Privacy

Company & website privacy.

Effective date: 1 November 2026. This notice explains how The Amateur Limited uses personal data on theamateur.co.uk, including Shoot Plan and your customer account. Each of our apps has its own privacy notice.

This website

We do not use advertising cookies or cross-site advertising trackers. Standard internet infrastructure necessarily processes information such as IP addresses and request metadata in order to deliver pages, maintain security and diagnose faults.

Cookies and analytics

We use only essential first-party cookies:

• ta_privacy_choice remembers whether you accepted or rejected optional analytics. It lasts about six months unless you remove it sooner.
• __Host-avs_session is set only if you sign in. It keeps you signed in and protects your account. It ends when you sign out, or after 12 hours.

Neither is used for advertising or profiling.

We also keep a copy of that one answer in your browser’s local storage on that device, so the banner still works if your browser refuses cookies. It’s only your answer, it’s never sent to us, and it ends with the cookie after about six months. Clearing your browsing data removes both.

If you choose a light or dark theme, your choice is saved only in your browser on that device.

If you tick items on the example plan, your ticks are saved only in your browser on that device.

If you’re signed in and save a theme in Account, it’s saved to your account so it follows you to other devices.

Visit counts. Our web server counts visits to the site’s pages, without cookies or scripts, so we can see how many people, search engines and AI tools visit. For each page request it passes the page address (without anything after a question mark), the referring site, your browser’s description and your IP address to a counting service we run on the same server. That service keeps only the time, the page, the name of the referring site, whether the visit came from a person or an automated tool such as a search engine or AI crawler, and your device type, browser and operating system names. Your IP address and browser description are turned into a scrambled visit reference using a key we delete at the end of each day, so the reference can’t be linked back to you or across days, and a scrambled reference to your network under the same daily key, which lets us leave out our own visits. We don’t store your IP address. Sign-in and account pages aren’t counted.

If you choose Accept analytics, we load Umami, an analytics tool we run on our own servers, to see how the site is used. It works without cookies and doesn’t store your IP address: the address is combined with your browser details and turned into a scrambled (hashed) visit reference that changes regularly. It records the page, the referring site, your browser, operating system, device type, screen size, language, approximate location and visit timing. Umami isn’t used for cross-site tracking. If your browser sends a Do Not Track signal, Umami doesn’t record your visit. If you reject optional analytics, the analytics script isn’t loaded.

You can change your choice at any time using the Cookie settings button at the bottom of the page.

Customer sign-in and the video service

Your Shoot Plan account. Your account is created the first time you sign in with Google, and only while we’re accepting new accounts. There’s no separate sign-up form. We receive your name, email address and a Google account ID from Google. We don’t store Google access or refresh tokens in your browser. Shoot Plan accounts are for people aged 18 or over.

If you add a password, it’s stored only in a scrambled (hashed) form that we can’t read back. To protect your account, we keep records of your sign-in sessions and of security events such as sign-ins and password changes. After too many failed password attempts, password sign-in for that email address pauses for 15 minutes. When you accept our Terms of Service or Acceptable Use Policy, we keep a record of which version you accepted, when, and where in your account, so we can show what you agreed to.

Assistants you connect. If you connect an assistant to your account, we keep a record of each connection key: when it was made and last used. The key is shown to you once and then kept only in a form we can't read back. You can revoke it at any time. When your assistant asks for one of your plans or a tool result, we send it to the assistant you connected. Its provider decides how it uses that information under its own terms, and may hold it outside the UK. We don't control that, and revoking the key doesn't delete what the assistant already has.

Shot plan tools. When you or your assistant use the shot-plan tools (drafting, checking, take logs, coverage, call sheets and shoot-day packs, summaries, slices, version comparisons, recorded decisions and edit export), what you send is used only to answer that call, and we don't keep it. That can include a brief, a plan, take logs and, for an edit, the folder name of your footage. A decision you record is sent back to your assistant in a log for it to keep; we don't store it. For each call we log a one-way fingerprint (hash) of the document, its size, the tool, the type of client, the result and the time taken. The engine that runs the tools logs only the address called, the result, any error code, the time taken, the sizes and the same fingerprint. To apply rate limits we hold your connection key, or a scrambled form of your IP address for the public tools, in memory only. No AI model is used. These tools need a Shoot Plan account.

