CRIMELINK / LEGAL

PRIVACY POLICY

Crimelink is a location-based game. That means this document has to be straight with you about location, not bury it in paragraph 34. Here is what we collect, why we collect it, and what we never do with it.

Last updated: TODO(owner): publication date

Applies to: TODO(owner): name the legal entity and the products this covers — the Crimelink game app and this website

1. What we collect

Only what the game needs to run. Broken out by where it comes from:

Account information. When you register you give us an email address, a username, and a password. Passwords are stored hashed — we cannot read yours, and neither can anyone who reads our database.

Gameplay data. The things you do in the game are stored against your account: your character’s appearance, your inventory and in-game currency, fights, venue standings and influence, crew membership, and messages you send in crew chat.

Location data. Section 2. It gets its own section because it deserves one.

Talent-network submissions. Section 3.

Founders list. The founders-list form on the home page collects one thing: the email address you enter. We use it only to send launch news — tiers, alpha invites, release dates — and you can unsubscribe at any time, which removes the address from the list.

Technical and device data. TODO(owner): confirm what the servers, hosting provider and any analytics or crash-reporting SDK actually log — IP addresses, device model, OS version, timestamps — and list them here. Do not guess.

2. Location data

Crimelink anchors play to real, publicly accessible venues. Location is what lets the game tell that you are standing at the bar on the corner rather than claiming it from a couch three states away. It is also how we detect spoofing, which is what keeps the map worth anything.

Precision. The app requests a balanced-accuracy fix, not your phone’s highest-precision mode. It is good enough to place you at a venue and no better.

Foreground only. The app reads your location while it is open and on your screen. When you switch away or lock your phone, location tracking stops. There is no background tracking and no location trail collected while you are not playing.

TODO(owner): the Android manifest and iOS Info.plist currently declare background-location permission (including the string “Crimelink uses background location to track your position in turf zones”) that the shipped build does not use. Either remove those declarations or change this section — a store submission where the manifest and the privacy policy disagree gets rejected, and the manifest is currently the inaccurate one.

What reaches our servers. Your most recent verified position — one coordinate pair and a timestamp — plus the city your account is assigned to. Each new verified position overwrites the last one. We do not build or keep a history of everywhere you have been.

What other players see. Never your precise live location. Other players see your presence in the game — standings, crews, fights, bounties — not a dot following you down the street. This is a permanent design rule, not a setting we might quietly change.

You can play without GPS. Crimelink has a networked mode that never touches your location at all. You get the full game; on-site play simply rewards a higher rate. Location is a way to play Crimelink, not a toll you have to pay to open it.

Retention. TODO(owner): state how long the last-known position and the city assignment are kept after an account goes inactive or is deleted.

3. Talent-network submissions

If you send the form on the Join the team section, we collect exactly the fields shown on that form: your preferred name, your email address, the areas of work you are interested in, an optional portfolio or profile link, an optional time zone, your three written answers, and the future arrangements you said you would consider.

We commit to the same things the form does:

We collect only the information shown on the form.
Access is limited to people reviewing candidates for future Crimelink roles.
We do not sell it.
Submissions are scheduled for deletion 12 months after they are received.

Do not include government IDs, financial or medical details, confidential material, or work owned by someone else. Submitting the form is an expression of interest — it is not an application to a current opening, and it does not create any employment relationship.

You can withdraw a submission yourself using the Withdraw my saved submission button on the form, from the same browser you used to send it. That deletes it. If you have switched browsers or cleared your storage, use the contact address in section 11.

4. How we use it

To run the game — your account, your character, your fights, your crew, your standing at a venue.
To place you in the world — assign your city and verify venue actions. See section 2.
To keep it fair — detect spoofed locations and abuse, and enforce the Terms.
To answer you — respond to a support request or a talent-network submission.
To review future roles — talent-network submissions only, and only for that.

We do not sell your personal information. TODO(owner): confirm whether any future advertising, analytics or attribution SDK would constitute a “sale” or “share” under CCPA/CPRA, and add an opt-out if so.

TODO(owner): if this policy needs to serve GDPR/UK GDPR users, state a lawful basis for each purpose above (contract, legitimate interests, consent) and name the controller.

5. How long we keep it

Talent-network submissions — 12 months from submission, then deleted. This one is built and running.
Account and gameplay data — TODO(owner): retention period for an active account, an inactive account, and a deleted account.
Location — TODO(owner): see section 2.
Logs and backups — TODO(owner): backup rotation and log retention windows.

We do not sell your data and we do not trade it. We do rely on service providers to run the game — hosting and databases at minimum.

TODO(owner): list every processor/subprocessor by name and purpose (hosting, database, email delivery, crash reporting, analytics, payment processing if it launches), and where they store data. Note whether any data leaves the user’s country.

TODO(owner): add the standard disclosure for legal requests (subpoena, court order) and for a business transfer (sale, merger), if your counsel wants them.

7. Children’s privacy

TODO(owner): set and state a minimum age, and keep it consistent with the Terms, the store age rating, and any COPPA/GDPR-K obligations. Crimelink is a crime-themed game with real-world location features and player-to-player chat — this decision needs a real answer before launch, not a copied paragraph. State what happens if we learn a younger user has registered.

8. Your rights

Whatever your local law grants you, these are ours by default:

Access — ask what we hold about you.
Correction — tell us to fix something wrong.
Deletion — ask us to delete your account and its data.
Withdrawal — pull a talent-network submission, yourself, from the form.
Objection and portability — TODO(owner): confirm which additional rights apply given your jurisdiction and user base, and how you honour them.

How to exercise them. Write to the address in section 11. TODO(owner): commit to a response window (e.g. 30 days), describe how you verify that the requester owns the account, and say whether deletion is immediate or queued.

9. Security

Passwords are hashed before storage and session refresh tokens are stored hashed as well, so a database read does not hand anyone your password or your session.

No system is perfectly secure and we are not going to pretend otherwise. Use a password you do not use anywhere else.

TODO(owner): account recovery and email verification are not built yet — there is currently no password-reset flow. Either ship it before launch or say so here plainly. Also decide whether to publish a breach-notification commitment.

10. Changes

We will update this policy as the game grows — the waitlist, payments, and a second city all change what we collect. When we make a material change we will update the date at the top. TODO(owner): commit to how you notify existing users of material changes (in-app notice, email), and keep prior versions available if your counsel advises it.

11. Contact

Questions, requests, or something we got wrong:

TODO(owner): privacy contact email address and postal address for the responsible entity. App stores require a working, monitored contact — a form that goes nowhere will fail review.