Privacy Policy

01Who we are

PLUNGEON is an independent game made by Samu Aaltonen and Gábor Horváth-Ulenius and published under the name Gausaa Games (“we”, “us”, “our”). We are responsible for the app and for this policy. Where the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) applies, we are the data controller for the limited personal data described in sections 04, 08 and 09. Google is responsible for Google Play Games (section 05).

For any privacy question or request, email gausaa.games@gmail.com.

02What this policy covers

This policy covers the PLUNGEON app for Android, distributed through Google Play (package name com.gausaagames.plungeon), and the iOS version once it is released on Apple’s App Store.

It does not cover:

• The browser version and the rest of this website. PLUNGEON in your web browser (play.plungeon.com) has online features of its own, such as its own cloud save, separate from the app’s. The browser version and the rest of the plungeon.com website have their own privacy policy at plungeon.com/privacy-web.
• The app stores themselves. Google and Apple handle your download and purchase under their own policies (see section 08).
• Google Play Games itself. Google runs it under its own privacy policy; section 05 explains what PLUNGEON sends to it.
• Websites you open from the app (see section 07).

03What stays on your device

To work, the app keeps the following in its private storage on your device:

• Your game save — your progress: depth reached, credits, upgrades, items, trophies, museum pieces and gameplay statistics.
• Your settings — your audio, display, control and accessibility preferences.
• A leaderboard note — on Android, if you use Google Play Games: the best score the game has already sent to each leaderboard, so that it does not send the same score twice.
• A cloud-save note — on Android, if you use the cloud save (section 05): a fingerprint of the copy last seen in your Google account, with its progress counts, credits and carried items, so that the game can tell which save is newer.
• Technical files the game engine creates to run smoothly, such as graphics caches.

None of this contains personal information, and none of it leaves your device, apart from the achievements, scores and cloud copy of your save described in section 05, which go to Google while you are signed in to Google Play Games. We cannot see any of it. Android keeps each app’s private storage separate from other apps, and PLUNGEON opts out of Android’s automatic app-data backup: the cloud save in section 05 is the only copy of your save outside your device, and it exists only if you use Google Play Games.

You stay in control of this data. You can delete it at any time by clearing the app’s storage in your device’s settings, or by uninstalling the app (section 06). Because we hold no copy, a deleted save cannot be recovered — unless you use the cloud save, which keeps a copy in your own Google account (section 05).

The run summary

If you tap COPY on a run card, a short text summary of your run is placed on your device’s clipboard. It goes nowhere unless you paste it somewhere yourself.

04The update check

So that you hear when a new version is out, the app checks for updates. On Android and iOS, when the game starts, and when you come back to it after it has been in the background (at most once every ten minutes), it downloads one small public file that lists the current version of PLUNGEON. If yours is older, the app tells you; if it is too old to keep working, it asks you to update before you play on. Its UPDATE button opens PLUNGEON’s page in Google Play or the App Store.

• Where the file is. It is hosted on GitHub (raw.githubusercontent.com), a service of GitHub, Inc.
• What the request contains. Nothing about you: no account, no identifier, no save data and no settings. Like any internet request, it shows GitHub your device’s IP address, and its standard technical headers name the game engine (Godot) and its version, and the operating system (Android or iOS).
• What happens to it. The app stores nothing from the check, and we receive nothing from it. GitHub handles the request under the GitHub General Privacy Statement.
• Without a connection nothing happens, and the game plays as usual. The check uses an encrypted connection (HTTPS).

05Google Play Games (Android)

On Android, PLUNGEON uses Google Play Games Services, a service run by Google, for achievements, leaderboards and a cloud copy of your save. It is optional: you can play the whole game without it. The iOS version does not use it.

