Plough On: privacy policy
Plough On is a calm snow-clearing game for young children and their grown-ups. It is made by ArtRabbit Studio Limited ("we", "us"). This policy covers the Plough On app for iPhone, iPad and Android, and the version you can play in a web browser to join a friend's game.
The short version
- We don't collect personal information. There are no accounts and no names. We never ask anyone's age, email address or location.
- There are no ads, no analytics and no tracking. We never sell or share information for advertising.
- Your progress and settings stay on your device.
- When two people play together, the game connects to our game server. Like any internet connection, that sends the device's IP address. We use it only to run the game and don't keep it.
- Buying the full game, sending an invite link and opening any web page all sit behind a check for grown-ups.
For children
Plough On doesn't ask for your name or where you live, and it doesn't send pictures of you anywhere.
When you play with a friend, your phones talk to each other through our computer. It passes on where your ploughs are, and nothing else. When the game ends, our computer forgets it.
If something in the game asks for a grown-up, go and get one.
What stays on your device
The game saves your progress (which car parks you've cleared and your best scores), the game you're in the middle of, your settings (such as sound on or off), and which parts of the game you've bought. All of this is kept on your device. It is never sent to us.
To delete it, use Settings → Forget saved progress, or uninstall the app. In a web browser, clear the site data for the game's web address. The browser version keeps the same kind of information in the browser's own storage. It doesn't use cookies.
Playing together
One player invites another with a QR code or a link. The friend joins in the app, or in a web browser if they don't have it. The game never matches you with strangers. There is no chat. Players don't have names: each player is shown by the look of their plough.
- Invites. A QR code is shown on the screen for a friend nearby to scan with their phone's camera. An invite link can only be sent by a grown-up, after the check for grown-ups. Each invite works once, for one friend, for a short time. Either player can end the game with one tap.
- What passes through our server: the moves each player makes, the board, and each plough's look. A phone with the full game also says "yes, this phone has the full game", so the two phones know which car parks they can play together; it never says who bought it, where or when. It also passes short random codes, which hold the two seats in the room and let a player rejoin if their connection drops.
- The IP address. Every connection over the internet sends the device's IP address. Our game server uses it to deliver the game and to limit how fast new games can be started, which protects the server from misuse. For that limit it holds the address in memory for up to an hour, then forgets it. The game server itself writes no logs, so it never stores IP addresses. We don't use them to identify, profile or locate anyone. This is the "support for internal operations" that the US children's privacy law (COPPA) allows.
- The hosting company's connection log. Our hosting company, Clever Cloud, keeps a security log of every connection to the servers it runs, and we can't turn it off. The log holds the IP address, a rough location worked out from it (such as the city), the time and the amount of data. We can read it for 7 days. Clever Cloud keeps its own record for a year, because French law requires hosting companies to keep connection records. Neither of us uses it for anything else.
- How long it lasts: an invite stops working once the friend has joined, or after 10 minutes if no one uses it. A player who drops out keeps their seat for 5 minutes. The room and everything in it is deleted when the game ends, and at the latest 2 hours after the room was created.
The game server runs on Clever Cloud, in Paris, France. Clever Cloud acts as our data processor under its data processing agreement, which lets it use the connection only to run and protect its service.
Playing alone never connects to our game server.
Buying the full game
Purchases go through the App Store or Google Play, behind the check for grown-ups. Apple or Google take the payment, under their own privacy policies. We never see a name, an email address or card details. The app asks the store directly what has been bought, so it can unlock the car parks and restore them on a new device. No other company is involved, and the answer stays on the device.
Crash reports
If you've allowed your device to share analytics with app developers, Apple or Google may send us anonymous crash reports. We use these only to fix bugs. They don't identify you, and you can turn them off in your device's settings.
This website
These pages use no cookies, analytics or tracking, and load nothing from other websites. [Our web host keeps a basic record of requests, including IP addresses, for [N] days for security, then deletes it.]
If you contact us
If you email us, we use your email address and message only to reply. We delete them once the matter is closed, and at the latest after 12 months. Please don't send us a child's personal details.
What we don't do
- No ads, and no ad or tracking tools in the app or on the web.
- No analytics, and no profiling of anyone.
- No accounts, logins, names, photos, voice or chat.
- No access to the camera, microphone, contacts or location. To scan a QR invite, you use your phone's own camera app.
- No sale or sharing of personal information, ever.
The legal details
Who is responsible. ArtRabbit Studio Limited, Windsor House, 40/41 Great Castle Street, London W1W 8LU, United Kingdom. Company number 8787750. Email tom@artrabbit.studio, telephone [number]. Under UK and EU data protection law (the GDPR), we are the controller of the small amount of data described above.
Why we may use it (legal basis). To run a two-player game you have started, and to keep the server safe, we rely on our legitimate interest in providing the game you asked for. That use is brief and kept to the minimum. To answer your emails, we rely on our legitimate interest in replying.
Who else handles it. Clever Cloud runs the game server and keeps the connection log described above. Apple and Google handle purchases and app downloads under their own policies. We share nothing with anyone else, unless the law requires it.
International transfers. The game server and its connection log are in France, in the EU. The UK recognises the EU as protecting personal data adequately, so players in the UK need no further safeguards.
How long we keep it. Game rooms: until the game ends, and at the latest 2 hours after the room was created. IP addresses on the game server: in memory for up to an hour, never written down. The hosting company's connection log: readable by us for 7 days, kept by Clever Cloud for a year as French law requires. Emails to us: until the matter is closed, at the latest 12 months. We keep nothing else.
How we keep it safe. All connections are encrypted. Room codes are long and random, and each one is used only once. Game rooms hold no personal information. Only the people who run Plough On can reach the server settings.
Your rights. You can ask to see, correct or delete any personal information we hold about you or your child, ask us to restrict or stop using it, or object to how we use it. Because we keep almost nothing, there will usually be nothing to find. Parents can refuse any further collection: playing alone never uses our game server. To use these rights, email tom@artrabbit.studio. If you're unhappy with our answer, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office in the UK (ico.org.uk), or to the data protection authority where you live.
Children. Plough On is made for children. It follows the UK Age Appropriate Design Code, the US Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), the EU and UK GDPR, the Apple App Store Kids category rules and Google Play's Families policy.
Changes. If this policy changes, we'll update the date at the top. If the game ever needs to collect more than this policy describes, we'll change the game and this policy first. Where the law requires it, we'll ask a parent's permission before anything is collected.