Paw Fort — Privacy Policy
The short version: your game stays on your phone unless you choose cloud save. Your progress, your Fish and gems, your purchase record and your settings are stored on the phone you play on. There is no advertising. To find crashes and see where players get stuck, the game sends crash reports and anonymous gameplay events to Google Firebase — never your name, email address or any account.
You can switch those off at any time in Settings → Share anonymous stats & crash reports (section 4). Cloud save is optional: only if you sign in with Google or Apple does a copy of your progress, linked to that account, go to our server (section 5), and you can delete it in the game at any time. The game plays in full without signing in and with the network switched off. A message you choose to send from Settings → Contact support goes to our server too (section 13).
1. Who we are
Paw Fort is published by BrotherAI. If you have a question about this policy, write to brotheraicompany@gmail.com.
2. What leaves your device
Two things, both sent over an encrypted connection to Google Firebase, a Google service that processes this data for us. Neither contains your name, email address, phone number, contacts, precise location or any account.
- Crash reports (Firebase Crashlytics) — when the game crashes or hits an error: the error and its stack trace (which part of the game's code failed), the device model, the operating system and its version, the game's version, free memory and storage, screen orientation, the time, and a random Crashlytics installation identifier that tells repeated crashes on one installation apart. That identifier is created on the device and is not linked to you.
- Anonymous gameplay events (Google Analytics for Firebase) — a short list of moments in the game: a campaign level started or finished (which level; won, lost or given up; the wave reached; how many seconds it took), an expedition or daily run finished (which biome, how far, the result), a tutorial tip shown, dismissed or done, the level on which the stuck coach stepped in, the Starter Bundle offer shown and whether it was taken, the gem shop opened (from the home screen or from a training level), a purchase tried, its result and its delivery (which product), a cloud-save sign-in (Google or Apple — never the account), the screens you open, and three coarse facts: whether this installation has ever bought something, whether it is signed in to cloud save, and the furthest world it has reached. With these, Google Analytics automatically records a random app-instance identifier created at installation, app opens and sessions, the game's version, the device model, operating system and language, and an approximate location (city, region and country) worked out from the IP address, which Google Analytics does not store. It also records in-app purchases made through the store automatically: the product, its price and currency — never your payment details.
- Never collected: the advertising identifier (its collection is switched off and its permission removed from the app), the Android ID, ad personalisation signals, precise location, and anything you type. The one exception is a message you write and send us yourself (section 13).
3. Who sees it, and how long it is kept
Only the Paw Fort team sees it, as crash lists and aggregate charts in the Firebase console — for example "how many players finished level 1-3". We do not sell it, share it with advertisers, or combine it with any other data. Google processes it on our behalf; see Privacy and Security in Firebase and the Google Privacy Policy.
Crash reports are kept for 90 days and then deleted. Individual gameplay events are kept for 2 months and then deleted; only aggregate counts that identify no one remain after that.
4. Turning it off
Open Settings and switch off Share anonymous stats & crash reports. From that moment the game sends no crash reports and no gameplay events, and a crash report still waiting on the device is deleted instead of sent. The switch is on when the game is first installed, keeps the setting you choose, and changes nothing about how the game plays.
Because nothing that is sent carries your name or an account, we cannot look up which records came from you. Uninstalling the game resets both identifiers, so nothing sent afterwards can be connected to what was sent before, and everything already sent is deleted automatically after the periods in section 3.
5. Cloud save (only if you sign in)
In Settings → Cloud save you can sign in with Google (or, on iPhone and iPad, with Apple) to keep a copy of your progress and carry it to another phone. There is no registration and no password: the sign-in is handled by Google Firebase Authentication. Signing in is never required.
If you sign in, this is stored:
- In Firebase Authentication (a Google service that processes it for us): a random account identifier, the sign-in provider (Google or Apple), the email address that provider shares (Apple can hide it behind a relay address), and when the account was created and last signed in. Other BrotherAI games that offer the same sign-in use the same account.
- On our server (a server we run): a copy of your progress — the things listed in section 6 except your settings, a battle in progress and which tips you have seen, which stay on the phone — kept under that account identifier; the email address, kept only as a label so a support request can be matched to it; a random identifier for each installation that synced, so the earnings of two phones are kept apart; the game version; and when it was last saved.
- Why: only to keep your progress safe and let you continue on another phone. It is not used for advertising or profiling, and it is not shared with anyone.
- How long: until you delete it, or until you ask us to.
- Deleting it: in the game, Settings → Cloud save → Delete account & cloud save deletes the copy on our server at once, deletes the sign-in account, and signs you out. Or write to us from the email address you signed in with (or tell us that address) and we delete both within 30 days. Step by step: Delete your account and data. Signing out deletes nothing: your progress on the phone always stays.
