Last updated: 22 October 2026
Cobi Player is a pure media player. The app sends the developer no personal data about you. There is no account, no registration, and no analytics of our own. What we do receive is what you send us yourself — an email, or a problem report or an idea through the forms on this website (see “Problem reports and ideas”). On iPhone and iPad the app shows ads via Google AdMob — whether those ads are personalized is your own decision — and our advertising partner does process data of its own: see “Advertising” below.
Data the developer collects
None through the app. Cobi Player has no servers and no backend of its own. We never receive any information about you, your credentials, or what you watch. The only third party that collects data in the app is our advertising provider, Google — see “Advertising” below. Through this website we receive what you send us with its forms — see “Problem reports and ideas”.
Your credentials and playlists
Any IPTV/Xtream login details or M3U playlist that you enter are stored only on your device, in the encrypted Keychain. They are used solely to connect to the service you chose, and are never sent to us.
Network connections
When you use the app, it connects directly to the IPTV server or M3U playlist you provide, and to the image servers (CDNs) your provider references for channel logos, posters and pictures. We neither operate these servers nor receive any data from them. The developer cannot see which channels or content you watch. If a film offers a trailer and you tap it, the app hands the link to YouTube, where Google’s own terms apply.
Cast, crew and photos
Film and series pages show their cast and crew. For this, the app asks TheTVDB (thetvdb.com) with the title’s ID that your provider supplies — a TMDB or IMDb number — the first time you open the page, and — only when TheTVDB does not know the title or has no photo for someone in its cast — Wikidata (wikidata.org). The photos come from TheTVDB and from Wikimedia Commons; when you open a page’s photo credits, the app asks Wikimedia Commons for each photo’s author and license. These requests carry only the title’s or the photo’s ID and the app’s own name, version and contact address (TheTVDB also gets the app’s access key) — never your login, your provider’s address, or anything about you — and go straight from your device to those services, which therefore see your IP address and handle it under their own privacy policies. The cast answers are kept on the device and not asked for again, unless a request failed or — a month later at the earliest — photos were missing; photo credits are kept only until you quit the app.
Local network
The app uses your local network for exactly one purpose: transferring your account between your own devices — from an iPhone, iPad or Mac to your Apple TV, or to another iPhone, iPad or Mac — so you don’t have to type a server address, user name and password again, least of all with the remote. The sending device announces the service _cobitransfer._tcp on the local network only while a transfer is offered — from the moment the code appears until you tap “Cancel” or the offer expires after 10 minutes, also after the other device has fetched the account — and the receiving device looks for it only while the code is being entered. You can close the screen and walk over to the TV; the offer stays up. (This is why iOS and macOS ask for permission to find devices on your network.) Nothing else in the app uses it — there is no scanning in the background, no inventory of your network, and no data about your network reaches us.
What travels between the two devices is only that one profile — its name and avatar, the server address, user name and password or the playlist URL, and its Program Times setting if you changed it — encrypted with the 8‑digit code that is shown on the sending device and stored nowhere. On this route the connection goes straight from device to device — no server of ours involved — and the receiving device must prove it knows the code before the sending device hands anything over. For as long as the offer lasts, the same encrypted package is also placed in your own iCloud, so that the other device can fetch it from there; see “Device sync” below.
Preview (demo) mode
The optional preview mode plays a small set of freely‑licensed sample videos from public sources (e.g. Blender Open Movies, Apple/Mux test streams). We collect nothing about you here either. Two things still apply: on iPhone and iPad the ads described under “Advertising” keep running unless you have bought Pro, and the sample videos are loaded straight from those public servers, which see your IP address.
Advertising (Google AdMob)
On iPhone and iPad, Cobi Player is supported by advertising through Google AdMob (the Google Mobile Ads SDK): a banner at the bottom of the screen and a full‑screen ad before a video starts — when 30 minutes have passed since the last one, or after 5 video starts with at least 5 minutes in between. This applies to iPhone and iPad only — the Apple TV and Mac versions show no advertising at all, and neither does the app once you buy Pro. Whether those ads are personalized is your decision: where the law requires it, Google’s consent service asks you first, and on iPhone and iPad the app additionally asks for Apple’s App Tracking Transparency permission. Only if you agree to both may Google use your Advertising Identifier (IDFA) and your activity in other companies’ apps and websites to select ads. Decline either one — or simply do nothing — and no IDFA is used and the ads are not personalized.
Whichever you choose, the Google Mobile Ads SDK automatically collects and processes certain data when an ad is requested or shown, including: device information and identifiers; your IP address (used to estimate an approximate, e.g. city‑level, location for contextual ads); information about the ads you have seen and interacted with; how you use the app (product interaction); and diagnostic data such as crash and performance logs. Google uses this to serve and measure advertising, for frequency capping, aggregated reporting, fraud detection, and — through Apple’s SKAdNetwork, which reports conversions to Apple without identifying you — to measure whether an ad led to an install. Google processes this data as an independent party under its own policies; we do not control Google’s subsequent use of it.