Free use. To apply the free monthly allowance, we record each project your account uses in a calendar month. The record holds a one-way fingerprint (hash) of the project's ID and title, the month, when the project was first used and how many documents were made for it, but not the plan. When you first set up your account, we ask which country you live in, so we know which email choice applies to you.

Paying for a plan. Card payments are handled by our payment provider, Stripe. At checkout Stripe asks for your billing address. We receive payment status and the details needed for orders, refunds and accounting; we don't store your full card number. Stripe also uses some payment data for its own purposes, such as preventing fraud. We can sell only to buyers in the countries listed in section 3 of our Terms, so before we take a payment we check the country you choose in your basket, the country of your billing address and the country where your card was issued. If any of them is outside those countries, the order is refused automatically and you aren't charged, or you're refunded in full. We keep only those countries, not your full address, with the order record.

Prize codes. If we give you a plan as a prize, we keep a record of the prize code: the plan it gives, when it was issued and when it expires, a short note of who it was for (for example the competition and a team or winner name), and when and by which account it was redeemed. We use it to give you the plan, to stop a code being used twice, and to keep our accounts right, because a prize plan isn't a sale. If a competition organiser gives us a winner's name or email address so we can send a code, we use it only for that.

Customer working and delivery media is temporary website storage and is normally removed within 14 days of completion or final delivery. Download promptly. The detailed account of custody, retention and removal is the security, privacy and retention guide.

Any free-form revision request you send is automatically removed 14 days after the plan is created; wording sent after that point isn’t stored. The structured purchased plan, including the key moments, locations, field instructions and filming constraints needed to carry it out, and your on-location progress stay in your account so you can keep using the plan. Quote metadata and minimum payment/order records may be retained separately for accounting and legal obligations.

Shoot Plan also remembers where you were working in a plan — the plan, the view, the selected shot and filter — so you can continue where you left off. This is recorded for each signed-in device under a one-way reference, holds no text you typed. It is removed after 90 days. Field mode keeps the same details in your browser’s storage on that device, which signing out clears. Saved setups are created only when you choose to save one, keep only the parts of a plan you tick (for example key moments, place names, people labels, kit and format, never your private notes), and stay until you delete them; you can export or delete a setup at any time. A plan made from a setup or an earlier plan records which one it came from and a copy of what it was made from. Deleting a setup removes every version of it and the copies held by plans made from it; the plans themselves stay.

Productions. If you’ve paid for a Shoot Plan, you can also plan a whole production in your account. A production holds what you enter, including its title and outline, locations by name, the people in it by name and role only, equipment, shooting days, shots, notes, take markers, progress, the schedule, requirements, continuity, when people, places and equipment are available, decisions you record, and any reference images you upload. We keep every earlier version of a production, with a record of each change, so you can see its history. If you no longer have a paid Shoot Plan (for example, after a refund), you can still open, export and delete your productions, but you can’t change them. People have name and role fields, with no separate contact-detail fields, and there’s no footage upload. We store the text and reference images you enter, so please don’t put contact details, scripts or personal information you don’t need into them. Productions are kept in their own database on our server, separate from your other account data. Apart from the crew links described below, only you can open them, when you’re signed in; assistants you connect can’t. No AI model is used for productions. Hosting, backups and disclosures required by law are covered under “Who we share data with”. You control the crew links and downloads you share, and you must respect other people’s privacy and any copyright or licence restrictions.

People in your productions. The cast and crew names, roles and availability, and any reference photographs you add, are about other people. Before adding someone’s details or photograph, tell them what you’ll enter, why, who can see it and how long it stays, and give them this notice. If you use Shoot Plan as a data controller, you must also give them your own privacy information and have a lawful basis for using and sharing their data. If you’re named in someone’s production and have a question about it, email support@theamateur.co.uk.

Crew links. You can make a link that lets your crew read one shooting day’s call sheet, or one person’s part of it, without signing in. Anyone with the link can read that call sheet, including the production’s title, the day’s schedule, shots, locations, equipment and continuity notes, and people’s names and roles, but not your shot notes, take markers, progress, decisions or exports, until the link expires (after 1 to 30 days, as you choose) or you revoke it. Making a new link needs a paid Shoot Plan; after a refund, links you’ve already made keep working until they expire or you revoke them. We don’t keep the link itself: we store a scrambled (hashed) form of it and its first few characters, so you can tell your links apart, with when it was made, when it expires and when it was last opened. Revoking a link can’t recall copies someone has already saved or printed.

