Night Case: Detective Story — Privacy Policy

Night Case is a free game with optional in-app purchases and ads. To keep your progress, the game creates an anonymous game account on our own server. We never ask for your name, email address, contacts or precise location. We record how the game is played, linked to that account, to improve the game. Purchases go through Apple; we never see your payment details. Ads come from Google AdMob: they are personalised only if you allow it. You can delete your account and its data in the game's Settings at any time.

When you first open the game, it makes a random identifier on your device and keeps it in the iOS Keychain. With it the game signs in to an anonymous game account on our own server, which we run ourselves in the European Union, hosted by Hetzner. The identifier is random: it is not Apple's advertising identifier or any other device id, and it says nothing about you.

The server keeps for this account:

• Your game progress (cloud save): cases and chapters, insights, energy, items, rank and the other state of the game, so that it is not lost and can come back on a new install.
• Gameplay events: tutorial steps, cases started and chapters completed, insights found, wrong accusations, running out of energy, rank-ups, collections claimed, items crafted, ads watched (a finished rewarded ad, an interstitial shown) and purchases (which product), each with its time.
• Purchase records, described under "Purchases".

We use this to run the game, to keep your progress and to see where the game is too hard, too easy or unclear. We do not sell it, and we do not share it with anyone for their own purposes.

Purchases are made through Apple's App Store. Apple handles your Apple Account and your payment under its own policy; the game and our server never see your card or payment details. To deliver a purchase, the game sends the transaction that Apple signed to our server, which checks Apple's signature and keeps a record of it: the product, the date and Apple's transaction id. Apple also tells our server when a purchase is refunded.

The game shows ads from Google AdMob: rewarded ads, which you choose to watch for a reward, and interstitial ads between parts of the game. When the game first shows ads, Google's consent message (Google's User Messaging Platform) asks for your choice where the law requires it, and iOS asks whether the game may track you (App Tracking Transparency).

• If you allow it, AdMob may use your device's advertising identifier and data about your device and your use of the app to show personalised ads and to measure them.
• If you do not, AdMob shows non-personalised ads, and the game does not get the advertising identifier.

Either way, Google's SDK processes data such as your IP address and your interactions with ads in order to show ads, measure them and prevent fraud, under Google's own policy: policies.google.com/privacy. For a rewarded ad, the game gives Google your game account's id and your time zone's offset from UTC, so that Google can confirm the reward to our server. Where Google's consent message applies, you can change your choice at any time under "Privacy choices" in the game's Settings; the tracking choice is in iOS Settings, Privacy & Security, Tracking.

We do not collect your name, email address, phone number, contacts, photos or precise location. The game has no chat and no public profile.

We keep your game account, progress and purchases to provide the game you asked for (GDPR Art. 6(1)(b); KVKK Art. 5(2)(c)). Gameplay events serve our legitimate interest in improving the game (GDPR Art. 6(1)(f); KVKK Art. 5(2)(f)). Personalised ads rely on your consent, which you can withdraw at any time (GDPR Art. 6(1)(a); KVKK Art. 5(1)).

Your account and its data are kept as long as the account exists.

• Delete account in the game's Settings deletes your game account on our server with its progress and gameplay events, and clears the account from your device. Two things stay, tied to no account any more: the record of each purchase, so that the same Apple purchase cannot be redeemed twice and our sales add up, and a note that the account's random id was deleted, and when.
• Deleting the app alone does not delete the account: iOS may keep the identifier in the Keychain, and a new install then signs in to the same account. Use "Delete account" first if you want it gone.
• Backups: our server's database is backed up daily, and an encrypted copy of these backups is kept off-site (Cloudflare R2). Backups are kept for at most six months and then deleted, so deleted data disappears from them within that time. We use backups only to restore the service after a failure.

You can also write to us with any question about your data. As the account is anonymous, we cannot tell which account is yours from an email; "Delete account" in the game is the way to delete it.

Night Case is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from them. If a child has used the game, "Delete account" in the game's Settings deletes their data; for any question, write to [email protected].

Downloading the game, purchases and their billing, refunds and device backups are Apple's services and follow Apple's privacy policy: apple.com/legal/privacy.

If the game's behaviour changes, this policy and its date change with it.

Night Case is an independent game and is not affiliated with Apple or Google. App Store is a trademark of Apple Inc.