Sunshard — Privacy Policy
The short version: Sunshard plays on your phone and keeps your progress there. There is no advertising, no tracking, and no crash-reporting SDK. Two things leave the device on their own, both to our own server: a short report after each run, which one switch in Settings → Help balance the game stops, and after a purchase, the store's proof of it, so our server can check it with Apple or Google. Neither carries your name; both carry a random code the game made up on your phone. The game also counts anonymous gameplay events through Google Analytics for Firebase (section 3): days played and how they end, the lesson, what the currencies buy, the shop and purchases — with no name and no account, and the same switch stops them. And only if you choose to sign in with Google or Apple, a copy of your progress is kept on our server under your account, so a new phone can pick it up. A message you choose to send from Settings → Contact support goes to our server too (section 12).
1. Who we are
Sunshard is published by BrotherAI. If you have a question about this policy, write to brotheraicompany@gmail.com.
2. How your phone is told apart
The first time it runs, the game makes up a random install identifier and keeps it in its save. It is not your device's advertising identifier, serial number or anything else that exists outside the game, and it names no one. It exists so that forty runs by one player can be told apart from one run by forty players. It goes when the game's data goes: uninstalling the game or clearing its data removes it, unless your phone later restores that data from a backup.
If you sign in: your account is identified by a user id issued by Firebase Authentication (see section 6), and your cloud save is kept under it. The save names the install identifier of each phone it has been played on (that is how the game keeps each phone's earnings apart), so on our server those phones' run statistics could be connected to your account. Nothing in the game or on our server connects them.
Google Analytics: the events in section 3 carry a random app-instance identifier that Google Analytics for Firebase creates when the app is installed. It is not your device's advertising identifier (the app collects none), it names nobody, and it is reset when the app is uninstalled. It is never joined to your sign-in: the app does not give Google Analytics your user id or your email address.
3. What our server receives
The game talks to a server we operate. This is everything it sends, and why:
| What | When | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Run statistics: the install identifier, the app version, whether the phone runs Android or iOS, the region played (or the floor of Region ∞), how long the run lasted, crystals broken, shards and amber earned, whether the Heart could be called, was called and how that ended, how the run ended, the cores, upgrade levels and blessings you had, whether it was the daily challenge, and how many runs this install has finished. | After each finished run; if the phone is offline, when it next can. | To see how the game is balanced: whether a region takes too long, whether an upgrade is never bought. Turn it off in Settings → Help balance the game; runs still waiting to be sent are deleted too. |
| Purchase proof: the install identifier, Android or iOS, the product, the store's transaction number, the store's signed proof of the purchase (Apple's signed transaction or Google's purchase token), and the app version. | After a purchase is delivered to the game, and once for each purchase a restore brings back. | Our server asks Apple or Google whether the purchase is genuine and records the answer with the product, the transaction number and the install identifier. The proof is used for that check and not kept. It is part of the purchase, so the statistics switch does not stop it. |
| Cloud save (only if you sign in): your account's user id, the email address your provider shares (if it shares one), and your progress as the game saves it (currencies, upgrades, regions, Hearts, the Star Chart and its Starlight, whether you have the Full Game, achievements, collection and settings, with the install identifier of each phone it was played on), along with a revision number, the app version and the time. | Only while you are signed in: a few seconds after something changes, when you switch away from the game, when it starts, and when you press Sync now. | So your progress survives a new phone. It is kept under your user id and returned only to a phone signed in to the same account. Signing out stops it; to have it deleted, see section 7. |
| Gameplay events, through Google Analytics for Firebase, a Google service: a day started and ended (the region or Region ∞, the mode, how it ended, seconds played), the lesson started and played through or skipped (and at which step), achievements unlocked, a New Sun started, the four currencies earned and spent (how much, and from or on what), the shop opened (from which screen), a purchase tried, its result and its delivery (the product only), a sign-in (Google or Apple — never the account), the screens you open, and three coarse facts: whether this install has ever bought something, whether it is signed in, and how many Hearts it has brought down. With these, Google Analytics automatically records a random app-instance identifier, app opens and sessions, the app's version, the device model, operating system and language, an approximate location (city, region and country) worked out from the IP address, which Google Analytics does not store, and in-app purchases made through the store (the product, its price and currency — never your payment details). | While you use the app; the SDK sends them in batches. | To see how players get on across the whole game — who finishes the lesson, where days end, which door into the shop is used — without knowing who anyone is. Advertising identifiers and ad personalisation are switched off. Kept by Google Analytics for 2 months, then deleted. Stopped by the switch in Settings → Help balance the game. |
The one exception is a message you write and send us yourself (section 12).
