Last updated: October 14, 2026
Your privacy is important to us. This Privacy Policy explains how Littering in Movies (https://www.litteringinmovies.com) collects, uses, retains, and protects your information when you browse our archive, submit sightings, leave comments, make donations, or interact with our services.
1. Who We Are
Our website address is: https://www.litteringinmovies.com. Littering in Movies is an independent, observational media archive and educational project documenting casual waste habits and props across cinema and television. For privacy-related inquiries, data requests, or corrections, you can contact the project administrator directly through the website’s contact form.
2. Information We Collect and Why
We collect limited personal and technical information based on your active consent and our legitimate interest in operating an accurate, secure public archive:
- Scene Submissions & Contact (Fluent Forms): When you submit a sighting via our submission portal or reach out using a contact form, we collect the details you enter into the form fields (such as your name or display handle, email address, film/TV title, timestamp, prop description, and uploaded media files). This is used strictly to verify sightings, credit your contribution on public records (where opted in), and communicate regarding your submission.
- Comments & Discussions: When you leave a comment on our essays or sightings, we collect the data entered into the comment form, alongside your IP address and browser user agent string to assist in automated spam detection. An anonymized hash generated from your email address may be provided to the Gravatar service to verify if you have an active profile image (Automattic Privacy Policy: https://automattic.com/privacy/). Upon comment approval, your avatar is publicly visible alongside your remark.
- Media Uploads: If you upload images or screenshots with your sighting submission, you should ensure that embedded location metadata (EXIF GPS) is removed prior to upload. Visitors to the public archive can download and inspect publicly displayed image files.
- Newsletter Subscriptions: If you opt in to receive updates, your email address and registration timestamp are processed through our third-party email delivery provider solely to deliver archive roundups and analytical essays.
- Support & Donations (Stripe): If you choose to support the project via a financial contribution, all payment processing is handled externally by Stripe. We do not collect, process, or store payment card numbers or banking credentials. Stripe handles financial records in compliance with global security standards (Stripe Privacy Policy: https://stripe.com/privacy/).
- Technical & Display Preferences: We read client-side browser user agents, local system time, and operating system colour preferences (light/dark mode) to render responsive layouts and maintain your visual viewing preferences across visits.
- Analytics & Usage Data: We utilize Google Analytics to evaluate traffic patterns, page visits, device types, and referral sources. This data is aggregated and anonymized, and cannot be used to personally identify individual visitors.
We do not collect sensitive personal data (such as health, biometric, or religious information), nor do we sell, rent, or trade personal data to third-party data brokers or marketing networks.
3. Cookies and Local Storage
We use essential cookies, browser local storage tokens, and analytical scripts to support navigation and preserve your settings:
- Display Mode Storage: When you switch between light and dark themes, a small local storage token records your preference in your browser so the site loads in your preferred mode on return visits.
- Comment Convenience Cookies: If you leave a comment, you may opt in to saving your name, email, and website in cookies. These exist solely so you do not need to re-enter your details on subsequent comments. These cookies expire after one year.
- Account & Session Cookies: If you visit our login page, a temporary cookie is set to verify whether your browser accepts cookies (discarded upon closing the browser). When logging in, authentication cookies last for two days, and screen display options persist for one year. Selecting “Remember Me” keeps login active for two weeks. Logging out clears these cookies immediately.
- Analytics Cookies: Google Analytics deploys first-party cookies to measure audience volume and reading duration across sessions.
You can adjust, block, or delete cookies and site storage at any time via your browser settings.
4. Embedded Content from Other Websites
Articles and sightings on this site may feature embedded media (such as video clips, audio players, or social embeds). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same manner as if the visitor had navigated directly to the external host.
These third-party platforms may collect data about you, deploy their own tracking cookies, embed secondary tracking pixels, and monitor your engagement with that embedded item, particularly if you maintain an active, logged-in account on their platform.
5. Who We Share Your Data With
We do not share your information except with trusted service providers essential for platform functionality:
- Stripe: Processes voluntary donor payments securely.
- Third-Party Email Services: Dispatches newsletters and updates to active subscribers.
- Automated Spam Verification: Public comments and submission fields are filtered through automated anti-spam gateways to block malicious traffic.
- Password Resets: If an account holder requests a password reset, the requesting IP address is included in the notification email for security verification.
6. Data Retention Schedules
We retain personal information only as long as necessary for the operational purposes outlined in this policy:
- Comments: Comments and associated metadata are retained indefinitely to recognize and auto-approve follow-up comments without moderation delays.
- Sighting Submissions: Form logs submitted through Fluent Forms are retained to verify, attribute, and preserve the historical continuity of the sighting database.
- General Inquiries: Non-archive customer service and contact queries are kept for six months before deletion.
- Newsletter Data: Subscriber contact records are retained until you unsubscribe or request complete profile deletion.
- User Profiles: For registered users (if any), personal information submitted in user profiles is stored until the account is deleted. Users can view, edit, or delete their profile information at any time (usernames cannot be changed).
7. International Data Transfers
Because our hosting infrastructure, analytics, and third-party delivery services (including Google, Stripe, and global CDN networks) maintain distributed infrastructure, data collected through this website may be transferred, stored, and processed outside the European Economic Area (EEA) or your home country.
Where international data transfers take place, we rely on established cross-border transfer mechanisms, including European Commission adequacy decisions, EU Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs), and service provider compliance certifications to ensure equivalent data protection standards.
8. Data Security and Breach Procedures
We deploy standard administrative, technical, and physical safeguards—including SSL/TLS encrypted transmission, firewall monitoring, and limited administrative access controls—to protect your personal information against unauthorized disclosure, alteration, or theft.
In the unlikely event of a verified data breach that compromises personal data, we will review the incident immediately, implement corrective security measures, and notify affected users and relevant supervisory authorities where mandated by applicable data protection laws.
9. Automated Profiling
We do not perform automated credit scoring, behavioural targeting, algorithmic profiling, or automated decision-making that produces legal or significant personal effects on visitors.
10. Your Rights
Under applicable data privacy regulations (such as the GDPR and UK Data Protection Act), you hold specific rights regarding your personal records:
- The right to request an exported copy of the personal information we hold about you.
- The right to request rectification of inaccurate personal details or public contributor attributions.
- The right to request the permanent erasure of your personal data, comments, or form submissions (excluding data we are legally, administratively, or securely obligated to retain).
- The right to withdraw consent for email communications at any time via the unsubscribe link in any email.
11. Children’s Privacy
This website is not directed toward children under 13 years of age, and we do not knowingly solicit or collect personal identifiable information from children.
12. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy periodically to reflect site updates, plugin integrations, or regulatory adjustments. Any modifications will be posted directly to this page with an updated revision date.
13. Contact Information
If you have any questions regarding this Privacy Policy, wish to exercise your data rights, or need assistance updating your submission credits, please submit an inquiry through our website’s contact form.
