Gizlilik Politikası

This policy explains what personal data VARNETHRA (the game for iOS and Android, its game server and the website varnethra.com) processes, why, for how long, who else receives it, and what rights you have. We wrote it to be read: if something is unclear, write to [email protected].

In short: you can play without giving us your name or email. We create a random player ID for you. We show no ads in the game and sell no data. When we advertise the game elsewhere, our partner AppsFlyer measures which ads brought players in. It uses your advertising ID on Android, and on iPhone only if you allow tracking. AppsFlyer passes the results to the ad networks we use (Meta, Google and TikTok): on iPhone only if you allow tracking, on Android whenever ad measurement is on. If the game crashes, our partner Sentry receives a crash report. In the EU, the EEA and the UK, and wherever the game cannot tell your region, both start only if you choose Allow on the game's card; on iPhone, Apple's tracking prompt then follows to confirm, and with No thanks it never appears. Everyone can turn each of them off in Settings › Legal and privacy.

1. Who is responsible

The controller under the GDPR is the developer and operator of VARNETHRA:

Privacy contact: [email protected]. We are a one-person business and have not appointed a data protection officer; no law requires one for us.

2. What we process and why

Your account

• Player ID and sign-in key. The first time you play, the game creates a random player ID and a secret sign-in key. The key is kept on your device; our server stores only a one-way hash of it.
• Sign in with Apple or Google (optional). If you link your account so you can recover it on another device, we receive and keep only the provider's stable account identifier. We do not read or keep your email address, your name or your password from Apple or Google.

The game itself

• Profile and progress: the display name you choose, the avatar, frame and title you equip, your castle and buildings, heroes, troops, cards and gear, resources and Gems, missions, rewards and chests, campaign stages, battle results, trophies and rank, clan membership and contributions, in-game mail, and when your account was created and last used.
• Battles: while a live battle runs we hold the commands both players send, so the server can run and settle it. This is removed once the battle has been settled, normally within minutes.
• Gameplay events: our own server records what happens in the game with your player ID, for example that a battle started or ended, its mode, stage and result, or that a building was upgraded. We use this only to balance the game, find bugs and understand where players get stuck. We also record when you open and close the game, how long you play, and how many screens you open, together with your platform (iOS or Android), app version, language, and a random number that changes every time you launch the game. This helps us understand how the game is played and find problems. It never includes a device ID or an advertising ID. These server records never leave our server, hold no chat text and are not used for advertising. Separately, the game itself reports a few milestones for ad measurement: see "Measuring our ads" below.

Your age

The game does not ask for your age or date of birth and does not collect them. The minimum age is set in our Terms of Service (see section 8).

Chat, friends and messages

• Messages you write in Global, clan chat or direct messages with friends, with the channel, time, your language and your display name at the time.
• Friends, friend requests (and their optional note) and blocks.
• Reports you make or that are made about you, with the reported messages as evidence.

Chat and direct messages are not end-to-end encrypted. They are encrypted in transit, are readable by our server, and can be read by us when they are reported or when we must investigate a breach of the rules. We do not browse private messages.

Moderation. A word filter checks messages, friend-request notes and clan names and texts before they are shown. Text that passes the filter is also checked automatically by OpenAI's moderation service, which only returns whether the text breaks rules such as harassment or sexual content. Only the text is sent, never your player ID or name. If a check fails, the message is not shown, and repeated breaches can lead to a temporary chat restriction. You can appeal a restriction in the game, and a person reviews every appeal.

Profile pictures (only if you upload one)

If you upload a profile picture, we send a reduced copy of the image only (no name, account or location data) to Google's Gemini API for automated safety screening before it is shown to others. Google processes it as our service provider under its paid-API terms, which do not allow using it to train Google's models; we keep only the picture itself, and our staff may review or remove it later.

