The only thing under the bed is a ghost. Not your data.

Who we are

Sleepover Buddies ("the game") is a party game for up to five players and a ghost, developed and published by Jan Aguja, an independent developer in the Philippines ("we", "us"). This policy covers every version of the game: the desktop game on Steam (Windows, Mac and Linux), the iOS and Android apps, and the web page that phones use to join a game at sleepover-buddies.janapps.com. The game is currently in private playtesting. This policy explains what the game handles, where it goes, and how long it stays there.

What we collect

Nothing that identifies you. There's no sign-up, and the game never asks who you are.

The game does not need an account, sign-in, email address, phone number or any other personal detail, and we do not knowingly collect information that identifies you personally. It has no chat, no voice, no leaderboards, no cloud saves, no analytics and no ads.

The one thing you type is a nickname (up to twelve characters), so your friends can tell who's who. Information leaves your device in only two situations: when you join or host a game (sections 4 and 5), and when you load the web join page (section 6). A hosting game on Steam, iOS or Android doesn't connect to anything on its own: it only connects when you start a game for friends to join.

What stays on your device

A few small preferences, and that's all.

To save you retyping things, the game remembers the following on your own device:

It does not include:

On the web, these live in your browser's local storage for the join page's site. In the apps and the desktop game, they live in the app's own storage. None of it is sent to us or anyone else by the game. Scores and results are shown at the end of a game and are not saved: there is no progress, account or history to keep. On a phone, your operating system's own backup may include the saved preferences (section 7).

Joining a game

A four-letter code, a short chat through Google, then it's device to device.

One device hosts a game and shows a QR code and a four-letter code. Everyone else joins with their phone. There is no matchmaking with strangers: you can only join a game if someone gives you its code. Here is what happens:

• Signing in anonymously. Each device signs in to Google's Firebase with a random ID. It has no name, email or other detail about you, and it isn't linked to you.
• The room. The hosting device opens a short-lived "room" named by the code. The phone and the host leave each other their connection details there, which include their IP addresses, along with a timestamp. Nicknames are not put in the room. The host deletes the room when it closes the game.
• Finding a route. Each device asks Google's public STUN servers what its own internet address is, so the two can reach each other directly. Google can see that request, as with any internet connection.

If the host's device disappears without closing the game (a dead battery, say), the room is left behind with only the connection details and a timestamp, and it is overwritten the next time that code is used more than ten minutes later.

Playing together

Your phone talks to the hosting device. Not to us, and not to a server.

After joining, each phone connects directly to the hosting device. We don't run a game server and nothing passes through us. The host runs the game and sends each phone only what that player is allowed to see (a buddy never receives where the ghost is hiding). Your phone sends back your controls: the stick, the buttons and your taps in the minigames. The game doesn't record them.

• Your nickname and your onesie choice are sent to the host, and shown on the big screen and on the other players' phones (for instance on the scoreboard).
• The host can see your IP address, and you can see the host's, as with any direct connection between two devices. That's why joining is only by a code you've been given by someone you know.
• No other player's phone receives your IP address: phones connect to the host, not to each other.
• A phone that drops (a call, a locked screen) can reconnect to the same game. Nothing about you is stored for that beyond the game that's already running.

Bots, if you add them, are part of the host's game. They are not people and they send nothing anywhere.

The web join page

One page that turns a phone into a controller, behind a tester password for now.

Phones join a game from a web page at sleepover-buddies.janapps.com, so nobody has to install anything. The page is hosted on Cloudflare, which, like any web host, processes standard connection information (such as your IP address, browser type and the pages requested) to deliver the page and protect it from abuse. We don't use it to identify or track players.

Tester password. While the game is in private testing, the join page asks for a tester password before anything loads. After you enter it, your browser keeps one small cookie (sb_pass) so you aren't asked again for 30 days. The cookie only proves you entered the password. It's the same for every tester, so it doesn't identify you, and it isn't used for anything else. The password is checked by our web host each time you load the page; the check doesn't record who you are. When the game leaves private testing, the gate and its cookie will be removed.

