Privacy Policy

In Plain English: We collect minimal data, use it only for providing your services, and never sell it to third parties. Your content remains yours.

Who We Are

Hippynet Broadcast Technologies Ltd is the data controller for the personal data described in this policy. We are registered in England and Wales, company number 13002883, and our registered office is 128 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX.

1. Information We Collect

When you sign up for Hippynet services, we collect:

Account information: Name, email address, billing address
Payment information: Processed securely by our payment providers (we don't store card details)
Service usage data: Listener counts, bandwidth usage, storage usage (to operate your services)
Support communications: Tickets, emails, chat logs (to provide support)

1a. The Hippynet Encoder app

If you install the Hippynet Encoder on a computer and sign it in to your account, it sends us:

Sign-in records: which account and service the computer is signed in to, when, and the staff member or event that signed it out
Computer details: the computer’s name, operating system, app version and update channel, and the IP address it connects from
Stream status: whether it is on air, connection state, audio levels and silence alerts, the audio device in use, and events such as reconnections and errors
Diagnostic logs (only while “Share logs with Hippynet support” is turned on): the app’s technical log, which can include the computer name and now-playing text but never your passwords

The app does not record or send us your audio other than the stream you choose to broadcast to your own service. You can turn off log sharing at any time in the app’s settings; status and sign-in information is still needed to run and support the service.

2. How We Use Your Information

Provide and maintain your streaming services
Process payments and send invoices
Provide technical support
Send service notifications (downtime, maintenance, renewals)
Improve our infrastructure and services
Monitor encoders signed in to your services, alert you to problems and help our support staff diagnose them

Our lawful bases under UK GDPR are:

Contract: to provide, bill for and support the services you ordered, including running and monitoring the Hippynet Encoder
Legitimate interests: to diagnose faults, keep our systems secure, prevent abuse and improve our services (including diagnostic logs)
Legal obligation: to keep accounting records and respond to lawful requests from authorities

3. Your Content & Ownership

You own your content. We're infrastructure providers, not a platform:

We don't claim rights to your broadcasts, podcasts, or audio content
We don't monetize your content
You control what gets published, archived, or deleted
We're just storing and distributing it for you

4. Data Sharing

We do not sell your personal information. We share data only when:

Required by UK law or legal process
Necessary for payment processing (with our payment providers)
With suppliers who host or store data for us under data processing agreements, such as our server hosts and cloud storage providers
You explicitly request it (e.g., migration to another provider)

4a. Where Your Data Is Stored

Our Hippynet Encoder service runs on servers in Germany (Hetzner). Encoder diagnostic logs are stored with Backblaze in the United States. Where personal data is transferred outside the UK, we rely on the UK International Data Transfer Addendum or another safeguard recognised under UK GDPR. Contact us for details.

5. Data Retention

We retain your account and billing data for as long as you're an active customer, plus 6 years for accounting and legal purposes (HMRC requirements). Your broadcast content follows the retention period you've selected (AutoPod plans, stream archives, etc.).

Hippynet Encoder data is kept for shorter periods: diagnostic logs for 90 days; a computer’s status, events and logs for 90 days after it is signed out; and records of staff and automatic actions on your account (our audit trail) for 1 year.

6. Your Rights (GDPR)

Under UK GDPR, you have the right to:

Access your personal data
Correct inaccurate data
Request deletion (subject to legal retention requirements)
Export your data
Object to processing, including processing based on our legitimate interests
Complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk

7. Security

We implement industry-standard security measures including encrypted connections, secure datacenters, regular backups, and access controls. However, no system is 100% secure - we can't guarantee absolute security.

8. Contact

Questions about this privacy policy? Contact us:
Email: privacy@hippynet.co.uk
Phone: 0800 520 0073
Address: Hippynet Broadcast Technologies Ltd, Unit 7758, PO Box 7169, Poole, BH15 9EL
Registered office: 128 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX. Company number 13002883.