4. What the game keeps on your phone
The game keeps the following in its own app storage. It stays on the device, is included in whatever device backup you have set up with Apple or Google, and reaches our server only as part of a cloud save, if you sign in.
Which of Double Shards, the lenses and the Supporter Pack you own is not kept here: the game asks the store every time it starts.
| What | Why it exists |
|---|---|
| Shards and amber, and the upgrades bought with them | So what you earn carries from one run to the next. |
| Regions opened, Hearts brought down and the cracks left in them, blessings, your best floor in Region ∞ | So the game picks up where you left off. |
| Starlight, the stars of the Star Chart and how many New Suns you have started | So the stars stay with you through every New Sun. |
| Whether this save has the Full Game, and why (bought, or kept from before the Full Game existed) | So regions 4 to 6 stay open when the store cannot be reached. |
| Achievements, today's quests and challenge, the crystals in your collection, time played and crystals broken | So the game can show them to you. |
| When the Sun Mine last started filling, and the shard rate of your recent runs | So the mine can fill while you are away. |
| Settings: language, sound, vibration, controls, lens, the Sun Mine reminder, Auto-Buy and Auto-Call, and the statistics switch | So the game behaves the way you set it up. |
| A receipt for each Sun Mine warp bought, and the reports waiting to be sent | So a warp is credited exactly once and can be read under Settings → Purchases, and so a report made offline is not lost. |
5. Purchases
Sunshard sells eight things through the app store you installed from, Google Play or the Apple App Store: the Full Game (regions 4 to 6, Region ∞ and what follows the last Heart, with the Corona lens and 4 hours of the Sun Mine's shards), Double Shards, two Sun Mine warps (4 and 24 hours of the mine's shards, used up when bought), three lenses that change only colours, and the Supporter Pack. We never see your payment details. The store confirms the purchase to the game on your phone, the game delivers it, and then sends our server the proof described in section 3.
Nothing is sold at random, and there are no loot boxes and no subscriptions. A warp is used up when it is bought and cannot be restored. The Full Game, Double Shards, the lenses and the Supporter Pack come back with Restore purchases in the shop, on any device signed in to the same store account; the hours of the Sun Mine inside the Full Game and the Supporter Pack are credited only the first time. The Full Game is also kept in your save, so it stays open when the store cannot be reached.
Your purchase is governed by that store's own privacy policy and terms: Google Privacy Policy · Apple Privacy Policy.
6. Services we use
Six parties can see some of your data, and none of them is an advertiser or a data broker. We do not sell, rent or share your data with anyone else, and we do not use it for advertising or to track you across other apps or websites.
- Your app store (Google Play or Apple): handles payment, knows what you bought under its own policy, and answers our server's check of a purchase.
- Firebase Authentication (Google LLC): only if you sign in. It checks your Google or Apple sign-in, issues the user id, and keeps your email address in its account record; see the Firebase privacy documentation. The provider you choose, Google or Apple, knows under its own policy that you signed in to Sunshard; Sign in with Apple lets you hide your email behind a relay address.
- Cloudflare, Inc.: carries every connection between the game and our server, and serves this page. Like any network, it sees the IP address a connection comes from; see the Cloudflare Privacy Policy.
- Google Analytics for Firebase (Google LLC): receives the anonymous events described above, with advertising identifiers and ad personalisation switched off; keeps them for 2 months, and is switched off with Settings → Help balance the game. See how Google safeguards Analytics data.
- Discord: the chat service our team works in. A copy of a message you send from Contact support is posted to the team's private channel there (section 12).
- Our server: receives what section 3 lists, and nothing else. It keeps ordinary request logs to run the service; the run statistics and purchase records themselves contain no IP address. The one exception is a message you write and send us yourself (section 12).
