Files
proton-stream/docs/PRIVACY.md
T
nvrl 3ca431feca feat(core,meta,app,android,ios,cli): TVmaze for the shows AniList does not have
With AniList chosen, a title AniList has no match for is now searched on
TVmaze, keyless, before it is given up on. One provider for the whole library
left live-action shows in a share of anime unmatched, and switching to TMDB
would have dropped every AniList match, chain and shelf.

The service holds a chain of providers. A match is stored under the provider
that gave it, and enrichment and refreshes go to that provider; a miss is
stored under the last provider asked, and is_fresh only trusts a miss from the
end of the chain, so AniList misses stored before this are asked again at once.
A provider failure still ends the lookup instead of falling through.

The hand matcher searches every provider in the chain and labels each result
with its source. TVmaze is never offered in the settings and is not asked
about titles known to be films.
2026-10-29 16:33:16 +01:00

3.4 KiB

Privacy

proton-stream has no server and no account with its developer. Each app talks to Proton directly, and to nothing else unless you turn on posters and descriptions. This page lists what goes where.

What the app sends, and to whom

To What When
Proton Requests for the shares you added and, if you signed in, your account's Drive Always
AniList and ani.zip, or TMDB The names of the titles in your library, and the ids of matched titles Only with Posters and descriptions on
TVmaze With AniList chosen: the names of the titles AniList has no match for, and the ids of those TVmaze matched Only with Posters and descriptions on

Nothing else leaves your device. There is no telemetry, no crash reporting and no update check.

Posters and descriptions are off by default. When they are on, the provider learns the names of the titles in your library. It does not learn your files, your watch history or your shares. Turning them off deletes every stored answer.

Secrets

  • The part of a share link after # is the key that decrypts the share. The app treats it as a password.
  • A link's own password, if it has one.
  • Your Proton session, if you signed in. The app keeps the session, not your password.

All of these go into the system's credential store, never into a config file:

Platform Store
Linux Secret Service (GNOME Keyring, KWallet, KeePassXC)
Windows Credential Manager
Android App storage, encrypted with a key in the Android Keystore
iOS Keychain, this device only

If you sign in, your shares, with their links and passwords, also sync through your own Drive. Like every file there, they are end-to-end encrypted. See Account and sync.

How the player gets the video

The player is fed through a callback inside the app's own process. There is no local web server, so there is no port another program on the computer could ask for the decrypted video. The player is handed an opaque token, not a link, so no secret ends up in its log or window title.

What stays on your device

What Where on Linux
Settings and the share list (without secrets) ~/.config/proton-stream/
The library and watch history (catalog.db) and downloads (offline/) ~/.local/share/proton-stream/
Streamed video (blocks/), thumbnails and posters ~/.cache/proton-stream/

On Windows the same folders are under %APPDATA%\narl\proton-stream\ and %LOCALAPPDATA%\narl\proton-stream\. On macOS they are under ~/Library/Application Support/ and ~/Library/Caches/, in io.narl.proton-stream.

The streaming cache and downloads hold decrypted video. Anyone who can read your user's files can play them. Empty the cache in Settings → Storage, and delete downloads on the Downloads page.

The library database holds file names and your watch history, in plain text. It holds no secrets.

Other people on the same computer

  • A share link given on the command line, as in proton-stream 'https://…#key', is visible in the process list while the command runs, and may land in your shell history. Paste links into the window instead.
  • Your desktop's media controls are given the title, the episode and a picture already on disk. They are never given a provider link, so the desktop does not contact a provider by itself.