AnimeHQ · Policies · Effective 2026-11-02
Privacy notice
Operator and scope
AnimeHQ is operated by an individual based in Illinois, United States. This notice covers the website's account, community, article, discovery, watchlist, and support features. Use Contact for privacy requests. You do not need an account to make an inquiry.
Information used by the site
Accounts: email address, display name, password hash for local accounts, sign-in identifiers, and profile information you choose to provide. Email and passwords are not public profile fields.
Eligibility: registration checks whether you meet the 16+ membership rule. The application does not save your entered birth date on your account. It records the minimum-age confirmation, policy version, and acceptance time. An unsuccessful check temporarily prevents another attempt in the same session.
Community: profiles, posts, comments, images, follows, blocks, reactions, private messages, notifications, and moderation reports. Visibility depends on the relevant profile, space, and content permissions. Public material may be indexed or copied by others. Staff can review reported material; operators with database access can access stored records. Private messages are not end-to-end encrypted.
Technical records: sessions, cookies, request/security logs, IP addresses and browser information processed by the hosting, email, and security systems. These support sign-in, fraud prevention, troubleshooting, and delivery.
Discord and AniList
Discord authentication provides the identity and profile information needed to create or connect your membership, such as the provider identifier, username, avatar, and email where supplied. The site maps the identity to your account; the Discord sign-in integration does not retain provider access or refresh tokens.
AniList is optional and separate from Discord sign-in. When you connect it, AnimeHQ stores your AniList identity, an encrypted authorization token, its expiry, and an encrypted snapshot of your connected list. The site reads list information and sends status or episode updates when you explicitly save them. AniList authorization can grant broader account permissions than the features AnimeHQ uses. Disconnecting removes the local connection and cached private list; you can revoke authorization in AniList settings.
Catalogue descriptions and artwork can come from AniList or local editorial records. Loading remotely hosted artwork communicates your connection information to that host. These providers operate under their own privacy policies.
Email and bot protection
Account setup, password recovery, support access, and service notifications use the site's configured mail server. Email delivery involves your address, delivery metadata, and the contents of the relevant notification. Setup and ticket access links are secrets; do not forward them.
Cloudflare Turnstile protects sensitive forms. It processes technical signals to distinguish people from automated traffic. See Cloudflare's Turnstile Privacy Addendum and Privacy Policy.
Support inquiries
Tickets may contain your email, category, subject, conversation, and information you voluntarily submit. Authorized staff use them to respond, investigate reports, verify requests, and resolve issues. Sensitive categories have additional permission restrictions.
Ticket email addresses, subjects, and message bodies are encrypted in storage; internal notes are excluded from requester pages. Notifications contain a reference and access instructions rather than conversation text. A single-use access link grants access to that ticket. Do not include passwords, provider tokens, payment-card details, or identity documents unless a safe, necessary verification method has been agreed separately.
Unverified tickets normally expire after 7 days. Resolved or closed tickets normally expire 180 days after closure. An appropriate retention hold can pause deletion; open tickets remain until resolved or closed. Configured limits and backup retention may differ, and copies in backups persist until those backups rotate out.
Purposes and disclosures
Information is used to operate features you request, secure the site, deliver email, moderate content, handle inquiries, and comply with applicable obligations. Authorized operators and staff access information relevant to their duties. Hosting, mail, authentication, catalogue, and security providers receive information needed for their services. Information may also be disclosed when legally required or reasonably necessary to address serious misuse or protect rights.
AnimeHQ does not currently run advertising, optional analytics, affiliate promotions, donations, or paid features. This does not remove the technical processing used for hosting, security, authentication, mail, and the features described above.
This notice does not authorize unrelated advertising or marketing uses of private messages, private watchlists, or support conversations. Additional optional tracking or commercial features require an appropriate disclosure and any legally required choices before use.
Retention and your choices
Account and community information is retained while needed to operate the service. Hiding content is not necessarily deletion. Moderation evidence, security records, and limited records needed to resolve disputes may remain after removal. Backup copies are not immediately erased when a live record is deleted.
You can edit available profile settings, disconnect AniList, and request access, correction, account deletion, or other applicable privacy rights through Contact. We may request proportionate ownership verification and explain any applicable restriction. Do not send sensitive identity documents with an initial request.
Services and providers may process information in the United States or other countries. Legal protections may differ. Contact us about applicable rights; this notice does not limit mandatory protections.
Children, security, and changes
Membership is intended for people aged 16 and older. If you believe someone below that age has provided personal information, use Contact so the operator can investigate and handle the information appropriately. A parent or guardian can make a request without creating an account.
Access controls, encrypted credentials, password hashes, and other safeguards reduce risk, but no system guarantees complete security. Significant changes to this notice will receive an updated version and appropriate notice.
Videos in articles
Articles may link to YouTube videos. The embedded player is loaded only after you choose “Load YouTube video.” Loading it connects your browser to YouTube and related Google services, which may process your IP address, browser information, playback activity, and storage under their own policies. The player uses YouTube’s privacy-enhanced domain; this does not mean anonymous playback or no data processing. You can leave it unloaded or use the external watch link instead. See YouTube’s privacy information.
Current support limits: unverified tickets 7 days; closed tickets 180 days, subject to holds and backups.