Privacy policy
Ant Universe is made by Fractalax Games, an independent game maker in Australia. We collect as little as we can. You can play the whole game without an account, and your game is saved on your own device.
The short version
No account is needed. Your colony is saved in your browser on this device.
We don't use advertising cookies or tracking cookies, we don't sell data, and the game has no chat or user posts.
Online features are optional: weekly leaderboards (off unless you turn them on), cloud save (needs a Google sign-in, ages 13 and over) and anonymous usage counts (you can turn these off in Settings).
What stays on your device
Your saved colony, your settings and, if you use leaderboards or cloud save, the keys that link this device to them. These are kept in your browser's storage and are only sent to us when you use an online feature. Clearing your browser's site data removes them.
Weekly leaderboards (optional)
If you turn leaderboards on, we create a random player number and give your colony a made-up name (for example "Wattle Hollow #212"). We store that number, the name, a scrambled copy of the device key, and your best results for the week: Nest Siege stage, Wave Defence waves and Nuptial Flights.
Other players see the made-up name and the results. Turning leaderboards off deletes your player and your scores from our server.
Friends and alliances (optional)
Friends and alliances use your leaderboard player. We give your player a friend code; other players can add you only by typing that code, and adding works both ways. We store who your friends are, which daily gifts were sent and opened, and which alliance you're in.
So friends can look at your colony, your game shares a small summary with them: its age, building levels, number of ants, best wave, Nuptial Flights, cards found, ant colour and queen. It never includes the keeper name you typed or anything about you.
For alliances we store a running count of your colony's deeds (daily quests, Codex answers, expeditions and similar) so the weekly goal can be added up. Alliance names are made up by the game. There is no chat.
Turning leaderboards off deletes your friends, gifts and alliance membership along with your scores.
Cloud save (optional, 13 and over)
Cloud save lets you back up your colony and play on another device. Before you sign in we ask for your year of birth to check you are 13 or over. We don't store your year of birth.
You sign in with Google. From Google we keep only your Google account number (a string Google uses to tell accounts apart). We never receive or store your email address, name or photo. We also store your saved colony and a scrambled sign-in key that expires after 90 days. Google's own privacy policy covers the sign-in itself.
You can delete your cloud backup and account at any time from Settings > Online > Delete cloud data.
Help and support (optional)
If you write to us from Settings > Help and support, we store your message, our replies, the topic you picked, the game version and whether you play on the web, Android or iPhone. We don't ask for an email address: the ticket number and a key stay on your device, and our replies show in the game.
Please don't include personal details in your message. You can delete a ticket at any time from the game; closed tickets are deleted automatically after 90 days.
Reminders (optional)
If you turn on reminders, your browser gives the game a push address for this device. When you close the game we store that address with up to four reminder times (for example, when storage will be full). The reminders themselves carry no information; when one arrives, your device asks us which reminder it was. Reminders are deleted once shown or after a day, and turning reminders off deletes the address.
Anonymous usage counts
To see whether the game works for people, the game can send a small note the first time a device reaches a milestone: finishing the tutorial, coming back after 1, 3, 7, 14 or 30 days, reaching a new age, clearing certain wave or siege stages, or trying a feature such as Nuptial Flights or outposts. It also sends one note a day saying the game was played. We only add 1 to that day's total for the milestone. For new and returning players we also add 1 to that day's total for your country, worked out by our host from the connection; we keep only the two-letter country code, never your internet address or anything more precise. Nothing that identifies you or your device is sent or stored with it, and no cookies are used. You can turn this off in Settings > Online.
Our hosting provider
The game and our small database run on Cloudflare. Like any website host, Cloudflare handles your device's internet address to deliver the game and protect it from attacks, and may keep short-lived technical logs. We don't store internet addresses in our database. Cloudflare's servers may be outside Australia.
Ads and purchases
The game doesn't show real ads or take payments yet; the shop runs in a test mode. Before that changes we will update this policy. Any ads will be non-personalised, and the game will never sell random paid items.
Children
Ant Universe is made for a general audience and isn't directed at children. Anyone can play without giving us personal information. Online sign-in is only for players aged 13 and over. If you think a child under 13 has signed in, contact us and we will delete the account.
How long we keep things
Leaderboard entries: until you turn leaderboards off or ask us to delete them. Cloud saves: until you delete them or ask us to. Sign-in keys: 90 days. Daily usage totals have no personal information and may be kept.
Your choices and rights
You can ask us what we hold about you, ask us to correct it or ask us to delete it by emailing privacy@fractalax.games. Most things can also be done in the game's Settings. If you're not happy with our answer you can contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (oaic.gov.au).
Changes
If we change this policy we will update the date at the top and, for important changes, tell you in the game.