Where the law requires it, Google’s consent service asks you before ads are requested; the app shows that form once. You can change or withdraw that decision at any time under Settings › Privacy Options.
Learn more: Google Privacy Policy, how Google uses data from apps that use its services, and personalized vs. non‑personalized ads.
If you buy the in‑app Cobi Player Pro upgrade, advertising is removed entirely: the Google Mobile Ads SDK is not started, no ads are requested, no consent form is shown, and none of the data described above is collected for advertising. One thing does remain, deliberately: once per launch the app asks Google’s consent service whether a privacy‑options entry is required — that request itself reaches Google with your IP address and basic device information, and it is what keeps an earlier consent withdrawable at any time. The entry stays in the app’s settings. (Pro also unlocks folders for your favorites, customizing your lists, the player extras and device sync — see Cobi Player Pro.)
Tracking
On iPhone and iPad the app asks for tracking permission through Apple’s App Tracking Transparency dialog. If you allow it, Google may use your Advertising Identifier (IDFA) and your activity in other companies’ apps and websites to select and measure ads — which counts as tracking under Apple’s definition. If you decline, or simply do nothing, no IDFA is used, and Google’s ad SDK then uses limited identifiers only for purposes such as frequency capping and fraud prevention. You can change your answer at any time under iOS Settings › Privacy & Security › Tracking. The Apple TV and Mac versions never ask, because they show no advertising at all — and with Pro the question does not arise.
Children
The app is not directed at children. Any adult content is hidden by default and can only be revealed after an 18+ confirmation and a PIN that you set.
Device sync (your own iCloud)
If you turn on Device Sync (part of Cobi Player Pro), the app stores a small amount of data in your own iCloud account so that it looks the same on your iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and Mac. What goes there: your favorites and favorite folders, the recently‑watched list, resume positions, the episodes you finished and, for Continue Watching, a short card per started film or episode (its name and picture, the series’ name and cover with season and episode number, running time, category, whether it sits behind the content lock, and when you last started it), your customized lists (which countries, categories or entries you hid or pinned) and a few settings that belong to the account rather than to one device (how often the catalog refreshes, how categories and favorites are sorted, grouping by country, and list or tiles) — and nothing about which content you actually watch beyond the entries you marked or opened in the app.
What deliberately does not go there: your password (with one exception: for an M3U playlist, each favorite, recent entry and started title carries its stream link, and many providers write the user name and password into those links), the PIN of the content lock and whether it is unlocked, and the app language. Your account is identified in iCloud only by an unreadable checksum of it, and each device by a random string — not by its name. One thing to know: the label shown in “Link Account” carries the profile name you chose plus the provider’s address, shortened where it has enough parts to shorten (cf.example.tv → cf.…tv); an address with only two parts stays as it is.
There is one deliberate exception to “credentials never leave the device”, and it only happens when you ask for it: Transfer Account. While a transfer is running — the code stays valid for 10 minutes, whether or not the screen is still open — that one profile — with its name, avatar and Program Times setting — is offered on two routes at the same time: directly over your local network (see above) and as a copy in your own iCloud, so the other device can fetch it from whichever route reaches it first. Both carry the same package, encrypted with the 8‑digit code, which is shown only on the sending device and is stored nowhere — without that code the data cannot be read. On the local route the receiving device must additionally prove it knows the code; the copy in iCloud is protected by the encryption alone. It stops being usable after 10 minutes — the receiving device checks the expiry before it decrypts — and it is deleted as soon as it has been fetched, when you tap “Cancel”, or at the latest the next time the app starts. Apart from this transfer and the M3U stream links described above, your credentials only ever go to the IPTV server you entered them for — never to us, and never to anyone else.
This uses Apple’s iCloud Key‑Value Storage. The developer has no access to it — there is no server of ours involved, no account with us, and the data is covered by your agreement with Apple. Sync is off by default. You can switch it off again at any time — what is stored on the device then simply stays as it is — and “Remove My Data from iCloud” in the app’s settings deletes what was stored there for the account you are using; with several accounts, do it once per account. Both are available without the Pro purchase.
This website
This website runs no analytics and loads nothing from other companies — its fonts and pictures come from this server. It sets one cookie, and only when you vote for an idea (see below). If you use the light/dark switch, your choice is kept in your browser’s local storage, on your device, and is never sent anywhere.
Like every web server, the server of this website (hosted by Metanet in Switzerland) writes each request to its access log: the IP address, the time, the page requested and the browser’s self‑description. The log is used only to run the server and keep it secure, and the host deletes it automatically after 30 days.
