Privacy Policy — Art of Geo

Effective date: [FILL DATE]

Who we are

Art of Geo is a calm geography learning game made by Art Soft, a solo independent developer. We built the app to help people learn world geography at their own pace — no ads, no tracking, no pressure.

• Developer: Art Soft
• Website: artsoft.ge
• Contact / support: dev@artsoft.ge

If you ever have a question about your data or this policy, just email us at the address above. A real person (the developer) reads it.

This policy explains, in plain language, exactly what data the app collects, why, where it lives, how long we keep it, and how you can delete all of it.

The short version

• You can play completely anonymously — no name, no email, no sign-up.
• We run our own server. Your data goes only to us. We do not use any third-party analytics, advertising, or tracking companies.
• We do not show ads, do not use an advertising identifier, and do not track you across other apps or websites.
• You can delete everything from inside the app at any time.

Playing anonymously (the default)

When you first open the app, it creates a random anonymous ID (a UUID) on your device and sends it to our server so we can create an account for you without asking for any personal details. This lets your progress stay tied to your install.

Because this ID lives in your device's secure storage, your anonymous account is erased if you uninstall the app (unless you set up email backup first — see below).

While you play anonymously, we still collect the gameplay and diagnostic data described in "What we collect and why" below, so the game can track your learning progress and so we can fix crashes.

Optional email backup

If you want your progress to survive a reinstall or a new phone, you can optionally add your email address. When you do:

1. You enter your email in the app. 2. Our server emails you a 6-digit verification code. 3. You enter the code to link your progress to that email.

We store your email address on our server so we can restore your account later. To send you the code, we pass your email address and the code to a transactional email (SMTP) provider — that is the only outside company that ever touches your email address, and only for the purpose of delivering that message.

Email backup is entirely your choice. If you never enter an email, we never have one.

What we collect and why

Everything below is sent only to our own server (api-geo.artofshop.app), which we operate ourselves. We only collect what the app actually needs.

Account and identity

• Anonymous device ID (UUID) — creates and re-authenticates your anonymous account.
• Session token — a login credential stored on your device that authorizes app requests.
• Email address — *only if you choose email backup* — to back up and restore your progress and to send verification codes.
• Display name — *only if you set one* — an optional nickname shown in the app.

Gameplay and learning progress

• Round results — the mode, difficulty, continent, score, and time of each game you finish.
• Per-question answers — which country a question was about and whether you got it right, so the game can build your per-country mastery and pick countries you're still learning.
• Daily quest records — which daily quest you were served and whether you completed it.

We use all of this to power your stats, your per-country mastery, your World and continent progress, and the daily quest.

Usage and diagnostics

• App-open event — we record when the app is opened so we can count daily active users and see whether people come back. It carries no details beyond "the app was opened," and while you have an account it is tied to your account.
• Crash / error reports — when the app hits an error (in released versions only), we send the error message, the technical stack trace, the app version, and the platform (iOS/Android) so we can fix bugs. These are generated by the app itself; in rare cases a stack trace could incidentally include a value from something you were doing.

Network / technical

• IP address — used only briefly, in memory, to rate-limit requests and protect the server from abuse. We do not store your IP address in our database and we do not use it for analytics or to build any profile of you. (As with any website, the hosting layer may briefly record IP addresses in standard server logs for security; these are not used for tracking.)

### What stays only on your device and is never sent to us

Some things the app uses never leave your phone:

• Compass / magnetometer readings — for the decorative compass needle on the home screen. This uses the raw magnetic sensor, not your location, so the app never asks for location permission.
• Your device time zone — used only to schedule your local reminder at the right time.
• Your local progress ledger, daily-quest progress, backup reminder state, and pending-upload queue.
• Your reminder / notification settings.

No third-party analytics, ads, or tracking

We checked this carefully. The app contains no third-party analytics, advertising, attribution, crash-reporting, or tracking SDKs — no Firebase, no Crashlytics, no ad networks, no Facebook SDK, none of it. There is no advertising identifier (IDFA/AAID), no App Tracking Transparency prompt, and no location, camera, microphone, contacts, or photo access.

All analytics and crash reporting are our own, running on our own server. The only outside parties involved at all are:

• our SMTP email provider, used solely to deliver your verification code if you opt into email backup; and
• Apple / Google, only if platform sign-in is used to verify your identity (this feature is not active in the current version).

Permissions the app uses

• Internet — to talk to our server.
• Notifications *(optional)* — only if you turn on the daily reminder. We ask for this permission at that moment, not before. This is a single local reminder scheduled on your device — there is no push server and no device push token.
• Run after reboot (Android) — so your reminder is re-scheduled after you restart your phone.

We request no other permissions.

Where your data is stored

Your data is stored on our own self-hosted server on a virtual private server, in a PostgreSQL database. It is not sold, rented, or shared with advertisers or data brokers. The only outbound sharing is the email delivery described above.

How long we keep data, and how to delete it

Delete everything, from inside the app. The app has a "Delete all my data" option (Delete account). When you use it:

• Your account, all your game rounds, all your per-question answers, and all your daily-quest records are permanently deleted from our server, and your identity is wiped from your device.

Being honest about one exception. So we can keep aggregate usage and crash counts, a small amount of diagnostic data is kept but disconnected from you rather than erased: app-open events and crash/error reports are retained, but the link to your account is removed (anonymized) when you delete your account.

Records created when a verification code was requested (which include the email address used for that request) are automatically deleted within 24 hours, and are erased immediately when you delete an email-backed account.

If you'd like us to also erase those anonymized diagnostic records, email us at dev@artsoft.ge and we'll delete them for you.

Uninstalling the app removes your anonymous data from your device automatically (because the ID and token live in secure storage that's cleared on uninstall). If you set up email backup, contact us to delete the server copy as well.

Your rights

You can:

• Access the data tied to your account — email us and we'll tell you what we hold.
• Delete your account and data — in the app, or by emailing us.
• Play without giving us any personal information at all — just don't set up email backup or a display name.

Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights under local law (such as the right to correct data or object to certain processing). Email us and we'll honor them.

Children's privacy

Art of Geo is a calm, ad-free learning game with no tracking, and it's suitable for a general audience. That said, it is not specifically directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided us an email address, contact us and we'll delete it.

International note

We are based in Georgia (the country), and our server is operated by us. If you use the app from another country, your data will be sent to and stored on our server, which may be located in a different country from where you live. By using the app you understand your data is handled as described here.

Changes to this policy

If we change what we collect or how we handle it, we'll update this policy and change the "Effective date" above. Meaningful changes will be reflected here before they take effect. Please check back from time to time.

Contact

Questions, requests, or concerns about your privacy:

Art Soft — dev@artsoft.ge · artsoft.ge