Sparkfence Privacy Policy
In short: Sparkfence keeps your settings and progress on your phone. When your phone is online, Sparkfence on Google Play also sends us a short summary of each game, so we can make the game better. The summaries never say who you are. You can turn them off in Settings > Privacy.
Who we are
Sparkfence is a game made by Cynnix Studios (“we” in this policy).
Cynnix Studios, 16 rue Stanton O., Chateauguay, QC J6J 1R2, Canada.
What we collect: game stats
When a game ends and your phone is online, Sparkfence sends us a short summary of that game. It holds:
- the levels you reached, your scores and how much of the field you claimed;
- each life you lost or earned: how (for example, the Styx touched your line), where on the field and how far into the level;
- how long the game and each level lasted, and how many times you paused;
- the controls and hero you used, and any dares;
- the game’s settings, such as the pace, and whether it was a first game with the tips guiding you;
- the achievements you earned in the game, and when;
- which game this is on your phone (your 1st, 2nd, 17th…) and which levels you cleared for the first time in it;
- the version of Sparkfence.
A summary also carries a random number made up for that one game, so we never store the same game twice. Summaries carry no name, no account, no email address, nothing you type, no photos or voice recordings, no location, and none of your phone’s own ID numbers or its advertising ID. Nothing in them is made to tell one phone or player from another. Even so, someone looking hard could sometimes guess that a few summaries came from the same phone (for example, a phone’s 11th and 12th games on the same day); we never try to.
Sparkfence never needs the internet to play. If your phone is offline, the game keeps up to 50 summaries and sends them later. Sparkfence played in a web browser sends no game stats. Nothing else is collected: Sparkfence has no ads, no accounts, no purchases and no crash reporting.
How we use game stats
We use game stats only to see how the game plays and to make it better: for example, whether extra lives help, where games end, how long games last and which levels are too hard. We look at them added up across many players. We never use them to show ads, to contact anyone, to build a profile of a player, to pick out a phone or a player, or to change the game for any one player, and we never sell them. To make sure of that, game stats are kept apart from any other information, only Cynnix Studios can read them, and we never join them with anything else.
Who handles game stats
Our server runs on Cloudflare (Cloudflare, Inc.), which receives and stores the summaries for us under its data processing terms. Once a week our own job at GitHub (GitHub, Inc.) reads them from our server to add them up, and keeps only the totals, in a private storage space that is also only for us. Neither may use the summaries for anything of its own. We share them with no one else.
Like any internet connection, our server sees your phone’s internet (IP) address when a summary arrives, and what your phone’s web viewer says about itself, which can include the phone’s model and its Android and web viewer versions. We use the address only to deliver the summary and to block floods of fake ones: a scrambled form of it is held for a short time for that. We store none of this, and we never use it to work out where you are or which phone you have. Cloudflare also uses connection details to protect its own network, as its privacy policy explains.
Turning game stats off
Game stats are on unless you turn them off. The first time a game ends, Sparkfence tells you about them on its title screen and sends nothing until you choose.
To turn them off, open Settings > Privacy and switch off Share game stats. Summaries not yet sent are deleted from your phone, and nothing more is sent. The game plays exactly the same either way. You can switch them back on at any time.
Keeping and deleting
We delete each summary within 60 days of its arrival, and our server’s backup copies are gone within 90 days. After that we keep only totals, such as how many games reached level 3 on a day, which say nothing about any one player or phone. Nothing in a summary says which phone sent it, so we have no reliable way to find one phone’s summaries to show or delete them early; turning game stats off stops any more being sent.
The game’s notes on your phone stay until you delete them. To delete them, open your phone’s Settings, then Apps > Sparkfence > Storage, and tap Clear storage (the names vary a little between phones), or uninstall Sparkfence. Sparkfence is left out of Android’s backup to Google Drive. If you move to a new phone with Android’s transfer tool, the notes may be copied across from your old phone.
Keeping game stats safe
Summaries travel encrypted (HTTPS). Our server keeps no record of the requests it receives. Only Cynnix Studios can sign in to the accounts that hold the stats, with two-step sign-in, and we check these safeguards every year.
What the game saves on your phone
So it remembers you next time, the game saves a few notes in its own storage on your phone:
- your settings, such as controls, sound, vibration, the Pace you picked and the hero you play as;
- your best score and highest level;
- your heroes and game totals, such as games played and achievements earned, and when you earned them;
- the game you are playing, so it carries on where you left off if your phone closes Sparkfence;
- whether the tips and the question about which thumb you steer with have been shown;
- whether game stats are on, how many games you have played, in which game you first cleared each level, and any summaries waiting to be sent.
Android keeps these notes private to Sparkfence, so other apps cannot read them. Apart from the game summaries described above, none of it reaches us.
Permissions
Sparkfence on Google Play asks for two permissions: internet, used only to send game stats, and vibration, so you can feel closes and hits in the game (turn it off in Settings > Controls). Android grants both when the game is installed; neither asks you anything.
Children
Sparkfence is made for all ages, including children under 13. Children cannot type, chat or share anything in the game, there are no ads, no purchases and no links out of the game, and game stats hold nothing that says who a child is. US law (COPPA) lets a game collect information like this without asking a parent first, but only to run and improve the game, and that is all we use it for. A parent can stop game stats at any time in Settings > Privacy. Nothing in a summary says which phone or child it came from, so we cannot reliably pick out one child’s summaries, and every summary is deleted within 90 days. A parent with questions can contact us (below).
If you live in the UK or the European Economic Area
We use game stats because we have a legitimate interest in learning how the game plays so we can improve it, and we chose a design that keeps nothing that says who you are. You can stop them at any time by switching off Share game stats. You can ask us about them, and you can complain to your data protection authority (in the UK, the Information Commissioner’s Office).
Google Play and Android
Google Play handles downloads, updates and reviews, and Android runs the game. If you have let your phone share usage and diagnostics with Google, Android may send Google a report when the part of Android that shows the game (the WebView) crashes. Sparkfence asks Android not to send the WebView’s usage statistics. Google’s own privacy policy covers what Google does.
Changes to this policy
If anything here changes, we will update this policy and its date and say so in the “What’s new” notes on Sparkfence’s page on Google Play. If we ever want to collect anything new, we will update this policy first.
Contact
Questions about privacy? Contact Cynnix Studios at privacy@cynnixstudios.com.
This policy is online at https://cynnixstudios.com/privacy, and Sparkfence’s page on Google Play links to it.