Your phone reduces the picture and removes its metadata (such as location) before it is sent; our server then cuts it to a small square and stores a new image made from its pixels alone. If the screening passes the picture, other players see it at once; if not, or if the screening is unavailable, it waits for our staff, and until then only you see it. We keep the picture until you replace or remove it, or delete your account. If staff refuse or remove a picture, its file is deleted at once; we keep a record of the decision and a digital fingerprint of the file while your account exists, so the same picture cannot be uploaded again. A picture that may be illegal is not deleted but hidden from everyone and kept apart, outside our backups, for as long as the law requires us to preserve it (normally one year), also if the account is deleted, then deleted. Repeated rule breaks block uploads: each time staff remove a picture of yours that was already shown, you may not upload a new one for 7 days the first time, 30 days the second time, and permanently the third time. A block affects only profile pictures, not the rest of the game.

Translation. When you tap Translate on a message, its text and the target language are sent to Google's Gemini service, which returns the translation. Only the text is sent, never a player ID or name. The message can be someone else's, and theirs can be translated by others the same way.

Purchases

You buy through the Apple App Store or Google Play. They take the payment; we never see your card or bank details or your billing address. To deliver what you bought, the store and our purchase service RevenueCat tell our server the store's transaction number, the product, price, currency, time and status (for example a refund). We keep this as a purchase record linked to your player ID.

Notifications (only if you allow them)

If you allow notifications, we store your device's push token, its platform (iOS or Android), language and time zone, and the kinds of notification you chose and your quiet hours. The time zone is used only for quiet hours. We hand the token and the notification text to Apple (Apple Push Notification service) or Google (Firebase Cloud Messaging), who deliver it. A notification can contain another player's display name (for example a friend request) but never message text. You can turn notifications off in the game or in your phone's settings at any time.

Security and operation

• IP address. Your device's IP address reaches our server with every connection. We use it in memory to deliver the connection and to limit abusive request rates. Our game server does not write IP addresses to its logs.
• Server logs record the request, its result and timing with the first eight characters of your player ID, and changes to in-game resources. They never contain your sign-in key, an IP address or message text.
• Backups of the game database protect against data loss. Off-site copies are encrypted.

Support

If you email [email protected] or another of our addresses, we process your email address, your message and anything you include (such as your player ID) to answer you.

Support tickets. If you write to us from the game under Settings › Help & Support, we receive the category you choose, your text, any pictures you attach (up to three a message, for example a screenshot) and, with a new ticket, the app's context: the app version and build, the platform, your device model and operating system, the game's language and the last battle you played. The ticket is linked to your player ID, so we know which account it is about. We use all of this only to answer and solve your ticket. Pictures are drawn again as new images on our server, so their metadata (such as location) is removed; they are stored privately and only you and our support staff can see them. Nothing from a ticket goes to ad networks or other companies.

Measuring our ads (AppsFlyer)

The game shows no ads. When we advertise the game on other apps and websites, we use AppsFlyer Ltd. (Israel) to learn which ads brought players in and whether those players stayed and bought.

What AppsFlyer receives from the AppsFlyer component built into the game:

• the installation and each time the game is opened on your device, and the store's install referrer;
• your device's IP address, from which AppsFlyer can tell roughly which country an install came from, and your device model, operating system and app version;
• device identifiers: on iPhone the IDFV; on Android the App Set ID and, where no advertising ID is available, the Android ID;
• your advertising ID: on Android the Google advertising ID; on iPhone the IDFA, only if you allow tracking;
• six milestones: finishing the tutorial, finishing the guide, reaching Castle 5, opening the game on day 1 and on day 7 after installing it, and a real-money purchase with its price in US dollars, the item and the quantity;
• a scrambled code made from your player ID. AppsFlyer cannot turn it back into your player ID, but we can match it to your account.

AppsFlyer never receives your name, email address, chat messages or your player ID itself.

What the ad networks receive. AppsFlyer tells the ad networks we use (Meta, Google and TikTok) whether their ad led to an install and passes them the milestones above and your advertising ID, so they can measure and improve our ads. Depending on how each network is set up, it may also pass them the scrambled code made from your player ID.

