Pod Engine

Pod Engine Privacy Policy

Last Updated: August 8, 2025

Thank you for visiting the Pod Engine website at https://www.podengine.ai/ (the “Website”) and/or using any of Pod Engine’s tools, platforms, products, services, or APIs (together, the “Pod Engine Services”).

This Privacy Policy (“Policy”) describes how Rocket Role, Inc DBA Pod Engine (“Pod Engine”, “us”, “we”, or “our”) collects, uses, and shares your personal information when you use the Pod Engine Services.

For the purposes of European, UK, and Swiss data protection laws, including the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (“GDPR”), Pod Engine is the data controller responsible for your personal information collected directly from you or through your use of our services (excluding data processed solely on behalf of API customers, if any).

By using any of the Pod Engine Services, you agree to the collection, use, and sharing of your personal information as described in this Policy. If you do not agree with the terms of this Policy, please do not use the Pod Engine Services. Your use of our API may also be subject to specific API Terms of Service.

1. Personal Information We Collect

We collect information to provide and improve the Pod Engine Services. This information comes from various sources:

a. Information You Provide to Us

When you sign up for and use the Pod Engine Services (including potentially registering for API access), you may provide us with personal information, including:

  • Account Information: Your name, email address, password (or authentication via Google), and potentially API key information.
  • Profile Information: Social media profile links or other details you add to your user profile or guest profiles you create.
  • User Content: Information you generate or submit while using the services, such as podcasts added to lists, generated outreach content, interactions with the AI co-pilot, and search queries.
  • Communications: Information you provide when you contact us for support or respond to surveys.
  • Payment Information: Information you provide when you make a payment to us, such as your credit card number and billing address.

b. Information We Collect Automatically

When you access or use the Pod Engine Services (including API calls), we automatically collect certain information about your device and usage, including:

  • Log Data: Your Internet Protocol (IP) address, device type, operating system, browser type, browser language, API endpoints accessed, and the date/time of your requests.
  • Usage Data: Information about how you interact with the Pod Engine Services, such as features used, search history, interactions recorded, pages viewed, API call volume/frequency, and time spent on pages.
  • Cookie Data: Information collected via cookies and similar technologies (see Section 4 below) when using the Website or web-based parts of the Services. We use tools like PostHog and Google Analytics for this purpose.

c. Information We Obtain from Other Sources

To enhance the Pod Engine Services, particularly our podcast database, we collect information from publicly available sources and third-party platforms. This includes:

  • Podcast Metadata: Information about podcasts such as titles, descriptions, artwork, episode details, and host/guest names obtained from public RSS feeds, podcast platforms (like Apple Podcasts, Spotify), social media, and general web searches. This is the type of data primarily accessible via our API. We do not obtain personal information about our registered users or API users from these third-party data sources other. The focus is on publicly available information about podcasts.

2. How We Use Your Personal Information

We use the personal information we collect for various purposes, including:

  • Providing and Maintaining the Services: Operating the Website, API, and other Pod Engine Services, creating and managing user accounts, enabling features like search, list creation, guest profile management, AI co-pilot interaction, outreach generation, and fulfilling API requests.
  • Improving the Services: Understanding how users interact with our services (including the API) to analyze performance, fix bugs, develop new features, and enhance usability (using tools like PostHog, Google Analytics, Sentry).
  • Personalization: Tailoring the service experience based on your usage and preferences (where applicable).
  • Communication: Responding to your inquiries and support requests, sending administrative information (like updates to terms or services, API changes), and sending marketing communications you have consented to receive.
  • Security: Protecting the security and integrity of the Pod Engine Services (including monitoring API usage for abuse), preventing fraud, and enforcing our terms.
  • Legal Compliance: Complying with applicable laws, regulations, legal processes, or governmental requests.

2.1. Use of Information for AI-Powered Features

Pod Engine offers features that utilize artificial intelligence (AI) to assist you, such as the AI co-pilot or outreach generation tools (“AI Features”). To provide these AI Features, the service processes certain information you provide or select (“AI Inputs”). This may include search queries, text prompts, selected podcast data, or content you are generating.

