Harborlight: Pixel Fishing — Privacy Policy
The short version
Harborlight: Pixel Fishing has no accounts, no ads, no analytics and no tracking. Your progress stays on your device (and in your phone's own backup, if it has one on). If you use the shared ocean, what other players need to see you (your name, your profile, the routes your boat sailed and the fish you landed on them, and the messages in bottles you leave) goes to our sea store, where their games pick it up and replay your boat on their maps. There is no chat. You can turn the shared ocean off in Options at any time, and then nothing about you is sent.
What stays on your device
- Your progress: fish, gold, gems, items, your settings. It is saved on your device. We never receive it, unless you move it to a new phone (below). On Android, if your phone backs up its apps, Android also keeps a copy of it in your Google account's backup, as it does for your other apps: that copy is yours and Google's, and we cannot see it. It comes back if you reinstall the game or set up a new phone.
- A private key: a random number the game makes the first time it runs. It is not linked to you, your device or your progress. The game sends it with everything it sends, so that nobody else can change your profile; the sea store keeps only a shortened hash of it (your "angler id"), which other players' games also see.
- The players you have blocked, so their boats and bottles stay out of your sea.
What the shared ocean sends, and why
When the shared ocean is on, the game sends our sea store, now and then (when you open and leave the ocean map):
| What | Why |
|---|---|
| The name you chose | Shown over your boat and on the leaderboard |
| Your profile card (face, title, name style, totals, the fish you put on display, achievements, rarest catch, the kinds of fish you have caught), your level and your boat | Shown to a player who taps your boat |
| The routes your boat sailed on the map (which tiles, how long you stayed, and which fish you landed there) | Replayed as your boat on other players' maps, pulling those fish out |
| How many fish you caught today, and your heaviest and rarest catch of the day | The day's facts on the news ticker (the biggest fish, the rarest catch, the most fish), with the name of who caught them |
| The fish you enter in the daily contest at Paradise Resort (which fish, the name you give it, its size, modifier, mutation, beauty and talent) and its points | Shown on that day's contest board, with your name |
| Likes and fish emotes you give | The player you gave them to sees them, with your name and face |
| Messages in bottles you drop (where, and which of the game's set phrases) | Other players find them on the map |
| Bottles you mark as helpful | The player who dropped it sees how many helped, and who |
| Your sub's wreck when it is crushed in the Abyss (how deep, and what was left in its hold) | Other players can find it, with your name on it, and take what is in it |
| Your angler id (see above) | To keep your profile, routes and bottles together |
| Which days you played, and the game's version | To count how many players come back to the game; nobody else sees it |
| Your friend code, your friends, and the friend requests you send and answer | So players can add each other as friends; your friends see your profile as it is now |
| The gifts you send your friends (to whom, and on which day) | Your friend receives them; the store counts how many gifts each player has been given |
| A friend's code you enter, and when you reach level 10 | The friend who invited you sees your name and gets their invite rewards |
| Your league points for each two-day round, and your league rank | Shown on your league group's board, with your name, face and name style |
| Your answers to the in-game questionnaire, if you answer it | See "The questionnaire" below |
| Error reports: what went wrong in the game, where in the game's code, how often, the game's version and your phone's model and system version; and automatic reports of crashes, slowness, freezes, low memory and save trouble, with the game's log of its last minutes | See "Error reports" below |
| Reports you make | See "Reports" below |
It keeps your profile and your last five routes while you keep playing, and removes routes 180 days after you last played; bottles are shown for 7 days and deleted after 30, as are wrecks in the Abyss. Who gave a like, a fish emote or a helpful mark is kept for 30 days, so the player it was given to can see it; the day's fishing for 3 days; the daily contest's entries for 8 days; which days you played for 60 days; gifts and unanswered friend requests for 30 days; league rounds for 16 days. Your friends, your friend code, how many gifts you have been given and who invited whom are kept until you remove the friend or ask us to delete them. Other players download a sample of the players who played in the last 14 days. Like any internet connection, the store sees your IP address to talk to your device; it does not store it. The store runs on Cloudflare (cloudflare.com/privacypolicy).
