Animalis Privacy Policy

Last updated: 29 July 2026

This Privacy Policy describes how Animalis ("the app", "we", "us") collects, uses, and shares information when you use the Animalis mobile application.

1. Information We Collect

We collect the following information to provide core app functionality:

• Account information — a username you choose and a gender selection (male/female) used to personalise your in-game character. Your account is identified by a randomly generated account number and a device identifier generated by the app. If you choose to sign in with Apple or Google, we store only the stable, anonymous account identifier that provider gives us, so you can recover your account on a new phone — we do not receive or store your name or email address. You do not need to provide your real name, email address, or any other personal identifier to play.
• Location data — precise GPS coordinates while the app is in use. Location is required for core gameplay: discovering animals around you, navigating the in-game map, and tracking where animals were captured.
• Photos you take in the app — when you use the in-app camera to identify and capture an animal, the photo is uploaded to our servers and processed by a third-party image-recognition service to identify the species. We store a reference to each successful capture to build your personal encyclopedia. Photos are retained on our servers for up to 30 days after processing, for two purposes only: reviewing and improving the accuracy of species identification (for example, investigating a capture you report as wrongly identified), and fraud prevention (manual review of photos identified as a photo of a screen or other non-live subject). Retained photos are deleted automatically after 30 days, and immediately if you delete your account. We also keep, for up to 30 days and linked to your account, the short written description the recognition service produced for the photo (what it saw and why it accepted or rejected the identification), so we can answer questions about a capture that did not work as expected.
• Gameplay data — animals you have captured, team composition, level progression, in-game currency, items in your inventory, nicknames you give your animals, and battle outcomes. If you use the social features, we also store your friend connections and the friend requests you send or receive. If a friend you invited earns you a referral reward, we record that the reward was given for that friend, together with a one-way scrambled form of their sign-in identifier so the same person cannot earn the reward twice; the scrambled form cannot be turned back into their identifier.
• Purchase information — if you buy a subscription or a one-off purchase, the app store handles your payment; we never see your card details. We record which plan you bought, the store it came from, the store's transaction identifier, and the dates it started and renews, so we can give you what you paid for. If the app store tells us a purchase was refunded or cancelled, we record that too, along with the reason the store gave, so that what you have access to matches what you have paid for.
• Push notification token — if you turn on notifications, we store the anonymous push token issued by Apple or Google for your device, plus your device's time zone so reminders arrive at a sensible hour. You can turn notifications off at any time in your device or in-app settings.
• Diagnostic, crash and performance data — to find and fix bugs and to keep the game running smoothly, we collect crash reports and error diagnostics, together with technical measurements such as your device model, operating system version, app version, which screens you visited and for how long, battery level and charging state, network and request timings, how quickly the map and images loaded, and which steps of the tutorial you completed. This information is linked to your account number so that we can tell whether a problem affects one player or everybody, and so we can investigate a problem you report to us. It is not used to build an advertising profile and is never sold. It does not include your name, email address, or the contents of your photos.
• Server logs — like any internet service, our servers record the requests the app makes, including the IP address they came from. These logs are held by our hosting provider and rotate automatically (typically 30 days).
• Fair-play checks — the game is played by physically moving around, so we automatically check for movement that is not physically possible (for example, jumping hundreds of kilometres in seconds). When such a check triggers, we record the event — including the coordinates and speed involved — against your account so we can investigate suspected cheating and protect other players.

2. How We Use Information

• To run the core gameplay loop: identifying animals from photos, spawning wild animals near your location, recording captures, and syncing your progress.
• To show a live map of other nearby players (only your chosen username and approximate position — no personal information).
• To show anonymous, aggregated activity on our website's public world map — capture markers there are rounded to roughly a kilometre and carry no usernames or other identifiers.
• To deliver notifications you have opted in to, and to unlock the features you have purchased.
• To diagnose and fix bugs and crashes, to measure and improve the app's performance and battery use, and to understand where new players get stuck.
• To detect and act on cheating, and to protect the integrity of the game for other players.
• To improve the app based on aggregated, anonymised usage patterns.

We do not use your data for advertising, and we do not sell your data to anyone.

3. How We Share Information

We share limited data with third-party service providers in the following categories, solely to make the app work. Each provider processes data only on our instructions and only for the purpose described:

• Image recognition — photos you take for capture are sent to an image-recognition service to identify the animal species, and are not used by that provider for anything else on our behalf.
• Error monitoring — crash reports and error diagnostics are sent to an error-monitoring service so we can find and fix bugs. These reports carry your account number so we can tell affected players apart; they do not carry your name or email address.
• Push notifications — if you enable notifications, a notification-delivery service passes our messages to Apple's and Google's push systems for your device.
• Cloud hosting — our servers and database run on a cloud infrastructure provider, which stores the data described above on our behalf.
• App updates — an update-delivery service distributes over-the-air updates to the app.
• App stores — Apple's App Store and Google Play handle distribution, purchases, and their own standard diagnostics under their privacy policies.

We do not share your location, photos, or username with any other third party, and we do not share your data with advertisers or data brokers.

4. Data Retention

We retain your account information and gameplay data for as long as your account is active. If you delete your account in the app, or ask us to delete it, we remove your account information, gameplay data, capture photos and all the diagnostic records described above from our servers within 30 days.

Some records are deleted automatically on a shorter cycle even while your account stays open:

• Capture photos — 30 days.
• Photo descriptions from the recognition service — 30 days.
• Battery and performance measurements — 90 days.
• Tutorial and first-session progress records — 180 days.

Crash and error reports are retained by our error-monitoring provider (Sentry) according to their standard retention policy, typically 90 days.

5. Children's Privacy

Animalis is a general-audience game and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 (or the minimum age of digital consent in your country). If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us and we will delete it.

6. Your Rights

You have the right to:

• Access the information we hold about you.
• Request deletion of your account and associated data.
• Correct any inaccurate information.
• Withdraw consent at any time by deleting the app.

To exercise these rights, contact us at the email address below.

7. Security

All data transmitted between the app and our servers is encrypted in transit using HTTPS/TLS. We take reasonable steps to protect the information we store, but no internet transmission or storage system is 100% secure.

8. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Any changes will be posted on this page with an updated "Last updated" date. Significant changes will be communicated in-app.

9. Contact

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or your data, contact us at:

Email: support@playanimalis.com