Privacy policy
Your game is yours. Here is what we protect.
The short version
You can play Idle Birder as a Guest without creating an online account. If you choose Google sign-in, we use the minimum account information needed to identify your account, protect cloud backups, and let you use optional online features. We do not sell your personal information.
Information we handle
Guest play
Guest game progress and settings are stored locally on your device. Guest play does not create an Idle Birder online account or upload a cloud backup. Limited activity counts described below are sent from Guest play as well as signed-in play.
Google sign-in and your Idle Birder account
If you sign in with Google, Google provides a stable account identifier and basic profile information authorized on the consent screen, such as your email address, name, and profile picture. We use this information to authenticate you and associate your game data with the correct account. We do not receive your Google password.
Game and community data
For signed-in players, we may store your chosen Birding Name, game progress, settings, cloud-save revisions, recovery summaries, app version, and installation identifier. If you voluntarily join LeaderBird, your Birding Name and selected gameplay rankings become public. Joining LeaderBird is optional.
Crash diagnostics and performance
Release builds may send Expo anonymous crash reports, error stack traces, app and build versions, device and operating-system details, screen-route names, and startup or navigation timing. This information helps us find crashes and performance problems. It uses a random installation identifier and is not connected to your Google identity, Idle Birder account, Birding Name, or game-save contents.
Game activity
Release builds count each time the app opens and record whether you have recorded a bird, claimed a goal, bought an upgrade, and entered each habitat. After saved progress loads, they also send the latest Big Year, Season, habitat, lifetime bird count, discovered-species count, claimed-goal count, combined upgrade-level count, and unlocked habitats. This helps us understand whether the game works and where players stop progressing. Guest activity uses a random installation identifier shown in Settings; it is not linked to a later Google sign-in. Signed-in activity is associated with your Idle Birder account. We do not send tap-by-tap histories, currency balances, a complete game-save payload, names, email addresses, or advertising identifiers as part of this activity summary.
Feedback and support
If you send feedback, we store your message, selected feedback type, optional reply email, basic game context, platform, and app version so we can understand and respond to it. Please do not include sensitive personal information in feedback.
How we use information
- Authenticate your account and keep it separate from other players.
- Back up, restore, validate, and protect your game progress.
- Provide an account-owned Birding Name and optional public rankings.
- Respond to feedback, troubleshoot problems, and improve the game.
- Prevent abuse and protect the reliability of online features.
Service providers
Idle Birder uses Google for optional sign-in, Supabase for authentication and game-facing online storage, Resend to deliver feedback notifications, and Expo for anonymous crash and performance diagnostics. This website is delivered by Cloudflare. These providers process information only as needed to provide their services and are governed by their own privacy terms.
Cloud saves and retention
Cloud backup keeps a current save and a limited history of recovery versions to help protect against loss or corruption. Recovery history is pruned over time while retaining recent and important snapshots. Account-owned data is retained while your account remains active or as reasonably needed to provide the service, resolve support requests, prevent abuse, or meet legal obligations.
Activity opening totals, first-observed milestones, and the latest progress snapshot are retained while the relevant account or Guest installation record remains active. A later snapshot replaces the prior progress snapshot rather than creating an unlimited login or tap-by-tap history. Deleting an Idle Birder account deletes its associated activity record. Guests can request removal of their activity record by contacting us with the Guest activity ID displayed in Settings. Salted network-address fingerprints used only to limit abuse are pruned after they are older than 48 hours when new activity arrives.
Your choices
- Play as a Guest without Google sign-in or cloud backup.
- Choose whether to join or leave public LeaderBird rankings.
- Leave the optional reply-email field blank when sending feedback.
- Delete your signed-in Idle Birder account from More → Profile, or use our account-deletion page when you cannot access the game.
Account deletion permanently removes the authentication account, Birding Name, cloud saves and recovery history, LeaderBird entry, and identifiable account-associated data. Deleting the app removes local data according to your device’s behavior, but it does not automatically delete signed-in cloud data.
Security
We use access controls, authenticated service boundaries, and restricted database permissions intended to protect account and game data. No system can guarantee absolute security, but we limit access and do not place service credentials in the game.
Children’s privacy
Idle Birder is not designed to collect more personal information than is needed for the account and game features described above. A parent or guardian who believes a child has provided personal information may contact us to request review or deletion.
Changes to this policy
We may update this policy when the game or its services change. The effective date above will be updated when material changes are published.
Contact us
For privacy questions, support, or account-data requests, email [email protected].