GlowParty Privacy Policy

Updated 11 September 2026

The short version

Your scores stay on your iPhone unless you choose online sharing. If you turn it on, people can see your three-letter code and scores on public leaderboards. They cannot message you through GlowParty. You can turn sharing off and delete your online scores in Privacy & online play. You can still play without sharing.

For nearby party games, the people in your party see your generated nickname and game results. We do not ask for your real name, birthday, address, contacts or location. There are no advertising or analytics SDKs in the app.

When you accept online sharing, we also measure game starts, endings, replay taps, active run duration, progress, app version and party size to improve the games. These requests contain no player identifiers and are immediately combined into daily totals and ranges, with no individual play history. Aggregate measurements are kept for up to 365 days; they cannot be linked back to you or included in an individual data export or deletion. Turning sharing off stops new measurements. Existing leaderboard users must accept the updated explanation before measurements begin.

Who is responsible

Matthew Green is the controller responsible for GlowParty's handling of personal information. For questions or to exercise your rights, email privacy@glowparty.app. For game or purchase help, use support@glowparty.app.

What stays on your device

Your three-letter player code, its preset nickname, game progress, local scores, medals, settings and local replays are stored on your iPhone. Some of this information may be included in your device backups. Online sharing is off by default and is not required to play solo or nearby multiplayer. Turning it on does not upload scores earned before you enabled it.

If you choose online leaderboards

After you enable sharing, supported modes send new scores, your three-letter code, the game and course, and an identifier derived from a random private credential. The service records when a score improves and may record your final daily or weekly competition result (or a monthly result from an older version). Failed score submissions wait in a local queue; entries older than 30 days are discarded when loaded.

The private credential is stored in this iPhone's Keychain and sent only to our service over HTTPS to authorize access. It is never displayed on a leaderboard. We store its one-way identifier, the version of the sharing explanation you chose, and the date you enabled sharing. We do not use your Apple Account to identify your leaderboard records.

Public boards show three-letter codes, scores and ranks, with a board-specific record identifier. The same code can be used by different people. These records are pseudonymous, not guaranteed anonymous. The service does not publish your private ownership identifier or credential, and there is no public cross-game player profile or free-text messaging.

Online sharing does not upload local replay recordings. We do not use scores to make legal or similarly significant automated decisions about you, or to profile you for advertising.

Nearby multiplayer

Hosting or joining exchanges generated nicknames, party membership, controls, game state and results directly with participating devices. The host shares whether premium hosting is available; purchase receipts and Apple Account details are not shared. Nearby discovery can make your generated nickname visible on the local network. Local Network permission can be changed in iPhone Settings. Denying it prevents nearby play but does not prevent solo play.

Why we use information

Under UK and EU GDPR, we rely on legitimate interests to provide the optional score-comparison feature that players choose, operate nearby play, respond to support requests, and keep our services secure. Those interests are limited to delivering these functions; we balance them against players' rights, including children's interests. Sharing is off until you turn it on, identifiers are limited, public names are restricted, and leaving the online feature removes your online scores. The sharing switch is a feature choice, not an age declaration or parental-consent mechanism.

We process information needed to respond to statutory data-rights requests to meet our legal obligations. Apple handles payments under its own terms; any information we need to resolve a purchase or deliver an entitlement is used for that purpose, including performing the purchase contract where applicable. We do not receive payment-card details or send purchase transactions to the leaderboard server. See Apple's App Store privacy information.

Children and families

GlowParty is intended for all ages. We apply the same privacy defaults to everyone rather than asking for a date of birth. Children can use solo and nearby modes without online sharing. Public boards use only three-letter codes; there is no free-text profile, chat, targeted advertising or location sharing. A parent or guardian can help a child understand the sharing choice and contact us about their child's data. We verify requests proportionately and do not routinely ask for identity documents.

Website and support email

Vercel hosts glowparty.app and receives connection information such as IP addresses and request details to deliver and protect it. The site has no advertising cookies, tracking pixels, analytics scripts or signup forms. Clicking an email link opens your email app; it does not send a message automatically.

Support and privacy emails pass through ImprovMX and arrive in the operator's Gmail inbox, provided by Google. Those providers process the sender/recipient addresses and information needed to forward or store the message. We use what you send only to handle the request and necessary follow-up. Please do not send passwords, private leaderboard credentials, payment-card details or unnecessary information about children.

Providers and international processing

Railway hosts the leaderboard service and database; the current application and database deployment is in the Netherlands. Vercel provides website hosting, ImprovMX email forwarding and Google the destination mailbox. These providers and their service providers may process connection information, operational records or messages outside the UK or EEA, including in the United States. A European database location does not mean every provider processes all information only in Europe.

Applicable international-transfer safeguards must cover those transfers, such as an applicable adequacy decision or appropriate contractual safeguards. Contact us for information about the safeguards applicable to your information and how to obtain a copy. Provider information: Railway, Vercel, ImprovMX and Google.

We do not sell personal information or combine it with other companies' data for tracking. Railway receives and logs IP addresses and ordinary connection information when delivering leaderboard and gameplay-measurement requests. These operational HTTP logs are separate from our aggregate gameplay measurements; IP addresses are not stored in the gameplay-measurement table or used to build player histories. The leaderboard application's temporary rate-limit counters expire after one minute and are cleared periodically, approximately every five minutes; this is separate from provider logs and backups.

How long information is kept

• Local progress stays on your device until you remove the app's data, subject to device backups. A Keychain credential may survive reinstalling the app, allowing this device to finish a pending online deletion; reinstalling never automatically enables sharing.
• Online scores expire 365 days after they last improved. Daily-result records expire 365 days after the challenge date; settled daily, weekly and historical monthly competition records expire 365 days after closing. Cleanup runs at service startup and hourly. Finishes already collected in your logbook stay on your device as local game progress.
• Unauthenticated records from older test builds are removed from public boards during this privacy rollout and deleted from the active database after a 30-day request window. New builds do not claim those records using an old public ID.
• The minimal sharing-choice record stays while the online identity exists. After deletion, we keep only a one-way credential identifier and revocation timing to prevent delayed or replayed uploads recreating deleted records. This security marker remains while that service is operated; it contains no code, score or raw credential.
• Routine support messages and attachments are scheduled for removal within 90 days after a request closes. We keep a minimal record of rights requests and our response for 12 months to demonstrate handling, unless a specific legal obligation or dispute requires longer retention.

Provider logs and backups have separate schedules controlled by the provider and account settings. They are not covered by the application's short rate-limit window. Removed records in backups are not used for ordinary gameplay; an erasure must be reapplied before restored data is made available. Contact us for the applicable backup and operational-log retention details.

Your controls and rights

In Privacy & online play, you can download your online records or turn sharing off and delete your online scores and daily results. Turning it off immediately clears pending uploads on this device. If deletion cannot reach the server, the app shows it as pending and retries when reopened with a connection. Keep the app installed until it confirms deletion, or contact us for help. Local progress and purchases are unaffected.

You may request access, correction, erasure, restriction or object to processing based on legitimate interests. You also have a right to portability where its legal conditions apply; our online export is available regardless. Email requests are accepted as well as the app controls. We normally respond within one month and will explain any lawful extension or reason a request cannot be fully fulfilled.

For old test builds or a lost device credential, contact us. A public code or ID alone cannot establish ownership, so we may request proportionate additional information. We cannot retract copies or screenshots independently made by other players.

You can complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office or, where applicable, your local EEA supervisory authority. You do not need to contact us first.

Changes

We update this page when our practices change. The app contains an offline copy updated with app releases. Before adding materially different data uses, we will update the information and controls that apply.