• Signing in. If you have a Google Play Games profile, Play Games may sign you in automatically when the game starts. If it does not, the game works just the same, and you can sign in from the game’s settings at any time.
• What the game sends while you are signed in. Your achievements — one for each trophy in the game, unlocked when you earn the trophy, with your progress towards those that count something — and your scores on three leaderboards: Deepest Dive (the deepest point of each dive), Best Haul (the value of each haul you sell) and Deepest Haul (the depth the deepest block of each sold haul was cut at). Google stores them with your Play Games player ID. When you sign in, the game also sends the trophies and records you earned before, so that Play Games matches your save.
• The leaderboard in the game. From version 1.0.7, the leaderboard in the game’s settings shows the Deepest Dive leaderboard inside the game: the top 25 players whose Play Games profile is visible to everyone, the players around your own place, and your own place and best depth. For this the game reads each listed player’s place, depth and Play Games name from Google, and your own place and score; it uses Play Games player IDs only to find your own line. It keeps all of this in memory while the game runs, never saves it and sends it nowhere. The Play Games software also downloads those players’ profile pictures into the app’s private storage; the game never shows them and deletes each one as soon as it arrives — or, if the game is closed first, the next time it starts.
• The cloud save. From version 1.0.8, while you are signed in, the game keeps a copy of your game save in your own Google account, through Play Games’ Saved Games, which Google keeps in a hidden app-data folder of your Google Drive. It is the same save that is on your device — your credits, upgrades, items, trophies, museum pieces, records and gameplay statistics, and your current dive: where you are, what you have dug and found, and what is in your hold — with a short description such as “1234 m deepest, 12 trophies”. It contains no name, no account or player ID, no device identifier and none of your settings. The game reads and updates it when you sign in, a few seconds after a dive ends at the surface, when you tap SYNC NOW in its settings and, when you come back to the game, if it has not checked in the last ten minutes; it may also save it when you switch away from the game. On a new phone, or after a reinstall, signing in brings your progress back; when the save on your phone and the one in your account have both moved on, the game asks you which to keep. Google’s answer also carries your Play Games profile: the game keeps none of it, and deletes the profile pictures the Play Games software downloads with it, as it does for the leaderboard.
• What Play Games collects by itself. The Play Games software built into the Android version also collects analytics and diagnostics data, which Google uses to keep Play Games stable and to improve it. This can happen whether or not you sign in.
• Who receives it. All of this goes to Google, which provides Google Play Games under the Google Privacy Policy, over an encrypted connection. We do not receive it: we can see the leaderboards like any player, and totals such as how many players have unlocked an achievement.
• Who sees it. Your Play Games name, avatar, achievements and scores are visible to other players as your Play Games profile settings allow: everyone, friends only, or only you. PLUNGEON’s own leaderboard shows your name and best depth to other players only if your profile is visible to everyone.
• Your choices. You can play without signing in, and you can delete your Play Games data for PLUNGEON, your cloud save, or your whole Play Games profile at any time (section 06).

06Deleting your data

PLUNGEON by Gausaa Games keeps no data about you on any server of ours, so there is nothing you need to ask us to delete: you can delete all of it yourself, at any time.

Your Google Play Games data for PLUNGEON

Your achievements and leaderboard scores for PLUNGEON are held by Google. To delete them:

• In the Google Play Store app: tap your profile icon (top right), then Settings › General › Play Games Profile › Privacy & Settings. Under “Your Data”, tap Delete profile & game data; then, under “Delete individual game data”, find PLUNGEON and tap Delete.
• On the web: go to play.google.com/games/profile, click Your Data › Delete Play Games Account & Data, then Delete next to PLUNGEON.

The same page can delete your whole Play Games profile, for every game. Google’s help page has the details: Delete your Play Games data or Play Games profile. If “Web & App Activity” is turned on in your Google Account, Google may also keep a record of your app use there, which you can delete at myactivity.google.com.

Your cloud save

The cloud copy of your save is kept by Google in a hidden app-data folder of your Google Drive. To delete it, open drive.google.com on a computer, go to Settings › Manage apps, find PLUNGEON, and choose Options › Delete hidden app data. Deleting PLUNGEON’s data from your Play Games profile (above) may remove it too: Google’s help page says that doing so might also delete your progress in the game.

Your save and settings on your device

Uninstall PLUNGEON, or clear its storage (on Android: Settings › Apps › PLUNGEON › Storage › Clear storage). This deletes your progress, your settings, the leaderboard note and the cloud-save note at once. We hold no copy, so a deleted save can be brought back only from your own cloud save, if you use one (above).

Emails you sent us

Ask us at gausaa.games@gmail.com and we will delete the conversation (section 09).

We keep nothing about you on our side. Google keeps or deletes Play Games data as the Google Privacy Policy describes, and GitHub handles its own records of the update check under its privacy statement (section 04).

07What the app does not do

• It does not send your save, your settings or anything about you to us — we run no server for the app. It goes online for only two things: the update check (section 04) and, on Android, Google Play Games (section 05).
• We do not collect, sell or share personal data. Nothing in the app uses the advertising ID, and the app itself reads no device identifiers.
• The only third-party software in it is Google Play Games Services, in the Android version (section 05): there are no advertising, analytics, crash-reporting or tracking SDKs. It is built on the open-source Godot game engine, which collects nothing.
• On Android it uses two permissions, which Android grants at install without asking: internet access, for the update check and Google Play Games, and vibration, for short pulses on hits, blasts and purchases (from version 1.0.8), which reads nothing, sends nothing and can be switched off in the game’s settings. It asks for nothing else — no location, camera, microphone, contacts, photos, media or files.
• It has no accounts of its own, chat, user-generated content, in-app purchases or ads.

Links that leave the app

The settings screen links to our web pages — this privacy policy, and, where Google Play Games is not available, the PLUNGEON leaderboard page on our website — and the update message links to the game’s store page. Tapping a link opens your device’s web browser or store app; the app itself still sends nothing. Our website is covered by its own privacy policy at plungeon.com/privacy-web.

08Google Play and the App Store

You download PLUNGEON — and, where it has a price, buy it — through Google Play or, once available, the App Store. Google or Apple processes your account, payment and device information for that purpose under its own privacy policy, as an independent controller. We do not control that processing; see Google’s privacy policy and Apple’s privacy policy.

