Your details at Station Master Live

Last updated 23 October 2026.

In short

We collect what we need to run your account, your streams and your chat, and to keep the service safe.
We do not record your streams, and we do not sell your details.
Card payments are handled by Stripe. We never see your full card details.
We use no advertising or third-party tracking. Our own visit measurement stores no IP address, and is switched off if your browser asks not to be tracked.
You can ask to see, correct or delete your details at any time.

Who we are

This policy covers Station Master Live: this website, the player that shows streams on QRZ.com pages and elsewhere, and the servers behind them. We, the people who run Station Master Live, decide how your details are used and are responsible for them under data protection law (we are the "controller"). The full legal details of the business that provides Station Master Live will be published on this page. Until then, you can reach us as described under Contact us.

What we collect

Your account

Your callsign and any extra callsigns you add, your name, your email address, and your password, which we store only in scrambled form that cannot be turned back into the password. We also keep when you agreed to our terms, whether you opted in to offers and news and when, your settings, and the addresses of any websites you tell us your player is on.

From QRZ.com

When you join a chat, we look up the callsign you give us in QRZ.com's directory, which holds the details its members have chosen to publish. We read the name, email address and location listed there. The name is kept on your account. The email address is used only if you choose to keep it; otherwise we use the one you type instead. The location is reduced to a 4-character grid square, kept for a day, and used only to place your station on your own audience map. The lookup itself is forgotten after 15 minutes.

Your subscription

Your plan, its status, its renewal and end dates, and Stripe's reference for you as a customer. When you pay, Stripe tells us the country of your billing address, which we use to choose the streaming server nearest to you. Your card details stay with Stripe.

Your streams

Your stream key, which we store encrypted. For each broadcast: when it started and ended, the server it used, how many people watched at the peak and in total, how much data it used, how many viewers were in each country, and why it stopped. We also keep how many hours you streamed each month, for your plan's allowance and fair use. If you send your stream on to other platforms, we keep the addresses and stream keys you give us for them, encrypted.

We do not record your streams. To show a still picture before a stream is played, our servers take a small snapshot from the live picture every few seconds. Snapshots are held in memory only, never saved.

Chat

The messages you post, when you posted them, and whether they were removed. Broadcasters' lists of people they have blocked from their chat are also kept, with the reason given.

Watching a stream

You do not need an account to watch. While you watch, our servers use your IP address, in memory only, to limit how many connections one address can open and to send you to the nearest server. We count viewers by country, using the country Cloudflare finds from your connection. Those counts are kept with the broadcast; your IP address is not.

Technical details

While you are signed in, your session record holds your IP address and your browser's description. When you stream, our servers log the IP address your streaming software connects from, to find faults and stop misuse; those logs are kept for 14 days.

How visitors use this website

We measure how people find and use this website, with our own code and no outside analytics company. A random ID in a cookie lets us tell visits apart. With it we keep your country, the type of device, its screen size, the website or campaign link you came from, the pages you visit, the time you spend, and how far you get through signing up. If you have an account, this is linked to it. We never store your IP address for this. If your browser sends a "Do Not Track" or "Global Privacy Control" signal, none of this is recorded.

What we use it for, and why we may

Data protection law needs a lawful reason for each use of your details. Ours are:

To provide the service you asked for (performing our contract with you): creating and running your account, signing you in, carrying your streams, running chat, taking payments, and sending the emails the service needs, such as sign-in codes and account notices.
For our legitimate interests, which we balance against your rights: keeping the service secure, preventing misuse, enforcing fair use and our terms, dealing with reports and complaints, fixing faults, and understanding how the website is used so that we can improve it.
With your consent: sending you promo codes, offers and news. You can withdraw consent at any time.
To meet legal obligations: for example keeping payment records for tax purposes, or responding to lawful requests from the authorities.

Offers and news

We send offers and news only if you tick the box asking for them. They can include deals from our radio partners and retailers, but we send them ourselves: your details are not passed to those partners. We send one email a week at most. You can switch this off at any time on your dashboard, or by replying to any email from us and asking.

What others can see

Streaming is public. When you go live, anyone with your player code or watch page link can see your callsign and your stream, and your station can appear on our home page among the stations live now and recently live, with a still picture from the stream. Your watch page can show your past broadcasts. You can take your station off the home page lists from your dashboard, and hide any past broadcast on your Streams page. Viewer numbers are private unless you choose to show them.

