Privacy, with room to breathe

Who looks after your data

Gathering Season is made by George King, based in the United Kingdom. George King is responsible for personal information used by the game’s services and support (the “data controller”). Email [email protected] with a privacy question or request.

Your gathering, on your device

Your gathering, preferences, personal stats, achievements and chosen title are saved locally, with optional Game Center achievement sync as described below. The game also stores your sharing choice, waiting reports and a copy of community results. These files are not a cloud save; your device’s storage and backup settings apply.

Where Reset game is offered after unrecoverable save damage, it asks before removing local progress and settings. It turns sharing off and clears waiting reports. Combined community results and achievements held by Apple remain.

Optional Game Center achievements

Game Center is available from the first iPad and Mac release. After your shared-stats choice, the game contacts Apple and may show its sign-in screen. This is separate from stats sharing, even if you chose Not now. You can cancel and keep playing.

We ask before linking your saved profile to the displayed account. Link achievements shares achievement IDs and progress with Apple, including achievements already earned here. Completed badges from that account can unlock badges and titles locally; they do not restore your saved gathering or personal stats, or change your chosen title. You can connect later from Achievements → Game Center. Once linked, the game reconnects on later launches unless you disconnect.

Your game-specific account identifier and sync records stay in your local profile; they are not sent to our stats service. Your Game Center display name is shown when linking. We do not request your friends list, contacts or photo.

Disconnect stops future sync attempts. A request already sent may finish and achievements held by Apple remain. The local account link is retained to prevent mixing accounts; disconnecting does not sign you out of Apple. Apple controls its records and activity-sharing settings under its own privacy information.

Optional online stats

When online stats are available, opening “The flock” contacts Cloudflare to request combined results for your game rules, number of CPU ducks and platform. You can read these without sharing. An older-results label appears when a saved copy is shown.

Sharing is off by default. Choose Share stats to contribute numbers from new gatherings after their final results are shown. Earlier history is never uploaded. Each report contains:

• The win result, final twig total, and counts of recorded days, nights, wishes, obstacles, shelter rests, worn-out days and oasis visits.
• The game rules, number of CPU ducks and platform.
• A fresh random token and expiry day to prevent duplicate counting.

Reports do not include your name, email, duck title, saved game, local game ID, achievements, Game Center ID or a persistent installation identifier.

Reports contribute to combined counts, totals and the highest shared twig score, shown as Best. We do not keep a list of individual reports or score distributions, or attach names or accounts to the highest score. Separate duplicate receipts contain no results or link to a person or device. We do not join reports to connection records or try to identify contributors. Published comparisons update daily, with minimum numbers of gatherings to limit information about smaller groups. A distinctive high score may still be recognisable to someone who already knows it.

You choose what to share

We rely on your consent for optional reports. Choose Not now to keep playing without sharing, or change your choice in Settings → Sharing.

Turning sharing off stops future reports and clears waiting ones. A request already sent may finish. We keep no link from combined stats to you, so we cannot identify and remove your contribution individually. Your local progress and Game Center connection are unaffected.

Hosting and service providers

Cloudflare hosts this website and the stats service. Stats databases are restricted to the EU, but network and provider processing may occur elsewhere. This database location does not apply to Apple’s services.

Cloudflare processes connection information such as IP addresses, request times and browser or device information to deliver and protect requests. Stats-service application logging and tracing are disabled; Cloudflare may retain its own network and security records. Anonymous stored stats do not make the connection anonymous.

Necessary delivery and security rely on legitimate interests in providing a reliable service and preventing abuse. Cloudflare’s data processing terms explain international-transfer safeguards, including Standard Contractual Clauses and the UK Addendum where applicable. Its privacy policy covers provider processing.

We do not sell your information or use stats for advertising. Purchases and diagnostics you choose to share with your platform provider follow its settings and privacy terms; we do not receive payment-card details.

How long information stays

• Local progress and preferences: until reset or removed, subject to device storage and backups.
• Waiting reports and duplicate receipts: expire after the gathering’s 30-day acceptance window. The game clears expired reports when it runs, or when sharing is switched off; the service removes expired receipts daily.
• Combined counts, totals and the highest score: while the feature operates. Database recovery history may retain earlier states for up to seven further days.
• Game Center: the account link and sync records remain with the local profile, including after disconnecting. Apple controls retention of its records.
• Support: while needed to answer a request, follow up or meet legal obligations.

Cloudflare controls retention of its own network and security records under its policies; the database recovery period above does not apply to those records.

Support and this website

If you email us, we receive your email address, message and attachments through our email providers. We use them to answer questions and privacy requests, relying on legitimate interests in providing support and, where applicable, legal obligations.

Please send only what is needed and ask before sending saved-game files. The game does not silently attach saves or diagnostics to an email.

This website serves its fonts, images and video locally. Its own code adds no advertising trackers or analytics cookies. Cloudflare’s delivery and security processing is described above. External links open services with their own privacy terms.

Your privacy rights

You can ask to access, correct or delete personal information we hold, such as support correspondence. Depending on the circumstances, you may also request restriction or portability. These rights do not make anonymous combined stats identifiable; you can stop future reports in Settings → Sharing.

You can object to processing based on legitimate interests. Email [email protected] with a request or concern. We may need proportionate information to verify a request, but will not collect extra identifying data to re-identify anonymous stats.

You can also complain to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office or your local data protection authority where applicable.

Questions and policy updates

Parents and guardians can contact us with privacy concerns. Please avoid sending unnecessary personal information about a child.

We will update this page when data handling changes and explain material changes in the game before relying on a new sharing choice. The date identifies this policy. A short notice is included in the game for offline reading.