7. How long we keep it, and how to erase it
On your phone: uninstalling the game, or clearing its data in your device settings, erases everything stored there.
Run statistics carry no name or account; we keep them as balance figures. Because they name no one, we cannot find one person's. The switch in Settings → Help balance the game stops them at the source and deletes the ones still waiting on your phone.
Purchase records are kept as the record of our sales, for as long as tax and accounting law requires. To have the record of one of your purchases deleted where the law allows it, write to brotheraicompany@gmail.com with the order number from the store's receipt email.
Your cloud save and account are kept for as long as you keep the account, so you can come back to them; signing out on the phone keeps them, so you can sign back in. To delete your cloud save yourself, sign in and open Settings → Cloud save → Delete cloud save: we keep it 7 more days, then delete it from our server for good. Until then the phone stays signed in, nothing is synced, and Cancel deletion in the same place brings it back. To have the account deleted too, write to brotheraicompany@gmail.com from the email address you signed in with, or quote the one shown under Settings → Cloud save, with the subject Sunshard — delete my data; we delete it, and anything still kept under it, within 30 days and confirm by reply (if you use the same sign-in in another BrotherAI game, the account goes there too). The save on your phone stays until you uninstall the game.
Anonymous usage events are kept by Google Analytics for 2 months and then deleted. They carry no name or account, so they cannot be looked up by person. The switch in Settings → Help balance the game stops them at the source.
Messages you send from Contact support are kept to answer them and to improve the app, and deleted when you ask; write to the address in this policy.
8. Permissions the app asks for
Sunshard asks for one permission while you play, notifications, and only after you first collect from the Sun Mine or when you switch its reminder on. The others below are declared for the store, the sound and the network, and never show a prompt.
The reminder is one local notification when the Sun Mine is full, scheduled by your phone's own operating system and never sent at night; nothing about it passes through us or a push service.
- Notifications (Android
POST_NOTIFICATIONS, iOS notifications): asked for after your first collect from the Sun Mine, or when you switch the reminder on. - Run after restart (Android
RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED): no prompt; it only puts back a reminder you set after the phone restarts. - Billing (
com.android.vending.BILLING): lets the game ask Google Play about a purchase. - Internet and network state (
INTERNET,ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE): what carries the reports, the sign-in and the cloud save described in section 3. It also carries a message you send us (section 12). - Audio settings (Android
MODIFY_AUDIO_SETTINGS): lets the game play its sounds on recent Android versions. It moves no data. - 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. - Vibration (
android.permission.VIBRATE): declared by the component that shows the Sun Mine reminder, so that notification can vibrate like any other. It reads nothing and sends nothing. - 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.
9. Permissions the app never asks for
The game requests no access to your camera, microphone, contacts, location, photos, files, health data or physical activity, and it does not use your device's advertising identifier. A picture you attach to a message is chosen in the system's own photo picker, which hands the app only that picture and needs no permission (section 12).
10. Children
Sunshard is not directed to children under 13. Playing it needs no name, email address or account; signing in, which is optional, needs a Google or Apple account under those providers' own age rules. The statistics it sends identify an install of the game, not a person. If you believe a child has signed in, write to us and we will delete the account. Refunds for a purchase made without permission are handled by the app store.
11. Your rights
Depending on where you live you may have the right to access, correct, export or erase the personal data we hold about you, and to object to or restrict its use. The run statistics are what you can object to, and the switch in Settings → Help balance the game does it at once. If you signed in, your account and cloud save are the rest: for them, or for anything else, write to brotheraicompany@gmail.com from the address you signed in with. Data stored only on your phone is already in your hands. Messages you send from Contact support, with their pictures, are held too, and deleted when you ask.
12. Messages you send us
In Settings → Contact support you can write to us from inside the app 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 app only the ones you pick; they are made smaller and stripped of their metadata (location included) before they are sent.
- The app's version, whether the device runs Android or iOS, the language the app is showing, the app's random install identifier, and the store transaction codes of your most recent purchases, so we can find a purchase you ask about.
- If you are signed in with Google or Apple: 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 app's 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 app, and delete yours when you ask (write to the address below).
13. Changes to this policy
If a future version of Sunshard sends anything new off the device, we will update this page and the store listing before that version ships. The "Last updated" date above always reflects the current text.