Privacy Policy

Who we are

Archipelago Games makes the games Short Stack and WordGamr for Android phones and tablets, with iPhone and iPad versions coming soon, and runs this website, arcg.co. This policy covers both games and this website. You can reach us through our Support page (choose your game) or our Contact page.

WordGamr at a glance

WordGamr (on Google Play as co.arcg.wordgamr) works the way this whole policy describes.
In brief:

• Accounts: none of our own. You can sign in with Google Play Games for cloud save.
• Kept on your device, and in your Google Play Games cloud save if you sign in: your progress, Styles, coins, your age answer and your player code. Your settings and the Theme and Styles you have on stay on each device.
• Collected by Google Play Games, if you sign in: your Play Games player ID and gamer name, and your cloud save. Google stores it in your Google account.
• Collected by Google AdMob, for ads: your device’s IP address (for approximate location), app interactions, diagnostics, and your Android advertising ID and app set ID.
• Kept by RevenueCat, for purchases: a record of each purchase under an anonymous ID. No name or email.
• Permissions: internet access only.
• In transit: data is encrypted.
• Deleting your data: Account › Delete Account in the game deletes everything on your device, and your Google Play Games cloud save if you signed in. To delete your purchase records, see Delete your data.

What we collect in our games

Short Stack and WordGamr work the same way and use the same services, so this section covers both.

Your progress: on your device, and in Google Play Games if you sign in

Our games have no accounts of their own, and we run no servers for them. Each game saves your progress, settings, the Styles and Music Tracks you own, your coins, your Revive Tokens (Short Stack) or Hint Tokens and Power-ups (WordGamr), a record of the Chests you open, and your age answer on your device.

Each game can save your progress with Google Play Games, so it comes back on a new device and stays the same on all your devices. If you’re signed in to Google Play Games, the game signs you in when it starts. If you aren’t, you can sign in from Account in the game, or keep playing as a guest with your progress on your device only.

When you’re signed in, the game gets your Play Games player ID and gamer name from Google. It shows your gamer name on its Account page, and it uses your player ID so two players’ saves never mix on a shared device.

Your cloud save holds your progress and bests, the Styles, Themes and Music Tracks you own, your coins, tokens and Power-ups, the Chests you haven’t opened, your favorites, your daily streaks, your age answer and your player code. In WordGamr it also holds your Magnifiers and Boost Boxes. In Short Stack it also holds your Tool Crates and the games you made in Stack Lab. Your settings, the Theme and Styles you have on, a round you’re in the middle of, and a photo you set as a Background stay on each device.

Google stores your cloud save in your Google account, through Google Play Games’ Saved Games. We run no servers, so it isn’t sent to us. Google handles Play Games data under the Google Privacy Policy.

Each game also makes a random player code on your device (in WordGamr it looks like WG-XXXX-XXXX) and shows it on its Account page. It’s used only if you give it to us when you ask for help.

Android’s own backup may copy a game’s data to your Google account, depending on your device’s backup settings. Google handles that backup under its own policies.

No analytics, and internet access only

Our games use no analytics or crash-reporting tools. The only permission they ask for is internet access, which they need for ads, purchases and cloud save. They don’t ask for your location, contacts, camera, microphone or files.

Your age group

Before a game shows its first ad, it asks your age group: under 13, 13 to 17, or 18 or older. WordGamr also asks the first time you open its Shop. No ad is requested until you answer. Your answer, and the date you gave it, stays on your device (also in your cloud save if you sign in with Google Play Games, so your other devices use the same answer) and is used only to set up ads and, in WordGamr, what its Shop offers:

• Under 13: ads are treated as directed to children, rated General and never personalized. WordGamr’s Shop doesn’t offer items with random contents (Chests, Rockets and Boost Boxes), timed offers or limited-time Themes.
• 13 to 17: you’re treated as under the age of consent, and ads are rated Teen and never personalized.
• 18 or older: ads follow the choice you make in Google’s consent message, where the law asks for one.

If you’re under 18, the game asks again after a year. In WordGamr you can change your answer in Account › Age group; a change from under 13 to an older group takes effect after 24 hours. Deleting the game’s data removes your answer.

Ads

Our games show ads through Google AdMob (the Google Mobile Ads SDK). To show and measure ads, Google collects:

• your device’s IP address, which it uses to estimate your approximate location;
• app interactions, for example app launches, taps and ad views;
• diagnostics about how the app and its ads perform;
• device identifiers: your Android advertising ID and app set ID.

This information is used for advertising, analytics and fraud prevention, and it’s shared with Google and its advertising partners. In the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and the US states that require it, Google’s consent message appears first, and you can change your choice at any time in the game under Account › Privacy Choices. If you say no, you still see ads, but they aren’t personalized. You can also reset or delete your advertising ID in Android’s settings (under Google or Privacy, then Ads, depending on your device). Google explains how it uses this data in How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services.

Purchases

Google Play handles every payment. We never see your card or bank details.

We use RevenueCat so your purchases can be unlocked and restored, and for our sales reporting. RevenueCat records each purchase, including coin packs, under an anonymous ID made by the game: the product, its time and price, and Google Play’s purchase record (such as the order number and whether it’s active, renewed or refunded). It never receives your name or email address. RevenueCat explains how it handles this data in its privacy policy.

