Flypet privacy policy

What isn't there

No accounts or sign-up: we don't ask for your name, email or age.

No analytics, tracking or advertising IDs.

We don't send anything to a server of ours: we don't have one.

Your game

The fly, its room, your Flycoins and your settings are saved in the app's storage on your phone. We never receive them.

Flypet uses Android's automatic backup. If it's turned on, Android keeps your game and settings in your Google account so it can give them back if you install Flypet on another phone. Google keeps that copy, not us, encrypted and under its own privacy policy. The data for the fly's brain isn't included. You can turn it off in Android settings.

Without that copy, if you uninstall the app or clear its data, your game is gone and we can't get it back. PRO and the Founder pack you can get back with "Restore purchases", because Google Play keeps track of it.

The microphone

Flypet uses the microphone only to tell whether you're blowing on the fly (the Blow button): it measures how loud the low-pitched air noise is. That happens on your phone, in the moment: no audio is recorded, stored or sent to anyone.

The microphone only opens while you hold Blow and closes when you let go. The permission is requested the first time you press it, not when you open the app. If you don't grant it, Blow still works with a gentle puff.

You can deny the permission or remove it at any time in Android's settings. Everything else keeps working.

Your photos as posters (Flypet PRO)

If you have Flypet PRO and choose a photo to hang in the room, the app copies it, scaled down, to its own folder on your phone. The photo doesn't leave the phone, with one exception: if you transfer your data directly from one phone to another with Android's tool, it moves to the new phone. It never goes into the cloud backup. It's deleted if you take the poster down or uninstall the app. The app has no access to the rest of your photos, only the one you pick.

Sharing a photo

If you share a photo of your fly, the app creates the image on your phone and opens Android's share sheet. It only goes where you choose and doesn't pass through any server of ours.

Notifications

Notifications are optional and local: the phone itself schedules them, at most one a day. Android asks for the notifications permission, and you can turn them off in settings. There's no notification server and no identifier.

Purchases

Purchases (PRO, the Founder pack and Flycoin packs) are made and charged by Google Play with its own system. We never see your card or payment details: Google tells us which product was bought so we can give it to you in the game, and the app stores that on your phone. What Google does with your data is explained in its privacy policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy

If a child uses an account supervised with Family Link, purchases may stay pending until an adult approves them. Until then, the app doesn't deliver anything.

Vibration

The app vibrates the phone briefly when you touch the fly and in a few other actions. You can turn it off in the menu. It uses no data.

Children

Flypet is meant for all ages. Since we don't collect anyone's data, we don't collect children's data either. If you think something in this policy isn't being followed, write to us and we'll look into it.

Science and credits

The fly's brain is simulated with the MaleCNS connectome (Janelia, CC-BY 4.0 licence). It's data from a fly, not from people. Janelia isn't involved in the app and doesn't endorse it.

Security and retention

Apart from the Android backup and what you choose to share, the data doesn't leave your phone and is protected by your own device's security. It's kept while the app is installed and deleted when you uninstall it. Google manages the Android backup in your account. We keep nothing, so there's nothing for us to delete or retain.

Changes

If the app changes (for example, if one day there's a backup on a server of ours), we'll update this page first and say so in the release notes.