Privacy Policy
The short version: Aether Chronicles stores your game progress on your device first. If you create an account, we keep your email, username, and synced game progress on our servers so you can play across devices and with friends. Other players see your username and game profile, never your email. We don't run ads, we don't use third-party analytics or tracking, and we never sell your data. You can delete your account, and the data that goes with it, from inside the game at any time.
1. Who we are
Aether Chronicles ("the game", "we", "us") is an independently developed collectible card game with a story campaign, available on the web at aetherchronicles.com and as a mobile app. Questions about this policy can be sent to [email protected].
2. What we collect
Account information. When you create an account we collect your email address, a username you choose, and a password. Passwords are stored only in hashed form, so we cannot read them.
Game progress. Your collection, decks, campaign progress, achievements, currencies, and cosmetic unlocks are saved on your device. With an account, this progress is also synced to our servers so it follows you across devices.
Social activity. If you use social features, we store your friend connections, direct messages and reactions, match invitations, an optional status line, and any blocks or reports you make, so those features can work. We also record when you were last active, so your friends can see whether you're online.
Ranked play. Your rank points and season standing are stored so the ranked ladder and leaderboards work.
Purchase records. Gems can currently be purchased only in the iOS app, through Apple's in-app purchase system. Apple handles the payment; we receive a record of the transaction (what was bought and when) so we can credit the gems to your account. We never see or store your payment details.
Technical basics. Like nearly every online service, our hosting processes standard connection logs (such as IP address and browser type) to serve and secure the game.
Abuse prevention. To stop password guessing and sign-in floods, we count recent sign-in, sign-up, and password-reset attempts per network address and per email address. We store a scrambled, one-way code in place of the address itself, and delete these counts after two days.
3. What other players can see
When another player searches for you, views your profile, plays against you, or looks at a leaderboard, they can see your username, friend code, avatar, title, player level, rank and leaderboard position, profile background, the cards and career statistic you choose to pin to your profile, and the name, cover, and element mix of a deck you choose to publish (never its card list).
Only accepted friends can see whether you're online, what you're doing (for example, in a duel), your status line, and when you were last active. Your email address is never shown to other players.
4. Storage on your device
The game saves your progress and settings on your device: in the app's own storage on a phone, or in your browser's site storage on the web. If you sign in, a sign-in token is kept there too (in the device's secure storage where available) so you stay signed in. The game doesn't set cookies, and nothing it stores is used to track you across other sites or apps.
5. What we don't do
- No advertising, and no advertising SDKs.
- No third-party analytics or tracking.
- No third-party scripts or fonts: the web version loads all of its code, art, and fonts from our own site.
- No crash-reporting SDKs collecting data from your device.
- No marketing email. We email you only when you ask us to, such as a password reset.
- No selling or renting of your personal data, ever.
6. How we use your information
We use the data above to sign you in, sync your progress, run multiplayer matches and social features, deliver purchases, prevent fraud and abuse, and respond when you contact support. That's it.
7. Where your data lives
Your account and synced game data are stored with trusted service providers that host our servers and databases and deliver our transactional emails (such as password resets, sent from [email protected]). These providers process data only as needed to provide their service to us. Purchases in the iOS app are handled by Apple. If you install the app through Apple's App Store or TestFlight, Apple's own privacy practices apply to that distribution.
8. Direct messages and moderation
Direct messages are stored so they can be delivered to the person you sent them to. Usernames, status lines, and messages pass through an automatic filter that keeps offensive words from being shown to other players; it works on the text alone and keeps no record of what it catches. We don't read your messages in the normal course of running the game. When you report a player you have messaged, a copy of the last 20 messages between the two of you is kept with the report, so it can be reviewed even if the other player deletes their account. Reports are used only to enforce our community rules, which can mean removing a username or suspending an account. You can block other players at any time, and blocking is immediate.
9. How long we keep data
- Your account, profile, and synced progress: until you delete your account.
- Direct messages and friend connections: until you or the other player deletes their account.
- Online matches: the record of a finished match (the two players, the moves, and the result) is kept for 90 days so it can be replayed and any dispute settled, then deleted. Your opponent's own device may keep its match history, including your username, until they clear it.
- Password reset links: expire after one hour.
- Sign-in attempt counts: two days, as scrambled codes (see "Abuse prevention" above).
- Purchase records, records of coins won or lost in currency games, reports (including the messages copied into them), and records of moderation actions: may be kept after an account is deleted where needed for legal, accounting, or safety reasons.
You can delete your account from inside the game at Settings ▸ Account ▸ Delete Account (you'll be asked to confirm your password). Deleting your account removes your account record, profile, synced game data, friends, messages, and leaderboard entry from our servers, and signs that account out everywhere. Game data saved locally on your own device stays on your device until you remove the app or clear its data.
10. Children
Aether Chronicles is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. Creating an account asks for your month and year of birth, and we don't create an account for anyone under 13. We use your birth month and year only for that check; we don't store them.
Parents and guardians: if you believe a child under 13 has an account, email [email protected] with the account's email address or username. We will delete the account and the data that goes with it, and confirm to you when it's done. See also the parents section of our support page.
11. Your rights
You can access most of your data directly in the game, and you can delete it via the in-app account deletion described above. For anything else, such as a copy of your data, a correction, or a question, email [email protected] and we'll help.
12. Changes to this policy
If we change this policy, we'll update this page and its effective date. Material changes will be announced in the game.