Fonts. The game's screens and the pages of this website load their fonts from Google Fonts, which means Google receives a normal web request from your device when they load. The game's art and sound are all served from the game itself.

Third-party services

Google and Cloudflare for the plumbing, and the stores for delivery.

• Google Firebase (Authentication and Realtime Database) and Google's STUN servers are used only to join a game, as described in section 4. Firebase privacy and security.
• Cloudflare hosts the join page and this website, and runs the tester password check (section 6). Cloudflare's privacy policy.
• Google Fonts supplies fonts (section 6). Google's privacy policy.
• Steam, the App Store and Google Play. When the game is distributed through Steam (Valve), the Apple App Store or Google Play (including test programs such as TestFlight), the store handles installation, updates and payment under its own terms and privacy policy, and may give developers aggregated statistics such as sales, installs or crash rates. The game doesn't use your Steam account, friends list or Steam's online features; if a future version adds any, we'll update this policy first.
• Device backups. If you've turned on Android backup to your Google account, or iCloud or computer backups on iPhone, your operating system may include the game's saved preferences in that backup. Those backups are made and held by Google or Apple under your own account, and we can't see them.

The game includes no advertising networks, analytics SDKs, crash-reporting SDKs or tracking libraries of any kind. We do not sell, rent or share your information with anyone.

Purchases

The stores take the payment. We never see it.

Buying the game, when it is released, is done through Steam, the Apple App Store or Google Play, under their terms. They take the payment and we never see your card, account or payment details. The game has no ads. Joining a friend's game from the web page doesn't require buying anything.

Permissions

As few as a game can get away with.

• Android app: Internet access, used to join and host games (sections 4 and 5).
• iOS app: no special permissions. It uses the phone's haptics for short vibrations, which needs none.
• Phone browser and web page: no browser permissions. Phones may vibrate for short taps at moments like a catch, if the browser supports it.
• Desktop (Steam): none. It reads your keyboard and any controller you connect, only to play.

No version of the game requests access to your camera, microphone, photos, contacts, location or files. The "cameras" in the game are the in-game views of the house, not your phone's camera.

Retention & deletion

Your preferences are yours to keep or wipe. We have no copy to delete.

• On your device: clearing the browser's site data for the join page deletes the saved nickname, settings and tester cookie. Uninstalling the app or the desktop game, or clearing its storage, deletes them on that device.
• Game rooms: deleted when the host closes the game. An abandoned room holds only connection details and a timestamp, and is overwritten as described in section 4.
• Anonymous Firebase IDs aren't linked to anything about you, and are kept by Firebase under Google's policy.
• The tester cookie expires by itself after 30 days. Connection information is kept by Cloudflare under its own policy.

Because there are no accounts and no copy of anyone's information on our side, there's nothing for us to keep or for you to ask us to delete. If you have a question anyway, email us.

Your rights

Depending on where you live, including under the Philippine Data Privacy Act of 2012, the GDPR or similar laws, you may have the right to access, correct or delete personal data held about you. Because Sleepover Buddies doesn't hold personal data about you on any server of ours, the simplest way to exercise these rights is on your own device, as described above. For anything else, contact us and we'll respond.

Children's privacy

Sleepover Buddies is a cartoon party game for friends and families. It doesn't ask for personal information from anyone, including children: there are no accounts, no chat, no ads and no analytics, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. The only thing a player types is a nickname, which is shown to the other people in the same game. Because games connect devices directly, a hosting device can see the IP address of the devices that join it (section 5), so we recommend that children join only games set up by someone they know. If you're a parent or guardian with a question or a concern, email us.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the updated version will be posted at this address with a new effective date. If a change meaningfully affects what information leaves your device, we'll update this policy before that version of the game is released. Continued use of the game after a change means you accept the updated policy.

Contact

Questions about privacy? Email [email protected]. It goes straight to Jan.