  • Purpose of Processing: We process AI Inputs solely to generate the output requested by you through the AI Feature. We retain AI Inputs and outputs only as long as necessary to provide the requested service and maintain reasonable system performance.
  • No Model Training by Pod Engine: Pod Engine does not use your AI Inputs or the resulting output to train our own proprietary machine learning models.
  • Third-Party Processing: Some AI Features may rely on processing by third-party service providers who are contractually obligated to protect your data and only use it to provide services to Pod Engine. Your AI Inputs may be transmitted to these providers solely for the purpose of generating the AI Feature output for you.
  • User Control: The use of AI Features is optional and initiated by you within the application. You can choose not to use AI-powered features if you prefer.

2.2. Monitoring for Terms Compliance

We may monitor usage patterns and access logs to detect potential violations of our Terms of Service, including unauthorized competitive use. This monitoring may include:

  • Analysis of API usage patterns
  • Review of data access frequency and volume
  • Detection of systematic data extraction
  • Correlation of usage with known competitor IP addresses or patterns

Information collected during such monitoring may be retained as necessary for legal compliance and enforcement actions.

3. How We Share Your Personal Information

We do not sell your personal information. We only share your personal information in the following limited circumstances:

  • Service Providers: We share information with third-party vendors and service providers who perform services on our behalf. These providers are contractually obligated to protect your data and only use it for the specific services they provide to us. Examples include:
    • Cloud Hosting (e.g., Google Cloud Platform)
    • Analytics Providers (e.g., PostHog, Google Analytics)
    • Email Marketing Services (e.g., Loops)
    • Error Tracking and Monitoring (e.g., Sentry)
  • Business Transfers: If Pod Engine is involved in a merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization, bankruptcy, or sale of all or a portion of our assets, your information may be transferred as part of that transaction. We will notify you via email and/or a prominent notice on our Website of any change in ownership or uses of your personal information.
  • Legal Requirements: We may disclose your information if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with a legal obligation, protect and defend our rights or property, prevent fraud, protect the personal safety of users or the public, or protect against legal liability.
  • With Your Consent: We may share your information for other purposes if you have explicitly consented to it.
  • Public Information: If you create public guest profiles or share content publicly through the service, that information may be visible to others. Data accessed via the API consists of the podcast metadata described in Section 1.c.

We do not share your personal user information (like account details or usage data specific to your account) with third-party customers, advertisers, or partners for their own marketing purposes. This includes data related to API users.

4. Cookies and Similar Technologies

Cookies are small text files stored on your device when you visit websites. We use cookies and similar technologies (like web beacons or pixels) to operate and improve the web-based parts of the Pod Engine Services. API usage itself does not typically involve cookies directly, but accessing API documentation or management consoles via a web browser would.

  • Strictly Necessary Cookies: These are essential for the basic operation of the web-based Pod Engine Services, such as keeping you logged in (session cookies). Our services cannot function properly without them.
  • Analytics/Performance Cookies: These help us understand how visitors use our Website and web-based Services by collecting information anonymously. We use tools like Google Analytics and PostHog for this. These cookies help us measure traffic, identify popular features, and improve performance.

You can learn about Google’s practices by going to https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites, and opt out of them by downloading the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on, available at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

Managing Cookies:

Most web browsers allow you to control cookies through their settings preferences. You can set your browser to refuse cookies or alert you when cookies are being sent. However, if you disable strictly necessary cookies, some parts of the Pod Engine Services may not function properly.

For Analytics cookies (which are generally considered non-essential under laws like GDPR), we may rely on your consent, potentially managed through a cookie consent banner or tool upon your first visit where legally required.

5. Data Security and Retention

  • Security: We implement reasonable administrative, technical, and physical security measures designed to protect the personal information we collect from unauthorized access, use, alteration, and disclosure. This includes measures to secure API access. However, no internet transmission or electronic storage is 100% secure.
  • Retention: We retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Policy, such as maintaining your account, providing the Pod Engine Services (including API access logs for security and billing, if applicable), unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law (e.g., for legal, tax, or accounting reasons). When we no longer have a legitimate business need to process your personal information, we will either delete or anonymize it.

