Privacy policy

Last updated 2 October 2026

Couchside is software you run on your own computer or server. There is no Couchside service: we don't run servers for your media, you don't make an account with us, and nothing about you or what you watch is sent to us. This policy covers the Couchside server, its web app and the Couchside Roku channel.

The apps talk only to your server

The web app and the Roku channel connect only to the Couchside server you enter or open. They contain no analytics, advertising or tracking code, and they don't contact any third party. Pictures such as posters, channel logos and cast photos are fetched by your server and handed to the apps from there.

Roku devices themselves collect data under Roku's own privacy policy, which Couchside doesn't control.

What your server stores

Everything below stays in your server's database and cache folders, on hardware you control:

Your libraries: file names and paths, stream details, and the titles, descriptions, artwork and cast looked up for them.
Profiles and accounts: each profile's name, colour, role and settings, and its password if it has one (stored only as an Argon2id hash).
Watch history: per profile, how far you got in each file and what you've finished, plus favourite channels.
Sessions: for each signed-in device, its type, a name, its browser or app identifier, its IP address and when it was last used, so you can see and sign out devices. Unused sessions end after a year.
Live TV and DVR: the channel guide, scheduled and finished recordings, and series recording rules.
Logs: the server's log records sign-ins (name, IP address and device) and errors. It goes wherever you run the server.

Who's watching what right now is kept in memory only, for the server's Settings page, and forgotten when the server restarts.

What your server sends out

To fill in titles and artwork, and the TV guide, your server makes these requests. Each service sees your server's IP address and what's asked:

TMDB (The Movie Database): titles and years read from your file names, or IMDb IDs, to look up details, cast and artwork; then image downloads from TMDB's image servers. See TMDB's privacy policy. You can turn TMDB off.
OMDb, only if you add an OMDb key: the same title lookups, and poster downloads from the image hosts it links to.
SiliconDust, only if you connect an HDHomeRun tuner: your tuner's own guide request to SiliconDust's guide service, and channel logos and programme images from its image servers.

Nothing else is sent: no usage statistics, crash reports, update checks or information about what you watch.

Your control

You own all of it. Delete a profile to remove its history, sign devices out in Settings, or delete the server's data folder to remove everything. Whoever runs a Couchside server is responsible for the data on it; if you use someone else's server, ask them.

Children

Couchside collects nothing for us from anyone, children included. Any profiles for children exist only on the server that created them.

Changes and contact

If this policy changes, the new version is published on this page with a new date. Questions go to GitHub issues; security problems to private vulnerability reporting.