This policy explains what information UPTIME: Data Center Tycoon (“UPTIME”, “the game”) handles on Android and iOS, why, who else receives it, and the choices you have. Virtual Verse Studio LLC (“we”, “us”) publishes the game and is responsible for the information described here (its “controller” under laws such as the EU General Data Protection Regulation).
The short version
- No account. The game never asks for your name, email address or phone number. Your progress is saved on your device.
- No gameplay analytics. This version of the game does not send gameplay statistics to us or to any analytics service.
- Ads only when you choose them. The only ads are rewarded videos you tap to watch. Our ad partners receive device information and identifiers to deliver them, and you decide whether ads may be personalized.
- Payments go through Google Play or the App Store. We never see your card details.
- Leaderboards are optional. Nothing is sent for them until you join, and leaving deletes what was sent.
- We don't sell your information for money. Under some US state laws, letting ad partners use identifiers for personalized ads counts as “selling” or “sharing”. You can stop that in Settings › Privacy.
1. What stays on your device
The game keeps these in its own storage on your phone. We never receive them:
- your progress: your facility, money and unlocks, your ranked campus if you start one, and your speedrun personal bests;
- your settings, such as volume, language and haptics;
- your purchases: the boosts you hold, the boost that is running, a list of purchases already delivered (so none is delivered twice), and the one-time items you own;
- your style choices, including the name you give your campus, which is never sent anywhere;
- your privacy choices, so the game can respect them;
- two small diagnostic files: when you first reached certain milestones, and a log of errors the game ran into. They never leave your device.
Reset Save in Settings erases your progress on the device, and uninstalling the game deletes everything above.
Backups. If your phone backs up app data (Android backup to your Google account, or iCloud or computer backups on an iPhone), your saves may be included and restored when you reinstall. Those backups belong to your Google or Apple account, and we never receive them. Items you bought can also be restored from the store at any time with Restore purchases in Settings.
2. Ads
UPTIME has no banner ads and no ads that interrupt play. The only ads are rewarded videos, and you choose each one: for example, watching a video to double what your campus earned while you were away. Owners of the Ad-free Pass or Founder get the same rewards without any video.
When the ad software starts. The game starts it only once an ad could be offered to you: after the tutorial, after your privacy choices are made, and only if you don't own the Ad-free Pass or Founder. If you own either, the game never starts it. On Android, parts of the ad software get ready on your phone when the game opens; that preparation stays on your phone.
Our ad partners, each under its own privacy policy:
- Unity LevelPlay (Unity), which chooses which network fills each ad, with ironSource Ads and Unity Ads (Unity), which supply ads — Unity Game Player and App User Privacy Policy
- Google AdMob (Google), whose software is in the game for the consent message and may supply ads — Google Privacy Policy and how Google uses information from apps that use its services
What they receive. When the ad software starts, and each time an ad is loaded, offered or shown, our ad partners receive:
- your device's advertising ID (on an iPhone, only if you allow tracking) and other identifiers for the game on your device;
- device details, such as model, operating system, language, screen size and connection type;
- your IP address, which they use to estimate your approximate location;
- what happens with each ad: whether it loaded, was shown, finished or was tapped;
- technical and performance information about the ad software.
They use it to deliver the ad you asked for, to pay us for it, to limit how often you see the same ad, to measure ads and to prevent fraud and, where you allow it, to personalize ads. Each partner is responsible for what it does with this information under its own privacy policy.
Consent and your ad choices
- Where consent is required. Each time the game starts, it asks Google's consent service (the User Messaging Platform) whether a consent message is needed where you are; Google receives your IP address and basic device information with that request. In the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, the message asks whether our ad partners may use your information for personalized ads and related purposes, with a “Do not consent” option. Your answer is saved on your device and passed to our ad partners. Change it at any time in Settings › Privacy › Ad choices.
- On an iPhone. After the first part of the tutorial, the game explains what tracking means, then iOS asks whether UPTIME may track you. If you say no, your advertising ID is not shared. Change it at any time in iOS Settings › Privacy & Security › Tracking. Owners of the Ad-free Pass or Founder are not asked.
- In the United States. Turn on Settings › Privacy › Don't sell or share my info to tell our ad partners not to sell or share your information, including for personalized ads.
- On Android. You can reset or delete your advertising ID in your phone's settings (usually Settings › Google › Ads, or Settings › Privacy › Ads).
- In the ad itself. Some ads show their own privacy controls.
We tell our ad partners that the game is not directed at children.
3. Purchases
- Google Play or the App Store handles every payment. Your payment details go to Google or Apple, never to us, under their own privacy policies.
- The store on your phone. To show prices and deliver what you own, the game asks the store on your phone which items exist and which you have bought, each time it starts.
- Unity receives a record of each purchase. The game uses Unity's In-App Purchasing library. When you start a purchase, and again when it succeeds, fails or is delivered, the library sends Unity a record of it: the item and the order, the receipt the store issues once you have paid, your device's details such as its model and operating system, and identifiers Unity assigns to your copy of the game. If you never buy anything, no purchase record is sent.
