Privacy and your data

This page says what we collect, why, and how to make us delete it. It is short because the answer is short: we collect an alias, and for the bounty an email address, and nothing else.

The game is local first

Pip’s PyLocket Odyssey is a desktop application. It runs on your machine, your save file and your progress stay on your machine, and it does not sync, phone home or keep an account for you. There is nothing to sign into because there is nothing to sign into.

Two things leave your machine, and only when you choose to send them. A score goes to the board under whatever alias you typed, which is a name you made up rather than a name that identifies you. A bounty key goes with an email address, because a locket that opens needs somebody we can contact.

We have taken the Local-First Pledge for PyLocket, the software this game is built with. The badge at the bottom of this page links to the listing, which is there so you can check the claim rather than take a picture’s word for it.

What we collect

When you submit a score, we store the alias you chose, the score, and a one-way fingerprint of your IP address. Aliases are public and pseudonymous. They are not accounts, nobody signs up, and we have no way of knowing who chose one.

When you submit a bounty key, we store your email address, your alias, whether the key was accepted, and the same kind of IP fingerprint. The email address is the only piece of personal data on this site.

If you fill in the newsletter form, your address goes to SendFox, who send the emails for us. That form is the only way onto that list. Submitting a bounty key does not subscribe you to anything.

The game itself is a trial build. Whatever it checks locally to know how many days are left is between you and the copy on your machine: it is not reported to us, and there is no account behind it.

Why we collect it

The alias appears on the board. The email address is used to contact you if you win a locket, and for nothing else. No marketing, no profiling, and no sharing with anybody. The IP fingerprint exists to stop one machine grinding through key guesses, and it cannot be turned back into an address.

How long we keep it

Scores stay on the board until you ask us to remove them. Rejected key submissions are deleted after 90 days. An accepted key submission is the bounty ledger and is kept, but the email address on it is deleted within 90 days of that level being awarded.

After the address is deleted we keep a one-way fingerprint of it. We are telling you because keeping something is worse if nobody mentioned it. It cannot be reversed into your address and it is not used to contact you. It exists so that the submission limit on the bounty page stays enforceable, because otherwise asking us to forget you would hand back a fresh budget.

Request logs, which contain IP addresses, are deleted after 30 days.

Who can see it

Aliases and scores are public. Email addresses are not, and are never shown on this site. The person who runs the bounty program can export the ledger, which includes addresses that have not yet been deleted, in order to contact winners. Every export is recorded.

We do not sell any of this

Not the aliases, not the scores, not the email addresses, not the newsletter list. Not to advertisers, not to data brokers, not to anybody, and not as part of an acquisition without telling you first. There is no business model here that involves your data, because the business model is a licensing product for Python developers and this game is an advertisement for it.

The newsletter list is held by SendFox, who send the emails on our behalf and do nothing else with it. You get on it by filling in the form, never by playing and never by submitting a key, and every email has an unsubscribe link.

What we do not do

• No advertising, no analytics that follow you between sites, and no cookies set without asking.
• No fonts, maps, video or scripts loaded from anybody else’s server.
• No selling, renting or sharing of anything on this page.

Deleting your data

Ask, and we will. No account, no verification hoops and no form. Tell us the alias or the address and we will confirm within seven days. Removing an address also removes you from the newsletter.

The audience for this game skews young

That is why the collected surface is this small and why it stays this small. If you are under 13, ask a parent or guardian before you submit a bounty key, because the email address is how we would contact you. Nothing else on this site asks for anything.