Our other games

Each of our games checks whether our other game is installed on your device, so it doesn’t suggest a game you already have. The answer stays on your device.

Photos you choose

If you set one of your own photos as a Background, it stays on your device. We don’t upload it.

Messages to us

If you contact us, we keep your name, email address and messages so we can help you.

What we collect on arcg.co

This website has no ads and no analytics, and we don’t set cookies for visitors. (Our staff dashboard, which only our team uses, sets two cookies there and nowhere else: arcg_admin keeps our team logged in, and arcg_device remembers a staff browser for 30 days so it can skip the authenticator code.) It is hosted by Cloudflare, which processes your IP address and basic request information to deliver the pages and protect the site from attacks.

Videos

Some pages show a game’s trailer from our YouTube channel. Nothing loads from YouTube until you press play. Then YouTube’s player loads in privacy-enhanced mode (youtube-nocookie.com), and YouTube may collect information as described in Google’s Privacy Policy. Links to our channel open YouTube itself.

Our contact form

When you send a message, we receive your name, email address, the game and topic you choose, your device model if you give it, and your message. We also keep the country the message came from, your browser type and a scrambled (hashed) form of your IP address, which we use only to stop spam. Messages are stored in a database run by Cloudflare. To reply, we may forward a message to our team’s mailbox through our email provider, Resend. We use messages only to answer you, and we delete them after 12 months.

To keep out spam, the form uses Cloudflare Turnstile, which looks at information such as your IP address and browser type to tell people from bots. It isn’t used for ads. Cloudflare explains what Turnstile collects in its Turnstile Privacy Addendum.

How we use it

• To run our games and save your progress on your device and, if you sign in, in your Google Play Games cloud save.
• To unlock and restore purchases, to deliver coins, Chests and rewards, and for our sales reporting.
• To show ads and keep them within the limits we set. Short Stack Subscription and Short Stack Lifetime, and WordGamr Subscription, WordGamr Lifetime and WordGamr Ultra, remove the ads between rounds or levels in that game.
• To prevent fraud and cheating, such as a purchase or reward being paid out twice.
• To answer your questions.

Who we share it with

We share data only with the services that help us run our games, and only what each one needs:

• Google, for payments and app distribution through Google Play, for cloud save through Google Play Games (if you sign in), and for ads through AdMob, which shares ad data with Google’s advertising partners as described above.
• RevenueCat, to record, unlock and restore purchases.
• Cloudflare, which hosts this website, stores contact form messages and checks the form for spam.
• Resend, which delivers contact form messages to our team.

We may also share information when the law requires it. We don’t sell your personal information.

Keeping and deleting your data

A game’s data stays on your device until you uninstall the game, or until you use Account › Delete Account in the game, which deletes everything the game keeps on that device. If you signed in with Google Play Games, your cloud save stays in your Google account after you uninstall, until you use Delete Account. If you signed in with Google Play Games, Delete Account also deletes the game’s cloud save, and your other devices start fresh the next time they sync.

You can ask us to delete your purchase records at RevenueCat with your game’s support form on our Support page, including your player code and your Google Play order numbers (see Delete your data). After that, those purchases can no longer be restored. We may keep what the law requires for our accounting and tax records. Google keeps its own records of Google Play orders under its policies. We delete contact form messages after 12 months.

Your choices

• Delete your data with Account › Delete Account in each game, and ask us to delete your purchase records, as described on our Support page.
• Choose how ads use your data. Where the law requires it, use Account › Privacy Choices in the game. On Android, you can also open Settings and find the Ads option (under Google or Privacy, depending on your device) to reset or delete your advertising ID.
• Your privacy rights. Depending on where you live, you may have the right to see, correct, delete or export your data, or to object to how we use it. Send us a message through Support (choose your game, then its support form), and we’ll help.

Children

WordGamr is made for a general audience and isn’t directed at children under 13. Short Stack is made for ages 13 and over and isn’t directed at children under 13. We don’t knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.

If a player says they’re under 13, the game sets up its ads for children, as described under Your age group: treated as directed to children, rated General and never personalized, and WordGamr doesn’t offer them items with random contents, timed offers or limited-time Themes. Every player under 18 gets non-personalized ads.

If a child under 13 has been playing one of our games, you can delete everything the game holds on their device:

1. Open the game on the child’s device.
2. On the home screen, tap the Account button (the person in the top right corner).
3. Tap Delete Account, then confirm.

This deletes their progress, the Styles, Music Tracks, coins and tokens they own and their Chest history. If they have a subscription, cancel it in Google Play first, using the steps on our Support page.

If you signed in with Google Play Games, Delete Account also deletes the game’s cloud save, and your other devices start fresh the next time they sync.

Security

Data is encrypted in transit. We also keep payment keys out of the app and limit who can access our systems. No system is perfectly secure, but we work to protect your information.

Where data is processed

We and our service providers may process data in the United States and in other countries where they operate.

Changes to this policy

We may change this policy from time to time. The date at the top of this page shows when it was last updated, so you can always tell you’re reading the latest version. If a change is significant, we’ll also tell you in the game. When our games come to iPhone and iPad, we’ll update this policy first.

Contact

Archipelago Games. Reach us through our Support page or our Contact page. For questions about privacy or your data, you can also email info@arcg.co.