- What we receive. Only what Google or Apple gives every developer about an order, which is enough to handle a refund or a question about it. We use it for nothing else.
4. Leaderboards, if you join them
The game has optional online leaderboards for Speedrun mode, the weekly challenges and the ranked campus. They are off until you join. You are asked on the Leaderboards screen, and nothing is sent before you tap Join, not even a sign-in.
If you join:
- What is sent: an anonymous player ID created for you, the display name you choose, your speedrun and challenge times, and how many data centers your ranked campus has filled. Your own campus is never sent.
- Who runs it: Unity Gaming Services, operated by Unity, stores the leaderboards and the anonymous ID for us.
- One more record: each time the game signs you in to the leaderboards, the in-app purchase library described above sends Unity a short record of that sign-in, with your device's details and the identifiers Unity assigns to your copy of the game.
- Your display name is made up for you (something like SwiftOtter#1234), and you can change it on the Leaderboards screen. Other players see it beside your times, so please don't put personal information in it.
Leaving deletes what was sent. Leave the leaderboards on the Leaderboards screen removes your times from every board and deletes the anonymous account they were posted under. See also how to delete your data.
5. Notifications
UPTIME can remind you when your campus has earned all it can while you are away, or when you can afford your next unlock. These are local notifications: your phone schedules them from inside the game, no server is involved, and nothing is sent anywhere to deliver them. The game asks your permission first. You can turn them off in Settings › Earnings reminders, or in your phone's settings.
6. Crash reports from the stores
If the game crashes, Google Play (Android vitals) and Apple may send us crash reports, according to your device settings and their own privacy policies. We see them through the store consoles and use them only to fix bugs. They don't include your name or contact details.
7. The Unity engine
UPTIME is built with the Unity engine. When the game starts, the engine sends Unity anonymous hardware statistics, such as the device model, processor, graphics chip and operating system, which Unity uses to improve the engine. See the Unity Game Player and App User Privacy Policy.
8. Our reasons for using your information
Where the GDPR, the UK GDPR or Swiss law applies, we rely on:
- your consent for personalized ads and our ad partners' access to your device where the consent message asks for it. You can withdraw consent at any time; that doesn't affect what happened before;
- our contract with you to deliver purchases, run the leaderboards you join and give you the rewards you choose;
- our legitimate interests in keeping the game working and secure, preventing fraud, showing ads that aren't personalized where the law allows, and answering your messages. You can object at any time;
- legal obligations, where the law requires us to keep or disclose information.
9. Who receives information
- A service provider acting for us: Unity Gaming Services, for the leaderboards you join.
- Independent partners, under their own privacy policies: our ad partners (Unity LevelPlay, ironSource Ads, Unity Ads and Google AdMob), Unity for its In-App Purchasing records and its engine statistics, and Google and Apple for payments and the stores.
- Authorities, when the law requires it.
- A buyer of the game, if the game or our business is ever sold. This policy would continue to apply to your information.
We don't sell your information for money.
10. International transfers
Our partners process information in the United States and other countries whose data protection laws may differ from yours. Where the GDPR, the UK GDPR or Swiss law applies, these transfers rely on safeguards such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses, or on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework where the recipient is certified under it.
11. How long information is kept
- On your device: until you reset your save or uninstall the game.
- Leaderboards: until you leave the leaderboards or ask us to delete them.
- Emails to support: as long as we need them to answer you, and no longer than 24 months.
- Ad partners, Unity and the stores: as their own privacy policies say.
12. Your choices and rights
In the game, under Settings › Privacy:
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Ad choices | Opens the consent message again (EEA, UK and Switzerland) |
| Don't sell or share my info | Tells our ad partners not to sell or share your information |
| Privacy details (iPhone) | Shows whether you allowed tracking; change it in iOS Settings |
| Privacy policy | Opens this page |
Your rights. Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access your information, correct it, delete it, receive a copy of it, restrict or object to its use, and withdraw your consent. In the EEA, the UK and Switzerland you can also complain to your data protection authority. In some US states you have the right to know, delete and correct your information and to opt out of its sale, sharing or use for targeted advertising, and we will not treat you differently for using these rights.
How to use them. Email support@virtualverse.studio. Because we never learn your name and the game keeps no account, most of what the game knows about you is on your own device, where Reset Save and uninstalling delete it. Leaderboard data is deleted in the game with Leave the leaderboards. For information our ad partners hold, use the controls above or contact them directly; we will help pass your request on where we can. We answer within one month (45 days for requests under US state laws).
13. Children
UPTIME is meant for players aged 13 and over and is not directed at children. We don't knowingly collect personal information from children under 13, or under the higher minimum age for consenting to data processing in your country. If you think a child's information has reached us, email support@virtualverse.studio and we will delete it. Google Play and the App Store offer parental controls, including approval before purchases.
14. Security
Everything the game sends travels over encrypted connections. No system is perfectly secure, but we work to protect the information we hold.
15. Changes to this policy
We will post any change here before the version of the game it applies to is released, and update the effective date above. If a change needs your consent again, the game will ask.
16. Contact
Virtual Verse Studio LLC
support@virtualverse.studio
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