Plan share links. You can also share one of your Shoot Plans with a link. Anyone with the link can view the shared plan without signing in. These links have no automatic expiry; you can revoke them in your account. We keep a scrambled (hashed) form of the link, its first few characters, and when it was made, last opened and revoked.

Deleting a production. You can delete a production in your account at any time. You don’t need a paid Shoot Plan to do this, so you can still delete it after a refund. Deleting it removes the production and every earlier version, record of a change, note, take marker, reference image and crew link from our live database. Access ends straight away; if the erasure is delayed, it’s completed within 24 hours. It can’t be undone, so download an export first if you want to keep a copy. Copies already in our backups aren’t edited; they’re removed only as those backups are deleted (see the backups paragraph under “How long we keep your data”). After deletion, we keep a minimal erasure record: the production, account and operation identifiers, when it was removed and how many records were deleted. It records the deletion and stops the production being recreated, and holds no production text or reference images. We keep these records for 6 years after the deletion, review them every year, and then delete them.

Account emails. We email you an order confirmation when you buy a plan or redeem a prize code, and when your plan is ready, replies to your support requests, and notices about changes to our terms or this notice. These emails never include offers.

Emails about Shoot Plan. If you open a Shoot Plan account on or after 26 October 2026 and live in one of the countries where we sell Shoot Plan (listed in section 3 of our Terms), we may email you now and then about Shoot Plan: new tools, plans and offers. The law allows this for similar products once you've started using ours (the "soft opt-in"), and it is in our legitimate interests. You can say no when you open your account, and in every email. Everyone else, including accounts opened before 26 October 2026, gets these emails only if they tick the box to ask for them. We send news about our other work, such as AI Journalism, only if you tick the box for it. Every one of these emails has an unsubscribe link, and you don't need to sign in to use it. You can also change your choice in Account → Emails. You can object to marketing emails at any time, and we'll stop. We keep a record of each email choice you make: what you were shown, when, and where you made it. When you unsubscribe, we keep a scrambled (hashed) form of your email address on a do-not-email list so we don't email you again by mistake, even if you close your account. We don't track whether you open our emails or click their links. Resend sends these emails for us (see "Who we share data with").

Emails you send us. Emails sent to our addresses are received by our domain provider, Porkbun, which forwards them to our mailbox with Google. Both are in the United States. Google LLC is certified under the UK–US data bridge. Porkbun isn’t certified under it and forwards emails under its own terms.

Who we share data with

We don’t sell your personal data, and we don’t share it for advertising. These providers process it for us under contract:

• Stripe: card payments, refunds and receipts. Stripe also uses some data for its own purposes, such as preventing fraud (see “Paying for a plan”).
• Contabo: runs our servers in France.
• Resend: sends our emails.
• Backblaze: keeps encrypted off-site backups, in the United States.

We also use:

• Google, if you choose to sign in with Google, and for our mailbox;
• Porkbun, our domain provider, which forwards emails sent to our addresses.

Our visit counts and our analytics (Umami) run on our own servers, so they aren’t shared with an analytics company. We may also share data where the law requires it.

Transfers outside the UK. France is covered by UK adequacy regulations.

• Resend, our email provider, stores account data, including the addresses we send to and details of each email, in the United States. For this we rely on the UK Addendum to the EU standard contractual clauses in Resend’s data processing terms, and on Resend’s certification under the UK Extension to the EU–US Data Privacy Framework (the UK–US data bridge).
• Stripe transfers payment data to Stripe, LLC in the United States. For this we rely on Stripe, LLC’s certification under the UK–US data bridge.
• If you sign in with Google, Google LLC handles your sign-in as an independent organisation under its own privacy policy, including in the United States, and relies on its certification under the UK–US data bridge.
• Backblaze, Inc. keeps encrypted off-site backups of some of our systems in the United States (US East). For this we rely on Backblaze’s certification under the UK–US data bridge.

How long we keep your data

Closing your account. Ask us through Support in your account or by email. Once we’ve checked the request comes from you, we close the account and delete your Shoot Plans. Until then, your plans stay available. If we stop offering Shoot Plan, we close every account in the same way on the closing date (Terms of Service section 10A).