• On iPhone, this happens only if you allow tracking. Apple's tracking prompt says: "This helps us see which VARNETHRA ad on another app brought you here. There are no ads in the game." Outside the EU, the EEA and the UK it appears when the game first starts. In the EU, the EEA and the UK, and wherever the game cannot tell your region, it appears only after you choose Allow on the game's card (see "Your choice" below), and never if you choose No thanks. Apple's prompt is shown at most once. If you refuse, or have not answered, or your iPhone restricts tracking, AppsFlyer still receives the data listed above except the IDFA, but passes nothing to the ad networks. Separately, Apple's own SKAdNetwork system can tell an ad network that its ad led to an install, with a coded value for the milestones reached and the size of purchases, and no identifier for you or your device.
• On Android there is no tracking prompt. The advertising ID is used, and AppsFlyer passes this information to the ad networks whenever ad measurement is on.

Your choice. In the EU, the EEA and the UK, and wherever the game cannot tell your region, the game first shows a card, "Help us improve the game", that asks whether to allow crash reports and ad measurement. It covers both AppsFlyer and crash reports (below). With No thanks, neither starts, and on iPhone Apple's tracking prompt does not appear. With Allow, both start. On an iPhone whose tracking question is still open, the card ends with "Your iPhone will ask you to confirm next.", and Apple's prompt follows at once. If you then refuse tracking there, AppsFlyer still runs as described above for a refusal: no IDFA, nothing passed to the ad networks. On Android the card is the only question. The game decides this on your phone without sending anything: it reads your phone's region setting, on Android also the SIM card's country, and the time zone. These are settings, not where you really are, so someone living in the EU whose phone is set to another country may not see the card. Everywhere else ad measurement is on unless you turn it off.

Everyone, on iPhone and Android, can turn it off at any time in the game under Settings › Legal and privacy › "Help us measure our ads". If you turn this switch on later on an iPhone where Apple's prompt has never been shown, Apple's prompt appears then. Turned off, the game stops the AppsFlyer component, sends nothing more and tells it to anonymize this device. This does not remove what AppsFlyer and the ad networks have already received. On iPhone you can also turn tracking off in your phone's Settings › Privacy & Security › Tracking.

Crash reports (Sentry)

If the game crashes or hits an error it cannot handle, it sends a crash report to Sentry (Functional Software, Inc., USA) so we can find and fix the fault. A report contains what went wrong and where in the code it happened, the game's own error text with personal details removed, your device model, operating system and version, app version and build, memory, screen size, processor type, language setting, the Unity version, the game scene, recent technical app events such as a scene loading, a random installation number and the same scrambled code made from your player ID. Each time the game runs it also sends one small session record: when the session started and ended and whether it crashed.

A report never contains your name, email address, chat messages, screenshots, the game's log lines or your player ID itself. Your device's IP address reaches Sentry as part of the connection, but the game does not add it to the report.

In the EU, the EEA and the UK, and wherever the game cannot tell your region, crash reports start only if you choose Allow on the card described above. Everywhere else they are on unless you turn them off. Everyone can turn them off at any time in the game under Settings › Legal and privacy › "Send crash reports". This takes effect at once and for every later launch.

On your device

The game stores on your device your player ID and sign-in key, your settings (language, sound, battery saver and so on), a copy of your progress, a queue of actions waiting to be sent, and statistics about your own battles that are never uploaded. This storage is strictly necessary to provide the game you asked for (§ 25(2) no. 2 TDDDG). The game does not use cookies. It also keeps your choices about ad measurement and crash reports, and a record of which milestones were already reported, so that nothing is sent twice. When they run, the AppsFlyer and Sentry components also store and read data on your device, as described above; this is not strictly necessary for the game, which is why in the regions named above they start only with your consent (§ 25(1) TDDDG).

The game does not access your contacts, camera, microphone or location (the region check under "Measuring our ads" reads only your phone's settings and SIM country). It never reads your photo library: if you upload a profile picture, your phone's own picker hands the game only the one picture you choose.

The website

varnethra.com sets no cookies and loads nothing from other companies: fonts and pictures are served from our own site. Our host, Cloudflare, processes your IP address and request data to deliver the pages and protect them from attacks. The web page for deleting an account sets one strictly necessary cookie for up to 15 minutes, to tie the steps of your deletion together.

3. Legal bases

Where we rely on legitimate interests, you can object (section 9).

4. What other players see

Your public player card: display name, avatar (your uploaded profile picture once it is shown, otherwise the one you picked in the game), frame and title, Arena rank, trophies, wins, up to three favourite heroes and showcased achievements, and your clan's tag. What you write in chat is seen by its readers. Other players never see your player ID's link to Apple or Google, your purchases or your device. Please do not share personal details in chat.

