Gubbos Swap is a game about funny critters that evolve when friends swap them in person. This policy explains what the game stores about you, why, and what you can do about it. Gubbos Swap is currently in beta.
Gubbos Swap is run by Paweł Strzałkowski ("we"). Questions about your data: contact@gubbos.com.
The short version
- You don't give us your name, email address, phone number or birth date. Your account is a random nickname the game makes up for you.
- We don't collect your location (GPS), your contacts or microphone recordings.
- AR photos and videos stay on your phone. They leave it only if you share them yourself.
- No ads, no analytics or tracking tools, and we never sell your data.
- Public critter pages show only the critter — never who has it or who had it.
Your account
- A pseudonymous account: a randomly generated nickname (like "Mossy Otter 42"), its status, and when it was created.
- A device token that keeps you signed in. We store only a one-way hash (digest) of it, never the token itself.
- A recovery code to move your account to a new phone. It is shown to you once; we store only its hash.
- Your time zone (so the daily egg arrives on your day) and when you last changed it.
- That you confirmed you are 16 or older (a yes/no flag — not your age or birth date).
Your critters and their DNA
- Each critter: a public ID (like ABC-123), a name from the game's own word list, its starting genes and counters (mutations, swaps).
- Its DNA: a permanent, append-only history of every mutation (which gene, how rare, when it was recorded). DNA is never edited or deleted, because the critter keeps it as it passes from player to player.
- Privately, which account contributed which mutation, so the game can show you your own legacy.
Who had which critter, and swaps (private)
- Custody history: which account held each critter and when it got it (hatched, swapped or left behind).
- Swap sessions: the two accounts and critters taking part, the short code, a hash of the QR code, both confirmations, the result and the times.
- We use this to make swaps safe and fair (for example against swapping the same critter back and forth) and to show you your own legacy. It is never public. Former keepers only see delayed, rounded updates about critters they once had — never who has them now.
Game progress
- Eggs you got and hatched, daily egg claims (day, time zone and time), achievements and Genetic Crossroads choices.
- Mini-game rounds (game, score, simple stats, Spark earned, start and end time) and each critter's play progress with you (Spark, best scores, evolutions used).
AR camera
- When you open the AR camera, the server records a short-lived permission: which critter, your account, photo/video, and when it expires.
- The camera picture, your photos and your videos are never sent to us. They are saved on your phone and leave it only if you share them through your phone's share menu — then the app you choose handles them under its own rules.
Feedback you send
- If you use "Send feedback", we store your message, the app version, your platform (Android/iOS) and the app language.
- Diagnostics (technical information from the app) are attached only if you tick the box.
- Feedback is private: only the Gubbos Swap team reads it. It is included in your data export and deleted when you delete your account.
Server logs and abuse protection
- Like most online services, our server logs each request: the time, the address requested (which can include a critter's public ID), the result and your IP address. Tokens, recovery codes and feedback text are filtered out of these logs.
- Server logs are used only to run, debug and protect the service, never for profiling. Retention: 14 days.
- To stop abuse, the server counts recent requests per IP address and per (hashed) device token in memory and forgets them after at most an hour.
On your phone
- The app keeps your sign-in token, settings and a small error log on your phone.
- The error log is never uploaded automatically. You can share it yourself from Settings if you want to help us fix a bug.
What we don't collect
- Location (GPS or otherwise), contacts, microphone recordings, camera images, photos or videos.
- Your real name, email address, phone number, birth date or advertising ID.
- There are no ads and no analytics, advertising or tracking SDKs in Gubbos Swap. We don't sell your data or share it for advertising.
Public critter pages
- A shared link (/c/ABC-123) shows only the critter: its name, ID, mutation and swap counts, a few genes and its colors.
- It never shows who has the critter, who had it, or when or where it was swapped. These pages are not listed anywhere and are hidden from search engines.
Who else gets your data
- Nobody, except the hosting provider that runs our server on our behalf. We don't sell data and we don't share it with advertisers.
- Other players never see your account. In a swap, your partner sees only the critters on offer.
Export and delete your data
- Export: in the app, Settings → Export my data gives you a copy of what we keep about you — your account, critters you hold, your legacy, eggs, daily rewards, achievements, swap and play totals and your feedback.
- Delete: Settings → Delete my account. Every sign-in token is revoked at once; your nickname is replaced with "Deleted player"; your time zone and recovery code are removed; your feedback is deleted; open swaps are cancelled; critters you hold become wild (nobody's, and they can't be swapped any more); their public pages keep working.
- What stays: the critters' DNA and the record of past custody and swaps, because other players' critters depend on them. After deletion this history is linked only to the anonymous deleted account.
- Depending on where you live, you may have more rights (for example to access, correct or erase data, or to complain to a data protection authority). Write to contact@gubbos.com.
Age
- The Gubbos Swap beta is for players aged 16 and older. The Welcome screen asks you to confirm this.
- If you think someone younger is playing, write to contact@gubbos.com and we will delete the account.
Changes and contact
- If this policy changes, we will update this page and the date at the top.
- Contact: Paweł Strzałkowski, contact@gubbos.com. See also our Terms of use.