Chat messages are shown, with the callsign of the person who sent them, to everyone watching while the stream is live.

Who we share it with

We do not sell your details. We share them only with the companies that help us run Station Master Live, which may use them only to provide their service to us, and in the cases below:

Stripe, our payment provider: your email address, callsign, plan, payments and billing details.
Cloudflare, which protects and speeds up this website and directs streams to the nearest server: it handles the connections between your browser and our website.
DigitalOcean, which hosts our streaming servers in London, New York and Sydney, and our hosting provider for this website.
Our email delivery provider, which sends our emails: your email address and the message.
QRZ.com: we send it the callsign you give us when we look it up.
Bunny Fonts, from which your browser loads the typeface on our pages: it receives your IP address, as any website your browser connects to does.
The platforms you choose: if you send your stream on to YouTube, Facebook, Twitch or anywhere else, it goes there under their terms and privacy policies.

We may also disclose details where the law requires it, to protect people or the service from harm, or to whoever takes over Station Master Live if the business is ever sold or reorganised, in which case this policy continues to apply.

Outside the UK and Europe

Some of the companies above, and our streaming servers in New York and Sydney, handle details in the United States, Australia and other countries outside the UK and the European Economic Area. Where they do, we rely on the protections data protection law requires, such as the UK government's and the European Commission's approved contract terms, or an adequacy decision for the country concerned.

How long we keep it

Your account, your broadcast history, your monthly usage and your chat messages: while you have an account, and until you ask us to delete it.
Payment records: as long as tax and accounting law requires, which in the UK is usually six years. Stripe keeps its own records under its privacy policy.
Server logs containing IP addresses: 14 days.
Visit measurement: the pages you visited, 60 days; the summary of each visitor, up to 400 days.
Viewer counts taken during broadcasts: 90 days, apart from the totals kept with each broadcast.
Sign-in codes expire after 30 minutes, password reset links after 60 minutes, and QRZ.com lookups are forgotten after 15 minutes.

When you ask us to delete your account, we delete or anonymise your details, except for what we must keep by law or need to deal with a dispute, abuse or a complaint that is still open.

Cookies and storage in your browser

We use no advertising or third-party cookies. These are the only ones we set:

Name	What it is for	How long
live_session	Keeps you signed in as you move between pages.	2 hours after your last visit
XSRF-TOKEN	Security: stops other websites sending forms in your name.	2 hours
remember_web_*	Keeps you signed in between visits until you log out.	About 400 days
callsign	Remembers the callsign you typed on the sign-up form.	1 year
smv	The random ID for our own visit measurement (see above). Not set if your browser asks not to be tracked.	About 400 days

The website also keeps a few settings in your browser's own storage, which never leave your device: the callsign you typed, which tab you last used in the studio, and how you last chose to watch a stream. The player on QRZ.com pages sets no cookies at all.

You can delete cookies and site data in your browser's settings at any time. If you block them, you will not be able to sign in.

Keeping it safe

This website and the player are only served over encrypted connections. Passwords are stored scrambled, and stream keys, including those for other platforms, are stored encrypted. Only the few people who run the service can see account details, and only to run it. No system is perfectly secure, but if something goes wrong that puts your details at risk, we will tell you and the authorities as the law requires.

Your rights

You have the right to:

ask for a copy of the details we hold about you;
have anything wrong corrected - most of it you can change yourself on your dashboard;
have your details deleted;
object to, or ask us to limit, how we use them;
receive the details you gave us in a form you can take elsewhere;
withdraw your consent to offers and news at any time.

To use any of these, contact us as below. We will answer within a month and will not charge you. We may ask you to confirm who you are first.

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your details, please tell us so that we can try to put it right. You can also complain to the data protection authority where you live. In the UK, that is the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk).

Children

Station Master Live is not for children under 13, and we do not knowingly hold details of anyone under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has given us their details, please tell us and we will delete them.

Changes to this policy

We will update this policy when what we collect or how we use it changes. The date at the top says when it last changed. If a change matters to you, we will tell you by email or on your dashboard.

Contact us

For anything about your details, reply to any email from us and a person will answer.