Idle Elevator: privacy and terms of use

Idle Elevator is an idle game for Android. It has no account and no server of its own. Your progress lives on your phone, and the only data that leaves it is a set of game statistics and crash reports.

I, Tiago Danin, am the developer and the controller of this data under the LGPD (Lei 13.709/2018). If you are in the EU, the GDPR gives you the same rights and I answer them the same way. Write to TiagoDanin@outlook.com about any of it.

What stays on your phone

The game saves your coins, floors, upgrade levels, prestige count and bonus, and the time of the last save, so it can pay offline earnings when you come back. It also saves your sound, vibration and notification settings.

To time its daily reminder, the app records when you open it, one time per day, keeping at most the last five. That list never leaves the device. The game also counts how many times you have opened it, up to 11, to know when to ask for a rating (see below). The count stays on the phone.

None of this is backed up to the cloud. Uninstalling the game or clearing its data erases your progress for good.

Notifications

Once you have played on two different days, the game schedules one reminder for the next day, a little before the time you usually open it. The reminder is created on the phone; no server sends it. You can turn it off in the game's Settings or in Android's notification settings.

Rating request

On the 3rd, 5th and 10th time you open the game, it may ask Google Play to show its rating card. Google Play decides whether the card appears. Your stars and any review go to Google Play under its own terms, and the game never learns whether you rated it or what you wrote.

What the app sends

Game statistics

Google Analytics for Firebase records game events: a new game started, an upgrade bought, a boost used, a tap combo or a floor record reached, a prestige offered, accepted or declined, offline earnings collected, a bonus reward claimed, the video for the offline bonus started and whether it ended with the reward, a reminder opened and a setting switched, with the level, floor or amount involved. It also records how a play session went when you leave the game (its length in ranges such as "5 to 15 minutes", and how many floors, upgrades and taps it had), how long you were away when you come back (also in ranges), your first steps in a new game, the stats sheets you open, how long the game took to start, whether a video loaded or failed to show, your answers to the ad consent form and to the notification permission, when a rating card was requested, and errors the game recovered from. Each statistic is tagged with ranges of your progress (best floor and prestige count), your sound, vibration and notification settings, whether the notification permission was given and whether ads are allowed. Like any app using the SDK, it also records automatic events such as the first open and each session, together with an ID for this installation, the device model, Android version, app version and approximate location. The SDK may read the install referrer (how you got to the game on Google Play). Because the game now has an ad, the SDK may also read the device's advertising ID. The game does not send a user ID, because it has none, and does not use these statistics for advertising.

Crash reports

Firebase Crashlytics receives a report when the game crashes or hits an error it recovers from: the error, the stack trace, the device model, the Android version, the app version and an ID that Crashlytics creates for this installation. The report carries no user ID. Development builds of the game send none.

Ads

When you come back, the game shows what the elevator earned while you were away. COLLECT gives you that amount, as always. A second button, shown only when a video is ready, plays a short rewarded video ad and then gives you twice the amount. There are no banners and no ads that appear on their own. Google AdMob serves the video. To pick and measure ads, AdMob uses the advertising ID, your IP address, the device model and how you interact with the ad, and it may show ads based on your interests.

Where the law asks for consent, such as in the EU and the UK, the game shows Google's consent form before any ad loads, and you can change your answer later in Settings, "Ad privacy". You can also reset or delete the advertising ID in Android settings, under Privacy, Ads (on some phones, Google, Ads). Deleting it stops personalised ads on the whole device.

Who else receives it

Google, which runs Firebase and processes this data on my behalf, on servers that may be outside Brazil, including in the United States. Google AdMob also receives what it needs to show the video you ask for and to record your consent choice. Their terms: Firebase privacy and Google Privacy Policy.

I do not sell this data or hand it to a data broker, and the statistics are not shared with advertisers. The statistics are used to find bugs and to balance the game, on the basis of my legitimate interest in keeping it working. The video relies on your consent where the law requires it, and otherwise on my legitimate interest and on the choices you make in Android's ad settings.

How long it is kept

Your save stays on the phone until you uninstall the game or clear its data. Statistics and crash reports are kept for the retention period configured in Firebase, after which Google deletes them. AdMob keeps its data under Google's own policies.

Your rights

Since the statistics carry no name or account, I usually cannot tell which ones are yours. You can still ask me what exists, ask me to delete it, or object to it, at TiagoDanin@outlook.com. You may also complain to the ANPD, Brazil's data protection authority.

Children

The game is rated for everyone but is not directed at children. I do not knowingly collect data from children under 13. If you believe a child's data reached me, write to me and I delete what I can find.

Changes

If this policy changes, the date at the top changes with it. If the game adds more ads or any purchase, this page is updated before that version is released.

Contact

Tiago Danin, TiagoDanin@outlook.com.

These terms apply to anyone who installs or plays Idle Elevator. By playing, you accept them. If you do not, uninstall the game; nothing else is needed.

Who provides the game

Tiago Danin, a private individual in Brazil, who develops and publishes Idle Elevator on Google Play. "I" and "me" below mean him. "You" means the person playing.

Price

Idle Elevator is free to download and play. It has nothing to buy. Collecting your offline earnings is always free; you may choose to watch a short video ad, served by Google AdMob as the privacy policy describes, to collect twice that amount. The prestige bonus gives you the reward directly, without an ad. If more ads or any purchase are added, these terms and the privacy policy will be updated before that version is released, and anything for sale will be sold through Google Play with its price shown before you pay.

Coins and progress

Coins, upgrades, prestige bonuses and every other item in the game exist only inside it. They have no value in real money, cannot be exchanged for anything outside the game, and cannot be transferred to another person or device.

Your progress is saved on the phone only. Uninstalling the game, clearing its data, changing phones or an update that goes wrong can erase it, and I cannot restore it. Game balance may change between versions.

What you may do with it

I give you a personal, free, non-exclusive and revocable licence to play Idle Elevator on your devices. You may not copy, resell or redistribute the game, or modify it to get around how it works. The name, the art and the code remain mine.

Availability

I work on the game in my own time. It may change, lose features or be removed from Google Play.

Liability

The game is provided as it is. To the extent Brazilian law allows, I am not liable for lost progress or for losses caused by the phone or the network. Nothing here removes a right that the law gives you and that a contract cannot take away, such as those in the Código de Defesa do Consumidor.

Privacy

What the game collects is described in the privacy policy on this same page.

Changes

I may update these terms. The date at the top changes when I do. Continuing to play after that means you accept the new version.

Law

Brazilian law governs these terms. Anything an email cannot settle goes to the courts of Belém, Pará, without prejudice to your right as a consumer to sue where you live.

Contact

Tiago Danin, TiagoDanin@outlook.com.