6. International Data Transfers

Your personal information will be transferred to, processed, and stored in the United States, where our servers and primary operations are located. If you are accessing the Services from the European Economic Area (EEA), UK, or Switzerland, your data will be transferred outside of these regions. We rely on appropriate safeguards, such as Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the European Commission, where required by law, for such transfers.

7. Your Data Privacy Rights

Depending on your location, you may have certain rights regarding your personal information:

a. Rights for Users in the EEA, UK, or Switzerland (under GDPR)

If you are located in the EEA, UK, or Switzerland, you have the right to:

  • Access: Request access to the personal information we hold about you.
  • Rectification: Request correction of inaccurate personal information.
  • Erasure (“Right to be Forgotten”): Request deletion of your personal information under certain conditions.
  • Restriction of Processing: Request restriction of our processing of your personal information under certain conditions.
  • Data Portability: Request a copy of your personal information in a structured, machine-readable format.
  • Object: Object to our processing of your personal information based on legitimate interests or for direct marketing purposes.
  • Withdraw Consent: Withdraw your consent at any time where we rely on consent as the legal basis for processing.
  • Lodge a Complaint: Lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.

b. Rights for Users in California (under CCPA)

If you are a California resident, you have the right to:

  • Know: Request information about the categories and specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you, the sources of that information, the purposes for collecting it, and the categories of third parties with whom we share it.
  • Delete: Request deletion of your personal information, subject to certain exceptions.
  • Non-Discrimination: Not be discriminated against for exercising your CCPA rights.

Pod Engine does not “sell” personal information as defined under the CCPA.

c. Rights for Users in Nevada

Nevada residents have the right to opt out of the “sale” of certain “covered information” (as defined under Nevada law). Pod Engine does not sell covered information.

d. Exercising Your Rights

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at legal@podengine.ai. We will verify your request and respond within the timeframes required by applicable law. Please note that for account deletion requests specifically, you may also email hey@podengine.ai, but using legal@podengine.ai ensures it reaches the team handling all privacy matters.

7.1. Automated Processing

Pod Engine uses automated systems, including AI, to process data and provide services such as:

  • Generating podcast transcriptions
  • Creating analyses and insights
  • Categorizing content
  • Suggesting search results

These automated processes are used to enhance our services and provide features requested by users. We do not use automated decision-making that produces legal effects or similarly significantly affects you. Any decisions regarding your account status, access to services, or billing are subject to human review upon request.

8. Managing Your Information

  • Account Information: You can typically review and update your account profile information through your account settings. If you are an API user, this may involve managing API keys or associated account details.
  • Marketing Communications: You can opt out of receiving promotional emails from us by following the unsubscribe instructions included in those emails. You may still receive essential administrative or service-related communications (including important API updates).
  • Account Deletion: You can request the deletion of your account and associated personal information by contacting us at legal@podengine.ai. Please note that some information may be retained for legal or legitimate business purposes as described in Section 5 (Data Retention).

9. Children’s Privacy

The Pod Engine Services are not directed to individuals under the age of 13 (or a higher age threshold where applicable by law). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If we become aware that we have inadvertently collected personal information from a child, we will take steps to delete it promptly. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has provided us with personal information, please contact us at legal@podengine.ai.

The Pod Engine Services may contain links to third-party websites or services that are not owned or controlled by us. This Policy does not apply to the practices of third parties, and we are not responsible for their privacy policies or practices. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any third-party services you visit or use.

11. Data Breach Notification

In the event of a data breach that compromises your personal information, we will:

  • Notify affected users within the timeframe required by applicable law
  • Provide information about the nature of the breach and what data was affected, to the extent we are aware
  • Inform you of steps we are taking to address the breach
  • Provide guidance on what you can do to protect yourself, if applicable

Notifications will be sent via email to the address associated with your account. In the case of significant breaches affecting many users, we may also post a notice on our website.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make material changes, we will notify you by posting the updated Policy on the Website, updating the “Effective Date” at the top, and/or sending you an email notification (if we have your email address). Your continued use of the Pod Engine Services after such changes constitutes your acceptance of the new Policy. We encourage you to review this Policy periodically.

13. How to Contact Us

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, or if you wish to exercise your privacy rights, please contact us at:

Email: legal@podengine.ai

Rocket Role, Inc DBA Pod Engine