5. Who receives data

We do not sell or rent personal data. These service providers process data for us under a data-processing agreement and only on our instructions:

Ad measurement and crash reports. These two companies receive the data described in section 2:

Ad networks. Meta, Google and TikTok receive from AppsFlyer whether their ad led to an install, the game milestones listed in section 2 and your advertising ID (and, depending on each network's setup, the scrambled code made from your player ID), so they can measure and improve our ads. On iPhone this happens only if you allow tracking; on Android, whenever ad measurement is on.

Independent services. When you sign in with Apple or Google, buy in the App Store or Google Play, or join our community on Discord, those companies process your data under their own privacy policies, as their own controllers. Refunds are decided by the store.

Authorities. We disclose data to authorities only where the law requires it, including reporting a threat to someone's life or safety where the EU Digital Services Act requires it.

6. Transfers outside the EU

Some providers in the first table in section 5 are based in, or may access data from, the USA. Such transfers rely on the EU–U.S. Data Privacy Framework where the provider is certified under it, and otherwise on the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses (Art. 46(2)(c) GDPR). You can ask us for a copy of the safeguards.

AppsFlyer is based in Israel, for which the European Commission has adopted an adequacy decision. Sentry is based in the USA.

7. How long we keep data

8. Children

VARNETHRA is not directed at children under 13, or under the higher minimum age that the law of their country sets for using an online service like this one. Our Terms of Service require players to meet that minimum age, and players under 18 need a parent's or guardian's permission to play and to buy. The age rating is set by the App Store and Google Play.

We do not ask for or collect anyone's age or date of birth. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children below the minimum age. If we learn that such a child has an account, we delete the account and its data. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has an account, write to [email protected] with the player ID (shown in the game's profile) and we will delete it.

9. Your rights

You have the right to access your data and receive a copy (Art. 15), to correct it (Art. 16), to have it deleted (Art. 17), to restrict its processing (Art. 18), to receive it in a portable format (Art. 20), and to object at any time to processing based on our legitimate interests, on grounds relating to your situation (Art. 21). You can withdraw a consent at any time without affecting what happened before.

Delete your account in the game (Settings → Account and data → Delete account) or on the web (how to delete your account). Deleting your account does not by itself remove what AppsFlyer, the ad networks and Sentry already hold; to ask about that data, write to us as described next. You can withdraw your consent to ad measurement and crash reports with the two switches in Settings › Legal and privacy. You can change your display name in the game. For anything else write to [email protected] with your player ID. A player ID alone does not prove that an account is yours, so before we hand over or delete data we may ask you to confirm it from inside the game or with the Apple or Google account you linked. We answer within one month.

You also have the right to complain to a data protection supervisory authority, in particular in the EU country where you live or work. The authority responsible for us is the Landesbeauftragte für Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit Nordrhein-Westfalen (ldi.nrw.de).

10. Automated decisions

The automatic moderation described in section 2 can hide a message and, after repeated breaches, restrict chat for a limited time. The automatic screening of a profile picture decides only whether it is shown at once or waits for our staff; if it finds signs of possibly illegal content, the picture is held and further uploads are blocked until a person reviews it. A person reviews every such case; only uploads are blocked and you can keep playing; and you can contest it by contacting Support at [email protected]. Upload blocks for repeated rule breaks follow a staff decision, never the screening alone. None of this affects your account, progress or purchases. You can appeal a chat restriction in the game, and a decision about a picture by writing to [email protected]; a person decides. We make no other decisions about you by automated means alone.

11. Security

All traffic between the game, the website and our servers is encrypted (TLS). Sign-in keys are stored only as hashes. Off-site backups are encrypted, and only the operator has access to the servers and data. No system is perfectly secure; if a breach affects your data, we will inform the authority and, where the law requires, you.

12. Changes to this policy

When the game gains a feature that processes data in a new way, we update this policy first. We announce important changes in the game. The date at the top shows the current version.

13. Contact

Privacy questions and requests: [email protected]. Everything else: [email protected]. The operator's address is in the legal notice.