Privacy.

The short version

Side Eye runs on your phone or in your browser. You play without an account. On one phone with no TV, nothing you type in a game, and nothing about who you are, is sent to us.

A few things do reach our server, each optional and each described below: a token that identifies your install, an account if you sign in, purchases, online rooms, and what you give the AI when you ask it for a pack: a theme, or the answers about your group. The game also sends us usage events, described under Usage analytics.

What stays on your device

Player names, saved groups, your settings, your own packs and the list of words your group has already had are stored on your device so they are there next time. Uninstalling the app or clearing the site’s data removes them. Signed in, your own packs, saved groups and settings are also copied to our server (see Optional account); signed out, they stay on the device only.

Your install

On first launch the app asks our server for a device token and keeps it on your device (in the keychain on a phone, in site data in a browser). It identifies the install, not you. It is what AI packs and purchases are tied to before you sign in, and it goes with every request the app makes to our server. We store a hash of the token, the platform (iPhone, Android or web) and when it was made and last used. Uninstalling the app or clearing the site’s data removes it; the next launch gets a new one, and anything tied to the old one is reachable again only by signing in or with a claim code.

Usage analytics

The apps and the web version at play.sideeyegame.com send us events, so we can see which parts of the game get used. They go to Aptabase, running on our own server, with no cookies and no advertising IDs. The web version and this website, sideeyegame.com, also count page views with Umami, on our own server and without cookies. On this website Umami also counts clicks on a few links (Play, the store badges, the contact address, the language switcher and the link to Tilt), with the page’s language.

An event says what happened, like “game finished”, with counts and durations (players, rounds, seconds), the ids of the built-in packs picked, setting values and the app language. Some events also carry a short code from a fixed list: which screen something was opened from, which sign-in method was tried, which product was tapped or bought, and why something failed (a cancelled purchase, say, or an AI pack refused for its theme). A balance of AI packs goes only as a rough band: none, one to four, five or more. The apps also send the phone’s language setting, the operating system and its version, and the app version. On the web, Umami also counts page views with the browser, device type, screen size and rough country, as it does on any site.

Events never include player names, clues, guesses, the secret words or anything anyone types. For your own packs we only learn that one was made (and whether with AI), edited, deleted, added from a link or shared, and how many words it has. Never its name, its words, its id or the theme you gave the AI.

Every event carries a random install ID, kept on your device with the date it first ran, so we can count return visits. While you are signed in, events also carry your account’s ID, so the analytics are linked to your account; never to your email address or your name. Uninstalling the app, or clearing its data or the site’s data, removes the install ID, and the next launch starts a new one. Signing out stops the account ID going with events. A random session ID resets after half an hour idle.

We keep analytics for 400 days. They are never sold and never used for advertising. Like every request on the internet, these include your IP address. It is used only to work out a rough country, and is not kept.

Play counts

Each game also tells our server which way to play it was, what was changed, roughly how many played and whether it was finished. We keep only anonymous counts of which ways to play are started and finished, with no names, no device and no account, and use them to tune the game.

Optional account

You can sign in with an email link, with an email and password, with Apple or with Google. Nothing in the game needs it. We store your email address (or the relay address Apple gives you), a name if you give one (rooms offer it as your name), a password if you set one (only as a scrambled hash we cannot read back), which of Apple or Google you linked and its id for you, and your sign-in sessions. We never see your Apple or Google password. We never use the address for marketing.

Signing in ties your install to the account, so your AI packs, your Supporter membership, your own packs, your saved player groups and your settings follow you to another phone and to our other games that use the same sign-in. Your own packs (name, category, words), saved groups (the group names and the player names in them) and settings (the name and settings you use in rooms, the language, Kids safe, who AI packs are for, sounds, how words are revealed and your changes to each way to play) are then kept on our server, private to your account, and sent to your other signed-in devices.

Sign out keeps everything on the device. Delete account, in settings, removes the account, its sign-ins, the purchases made on it and everything synced to it in every one of our games. What is on your device stays.

Purchases

Side Eye sells AI packs, one or five at a time. It is also part of Empyreal Games Supporter, one monthly membership for all our games that includes a few AI packs every month in Side Eye. Subscribing needs a signed-in account, so the membership can be recognised in every game. In the apps, payment goes through the App Store or Google Play, and RevenueCat, a payment service, confirms the receipts to our server; we never see card details. On the web, payment goes through Stripe, which handles the card.

Our server keeps a record of what was bought and used: the product, when, which store, the store’s transaction reference, and how many AI packs are left, tied to your install or your account. A purchase made on the web can be moved to a phone with a one-time code that works for a day. Refunds are handled by the store you bought from, and the AI packs are withdrawn when the store tells us.

AI packs

When you ask for a pack on a theme, the theme you type, who it is for and the app language go to our server, and from there to the model provider (Google’s Gemini) to write the words. The theme is checked against a word list first and may be refused. We keep the result for a day so the same request is not generated twice, and a record of each request (which install or account asked, when, and whether it worked) for billing and to keep the feature within its limits. The record does not include the theme.

A pack about your group sends more: the names at the table, the answers about each of you and about the group, the notes, what is off limits and which of the content permissions you ticked. It goes to our server and on to the model provider each time the interview asks for questions and once more for the pack, and that is all: it is not cached, not logged and not stored on our server beyond the request itself. Until you save the pack, the interview exists only on your phone. In a room, each player’s answers go from their phone to the host’s phone through our server, which passes them on and does not keep them.

Packs you share

A pack you make stays on your device (and on your account, if you are signed in). When you share it, the app makes a link with the whole pack inside it, after the # in the address. Browsers never send that part to a server, so the link itself does not reach us. It goes wherever you send it, and anyone with the link can open it.

What we don’t do

No advertising and no ad tracking, so there is no App Tracking Transparency prompt. We do not sell, rent or share data. An account holds an email address, a name if you give one, a password if you set one (stored only as a scrambled hash we cannot read back), which of Apple or Google you linked, what you chose to sync (your packs, saved groups and settings) and the list of rooms you joined.

Online rooms

A room, with everyone on their own phone, runs on our server. Joining one sends it the name you pick, your device token and, if you are signed in, your session. Everyone in the room, and a TV showing it, sees your name, your clues and guesses, and the chat; nobody sees your token or your account. A TV beside one phone uses a room too, and what it shows passes through our server without being kept.

While a room is open, our server holds it: the names, the game, the last 50 chat lines and which install or account each seat belongs to. It also saves a copy, so a restart of our server does not end the game. Leaving, or being removed by the host, takes you off the list of players; your chat lines stay until the room closes. A room closes 30 minutes after the last phone disconnects, or 10 minutes after it was made if nobody joined, and its copy is deleted then. Our logs hold room codes, never names, clues or chat.

After that we keep only numbers about the room, for 400 days: its code, when it opened, started and closed, the rounds played and the most players at once. If you were signed in, your account lists the rooms you joined, with the code and time, for a year, and Delete account removes that list. A join link pasted into a chat shows the room code and the number of players, never names. Your phone keeps the name you go by, your seat, so a reload puts you back in it, and the last room you were in.

Children

Side Eye is a party game for groups. Playing needs no personal detail of any kind, and we do not knowingly collect anything from anyone. Kids safe in settings limits the game to the packs made for kids. A few packs are marked 18+ and are never picked unless someone chooses them.