Geo Shrink · last updated 14 September 2026
Geo Shrink is a geography game. This policy describes exactly what it stores, where, and why. It is written against the app's source code rather than from a template, and it is updated in the same change as the code it describes.
[Controller name and address]
Contact: [contact@example.com]
You can play without giving us anything. On first launch the app creates an anonymous account with Firebase Authentication. It has no name, no email and no link to you; it exists so that your progress, your place on the ladder and any purchase can belong to something. Your progress is stored on your own device.
If you clear the app's data or uninstall it while anonymous, that identifier is gone and cannot be recovered by us or by you. Signing in is what makes progress recoverable.
| Data | Why | Kept |
|---|---|---|
| Game progress (level, coins, collections, mode state) | To let you keep playing where you left off, and to restore your game on a new device. Stored on your device, and backed up to your account when you are signed in. | Until you delete your account, or 400 days after the last backup for an account that is never used again. |
| Email address, or your Google account identifier | Only if you choose to sign in. It is how your saved game is found again. | Until you delete your account. |
| Your chosen leaderboard name, rating and match record | Only if you choose to claim a name. Public by nature: a leaderboard is a list of names. | Until you delete your account. |
| Multiplayer room contents: the display name you enter, your answers and timings for that match | To run the match and to score it honestly. | Rooms and their contents are deleted automatically after the match, and in any case within days. |
| Subscription status | To unlock what you paid for, and to stop unlocking it when it lapses. | Until you delete your account. |
| Anonymous statistics: daily totals of things that happen in the game, across everyone (see below) | To see which games are played and finished, whether new players find their feet, and where people get stuck. | Indefinitely. These are totals only. They carry no account identifier and cannot be traced back to a person, including by us. |
| Crash reports: the error message, the place in the code, which build of the app it was, the device's browser identification string, the game mode you were in, and your account identifier | To find and fix what broke. | Deleted automatically after 30 days. |
| Feedback you choose to send, and the contact address you add to it if you want a reply | To read it, and to answer you if you asked. | Deleted automatically after one year, or with your account. |
The Android app counts a small, fixed list of things that happen while people play: a game was opened, a round was finished, the Earth broke, the Forge was opened, a subscription plan was tapped. Once a minute it sends the counts, and our server adds them to one set of totals per day. Alongside each count go only the app version, the platform (Android), a rough band such as "day 3 since the game was started" or "level 6 to 10", and, when we are testing two versions of something, which of the two this copy of the game shows.
No account identifier, device identifier or advertising identifier is sent with them, and nothing that puts one person's actions in order. What is stored is totals, so two players look exactly like one player twice. Nothing extra is stored on your phone to make this work: the game works it out from what it already keeps, such as the date your game was started. The totals are kept on Google Firebase in the European Union.
You can switch this off at any time: Settings › Help improve Geo Shrink › Share anonymous statistics. From that moment nothing is counted on your device, and anything not yet sent is thrown away. The website does not collect these statistics at all.
When the app hits an error it did not expect, it sends a short report: the error message, the file and line in our code, the stack trace, which build of the app it was, the device's browser identification string (which names the phone model and Android version), the game mode you were in, and your account identifier, so that one bug on one phone can be told apart from many. Web addresses are stripped of anything after the page name, and no game progress, names or answers are included. At most five reports are sent per session. Reports are deleted automatically after 30 days.
Settings › Send feedback lets you write to us from inside the app. Unlike the statistics, feedback is linked to your account identifier, and the form says so before you send it. That is what lets us find and delete it if you ask, and match a bug report to the crash reports from the same phone. With it we store the app version, the platform, the language and the last game you played. The contact field is optional; fill it in only if you want a reply. You can send at most five messages a day. Feedback is deleted automatically after one year, and at once if you delete your account.
These are processors acting on our instructions, not independent recipients.
Under the GDPR you can ask for a copy of your data, ask us to correct it, or ask us to erase it. Two of those you can do yourself, immediately, from inside the app:
For anything else, write to the contact address above. You also have the right to complain to your local data protection authority.
Geo Shrink is suitable for general audiences and contains no advertising. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children beyond what is described above, and the game can be played in full without an account.
If this policy changes materially, the date at the top changes with it and the app links to the current version.