What this site collects, and what happens to it.
Effective 25 September 2026. PickMyStream (pickmystream.com) is published by Artists & Robots, 205 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10013. In this policy “we” means Artists & Robots.
The short version
- You can use the whole site without an account. We never ask for your name.
- We set one cookie of our own for visitors, a random visitor id, so we can count visits and tell real clicks on Spectrum links from bots.
- Things you type or choose (a question to the concierge, your zip code, the streaming apps you pay for, a speed test) are stored in your own browser. They reach our servers, or the companies that help run the site, only when a feature needs them, as described below.
- Spectrum pays us when you click through to Spectrum. When you click, your browser goes to spectrum.com with a tag that says the visit came from PickMyStream and which button you used. We do not send Spectrum your visitor id, your IP address hash, or anything you typed here.
- We do not sell your personal information for money, and we do not run targeted advertising on the site.
- If your browser sends the Global Privacy Control signal, we do not load Google Analytics for your visit, and our servers send Analytics nothing about your Spectrum clicks.
What we collect, feature by feature
Browsing the site. When you load a page, our hosting provider’s servers receive your IP address, browser type, the page address and the page you came from, as every website’s servers do. Our hosting provider keeps those logs for about 30 days. We also use Google Analytics; see “Companies that receive information” below.
The concierge (the search box on Explore and on title pages). What you type is sent to our server and then to an AI model provider that generates the answer, along with: your zip code if you gave one; a short summary of your recent activity on this device (recent searches, titles you viewed, moods you picked, the streaming apps you told us you have); and, if you ran a speed test or described your household, your latest test and that description. Your conversation for the current tab is kept in your browser’s session storage and is cleared when the tab closes. On our side we keep the text of each question you start, without your visitor id or IP address, so we can see what people ask for, and a record of each answer’s length and quality checks, never the answer text. The AI model provider tells us it deletes inputs and outputs within 30 days by default, keeps them longer only when a conversation is flagged for a policy violation, and does not use them to train its models. We do not send what you type to Google Analytics as a search event. Analytics does record the address of each page you view; when you arrive at Explore through a link that carries a question in the address, Explore removes it from the address as it loads, but the address you arrived with may be recorded.
Tonight by zip. If you enter a zip code on the Tonight page, or ask the concierge what is on your channels, we send that zip code to our TV listings provider to look up lineups for your area. Your zip and chosen lineup are remembered in your browser so the page works next time. We do not store your zip on our servers, beyond the short-lived server logs described above.
Speed test and the planner. The speed test downloads test data from Cloudflare’s public speed test service directly from your browser, so Cloudflare receives your IP address (which Cloudflare says it truncates), an estimate of your location and your internet provider’s network number, and Cloudflare says it shares anonymized measurements with its measurement partners. Your results, and any household description you enter, are saved only in your browser (up to 20 tests) and are sent to the concierge only with a question you ask it. Nothing from the speed test is sent to our analytics.
My Apps and the Switch Score. The streaming services you say you pay for, the plan and the price you enter are saved in your browser. When you complete a Switch Score, we record the services you compared, what you told us you pay and the savings figures shown, without your visitor id or IP address, so we can see how the calculator is used.
Report a problem. The form on the About page sends us the page you name, your message and, only if you enter it, your email address so we can reply.
Spectrum links. Every link that sends you to Spectrum’s sales pages goes through our own address (/go/spectrum) before it reaches spectrum.com; the spectrum.net sign-in links for existing customers do not, and record nothing. At that moment we record the Spectrum page you were sent to, which button you used, your visitor id, your browser type, the referring page if your browser sends one, and a keyed one-way hash of your IP address combined with your browser type (made with a secret key we hold, so it cannot be reversed by trying every possible address). We use this record to invoice Spectrum honestly and to exclude bots and our own testers from the count. We never sell or share this record; the monthly summary Spectrum receives carries no identifiers.
Reviewer access. People we invite to review the site (our team and Spectrum’s) sign in with a work email address. We keep their email, the review pages they open and any QA notes or screenshots they file. This section does not apply to the public.
Cookies and storage on your device
| Name | Type | Set by | What it holds | How long |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| pms_vid | cookie | us | a random visitor id | 1 year |
| pms_access | cookie | us | a signed reviewer sign-in (reviewers only) | 7 days |
| _ga, _ga_8LFETV2YPH | cookies | Google Analytics | Google's visitor and session ids | up to 2 years (Google's default) |
| pms-concierge | session storage | us | your conversation in this tab | until the tab closes |
| pms-access | session storage | us | that you have unlocked the review overlay (reviewers only) | until the tab closes |
| streamfinder_taste | local storage | us | up to 50 recent searches, questions, titles viewed and moods picked, plus visit counts | until you clear it |
| streamfinder_apps | local storage | us | the streaming apps, plans and prices you entered | until you clear it |
| pms-guide | local storage | us | your zip code and chosen TV lineup | until you clear it |
| pms-speed-tests | local storage | us | your last 20 speed tests | until you clear it |
| pms-household | local storage | us | the screens and activities you described | until you clear it |
| YouTube cookies | cookies | YouTube | set only if you play a trailer | per YouTube's policy |
You can clear all of this in your browser’s settings. Blocking our cookie does not break the site.
