EmGee.dev / Möbius / privacy policy
Möbius privacy policy
Short version: no accounts, no analytics, no tracking. Your library and viewing stay on your own server. Public lookups name titles, not you. If your server uses away-from-home access, Möbius Connect keeps your server's id and your home's internet address. Effective 9 November 2026.
Who we are
Möbius (called Now Playing until November 2026) is made by EmGee.dev (Michael Girdwood, Melbourne, Australia). It has four parts: Möbius Server, which runs on your own computer; the Möbius app for Apple TV, iPhone, iPad and Mac; the web player, served by your own Möbius Server; and Möbius Connect, our small service that gives your server a name for away-from-home access. Contact: privacy@emgee.dev.
What we collect
We have no accounts and receive nothing about you, your library or what you watch. There is no analytics, advertising, crash-reporting or tracking code in the app, the server or the web player.
The one exception is Möbius Connect, below: if your Möbius Server uses away-from-home access, our service keeps a small record about the server (not about any person).
Möbius Connect (away-from-home access)
So you can reach your server away from home with nothing to set up, Möbius Server asks Möbius Connect
(connect.watchmobius.com) for a name of its own, like abc123….direct.watchmobius.app, and points that name
at your home. For this, Connect keeps:
- the server's random id and a hash of a secret only your server knows (so nobody else can move its name);
- the name it gave your server;
- your home's public internet address and the port your server answers on, and when it last checked in.
The name and address are published in public DNS, which is what makes the name work: anyone who knows the name can look up the address. Your server also gets a free certificate from Let's Encrypt for that name, so connections are encrypted; like every public certificate, the name appears in public certificate logs. Connect can check that your server answers from the internet, but it never sees your library, your people or anything you watch, and your films go straight from your home to your device, never through us.
Away-from-home access is on by default in Möbius Server and can be turned off in its settings. Connect runs on our server in Australia (BinaryLane), behind Cloudflare, which also runs the DNS for these names. We keep no access logs for it; sign-in attempts are counted briefly in memory to stop abuse.
What stays on your server
Your films, shows and music, artwork, the people who use it (passwords stored as hashes), watched state, Marathons, channels and settings. It is your computer; we have no access to it. If someone else runs the server you use, its privacy is theirs to look after.
What stays on your device
- The servers you have added (name, address, server id).
- For each person signed in: their user name and the access token the server issued, stored in the system Keychain.
- Your settings in the app (for example the Kids limit), the Top Shelf list (Apple TV), and saved copies of pictures and public lookups.
Public lookups by your server
To fill in details your files don't have, Möbius Server can use these services, each switched on with the server owner's own free account or key. They get titles and public ids (and, for subtitles, a fingerprint of the file), never the people who use the server. Like any website, they see your home's internet address, and the services that use your own key or account know it is you who asked.
- TMDB (The Movie Database): Artwork, descriptions, cast and ratings, by title, year and public ids. Uses the server owner's own TMDB key.
- fanart.tv (optional): Logos, banners and disc art, by public ids. Uses the owner's own fanart.tv key.
- OpenSubtitles (optional): Subtitles in the languages you choose: the title, its public ids and a fingerprint of the video file (its size and two small checksums, not its contents). Uses the owner's own OpenSubtitles account.
- Let's Encrypt: A free security certificate for your server's away-from-home name. Like every public certificate, the name is listed in public certificate logs.
Public lookups by the app
The app asks these public services about titles in your library. They get public ids, a title, a song's name or (for Wikipedia) only the date, never your name, sign-in or server. They see the internet address the request comes from. Answers are saved on the device so each is asked rarely.
- Wikipedia (Wikimedia): This week's most-read films and shows, for the Top 10 rows. Nothing is sent but the date.
- Wikidata (Wikimedia): Franchises and In memoriam rows: public facts about films, shows and people, by their public ids.
- TVmaze: Air dates and episode order for Marathons and channels, looked up by a show's public TVDB or IMDb id.
- IntroDB (introdb.app): Skip Intro and Skip Credits when your server has no markers, by an episode's public id.
- LRCLIB (lrclib.net): Timed lyrics for Lyrics and Sing-along: the song's artist, title, album and length.
- Apple iTunes Search: Film trailers from the iTunes Store, by the film's title and year and your device's country.
Emby servers and Emby Connect (optional)
The app also works with an Emby server. Like every Emby app, it then tells that server what you play and where you stopped. If you sign in with Emby Connect, the app sends your emby.media sign-in (or a PIN you confirm at emby.media/pin) to Emby LLC to find your linked servers, under Emby LLC's own privacy policy.
Apple
Apple handles downloads, purchases and TestFlight, and may share anonymous crash and usage figures with developers if you have allowed that in your device's settings. Purchases are between you and Apple; we see no payment details.
Local network
Your device asks for permission to use your local network. The app uses it only to find Möbius and Emby servers at home. Say no and you can still type a server's address.
Deleting your data
- Connect: turn off away-from-home access in Möbius Server and it stops checking in. Email privacy@emgee.dev with your server's name and we delete its record and its name.
- Your server: everything on it is yours to delete there.
- Your device: remove a server or person in the app's Settings, or delete the app, and everything it kept is removed.
Children
Möbius is not directed at children. What a child can watch is set by the server's user settings (rating limits) and the app's Kids limit.
Changes
If this changes, we update this page (and the App Store privacy label) before the version that does it is released.
Questions: privacy@emgee.dev. Complaints you can't resolve with us can go to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.