a full backup of your data. We maintain an internal log of moderation actions on accounts (such as bans, unbans, and shadowbans) so we can review repeat violations and enforce our Terms consistently.

Authorized administrators may permanently delete accounts that violate our Terms. When that happens, we remove personal data stored on bySurf TV (such as profile information, avatars, comments, and watch history), cancel any active Producer subscription where applicable, and send a notice to the registered email address with the reason. Stripe may retain billing records separately under its own policies.

14. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The “Last updated” date at the top will reflect the latest version. Material changes may also be communicated through the Service where appropriate.

15. Contact

bySurf Studios
Email: contact@bysurf.studio
Imprint: imprint.html