Privacy Policy

Effective October 5, 2026

Prolific Software Solutions LLC, of West Chester, Pennsylvania (“we”, “us”), makes the ChristmasPrism app for iPhone and Android and runs christmasprism.com (together, “ChristmasPrism”). This policy explains what information ChristmasPrism collects, why we use it, who else receives it, and the choices you have. It replaces the version dated October 10, 2023.

ChristmasPrism is free to download and use. ChristmasPrism Pro (Prism Pro) is an optional paid subscription, and coins and some map icons can be bought in the app. See Payments.

We do not sell your personal information, and we only share it as this policy describes.

1. Information we collect

Your account

When you first open the app, it creates an anonymous account so it can save your favorites, coins and settings before you sign up.
If you sign up, we collect your email address and a username, plus a profile photo if you add one. Passwords are handled by Google Firebase Authentication; we don’t store them in our database. On the website you can also sign in with your Google account.

Displays you list

If you add a display, we collect what you enter: its title and description, street address and map location, hours and special dates, photos and video links, categories, social media links, donation or payment links, and admission and ticket details.

Location

With your permission, the app uses your device’s location to show displays near you, check you in at displays, and, for fire departments, broadcast a Santa run. Location below explains exactly what is used, stored and shared.

Photos and camera

With your permission, the app uses your camera and photo library so you can add pictures to a display, a contest entry, a comment, a chat message or your profile. Only the pictures you choose are uploaded.

Contests and votes

When you enter or vote in a contest, we record your entry and your votes. Each vote record includes your account ID, your email address (if your account has one), the entry you voted for, the date, and a voter ID that the app keeps in your phone’s secure storage, which can survive reinstalling the app. We use these records to apply each contest’s voting limits and to look into suspected vote fraud.

Check-ins, coins and activity

We keep the displays you save, like, follow and check in at, your coin balance and how it changes, the map icons you own, and your notification settings.

Community content

We store the comments, chat messages and reports you send, and, on the website, ownership claims you make for a display.

Device, usage and diagnostic data

A push notification token, so we can send the alerts you’ve turned on.
Usage analytics: events such as screens viewed, displays opened and features used, linked to your account ID.
Crash and error reports: device model, operating system, app version, details of the error, your account ID, email address and username, and a low-resolution screenshot of the app screen at the moment of the error.

Links that bring you to ChristmasPrism

If you open or install the app from a ChristmasPrism link, the app learns which link brought you so it can open the right display, route or contest. For links in our marketing, we save the link’s campaign tags, such as its source and referrer, to your account.

2. How we use information

To run ChristmasPrism: show displays, maps, routes, contests and the Santa tracker, and save your account and activity.
To publish the displays and contest entries you submit.
To run contests fairly and to prevent fraud, abuse and spam.
To send the notifications you’ve turned on.
To process purchases and manage Pro subscriptions.
To send account email and, unless you opt out, marketing email.
To understand how ChristmasPrism is used, and to fix problems.
To answer your questions and support requests.

3. Location

Finding displays near you

While you use the app, it uses your device’s location to center the map, show nearby displays and plan routes. Your last known position is saved on your phone only. With your account we store just the state and ZIP code that position falls in, not your exact coordinates. We use them to show local content and, if you turn on new-display alerts, to alert you about new displays in your ZIP code. To find your state and ZIP code, the app uses your phone’s built-in address lookup, which is provided by Apple on iPhone and by Google on most Android phones. If you don’t allow location, the app uses a default map location instead.

Automatic check-ins

When you open a display’s details in the app, the app checks your current location. If you are within about 400 feet of the display, it checks you in: it adds the display to your visited list, gives you coins, and adds your username and profile photo to that display’s check-in list. Check-ins only happen while you are using the app; the app does not track your location in the background to check you in.

The Santa tracker

Watching Santa runs on the tracker doesn’t share your location. If you follow a fire department’s listing, we use your push token to alert you when its Santa run starts or reaches a new ZIP code. You can turn Santa alerts off in Notification Settings.
If you manage a fire department’s listing and start a Santa broadcast in the app, the broadcasting phone’s precise location, nearest street address and ZIP code are uploaded as it moves and shown live on the tracker. If you allow “Always” location access, the broadcast can continue while the app is in the background. It ends when you stop it or after 15 minutes without movement. On the website, a crew member’s position is shared only while the page is open, and a run ends automatically a few minutes after updates stop. We keep the record of each run, including its last reported position and distance traveled, after the run ends.

Background location

The app may ask for “Always” location access. You can choose “While Using the App” instead; only a Santa broadcast uses location while the app is in the background.

Other location uses

New display screening. When you submit a new display, the app sends the display’s map coordinates, without your name or account details, to Family Watchdog, a public-records service, to check the surrounding area against public sex-offender registries. If the check finds a match, the display isn’t added.
Contest areas. If you create a contest and set its area by distance, the center point you choose is sent to zip-codes.com to list the ZIP codes inside that distance.
Directions. Getting directions opens Apple Maps or Google Maps with the stops you chose.
On the website, your browser shares your location only when you ask it to, for example to sort displays by distance or to place your display’s pin.

You can turn location access off at any time in your phone or browser settings. Some features, like nearby displays and check-ins, won’t work without it.

4. Payments and subscriptions

ChristmasPrism Pro is a paid subscription. Pro, coins and map icons are bought through the Apple App Store or Google Play. Apple or Google handles your payment; we never receive your card number.
We use RevenueCat to manage subscriptions and purchases. RevenueCat receives your ChristmasPrism account ID and your purchase and subscription status from Apple or Google. We store your Pro status, coin balance and purchase history with your account.
Manage or cancel a subscription in your Apple or Google account’s subscription settings. Deleting the app does not cancel it.
Donation and payment links aren’t payments to us. If a display lists a link such as PayPal, Venmo or Cash App, paying through it sends money to that display’s owner through that provider. We don’t receive the money or the payment details you enter there.
Our merchandise shop at shop.christmasprism.com is hosted by Wix. Orders, payments and cookies there are handled by Wix and its payment providers.

