Oortfall Privacy Policy
Last updated: 13 October 2026
In short: Oortfall has no accounts, no ads and no advertising ID, and it does not track you across other apps or websites.
If you allow it, the game sends two kinds of anonymous report through Google Firebase: crash reports and usage analytics. They help us fix bugs and improve the game.
Nothing is sent until you choose, and you can switch either report off at any time under Settings → Privacy and data on the title screen.
Who we are
Oortfall is made by Giftivest Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 16197030) with its registered office at 128 City Road, London EC1V 2NX, United Kingdom. Giftivest Ltd is the “data controller” for the information described below.
Contact us about privacy at privacy@oortfall.com, or through the form at oortfall.com/support.
What stays on your device, or in your own iCloud
Your saved match, campaign progress, Service Record and settings are stored on your device. We never receive them.
If iCloud sync is on (it is on by default, and you can switch it off at title screen → Settings → Privacy and data), the same progress, settings and saved match are also kept in your own iCloud account, so they follow you to your other devices. That copy is held by Apple under Apple’s privacy terms; we have no access to it. Your privacy choices themselves are never synced — they belong to each device.
Deleting the app removes everything on that device. The iCloud copy stays until you tap Reset progress under Settings (which clears both this device and iCloud) or remove the app’s data in iOS Settings → your name → iCloud → Manage Storage.
Game Center
If you are signed in to Game Center, Apple records your achievements and your Daily Challenge scores against your Game Center identity, and shows them to you (and to your Game Center friends, under your own Game Center privacy settings). Apple holds that data under its own terms; we receive none of it and cannot see who you are. Game Center is optional: decline the sign-in and the game plays exactly the same.
Maps you publish
You can draw your own maps. A map stays on your device unless you choose to share it.
If you choose Publish, the map is stored in the public part of Oortfall’s iCloud database (Apple CloudKit), where we can see it too. The game asks you first who it is for and which name goes on it. Everyone: every player of the game can find it, play it, copy it and rate it, under your Game Center name or as “Anonymous”. Friends only: it is published under your Game Center name, shown to your Game Center friends and kept off the public list; it is held in the same public store, so treat it as unlisted rather than secret. Only the name you choose is published. A map published under your Game Center name also carries your Game Center player identifier (a code Apple gives each player for our games), which is how your friends’ devices find it; a map published as “Anonymous” carries none. To show you your friends’ maps the game reads your Game Center friends list on your device, if you allow it, and asks the database for maps by those players; we do not store your friends list. Apple attaches an identifier for your iCloud account to the record so that only you can change or remove it; that identifier is a code, not your name or email address, and other players do not see it.
If you rate or report someone else’s map, one small record of that rating or report is stored the same way, with the same identifier.
If you choose Share a link for a map that is not yet published, it is stored the same way, under your Game Center name or as “Anonymous”, but put on no list: only someone with the link reaches it. Share a link for a finished online match stores that match’s replay — the opening board and the moves, with no names — in the same public store under a random identifier; the link carries that identifier and the title you saw. The replay is attached to your iCloud account identifier as a map is; the game keeps at most fifty of your shared replays, dropping the oldest.
You can take a map down at any time: Maps → your map → Share → Unpublish. Shared replays, ratings and reports are removed on request (contact us below). We remove published maps that are reported as offensive. Sharing a map or a replay as a file, by AirDrop or Messages, sends nothing to us. A link you open is read from the store; nothing about you is written when you open one.
Our legal basis for holding a published map or a shared replay is that you asked us to share it (performance of that request); for reports, our legitimate interest in keeping shared content fit for all players.
Notifications
The optional daily reminder is scheduled on your device. It sends nothing anywhere. Switch it off in title screen → Settings → Privacy and data, or in iOS Settings → Notifications.
What is sent, and only if you allow it
Crash reports (Firebase Crashlytics)
If the game crashes, a report is sent the next time it starts. The report contains:
- what the code was doing at the moment of the crash (a stack trace);
- the device model and orientation;
- the iOS and app versions;
- free memory and storage;
- the time of the crash;
- a random installation identifier, which lets us tell whether one crash hit one player or many.
Usage analytics (Firebase Analytics)
Analytics records events such as the game being opened, screens viewed, and session start and length. It also records:
- the device model;
- the iOS and app versions;
- your language;
- an approximate country or region, worked out from your IP address. The address itself is not stored with the data;
- a random app-instance identifier.
The game uses the version of Analytics without advertising features. It does not collect:
- the advertising identifier (IDFA);
- the vendor identifier (IDFV);
- your name, email, contacts, photos or precise location.
Every advertising signal is marked as denied, and the data is not used for ads.
Separately, each time it starts, the game downloads a small settings file from oortfall.com with balance updates (unit costs, match rules) and title-screen notices. The request carries no identifier and no cookie, and nothing about you or how you play. Like any web request, it reaches our web host (Google Firebase Hosting) from your IP address, which the host uses only to deliver the file.
Contacting us through the website
If you use the contact form at oortfall.com/support, we store what you send (your email address, your message, and the optional name and device) in Google Cloud Firestore, in Google's London region, and a notification containing it is posted to our team's Google Chat (Google Workspace). We use it only to reply and to fix what you report, and we delete it within 12 months. Our legal basis is legitimate interest in answering you. The website uses no analytics or advertising trackers. To keep out automated spam, the contact form is protected by Google reCAPTCHA Enterprise (through Firebase App Check): it checks signals from your browser for signs of automation and may set a security cookie, and Google's Privacy Policy applies. No other page sets cookies.
Why we use it, and our legal basis
We use the reports only to find and fix crashes and to understand which parts of the game are played, so we can improve it.
Under UK and EU data-protection law, our legal basis is your consent. That is why both reports are off until you choose.
Who processes it
The reports are processed for us by Google, through Firebase, under Google’s data-processing terms (Firebase data processing terms, Privacy and Security in Firebase).
Google may process the data outside the UK and EU, including in the United States. Where it does, the transfer is protected by standard contractual clauses and Google’s certification under the EU–US Data Privacy Framework and its UK extension.
Apple processes the iCloud and Game Center data described above, as your own service provider, not ours. Published maps, ratings and reports are stored by Apple (CloudKit) on our behalf.
We do not sell, rent or share the data with anyone else.
How long it is kept
| Crash reports | Deleted by Crashlytics after 90 days. |
|---|---|
| Analytics events | Kept for 2 months at user level, after which only aggregated totals remain. |
| Published maps, ratings, reports | Until you unpublish the map or ask us to remove them, or we take a reported map down. |
Your choices and rights
- Change your mind at any time: title screen → Settings → Privacy and data. Switching analytics off stops it immediately and resets the analytics data held on the device. Switching crash reports off deletes any reports still waiting on the device and stops crash reporting from the next time the game starts.
- You have the right to:
- ask for access to data about you;
- ask for it to be corrected or erased;
- object to or restrict its processing;
- withdraw consent.
- The reports are anonymous and not linked to an account, so we usually cannot pick out one player’s data. Switching the reports off and deleting the app removes everything held on your device. For anything else, contact us at privacy@oortfall.com and we will help where we can.
- You can complain to a data-protection authority. In the UK that is the Information Commissioner’s Office (ico.org.uk); in the EU, it is your country’s authority.
Children
Oortfall has no accounts or chat and asks for no personal information.
The anonymous reports above are sent only with the player’s consent. If you are a parent and have questions, contact us at privacy@oortfall.com.
Changes to this policy
If we change what is collected, we will update this page. We will also ask again in the game before sending anything new.