We collect information to provide and improve FameForecast services. The types of information we may collect include:

• Personal Information: When you register an account, we collect your username, email address, and a hashed version of your password. If you register via Google, we may collect your Google email and name.
• Prediction Data: Information related to your predictions, such as the artists/creators you predict, your FamePasses and Token usage, and competition participation details.
• Usage Data: We collect data about how you interact with FameForecast, including pages visited, features used, search queries, and timestamps.
• Device Information: Details about your device, such as IP address, browser type, operating system, and mobile device identifiers.
• Third-Party Data: When you search for artists on Spotify, Twitch, or YouTube, we collect data from these platforms (e.g., artist names, follower counts) via their APIs to display on FameForecast.

We use your information to operate and enhance FameForecast, including:

• Providing Services: To create and manage your account, process predictions, award FamePoints, and facilitate FamePass/Token transactions.
• Personalization: To tailor your experience, such as recommending artists or competitions based on your activity.
• Analytics: To analyze usage trends, improve our platform, and ensure functionality (e.g., tracking prediction accuracy).
• Communication: To send you updates, notifications about your predictions or account, and respond to inquiries via email (e.g., forecastfame@gmail.com).
• Legal Compliance: To comply with applicable laws, regulations, or legal requests.

We do not sell your personal information. We may share your information as follows:

• Third-Party Platforms: When you search for artists, we query APIs from Spotify, Twitch, and YouTube, sharing only necessary data (e.g., search queries) with these services to retrieve artist information. These platforms have their own privacy policies.
• Service Providers: With trusted third-party providers (e.g., payment processors like PayPal for FamePass purchases) who assist in operating FameForecast, under strict confidentiality agreements.
• Legal Requirements: If required by law, regulation, or legal process (e.g., court order), or to protect the rights, property, or safety of FameForecast, our users, or others.
• Aggregated Data: We may share anonymized, aggregated data (e.g., prediction trends) for analytics or marketing purposes, ensuring no individual identification.

We use cookies and similar technologies (e.g., local storage) to enhance your experience:

• Essential Cookies: To maintain your session, remember your login status, and ensure FameForecast functions properly.
• Analytics Cookies: To track usage patterns and improve our platform (e.g., which artists are most predicted).
• Preference Cookies: To save your settings or preferences.

You can manage cookies through your browser settings, but disabling essential cookies may limit FameForecast functionality.

FamePasses and Tokens are virtual items unique to FameForecast. We collect and store data about your transactions and usage:

• Purchase Data: When you buy FamePasses via PayPal, we record the transaction amount, date, and user ID, but we do not store your full payment details—those are handled by PayPal under their privacy policy.
• Usage Data: We track how you use FamePasses and Tokens in predictions or competitions to award FamePoints and manage your account balance.

This data helps us ensure fair play, prevent fraud, and enhance your experience, but it’s not shared with third parties beyond necessary service providers (e.g., PayPal).

FameForecast integrates with Spotify, Twitch, and YouTube to provide artist/creator data:

• Data Retrieval: When you search for artists, we send your query to these platforms’ APIs and receive public data (e.g., artist names, follower counts, images). We don’t access your personal accounts on these platforms unless you use Google OAuth for registration/login.
• Third-Party Policies: Data from these platforms is governed by their respective privacy policies (Spotify, Twitch, YouTube). We only use this data to display predictions and stats within FameForecast.

You have control over your information:

• Account Management: Update your profile or delete your account by contacting us at forecastfame@gmail.com.
• Cookies: Adjust your browser settings to refuse cookies or be notified when they’re set.
• Communications: Opt out of non-essential emails by clicking "unsubscribe" in our messages or contacting support.

We take reasonable measures to protect your information from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure, including encryption (e.g., hashed passwords) and secure servers. However, no method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

In the event of a data breach, we will notify affected users as required by applicable law and take steps to mitigate harm.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Changes will be posted on this page with an updated "Effective Date" (see below). Your continued use of FameForecast after changes are posted constitutes acceptance of the revised policy. We encourage you to review this policy periodically.

If you have questions, concerns, or requests regarding your privacy or this policy, please contact us at forecastfame@gmail.com.