Privacy Policy

Plain-English summary: we collect what we need to run a film industry platform — your profile, your activity on the site, and the things you upload. We don't sell your data. You can ask us to delete it any time. The detail follows.

1. Who we are

This Privacy Policy applies to Film Help Squad Limited ("Film Help Squad", "we", "us", "our"), a company registered in England and Wales (company number 12345678) with its registered office at 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2H 9JQ.

For UK GDPR purposes, Film Help Squad Limited is the data controller for the personal data processed via filmhelpsquad.com. We are registered with the Information Commissioner's Office under registration number ZB123456.

2. Data we collect

2.1 Data you give us

• Account data: name, email address, password (hashed), profession, location, profile photo.
• Profile content: CV, showreel links, headshots, skills, credits, agent details, availability.
• Listings and applications: jobs you post or apply for, casting briefs, messages between members.
• Payment data: if you subscribe to a paid plan, billing name, address and the last four digits of your card. We never see or store your full card number — that is handled by our PCI-DSS compliant payment processor (Stripe).
• Support content: messages you send via chat, ticket forms, or email.

2.2 Data we collect automatically

• Device and browser information (user agent, screen size, OS).
• IP address (truncated after 30 days for analytics purposes).
• Usage data: pages visited, time spent, features used, click paths.
• Approximate location derived from IP (city / region only).

2.3 Data from third parties

• If you sign in with Google, Apple or LinkedIn we receive the basic profile fields you authorise.
• If you connect Spotlight, IMDb or Equity, we ingest your verified credits with your explicit permission.

3. How we use your data

We use your personal data to:

1. Provide the platform — your profile, job board, casting calls, messaging.
2. Match you to relevant jobs, talent or roles via our recommendation engine.
3. Process payments and run subscription billing.
4. Send you transactional emails (sign-ups, password resets, ticket replies, billing).
5. Send you marketing emails — only if you have opted in. You can opt out any time via the unsubscribe link or your account settings.
6. Detect, prevent and investigate fraud, abuse and breaches of our Terms.
7. Comply with legal obligations (tax, employment law, court orders).
8. Improve the service through aggregated analytics and feature usage.

4. Legal basis for processing

Under UK GDPR, every processing activity needs a lawful basis. Ours are:

• Contract — to deliver the services you signed up for.
• Legitimate interests — to operate, secure and improve the platform, where this does not override your rights.
• Consent — for marketing emails, certain non-essential cookies, and AI model training opt-ins. You can withdraw consent any time.
• Legal obligation — for tax records, anti-money-laundering checks, and lawful information requests.

5. Sharing your data

We don't sell your personal data. Full stop. We do share it with:

• Other members — your public profile is visible to logged-in members. You control which fields are public via your settings.
• Trusted processors — providers who help us run the service under strict data-processing agreements: Amazon Web Services (hosting, EU/UK), Stripe (payments), Postmark (transactional email), Cloudflare (security/CDN), Sentry (error tracking), Google Analytics 4 (privacy-mode aggregated analytics).
• Authorities — when legally compelled by a UK court order or statute.
• In a corporate transaction — if Film Help Squad is acquired, your data transfers to the acquirer under the same protections.

6. International transfers

Most of your data stays in the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area. Where we use providers outside the UK/EEA (for example some Stripe and Cloudflare functions in the United States), the transfer is protected by the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or the EU Standard Contractual Clauses with the UK addendum.

7. How long we keep your data

• Active accounts: for as long as the account is open.
• Closed accounts: deleted within 30 days of closure (some legal records retained up to 7 years for tax).
• Uploaded scripts & AI inputs: originals deleted 30 days after processing unless you choose to keep them.
• Support tickets: retained for 3 years from resolution.
• IP addresses in logs: truncated after 30 days; aggregated stats kept indefinitely.
• Marketing list: until you unsubscribe, then suppression-only record kept to honour the opt-out.

8. Your rights

Under UK GDPR you have the right to:

1. Be informed about what we do (this policy).
2. Access a copy of the personal data we hold on you.
3. Have inaccurate data corrected.
4. Have your data erased ("right to be forgotten") unless we must keep it by law.
5. Restrict processing while we look into a question or correction.
6. Receive your data in a portable format.
7. Object to processing based on legitimate interests, including direct marketing.
8. Not be subject to a fully automated decision with significant effects (we don't make any).
9. Withdraw consent at any time.
10. Lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk · 0303 123 1113).

To exercise any right, email [email protected] or use the Privacy tab in your account settings. We respond within one calendar month.

9. Cookies and similar tech

We use a small number of cookies and local-storage entries:

• Strictly necessary — sign-in session, CSRF token, cookie banner preference. Cannot be turned off.
• Functional — saved filters, theme, last-viewed jobs.
• Analytics — anonymous usage stats via Google Analytics 4 (IP-anonymised).
• Marketing — only if you accept; used to measure ad effectiveness on Meta/Google.

Manage your preferences any time via the cookie banner or the "Cookie settings" link in our footer. See our Cookie Policy for the full list.

10. AI tools and training data

• Inputs you submit to AI tools (scripts, headshots, audio) are not used to train our shared models unless you explicitly opt in via account settings.
• Voice cloning requires a signed consent form from the actor whose voice is being modelled.
• Studio-tier customers can opt their entire library out of all training, including aggregate anonymised training, via a single setting.
• Aggregated, fully anonymised platform statistics (e.g. "average shoot day count for indie thrillers") may be used internally without consent, as no individual is identifiable.
• You retain full ownership and copyright of your inputs and any AI outputs derived from them.

11. Security

We take security seriously. Measures include encryption in transit (TLS 1.3) and at rest (AES-256), least-privilege access controls, MFA for staff, regular penetration testing, and SOC 2 Type II controls (audit in progress for 2024). No system is invulnerable, however — if we suffer a breach affecting your data we will notify the ICO within 72 hours and you without undue delay where required.

12. Children

Film Help Squad is intended for users aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect data from children under 16. Where a young performer's profile is managed by a chaperone or licensed agent, the legal account holder must be the adult representative.

13. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the service evolves. Material changes will be flagged at sign-in and emailed to active members at least 30 days before they take effect. The "Last updated" date at the top always reflects the current version.

14. Contact us

Questions, requests, complaints — please get in touch:

• Data Protection Officer: [email protected]
• General support: [email protected]
• Post: Film Help Squad Ltd, 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2H 9JQ
• ICO: If you are unhappy with our response you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.