Productions. We keep a production, with every earlier version, until you delete it. When your account is closed, we delete your productions too, with their earlier versions, reference images and crew links. We do this only once the closure has gone through, so if closing the account fails, nothing is deleted. Access to them ends when the account closes; if the deletion is delayed, it’s completed within 24 hours. Copies in our backups are handled as described in the backups paragraph below.

Orders and payments. 6 years from the end of the financial year of the order, for tax and accounting.

Prize codes. We keep the record of a redeemed code for 6 years from the end of the financial year in which it was redeemed, for accounting. The note of who an unused code was for is deleted 12 months after the code expires. Automatic deletion isn't switched on yet; until it is, you can ask us to delete yours.

Support requests and emails to support@. We plan to keep these for 2 years after we close the request, or longer if needed for a legal claim. Automatic deletion isn’t switched on yet; until it is, you can ask us to delete yours.

Emails we send. We plan to keep the email itself for 30 days and a record that it was sent for 1 year. Automatic deletion isn’t switched on yet; until it is, you can ask us to delete yours.

Email choices. We keep the record of your email choices while your account is open and for 2 years after it closes, so we can show what you agreed to. The do-not-email list is kept for as long as we send marketing emails.

Agreements. We keep the record of which versions of our Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policy you accepted while your account is open and for 6 years after it closes, in case of a claim about our agreement.

Security records. We plan to keep these for 90 days. Automatic deletion isn’t switched on yet; until it is, you can ask us to delete yours.

Free-use records. Each month's project records are deleted 13 months after the end of that month, and when you close your account.

Server logs. We don't keep web access logs. Our servers' technical logs, including the shot-plan tool log lines, aren't yet limited in size or age.

Visit counts. Visit details are deleted after 31 days, and daily totals after about 13 months.

Analytics. We plan to keep these for 13 months. Automatic deletion isn’t switched on yet, so for now older statistics are kept as well. They don’t include your name, email address or IP address.

We keep backups so we can recover from faults. Backups of the customer database are kept on our servers in France. We also keep off-site backups of some of our systems. Older backups aren’t yet deleted on a fixed schedule, so data from a closed account can stay in backups for some time after the account is closed.

Who we are

The Amateur Limited is responsible for your personal data on this website and in Shoot Plan (we’re the “controller”). We’re a company registered in England and Wales, company number 17469492. Registered office: 101 High Street, Great Cambourne, Cambridge CB23 6FZ. For anything about your data, email support@theamateur.co.uk.

THE AMATEUR LIMITED is registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), registration number ZC266798.

Why we can use your data

To provide what you've asked for (your account, the free allowance, orders, prize plans, plans and support); to meet legal duties (order and payment records for tax, and records of your email choices); for our legitimate interests (keeping accounts secure, preventing misuse, counting visits, improving the service, and emailing people who've started using Shoot Plan about Shoot Plan under the soft opt-in), which you can object to; and with your consent (optional analytics, and marketing emails you've ticked a box to receive), which you can withdraw at any time with Cookie settings, the unsubscribe link in any email or Account → Emails.

Your rights

Under UK data protection law you can ask to see, correct or delete your personal data, limit or object to how we use it, take a copy with you, and withdraw consent. Email support@theamateur.co.uk or open Support in your account. It’s free. We may ask you to confirm who you are, and we’ll reply within one month.

Complaints

If you’re unhappy with how we’ve used your data, please tell us first. Email support@theamateur.co.uk with “Privacy complaint” in the subject, or, if you’re signed in, open Support and choose “Privacy complaint”. We’ll acknowledge your complaint within 30 days.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s data protection regulator: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or 0303 123 1113.

Email and support

If you email us, we receive your email address and whatever information you choose to include. We use it to answer your enquiry, provide support and keep appropriate business records. Please do not send passwords, payment details, PINs or personal information that is not needed for your request.

App privacy notices

• Clearway privacy policy
• Family Handoff privacy policy
• Marble Bloom privacy policy
• Exit Interview privacy policy
• SHE privacy policy

Changes to this notice

We review this notice regularly. When we change it, we update the effective date at the top of this page. If we plan to use your personal data in a new way, we'll tell you before we start, by email if you have an account. You can ask us for an earlier version of this notice at support@theamateur.co.uk.

Contact

Privacy questions can be sent to support@theamateur.co.uk.