Companies that receive information
| Who | What they receive | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Spectrum (Charter Communications) | your visit to spectrum.com, carrying a tag that the visit came from PickMyStream and which button you used; Spectrum's own servers see your IP address, as on any site you visit | the referral relationship that pays for the site |
| Google Analytics | page views (including the page address), scrolls and feature events, Google's cookies and your IP address, and a server-side event for each billable Spectrum click that carries your visitor id. When your browser sends Global Privacy Control, the Analytics tag is not loaded and the server-side click event is not sent. How Google uses this data: google.com/policies/privacy/partners | to understand how the site is used |
| TMDB (The Movie Database) and JustWatch | the search terms and titles our server looks up; your browser loads poster images directly from TMDB, so TMDB sees your IP address for those images | titles, cast, ratings and where a title streams (streaming availability data provided by JustWatch through TMDB) |
| TVmaze | our server asks for the day's schedule with no visitor data; your browser loads some show images directly from TVmaze, so TVmaze sees your IP address for those images | tonight's network schedule |
| TV Media | your zip code, sent by our server | channel lineups for your area |
| MDBList | the title id only, sent by our server | Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic, IMDb and Letterboxd scores |
| Cloudflare (speed test) | your IP address (which Cloudflare says it truncates), an estimate of your location and your network number, directly from your browser | the download that measures your speed |
| YouTube | your IP address and Google's cookies, only when you play a trailer | trailers |
| An AI model provider | your concierge messages and the context described above | to generate the concierge's answers |
| Our hosting, database and email providers | the data above, as processors on our behalf; email only for reviewer sign-in links | to run the site |
The concierge is an AI, not a person, and it can be wrong; check anything that matters against the service itself. We have no advertising networks on the site and we show no display ads.
How long we keep information
- Server logs at the hosting provider: about 30 days.
- Google Analytics: 14 months for event data, the retention period we set in Analytics.
- The concierge question text and feature events on our servers: these carry no visitor id or IP address. We have not yet set a deletion schedule for them; when we do, this policy will say so.
- Spectrum click records: kept as our billing ledger, including the IP hash and the visitor id. Clicks recorded before 25 September 2026 carry an unkeyed hash of the same values.
- Reports of a problem: 12 months after the problem is resolved.
- Reviewer sign-in and QA records: for as long as the review programme runs.
- With the AI model provider: up to 30 days by default; longer only if a conversation is flagged for a policy violation.
Selling, sharing and targeted advertising
We do not sell personal information for money. We do not share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising: our analytics does not use Google Signals, and we have no remarketing audiences on any platform.
Global Privacy Control and Do Not Track. If your browser sends the Global Privacy Control signal, we do not load Google Analytics for your visit, and our servers send Analytics nothing about your Spectrum clicks. The site does not currently respond to Do Not Track.
Your choices
- Clear the site’s storage and cookies in your browser at any time.
- Use the concierge without a zip code or without picking your apps; every feature has a path that asks for nothing.
- Opt out of Google Analytics across the web with Google’s browser add-on.
- Ask us what we hold, or ask us to delete or de-identify it, using the form on the About page. Because we do not hold your name or an account, tell us your visitor id (shown in your browser’s cookie list as pms_vid) if you want a record found. For the Spectrum click records we keep to invoice Spectrum, we remove the visitor id and IP hash from your rows rather than delete the rows.
Children
PickMyStream is a general-audience site for adults choosing what to watch. It is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. We do not ask anyone’s age. If you tell the concierge that you are choosing for children, it applies content-rating limits to its recommendations; that is a feature for parents, not a sign that a child is using the site. If you believe a child under 13 has given us personal information, tell us through the form on the About page and we will delete it.
Security
The site is served over HTTPS only. Reviewer sign-in cookies are marked HttpOnly and Secure. The visitor id cookie is a random value with no personal information in it. Secrets for the services above live in the hosting provider’s configuration, never in the site’s code.
Changes to this policy
We will post any change here with a new effective date. If a change means we would use information you already gave us in a materially different way, we will say so at the top of this page for 30 days.
Contact
Use the “Something wrong?” form on the About page; it reaches the people who run the site. Or write to Artists & Robots, 205 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10013. Our Terms of Use are the other half of this page.