LegalPrivacy

Privacy policy

Last updated: 5 November 2026

This policy covers Motion's apps, Motion Hub, Learn, the forum and this site: what we collect, why, who else sees it, how long we keep it, and what you can do about it.

Who we are

Motion is run by Motionlive ("Motionlive", "we"). We decide how your data is used: in the GDPR's words, we're the controller.

• Privacy questions and requests: privacy@motionlive.io.
• We don't have a data protection officer, as the law doesn't require one for us. Write to privacy@motionlive.io instead.

The short version

• We don't sell your data or share it for advertising. No ads, no analytics companies, and no tracking across sites.
• We keep what we need to run your account, your purchases and what you share.
• Crash reports are sent only if you say so, and diagnostics only if you turn them on. Neither carries your name or account.
• Sensor readings are always encrypted on your device. Neither we nor our relay can read them.
• We count some things as totals that name no one. Small groups are hidden.
• You can download your data or delete your account at any time.

What we collect

Your account. Your name (public), your email (private) and your password, which we store only as a scrambled hash. If you sign in with Discord, Google or Steam, we get your id there, your name and, if they've confirmed it, your email. If you fill in your profile (display name, bio, links, picture), that's public too. We keep your settings, like your language, your notifications and which content ratings you want to see. If you turn on two-step sign-in, we keep its secret and your recovery codes, scrambled.

Your date of birth, if you give it. It's optional and never shown to anyone. If you're under 18, we show you only scenes rated Everyone. It will also be used to check you're 18 or older before you can take tips, once tips open.

What you share. Scenes, comments, collections you make public, likes, ratings, follows and badges are public. Your library and private collections are yours alone. Reports you make are seen only by moderators.

Learn and the docs. If you're signed in, we keep your progress through tutorials and courses, the pages you've read, bookmarks, notes, questions, your answers to checks, and whether a page helped. Comments, likes and tutorials you publish are public. Ticked steps are also kept in your browser.

Purchases. Buying direct goes through Stripe's checkout, with Link (a Stripe company) as the seller. They handle your payment details: we never see your card number. We get what you bought, your email, billing country and what you paid, and we tell Stripe your account id so the purchase reaches your account. On Steam, we check with Steam that your Steam account owns Motion. On Google Play, we check your purchase with Google, and the app tells Google your Motion Hub account id so the purchase can be matched to you. Orders made through Paddle before 31 October 2026 are kept only as history.

Devices. For each computer or phone using your copy of Motion, we keep a random device id, the device's name (your computer's name, or your phone's model), its system and when it was last seen. That's how you see and manage your devices. There's no device limit. Removing a device signs it out until it signs in again.

What the apps ask the Hub. When you're signed in, Motion's apps call Motion Hub with your sign-in: to renew your licence (about once a day), to check for updates (about once a day, direct builds only; you can turn this off), to fetch the list of taken-down scenes, and to keep your device keys and sensor shares up to date. Those calls tell us your account, the device and its IP address, as any website visit does.

Weather. If a scene shows the weather, your device asks Open-Meteo directly for the forecast, sending the place you chose, rounded to about 10 km, or the name you typed. We don't see it.

Sensors. You can send readings from your phone or watch (such as steps, heart rate, movement and light) to your wallpapers through our relay.

• Readings are always encrypted on the device that sends them, and only devices with the token's keys can read them: yours, and those of people you share with. Our relay passes them along without being able to read them, and the Hub never sees them. We keep no readings.
• The relay sees which token is used, from which IP address, when and how much. For each token we keep a log of its last 500 events and the addresses it was used from, so you can spot misuse. The addresses are deleted after 90 days, or sooner if you revoke the token.

Crash reports and diagnostics. After a crash, Motion asks before sending a report, and shows you what's in it. Reports don't carry your name, account or IP address, and Motion takes your user name, folders and scene names out first. They do include what you choose to add: a note, the scene, or a picture of Motion's window, which might show your name if it's on screen. Diagnostics are off unless you turn them on; they carry a random id that changes every 30 days. What's in each report has the details.

Security. Like any website, we see IP addresses. We use them only to keep accounts safe and stop abuse. We keep the address and browser of each signed-in session until it ends (at most 30 days), and addresses used for rate limits for a day. We keep a scrambled mark of each browser you've signed in with for a year, so we can warn you about a sign-in from somewhere new. Our hosts also show us rough totals of which countries visitors come from.

Emails. We send emails about your account (confirming your address, password resets, security warnings), about purchases, moderation and copyright, and the notifications you choose. We don't send marketing or newsletters. We keep a copy of each email for 30 days, to check it was delivered.

The forum. You sign in through Motion Hub, which tells the forum your account id, name, confirmed email, picture and role. What you post there is public. The forum keeps the IP addresses you use it from, to fight spam, for 90 days.

Reports, appeals and copyright notices. If you report something without an account, we keep the email you give only until we've told you the outcome. Appeals keep what you write and send. A copyright notice or counter-notice keeps the name, address, phone, email and signature in it, and the law has us send them to the other side.

What we count

We count a few things as totals, to see how Motion is doing. No analytics company is involved, nothing follows you to other sites, and there are no ads.

What the totals come from. Only things people chose to do, and diagnostics people turned on:

• orders, refunds and chargebacks, and what was paid (direct purchases only), and how many Steam accounts were linked to the Hub;
• how many times the Get Motion page was opened, checkouts were started and builds were downloaded. These are plain counts, with no cookie or id;
• scenes and versions published, people who published, downloads, opens, likes, comments, follows, new accounts, and reports with how long they took to decide;
• docs pages read through the Hub, searches and addresses that found nothing, and how many people said a page helped;
• from diagnostics, if they're on: how many computers sent them each day, their Motion version, system and graphics card maker, how often each program started and crashed, how long frames and starting took, and which features were used;
• from crash reports: how many came in, by program, version, system and graphics card maker.