These services receive information to run parts of ChristmasPrism for us:

Google Firebase and Google Cloud: accounts and sign-in, our database, photo storage, push notifications, app analytics, app settings and in-app messages, and our server code.
Sentry: crash and error reports, as described above.
Branch: shareable links. When you open a Branch link or the app, Branch receives device and network information, such as your IP address, so it can tell the app which link brought you.
RevenueCat: subscriptions and purchases, as described above.
Apple and Google: app downloads, in-app payments, maps (Apple Maps in the iPhone app, Google Maps in the Android app), address lookup, directions, and Google sign-in on the website.
Amazon Web Services: delivers our email, including website sign-in email and marketing email.
OpenStreetMap: the website’s map images. Your browser loads them from OpenStreetMap’s servers, which see your IP address.
Family Watchdog and zip-codes.com: the location lookups described in Location.
YouTube and internet radio stations: playing a display’s YouTube video, or a Holiday Radio station (a Pro feature), loads it from that provider, which sees your IP address.

ChristmasPrism has no third-party advertising networks. Sponsor and partner placements are arranged and shown by us, and we don’t give sponsors your personal information. We may disclose information if the law requires it, or to protect the safety, rights or security of our users, the public or ChristmasPrism.

6. What other people can see

An approved display’s details, including its title, description, photos, videos, hours, links, address and map location, are public in the app and on christmasprism.com, including to people without an account. Only list a place you control, and don’t post anything you wouldn’t want a stranger to see.
Your username and profile photo appear with your comments, check-ins and contest entries. Contest entries and, depending on the organizer’s settings, vote counts are visible to other users.
Anyone with the link can see a route you share.
We may feature public display photos and descriptions in our marketing, such as on our website or social media. You keep your rights to them, and you can ask us to stop using them in our marketing at any time.

What you post is posted at your own discretion. We aren’t responsible for what happens because of information you choose to make public.

7. Email

We send account email you ask for, such as email verification and password resets.
We also send marketing email about ChristmasPrism, such as seasonal news and reminders to update your display, to the email address on your account.
You can opt out at any time. Every marketing email has an unsubscribe link. One unsubscribe stops all of our marketing email, including email about our sister app FrightMaps, because the two apps share one mailing system. You can also email contact@christmasprism.com to opt out. You’ll still get account email you request, such as a password reset.
Our marketing emails record whether they are opened and which links are clicked, so we can tell what’s useful.

8. Notifications

If you allow notifications, we may send alerts about likes, comments, displays you follow, new displays in your ZIP code, Santa runs, contests you’ve joined or voted in, chat messages, and general ChristmasPrism announcements. You can turn most alert types on or off in the app’s Notification Settings. To stop all of them, including announcements, turn off notifications for ChristmasPrism in your phone’s settings.

9. Cookies and browser storage

christmasprism.com doesn’t use advertising or analytics cookies. Your browser stores what the site needs to work, such as your sign-in and a draft of a route you are planning. You can clear this in your browser settings. Embedded content, such as YouTube videos in the app, may use its own cookies.

10. How long we keep information

We keep your account, display listings and activity until you delete them or ask us to. We don’t delete them on a fixed schedule.
We keep contest entries, votes and results after a contest ends so its results can be checked, and we keep Santa run records after the run ends.
Route links shared from the website expire after 30 days, or sooner if you remove them.
Crash reports and analytics are kept by Sentry and Google for the periods their services set.

11. Your choices and rights

Permissions: turn location, camera, photo and notification access on or off in your phone’s settings.
Your displays: edit or delete a display you listed at any time.
Marketing email: use the unsubscribe link in any marketing email, or email us.
Access or correction: email contact@christmasprism.com for a copy of the personal information we hold about you, or to correct it.
Delete your account: email contact@christmasprism.com from the email address on your account and ask us to delete it. We’ll delete your account, your display listings and your profile. Some information may remain where it is part of other records, such as votes counted in a past contest or comments and messages other people received, or where we must keep it for legal, tax or fraud-prevention reasons. Deleting the app doesn’t delete your account.
Depending on where you live, you may have more rights over your personal information. Email us to use them, and we’ll respond as the law requires.

12. Children

ChristmasPrism isn’t directed to children under 13, and we don’t knowingly collect personal information from them. If we learn that a child under 13 has given us personal information, we’ll delete it. If you are a parent or guardian and think your child has given us personal information, contact us at contact@christmasprism.com.

13. Security

We protect information with reasonable safeguards, including encrypted connections to our servers and database rules that limit what each account can read and change. No method of sending or storing information over the internet is completely secure, so we can’t guarantee absolute security. If a security breach affects your personal information, we’ll tell affected users promptly by email, in the app or on this website, as the law requires.

14. Other sites, and changes of ownership

ChristmasPrism links to sites and apps we don’t run, such as display owners’ websites, donation links, map apps and our sister app FrightMaps, which has its own privacy policy. Their privacy practices are their own, so please review their policies.

If Prolific Software Solutions LLC or ChristmasPrism is sold or merged with another company, your information may transfer to the new owner, and we will require it to continue to honor this policy.

15. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. We’ll post the new version on this page and update the effective date at the top.

16. Contact us

Prolific Software Solutions LLC
West Chester, Pennsylvania
contact@christmasprism.com