The App Store buttons lead to Apple’s App Store; from there, Apple’s privacy policy applies. Each button’s link names the place on this website it sits on, and so does the App Store banner that Safari shows at the top on iPhone and iPad: Apple’s App Store Connect then tells us how many App Store visits and downloads came from each place — as totals, never anything about a person. Safari gets that banner from Apple itself; this website loads nothing from Apple.
Problem reports and ideas
The form for reporting a problem stores what you write — what happened and the steps to see it — the area of the app and the device you choose, and, if you choose them, the kind of account (Xtream Codes or M3U playlist). If you opened the form from the app, the link filled in the app version, the system version, the device model and the app’s language; they are in the form, where you can change or delete them before sending — the link itself sends nothing. Your email address is optional and only used to answer you. The form for suggesting an idea stores the title and the text you write.
Please don’t paste server addresses, user names or passwords. Before anything is stored, the forms try to remove them: links, addresses with a port, and what follows words like “password” or “user name” become “[removed]”, and the thank‑you page says how many items were removed. No filter catches everything, though.
Reports are never public — only the developer reads them. An idea is published only after the developer has read it, and then only with a title and a text he writes himself, in English; for an idea in another language with a note “suggested in …”. What you wrote stays private. Votes carry no name or email address, and the board shows only how many an idea has.
To keep bots and floods out, the server counts how many forms and votes arrive from an address in an hour and in a day. For this it stores a keyed hash of the address instead of the address itself (of its first part, for an IPv6 address); the hash is different every day, and the counts are deleted the next day. A vote also keeps a keyed hash of the connection it came from (the address, or the first part of an IPv6 address), a different one for each idea, so that an idea counts one vote per connection. It is deleted when the idea closes, after 12 months at the latest.
Voting sets one cookie, __Secure-cpvote: a random number that lets this browser remember your votes, for 12 months. It is set only when you vote — no other part of this website sets a cookie — and the server stores only a keyed hash of it — the same one with each of your votes, so the board can show which ideas you voted for. If you don’t want it, don’t vote, or delete it in your browser’s settings.
What you send is stored in a database on this website’s server in Switzerland, outside the website’s folders. When something arrives, the developer gets a short email with its reference and topic — never with what you wrote or your email address.
Data retention and deletion
Apart from support emails you send us yourself (see below) and what you send through this website’s forms, we hold no data about you. Problem reports and ideas are kept only as long as they are needed:
- the hash of your address: until the next day; the one stored with a vote: until the idea closes, 12 months at most;
- items our filters set aside as likely spam: 30 days;
- ideas that are not published: 30 days after they were declined, and 12 months at the latest;
- reports: 12 months after they are closed, and 18 months at the latest;
- your email address on a report: 30 days after the report is closed, and 90 days at the latest;
- published ideas, and the ideas merged into them: as long as they are on the board; their votes until the idea closes — then only the number is kept.
The cleanup runs every day, so each of these is deleted within a day after its time. The server also keeps a copy of the database from each of the last 7 days, in case it breaks; if one is ever restored, the deletions you asked for are applied again. The hosting provider keeps its own backups of the server for a limited time. Everything the app stores lives on your device — and, only if you turn on device sync, in your own iCloud (see above). To remove it, delete your profile in the app’s settings, use “Remove My Data from iCloud”, or delete the app.
Who is responsible, and your rights
Responsible for this app and this site: Codebits — Antonio Parenti, Bahnhofstrasse 8, 9322 Egnach, Switzerland, support@cobiplayer.app.
The only personal data we hold is what you send us yourself, plus the keyed hashes of your address and of your vote cookie described above. If you use “Support & Feedback” or “Report Inappropriate Ad” in the app, your email address, your message and a short diagnostic footer (app version, device model, OS version) arrive in our mailbox (hosted by Metanet in Switzerland, like this website); we keep them while we deal with your request and delete them when we no longer need them. For a problem report, the thank‑you page shows its reference (like CP-7K3Q-9XDM): send it to support@cobiplayer.app to see, correct or delete the report. We send a report’s data only to the email address stored with it; without one, we confirm the deletion. For an idea, tell us its title.
Problem reports, ideas, votes and the hash of your address are processed on the basis of our legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR) in fixing problems, improving the app, answering you and keeping the forms and the vote counts free of abuse; you may object to it at any time. Swiss data protection law applies to us; you can complain to the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC) or, from the EU, to your country’s authority.
Where the GDPR applies, the advertising described above is processed on the basis of your consent (Art. 6(1)(a)), which Google’s consent form asks for and which you can withdraw or change at any time under Settings › Privacy Options. Google may process that data outside your country, including in the United States, under its own safeguards. You have the rights of access, rectification, erasure, restriction, objection and portability: for anything that reached us by email, write to support@cobiplayer.app; for the data Google holds, its policy linked above explains how to exercise them, and we will pass a request on if you send it to us. You may also complain to your data‑protection authority.
Contact
Questions about privacy? support@cobiplayer.app