What's never in them. Names, emails, account ids, IP addresses, scene names, or anything anyone wrote.

How small groups are hidden. Any group of fewer than 10 computers, reports or orders goes into "other", and if "other" is still under 10, the next smallest group joins it, so nobody can work out a small group by taking one total from another. A share, like how many sessions didn't crash, needs at least 30 behind it. Countries and graphics card makers are only counted by month. Kinds of report aren't split out under 5.

Where they're kept. In Motion Hub's own database, in a part of their own that our dashboards read with a login that can only read them. Totals from diagnostics and crash reports are deleted after 90 days, like the reports themselves. Other totals are kept, since they say nothing about anyone.

Support links and Patreon

Links you add to your profile are public. If you link Patreon, we keep only your Patreon id and which memberships are active, to show supporter perks. Unlinking deletes it.

Cookies and browser storage

We only use cookies and storage that Motion needs to work, or that keep a choice you made. There are no advertising, analytics or tracking cookies, so we don't ask you to accept any. Stripe sets its own cookies on its checkout page.

The site and the Hub also keep a few things in your browser's own storage: your look and language, your last few searches, ticked steps in Learn, and unsaved drafts. They stay in your browser. The forum sets its own cookies to keep you signed in there.

Why we use it, and our legal reasons

Where we rely on a legitimate interest, you can object, and we'll stop unless our reason outweighs yours.

Things that happen automatically

Some things on Motion Hub happen automatically, by fixed rules: a new account's comments or first scene can wait for a moderator, and so can a comment with a word its scene's maker chose; links need an account with some history; uploads that fail the format checks are refused; a third copyright strike closes an account; and a refund or chargeback ends the licence it paid for. None of these is a judgement a computer makes about you, and you can appeal the ones that affect you, as the Terms say.

Who else handles your data

We use these companies to run Motion. They handle your data only to do that for us, under contract:

• Cloudflare: our network, file storage and backups.
• Resend: sending email.
• Grafana Labs: our dashboards, which read only the totals above.
• Discord, Google, Steam and Patreon: signing in and linking accounts, when you choose them.

Some companies handle your data under their own policies, not ours:

• Stripe and Link (a Stripe company), who sell direct orders and handle payment, under Stripe's privacy policy.
• Valve (Steam) and Google (Google Play), for purchases made there. Google's Play Billing library in the app also sends Google its own diagnostics.
• Open-Meteo, for weather, as above.

We may also share data when the law requires it. For example, copyright notices go to the person they concern, and content that exploits children is reported to the authorities. If Motion is ever sold or merged, your data would pass to the new owner, under this policy.

Data outside your country

We're in the United States, and so are our servers. If you're in the EU, the UK or elsewhere, your data goes to the United States. Where the law asks, those transfers are covered by safeguards such as the EU's standard contractual clauses and the UK's addendum to them, or the EU-US Data Privacy Framework where a company has joined it. Write to us for a copy.

How long things are kept

Deleting your account removes your profile, scenes, comments on scenes and tutorials, collections, library, devices, tokens, and Learn progress and likes, and makes your forum account anonymous. Some things stay, without your account on them: purchase records; reports, decisions and appeals, and the record of what moderators did, which no longer gives your name or email; a scene taken down for breaking the rules, credited to "a former member"; comments you left on the wording of docs pages and tutorials, and changes you made to them, also credited to "a former member"; and copies of emails already sent, for 30 days.

Your choices and rights

On your account page you can download your data, change your details, sign out of other devices, and delete your account. The download has what you gave us and what you did on Motion Hub, including what you paid for your purchases, the emails we sent you that we still keep, your appeals and what you sent with them, and the addresses your sensor tokens were used from. For anything else we hold about you, write to us.

Wherever you live, you can ask us to:

• tell you what we hold about you, and give you a copy;
• correct it;
• delete it;
• stop or limit using it, or object to how it's used;
• give it to you in a form you can take elsewhere;
• withdraw a consent you gave.

Write to privacy@motionlive.io. We may need to check it's you. We answer within a month, as the law asks, and tell you if we need longer. If the law has us keep something, we'll tell you that's why we can't delete it.

In the EU and UK you can also complain to your data protection authority. In the UK that's the ICO.

In California and other US states with privacy laws: we collect the kinds of data above (identifiers such as your name, email and IP address; purchase records; what you post; device and usage information; and, if you give it, your date of birth), from you, your devices and the services you link. We use them only for the reasons above. We don't sell your personal information or share it for cross-context advertising, and we don't use sensitive data to profile you. You can ask to know, correct or delete what we hold, and someone you authorise can ask for you. We won't treat you differently for asking. If we turn a request down, you can ask us to think again by replying to us.

On your devices

Motion keeps your scenes and settings on your device. Uninstalling on Windows or Linux leaves them in place, so you don't lose your work; delete Motion's folders if you want them gone. On Android, uninstalling removes them, but Android's own backup may keep a copy of your settings in your Google account until you delete it there. Your sign-in and licence are never backed up.

Motion for Android uses sound and your calendar only for scenes that react to them, and Motion never sends them anywhere. Your calendar is never given to a scene that can reach the internet. A scene you've allowed to reach a website can see the music's levels and what's playing.

Children

Motion Hub, Learn and the forum aren't for children under 13, or under the age of digital consent where they live (up to 16 in some EU countries). We don't knowingly collect data from them. If you think a child under that age has an account, write to privacy@motionlive.io and we'll delete it.

Changes

If this policy changes, the new version goes up here with its date. For big changes, we'll tell you first on Motion Hub or by email.

Contact

privacy@motionlive.io. See also the Terms and Contact.