Privacy policy
Choose The Stickman is a small interactive story series run by one person in Australia. This policy explains what information the tool behind the account handles, why, and how you can have it removed. It is written to be read, so it is short.
What the tool does
The tool publishes a short video each day to the Instagram account @choose.the.stickman and the YouTube channel @Choosethestickman. It uses the Instagram API and the YouTube API Services to post videos and comments on those accounts, and it reads the public comments on those posts to count votes.
Information we handle
- Comments on our own posts and videos: the comment text, the commenter username or YouTube channel name, the number of likes on the comment, and the time it was posted.
- Public profile picture: for the one commenter chosen each part, the profile picture that is already public on their Instagram or YouTube profile.
- Our own account data: access tokens that let the tool post to our Instagram account and YouTube channel. It is stored only on the operator’s computer and never shared.
We do not collect your email, phone number, location, messages, contacts or payment details. We do not read private accounts or direct messages. This website uses no cookies or analytics.
What we use it for
- Counting the A and B votes in the comments to decide what happens in the next part of the story.
- Choosing one commenter from the winning side, usually the comment with the most likes, so their username and public profile picture can appear in the next video, and sometimes in the caption.
We do not sell your information, use it for advertising, build profiles of people, or make decisions about you beyond who appears in the story.
How long we keep it
- Raw comment data is used to count the votes and is then deleted from the tool within 7 days. We keep only the vote totals and the name of the chosen commenter.
- A commenter who appears in a published video stays in that video unless they ask us to remove them (see below).
Who else sees it
The comments are public on Instagram. A chosen commenter’s username may be written in the story script, which is sent to a text-to-speech service (fal.ai) to create the narrator voice, and the finished video is published on Instagram by Meta. We use no other third parties.
YouTube API Services
The tool uses YouTube API Services. By using it you are also bound by the YouTube Terms of Service, and your use of YouTube is covered by the Google Privacy Policy. We only read comments on our own channel’s videos and only upload videos to our own channel. You can revoke the tool’s access to a Google account at any time in the Google security settings.
Your choices
You can ask us at any time to remove you from a video or to delete any information we hold about you. See how to have your data removed. You can also avoid appearing by not commenting, by making your account private, or by deleting your comment.
Australian law
We handle personal information in line with the Australian Privacy Principles in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). If you are not happy with how we handled a request, contact us first. You may also contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (oaic.gov.au).
Changes
If we change this policy we will update the date above.
Contact
Email thebluesqud@gmail.com or message @choose.the.stickman on Instagram.