Who we are
This policy covers Lanterns of Legend, a puzzle battle game for Android, and the game server it talks to. The game is made and run by the developer named on the game's Google Play listing ("we", "us").
Questions about your data: [email protected].
What we collect and why
Your account
You sign in with Google Play Games. From that sign-in our server receives and keeps your Play Games player ID and your Play Games display name. We give your account a random account ID of its own. We use these to keep your progress and to let you sign in again on another phone.
We do not receive your Google password, and the sign-in does not give us your e-mail address.
Your device and sign-in sessions
The game makes a random install ID when it is first installed. It is not your phone's advertising ID. With each sign-in we keep that install ID, the platform (Android), the game version and the sign-in times. Sign-in credentials are stored only as one-way hashes. We use this to keep your account secure and to sign you out of old devices.
Your game
Your heroes, teams, stage progress, in-game currencies and the history of your battles. For each battle the game sends the moves you made, so the server can replay it and check the result before it gives rewards. This is how we stop cheating. At the end of a season we also keep your final ranking.
Purchases
Purchases are made through Google Play. We never see your card or payment details. For each purchase we keep what was bought, its state (for example paid or refunded), the time, the country or region Google reports, Google's order ID, and the purchase token (as a hash, and an encrypted copy). We need these to give you what you paid for, to handle refunds, and to stop the same purchase being used twice.
Ads (only if you choose to watch one)
After a lost battle you can choose to watch a rewarded ad for a retry. Ads are served by Google AdMob. When an ad loads, Google's ad software in the game collects information such as your phone's advertising ID, IP address, device details and how you interact with the ad, under Google's own policy. When you finish an ad, Google sends our server a signed confirmation that names your account ID, so we can give you the retry.
See Google's privacy policy and how Google uses information from apps that use its services. You can reset or delete your advertising ID in your phone's settings (usually under Google, then Ads, or Privacy, then Ads).
Crash and error reports
If the game crashes or hits an error, it may send a short report: the game version, the platform, a rough device class, the Android version, the name of the screen, and the error text with file paths and identifiers removed. Reports are linked to your account ID so we can find related problems. They never contain anything you typed.
Server logs
Our server logs each request: the time, what was asked, the result, a shortened form of the network (IP) address it came from and, when you are signed in, your account ID. The address is shortened before anything is written: the last part of an IPv4 address and most of an IPv6 address are removed, so the log shows only the wider network it belongs to, which is usually shared with other people, and not your device's full address. Passwords, sign-in codes, tokens and message contents are removed before anything is written. We use logs to keep the service running and to investigate abuse.†
Counts for running the service
We keep per-minute counts, such as how many battles were checked, how long checks took and how many errors happened. These counts contain no account, device or network identifier.
Support and audit records
When our support team looks at or changes an account (for example to restore a lost reward, or to delete an account on request), we record who did what and when. If you e-mail us, we keep your e-mail as long as we need it to answer you.
What we don't collect
- No contacts, photos, files, microphone, camera or precise location.
- No chat: the game has no text you type to other players.
- No analytics or tracking software other than Google's, described above.
- We do not sell your data. We share it only with the service providers listed under Who handles your data for us, and only so they can run the game for us.
Who handles your data for us
These companies process data on our behalf, only to run the game, and do not use it for their own purposes except where Google's own policies say so (linked above):†
- Google (Google Play Games, Google Play and AdMob): sign-in, purchases and rewarded ads, as described above.
- Cloudflare, Inc. (network and security proxy): every connection between the game and our server, and visits to this website, pass through Cloudflare. It sees your full network (IP) address and the requests in transit, to deliver them and to protect the service from attacks. It does not store your game data.
- Hetzner Online GmbH (server hosting, in Germany): our server and its database run on a machine Hetzner rents to us, so everything listed above that our server keeps, and its backups, is stored there. Hetzner provides the machine; it does not use or look at the data.
We also keep a short-lived copy of the database backups on a computer the developer controls, so the game can be restored if the server is lost. These copies are kept for 7 days†.
How long we keep it
While your account exists we keep your account and game data so you can play. Some records expire sooner:
| What | How long |
|---|---|
| Server logs (including shortened IP addresses) | 7 days† |
| Crash and error reports | 30 days† |
| Per-minute service counts (no identifiers) | 90 days† |
| Backups of the server's database | 30 days† of restore points; older copies are removed automatically |
When you delete your account, what happens to each kind of data is under Deleting your account.
Children
Lanterns of Legend is not made for children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect data from them. If you believe a child under 13 has an account, e-mail us and we will delete it.†
Your rights and how to ask
You can ask us for a copy of the data we hold about your account, to correct it, or to delete it. Depending on where you live (for example the European Union, the United Kingdom or California) you may have further rights, such as to object to some uses or to complain to your data protection authority.
E-mail [email protected] and tell us your Play Games gamer ID (the name on your profile in the Google Play Games app), so we can find your account. We may ask for more details to check that the account is yours. We answer within 30 days.†
Deleting your account
You can delete your account in the game, or by e-mail without the game. The steps are on Delete your account.
- Day 0: you ask. You are signed out on every device at once.
- The next 30 days†: nothing is deleted yet. Sign in to the game in that time and it offers to keep your account.
- After that: within an hour, we delete your Play Games player ID, display name, install IDs and sessions, your heroes, progress and battle history, your crash reports and your ad confirmations. Signing in again later starts a new, empty account.
- What we keep: records we need as evidence, under a new random ID that is not linked to you or your Google account: your purchases and their refunds, the in-game currency records that go with them, battles flagged for cheating and the review of them, your final season rankings, support actions, and the record that your account was deleted and when. We need these for refunds, chargebacks, disputes and to prevent fraud. They are currently kept with no end date; we plan to delete them 3 years† after the deletion. Google keeps its own records of your purchases under its policy.
- Logs and backups: server logs expire after 7 days†. Backups age out on their own, so no copy of your account remains at most about 67 days† after you asked.
Changes to this policy
If we change this policy we will update this page and its date. If a change matters to how your data is used, we will also say so in the game.