From the store, we receive only:

• aggregated, anonymous statistics, such as install counts, countries, device models and ratings;
• the sales and refund records stores give developers, such as an order number, date, price and country of purchase — never your payment card details;
• anonymised crash and performance reports, and only if you have allowed your device to share diagnostics with Google or Apple;
• public reviews you choose to post, with the name shown alongside them. We may reply publicly;
• if you use Google Play Games, totals such as how many players have unlocked an achievement — and, like any player, we can see the leaderboards.

We use this information only to run, support and improve the game and to meet our legal obligations. We never combine it with anything from the app — the app sends us nothing.

09If you contact us

If you email us, we receive your email address and whatever you write, and we use them only to reply to you. We delete the conversation once your request is resolved, and at the latest 12 months after our last message — unless we need it longer to deal with a legal claim. Our email is provided by Google (Gmail), so your message is stored on Google’s servers.

10Legal bases (GDPR)

Where the GDPR or the UK GDPR applies, we rely on:

• Sales records — our legal obligations under accounting and tax law (Art. 6(1)(c)).
• Emails you send us — our legitimate interest in answering you (Art. 6(1)(f)).
• Store statistics, crash reports, reviews and the Play Games totals and leaderboards we can see — our legitimate interest in keeping the game working and improving it (Art. 6(1)(f)).
• The update check — our legitimate interest in telling you when a newer version is out and in keeping every copy of the game working (Art. 6(1)(f)). Its only personal data is the IP address that any internet request needs.
• The leaderboard in the game — our legitimate interest in letting players compare their dives (Art. 6(1)(f)). It shows only what players have made visible to everyone in Google Play Games.
• The cloud save — our legitimate interest in keeping your progress safe when you change or reset your phone (Art. 6(1)(f)). It runs only while you are signed in to Google Play Games, and the copy is kept by Google in your own account.

Google processes your Google Play Games data as the provider of Play Games, under its own privacy policy and legal bases. We do not use anyone’s data for automated decision-making or profiling.

11How long we keep data

• On your device: until you delete it (sections 03 and 06). We hold no copy.
• Google Play Games: kept by Google until you delete it (section 06), under Google’s own rules.
• The leaderboard in the game: the names and scores it loads are kept in memory only, until the game closes; the profile pictures the Play Games software downloads are deleted at once (section 05).
• The cloud save: kept in your Google account until you delete it (section 06), under Google’s own rules; the cloud-save note on your device until you delete the app’s storage.
• The update check: the app keeps nothing; GitHub keeps its own technical records under its privacy statement.
• Emails: as described in section 09.
• Sales records: for as long as accounting and tax law requires, then deleted.
• Store statistics and reviews: kept by Google or Apple under their own retention rules.

12Where data is processed

Google, Apple and GitHub — including Gmail, which hosts our email, and Google Play Games — may process data outside your country, including outside the European Economic Area. They do so under the safeguards they maintain for international transfers, such as the European Commission’s standard contractual clauses.

13Your rights

Depending on where you live — for example under the GDPR in the EU, the EEA and the UK — you have the right to access, correct or delete your personal data, to restrict or object to its processing, to receive it in a portable format, and to withdraw consent at any time. To use any of these rights, email gausaa.games@gmail.com. We reply within one month.

In practice the app sends us nothing, so we usually hold no personal data about you at all: your save is on your device — and, if you use the cloud save, in your own Google account — under your control, and your Play Games data is held by Google, where you can delete it yourself (section 06) or use your rights with Google. If you believe we have mishandled your data, you can also complain to the data protection authority in your country.

We do not sell personal information, and we do not “share” it for cross-context behavioural advertising, as those terms are used in US state privacy laws such as the California Consumer Privacy Act.

14Children

PLUNGEON collects no personal data from anyone, including children, and sends nothing to us. Google Play Games is optional, and Google decides under its own terms and privacy policy whether a child’s Google Account can use it. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has sent us personal data — for example by email — contact us and we will delete it.

15Security

The safest data is data that is never collected. Because the app sends us nothing, there is no server copy of your play to breach, and on your device your save sits in the app’s private storage, sealed off from other apps. The update check and Google Play Games both use encrypted connections (HTTPS). The few records we do hold — emails and sales records — are kept in access-restricted accounts and are not shared with anyone, except where the law requires it.

16Changes to this policy

If a version of the app changes how it handles data, we update this policy, and the store’s data-safety information, with it. The date at the top of this page always shows the latest revision. This revision describes the update check (from version 1.0.3), Google Play Games (from version 1.0.6, on Android), the leaderboard in the game (from version 1.0.7, on Android), and the cloud save and vibration (from version 1.0.8, on Android).

17About this web page

This page uses no cookies, scripts or analytics. Like any website, it is delivered by a hosting provider (Cloudflare) and loads its typefaces from Google Fonts, so both see your IP address and browser details when you open it. The website privacy policy at plungeon.com/privacy-web describes this in more detail.

18Contact

Samu Aaltonen & Gábor Horváth-Ulenius · Gausaa Games

gausaa.games@gmail.com