6. Information stored on your device
The game saves the following locally, in your device's own app storage. It stays on the device and is included in whatever device backup you have configured with Apple or Google. It is sent to us only if you sign in to cloud save (section 5).
| What | Why it exists |
|---|---|
| Your progress — biomes reached, cat family levels, achievements, the enemies you have met, your last expeditions | So the game carries on where you left off. |
| A run or battle in progress | So closing the app in the middle of a fight does not lose it. |
| Your Fish and gems — what this phone earned and spent, and the gems each purchase gave | So what you earned or bought is there next time, and adds up correctly across phones. |
| A record of each gem purchase — which pack, how many gems, when, and the transaction identifier the store gave it | So a purchase is credited exactly once, even if the store delivers it again. It never leaves the device. |
| Settings — language, music, sound effects, vibration, the anonymous-stats switch, and which tips you have already seen | So the game behaves the way you set it up. |
| A random identifier for this installation | So that, with cloud save on two phones, each phone's earnings are counted once. It is sent only if you sign in. |
7. Erasing what is stored
You can erase what is on the phone at any time by uninstalling the game, or by clearing its data in your device settings. That does not touch a cloud save: if you signed in, delete the copy on our server as described in section 5. Purchases of the Guardian stay with your store account and come back through "Restore purchases"; gems already credited come back only through a cloud save you kept. Crash reports and gameplay events that were already sent are deleted automatically, as described in section 3.
8. Purchases
Gem packs, the Guardian and the Starter Bundle are sold and billed by the app store you installed from — Google Play or the Apple App Store. We never see your payment details. The store confirms the purchase to the game on your device, and the game records it locally. If you use cloud save, that record — which pack, how many gems, when, and the store's transaction identifier — is part of the copy on our server, so gems you bought are not credited twice on two phones. The anonymous gameplay events note that a purchase was delivered and which product it was (section 2).
Your purchase is governed by that store's own privacy policy and terms: Google Privacy Policy · Apple Privacy Policy.
9. Permissions the app asks for
Paw Fort shows you no permission prompt at all. The permissions below are declared in the app's package and granted by the system at install.
- Billing (
com.android.vending.BILLING) — lets the game ask the Play Store for prices and complete a purchase you start. - Internet and network state — used to send the crash reports and gameplay events in section 2, for cloud save if you sign in (section 5), and by Google's Play Billing library, which the purchases require, to confirm a purchase with Google Play and to report its own diagnostics to Google. Network state is also declared by the audio library that plays the game's sounds. The game needs no network to play. It also carries a message you send us (section 13).
- Keep awake (
android.permission.WAKE_LOCK): declared by Google Analytics so a batch of events already queued can finish sending. It never keeps the screen on. - Install referrer (
com.google.android.finsky.permission.BIND_GET_INSTALL_REFERRER_SERVICE) — declared by Google Analytics to read from Google Play which campaign, if any, led to the installation. - Google services configuration (
com.google.android.providers.gsf.permission.READ_GSERVICES) — declared by Google's reCAPTCHA library, which Firebase Authentication includes to protect sign-in from abuse. It reads Google Play services settings, not your data, and matters only if you sign in to cloud save. - Audio settings (
android.permission.MODIFY_AUDIO_SETTINGS) — lets the game play its sounds on recent Android versions. It moves no data.
10. Permissions the app never asks for
The game requests no access to your camera, microphone, contacts, location, photos, files, notifications or health data. A picture you attach to a message is chosen in the system's own photo picker, which hands the game only that picture and needs no permission (section 13).
11. Children
Paw Fort is a cartoon game that people of many ages play, but it is not directed to children under 13. Without signing in, the only data collected is the anonymous crash and gameplay data described in section 2, which identifies no one and can be switched off in Settings. Cloud save is optional and needs a Google or Apple account, whose providers apply their own age rules. Purchases go through the store, which applies its own parental controls and purchase approvals. A message you choose to send from Contact support (section 13) is the one exception.
12. Your rights
If you use cloud save, we hold a copy of your progress and the email address you signed in with. You can ask us for a copy of it, ask us to correct it, or delete it — in the game (section 5) or by writing to the address below. Without cloud save, your game data is only on your device, in your hands. The crash and gameplay data we receive carries no name or account, so we cannot single out yours — but you can stop it at any time (section 4) and it is deleted automatically (section 3). Messages you send us from Contact support (section 13) are kept until you ask us to delete them; write to the address below.
13. Messages you send us
In Settings → Contact support you can write to us from inside the game and attach up to three pictures. Nothing is sent until you tap Send. Then this goes over an encrypted connection to our server:
- What you wrote, the kind you picked (bug, idea or other) and the pictures you attached. Pictures are chosen in the system's own photo picker, which hands the game only the ones you pick, and they are made smaller before they are sent.
- The game's version, whether the device runs Android or iOS, the language the game is showing, a random identifier created for this installation, and the store transaction codes of your most recent purchases, so we can find a purchase you ask about.
- If you are signed in to cloud save: your account identifier and the email address Google or Apple verified, so we can answer you.
A copy goes to the team's private channel on Discord, the chat service the team works in, where reports from the team's other apps arrive too. That copy carries the message, its pictures, the game version, Android or iOS, the language, your recent purchase codes and whether you were signed in, but not your email address or account identifier. Your network address is used to limit how many messages can be sent in a short time, and is not kept with the message. We keep messages to answer them and to improve the game, and delete yours when you ask (section 15).
14. Changes to this policy
If a future version of Paw Fort sends anything more than this page describes, we will update this page and the store listing before that version ships. The "Last updated" date above always reflects the current text.