Nobody can type anything into a bottle: it holds one of the game's own phrases. Names pass through a word filter before anyone sees them.
Moving to a new phone
If you choose Move to a new phone in Options and get a code, the game sends the sea store your whole save (your progress), your private key, your install's id and the players you have blocked, and the store keeps them under that code for at most 24 hours. The new phone gives the code and receives them; the store deletes them the moment they are taken, or after 24 hours if nobody takes them. Anyone who has the code can take your save, so only type it into your own phone.
Reporting a bug
Report a bug in Options opens your own email app with a message to us that already holds the game's version, your angler id, your phone's model and system version, and the game's language. Nothing is sent unless you send that email; we use it only to look into the problem, and delete it once it is dealt with.
The questionnaire
The game may ask you a few questions about how you like it (how much you enjoy it, what you like most and least, how hard it is). Answering is up to you: every question can be skipped, and "Next time" puts it off. What you answer, and anything you type in its box, is sent to the sea store with your angler id, the game's version and its language, so we can read what players think and make the game better. Nobody else sees it, and it is never shown in the game. The answers are kept for a year and then deleted. With the shared ocean off, nothing is sent.
Error reports
When something goes wrong inside the game (an error in its code), the game sends the sea store a short report: the error's message, where in the game's code it happened, how often, the game's version, your phone's model and its system version, with your angler id. It holds nothing you typed and none of your progress. We read the reports only to find and fix bugs; nobody else sees them, and they are deleted after 30 days. With the shared ocean off, nothing is sent.
When the game crashes, runs very slowly (under 10 frames a second), freezes for several seconds, is warned by your phone that memory is low, or has trouble reading or writing your save, it also sends an automatic report: what happened, the screen you were on, how fast the game was running, the game's version and language, whether Performance Mode was on, your phone's model, system version and graphics chip, with your angler id, and the game's own log of its last few minutes (the screens it opened, its speed, and the messages and errors it wrote). The log holds nothing you typed and none of your progress. A crash is reported the next time you open the game. Reports of crashes and save trouble, and a daily summary of all reports, are emailed to us through an email service (Resend), which sends them on our behalf and keeps nothing for itself. These reports are kept for 30 days too. With the shared ocean off, nothing is sent.
A new install of the game also sends, until its tenth fish, how far it has got towards its first catch: which of its first steps it has reached (the title screen, the sea, its first cast, bite and catch, choosing a name) and how many seconds after its first start, with your angler id and the game's version. It holds nothing you typed. We use it only to see where new players get stuck and make the start of the game better; nobody else sees it, and it is deleted after 180 days. With the shared ocean off, nothing is sent.
Reports
If you report a player, the store writes down when, your angler id, and their angler id and name, and their profile is there to read. A person reads reports to deal with abuse. Reports are kept for 3 months and then deleted.
Children
The game is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. The shared ocean has no chat, a word filter on names, and lets anyone block and report other players. A parent can switch the shared ocean off in Options, and then the game sends nothing at all.
Purchases
Dabloon packs and the Starter Kit are bought through Google Play: we receive confirmation that a purchase was made, not your payment details.
Your choices
- Turn the shared ocean off in Options: nothing about you is sent.
- Block a player from their profile: their boat and bottles leave your sea. Unblock them in Options.
- Remove a friend from their profile in Friends: you stop being friends on both sides.
- Delete the game to delete everything it saved on your device. A copy in your phone's backup is managed in your phone's or Google account's backup settings.
- To ask about anything the sea store holds about you, or to have it deleted, email evildinosaurcorporation@gmail.com with your angler id (shown in Options, under the shared ocean).
Changes
If this policy changes, the new version will be at this address with a new date.