Privacy policy.

Who we are

Community Aquarium is a shared livestream aquarium at communityaquarium.com. Viewers can create fish, take part in aquarium activities, and join community chat.

The service is operated by BajaRC Media in Los Angeles, CA, USA. For privacy questions or data requests, contact support@communityaquarium.com.

Information we use

• Your reef account: a public nickname, an account ID used by our service, IDs for your connected sign-in accounts, and account creation information. If you sign in with email, we also store your email address and verification records. Google and Twitch handle their own password entry; we do not receive those passwords.
• Your creations and activity: submitted artwork, fish names, creator names, review results, aquarium history, Aquarium Points activity, rewards, and saved action results.
• Chat: message text, public author name, source platform, message identifier, and time. Messages from the connected Twitch and YouTube streams may appear in the website’s shared conversation.
• Optional permission to post chat: when you connect Twitch or YouTube chat, we receive permission tokens (secret codes that let us post messages you send) and your platform account or channel ID. These access and refresh tokens are encrypted in our server database. They are not sent to your browser.
• Website operation: essential sign-in and verification cookies, your saved chat-channel preference, and operational information used to serve requests and diagnose failures. Vercel Web Analytics and Speed Insights are integrated to measure website usage and performance. See Vercel’s privacy explanation.

Why we use this information

We use this information to sign you in, connect your chosen accounts to one reef profile, display creations and chat, operate aquarium features, maintain rewards and transaction history, prevent duplicate actions, moderate public content, and troubleshoot the service.

Submitted artwork, names and public messages are checked against the aquarium rules. Depending on the configured provider, automated review runs locally or uses OpenAI. Hosted review sends the artwork, fish or creator names, or message text needed for that check to OpenAI. Automated checks can make mistakes; contact us about a problem.

Posting to Twitch or YouTube

Signing in does not let the website post as you. Connect chat asks for additional platform permission. After connecting, the message box shows the account and chat before you send. Choosing Website publishes your nickname and message here. When sharing is available, Milo relays them into connected live chats. Milo posts as the channel bot, not as your personal platform account. Messages from older website versions that did not request sharing stay on the website. When personal posting is available, choosing that platform sends your message to its aquarium stream under your authorized account and includes it in the website conversation.

Checking personal Twitch posting…Checking personal YouTube posting… The authorization practices below apply when you choose to connect an available platform.

Community Aquarium uses YouTube API Services. Google offers a broader YouTube permission than chat alone; we use that authorization to identify your channel, find the active stream’s chat, and send messages you submit. Our chat feature does not upload or delete videos, manage playlists, or subscribe on your behalf. Google’s practices are described in the Google Privacy Policy; YouTube use is also subject to the YouTube Terms of Service.

Google user data will be used and transferred in accordance with the Google API Services User Data Policy, including its Limited Use requirements. We will not sell this data or use it for personalized advertising.

Google user data: access, use and recipients

Google sign-in provides a Google account identifier so we can identify and link your reef profile. If you separately connect YouTube chat, we also access your YouTube channel identifier and public channel name, permission tokens, and the aquarium broadcast’s live-chat identifier. We use these to connect the correct channel and send messages you choose to submit. We retain message text, public author name, platform message identifiers, times and delivery receipts to display chat and prevent duplicate sends.

• Google / YouTube: receives the authorization requests and credentials needed to verify or refresh your permission, API requests identifying the channel or broadcast, and messages you explicitly send to YouTube. YouTube publishes those messages under your channel identity.
• Vercel and Cloudflare: process website requests and responses to host the site and connect it to our backend. This can include Google sign-in callback codes in transit, session information, chat text, and public channel information displayed by the website. Stored Google access and refresh tokens stay encrypted on the operator’s backend and are not returned to the website browser.
• Other viewers and livestream platforms: your public YouTube name and messages can appear in the shared website chat and the aquarium’s chat overlay broadcast on YouTube and Twitch. Viewers and those platforms can see or record that public content. Your Google sign-in identifier and authorization tokens are not displayed in public chat.
• Authorized Community Aquarium operators: can access information needed to run the service, moderate public content, resolve support requests, and carry out data requests. The aquarium database is stored on the operator’s backend machine.

We do not sell Google user data, disclose it to data brokers, or use it for personalized advertising. We share or transfer Google user data only for the service functions described here. Resend handles email sign-in delivery; our Google and YouTube integration does not send Google account identifiers, YouTube authorization tokens, or YouTube chat messages to Resend. Automated chat moderation can run locally or use OpenAI when configured. Moderation requests include message text, without Google account identifiers or YouTube authorization tokens.

Aquarium channel administration: the operator separately authorizes automation for the aquarium’s own YouTube channel. That automation reads its broadcasts and stream status, creates replacement broadcasts, copies broadcast metadata, and starts or ends aquarium broadcasts. It sends those requests to Google and publishes the current broadcast address for viewers. Viewer chat connections are not used to administer viewers’ channels.

Public content and service providers

Your nickname, submitted public creations, leaderboards, and chat may be visible to other viewers. Content shown in a livestream can be recorded or reshared by viewers and platforms. Avoid posting personal or confidential details.

Twitch and Google/YouTube receive messages you choose to send to them. Vercel hosts the website; Cloudflare provides the public connection to the aquarium backend; Resend delivers email sign-in messages. When hosted moderation is enabled, OpenAI processes submitted review content to check the aquarium rules. These services process information needed to provide those functions. The aquarium database and chat-authorizing credentials are stored on the operator’s backend machine. Authorized operators can access data needed to run, moderate, and support the service.

Embedded Twitch or YouTube players connect to their respective providers and may use cookies or similar technologies under those providers’ policies. Your use of those platforms is also governed by their own terms and privacy notices.

Your choices

You can view public areas without creating a reef account. Account connections and chat-posting permission are optional. You can change your public nickname and select the destination each time you chat.

Disconnect chat removes that platform’s stored chat credential from our active database and stops website posting through it. This does not delete your reef profile, your earlier public messages, or your provider sign-in link. You can also revoke Google’s authorization at Google’s third-party access settings, or manage Twitch authorization in Twitch Connections.

To request access, correction, or deletion of information we hold, contact support@communityaquarium.com. We may ask you to verify account ownership. Deleting our copy does not remove content already posted to Twitch/YouTube or copies made by viewers; use those platforms’ controls for their copies.

How long information is kept

Visible Reef chat clears each day at 00:00 UTC. This display reset does not automatically delete stored messages or Twitch and YouTube history. Account, creation, moderation, and action records are retained to operate the aquarium and preserve your history. Chat credentials remain until you disconnect them or we remove them after an invalid authorization.

Parents and guardians

Community Aquarium does not set a separate minimum age. Twitch and YouTube’s age, supervision, and account requirements apply when using those services. Read our Notice for Parents for guidance about public content and platform accounts.

If you believe a child has shared personal information with us, contact support@communityaquarium.com to request review or removal. This website notice and ordinary sign-in are not a parental-consent or age-verification process.

Security and updates

We use HTTPS, protected sign-in sessions, checks to prevent unwanted requests, limited access for connected services, and encrypted chat permission tokens. No method of storage or transmission guarantees complete security.

We will update this notice when our practices change and show the current effective date on the published page.