Sparkle Detective Privacy Policy
Sparkle Detective is an iOS app, operated by Corban Productions, that turns your walks, runs and bike rides into a mystery. You pick a story, drop a start pin and paint an area on a map, and our server places the story's locations at real spots inside that area. Parts of the story unlock when you reach those spots. This policy explains what data that takes, where it goes and how to remove it.
What we collect
- Account identifier. A random identifier created on your device the first time you open the app. It is not tied to your name or phone number.
- Names you choose. Your detective name, and your handle: a unique name we generate the first time you open the app, which you can change. Your handle is shown as the author of any story you publish under it.
- Profile photo (optional). If you choose to use a photo as your avatar: the photo, which our server re-encodes as small square images with its location and other embedded data removed, and when you uploaded it. Otherwise your avatar is a drawn detective or your initials, not a photo.
- Content preference. The highest story rating you want the library to list.
- Reviews and hearts. The stories you heart or save for later, and the reviews you write: your star rating, any text, the story version you played and when you wrote it.
- Reports and blocks. When you report a review or a profile photo, what you reported, your account and the reason you chose. When you block another player, both accounts.
- Story setup. For each story you start: the start pin and the area you painted.
- Walk tracks. The GPS track of each walk you record in the app.
- Imported workouts. If you allow it, walking, hiking, running and cycling workouts from Apple Health: the route, distance, and start and end time.
- AI requests. If you use Sparkle Detective Pro to have a story written, or to draft lines for a story you are writing: the description you typed, the story type and rating you chose, which story and stops lines were drafted for, and a record of each request (when it was made, whether it worked, and how much of the AI service it used).
- Story progress. Which places you have reached and which parts of the story you have unlocked.
- Friends and blocks. If you are signed in: who you are friends with, the friend requests you sent and received, who you blocked, and the stories you sent to friends or received from them.
- Sign in with Apple. If you sign in with Apple, we receive your Apple user identifier and the email address Apple shares with us, which may be a private relay address.
- Subscription status. Whether you have an active subscription, as reported by RevenueCat. We never see your payment card details.
- Advertising data (free version). Google AdMob, which shows the ads, collects data from your device directly; see Advertising below. We do not receive it.
Location
Sparkle Detective uses your precise location while the app is open, to show where you are on the story map. During a walk you started, it also uses your location in the background, so a story location can unlock and notify you when you arrive even with your phone in your pocket. Background tracking stops when you end the walk. Location is used only to run your story, and it is linked to your account so your progress follows you.
Apple Health
With your permission, Sparkle Detective reads walking, hiking, running and cycling workouts and their routes from Apple Health to work out which story locations you passed. It only reads; it never writes anything to Health. Health data is used only to advance your story. It is never used for advertising, never sold, and never shared with third parties for their own purposes. You can turn this access off at any time in the iOS Health settings.
How we use your data
We use the data above to place story locations in your area, detect when you reach them, unlock story content, keep your progress, write the stories and draft the lines you ask Sparkle Detective for, and fix problems with the app. We do not sell your data, we do not build advertising profiles, and we never pass your location, walk tracks, workouts or Health data to advertisers.
Friends and sharing
If you are signed in, other signed-in players who search for your handle can find you, and see your handle, detective name and level. If you and another player accept each other as friends, each of you can see, for a story you have both started, how far the other has got: a percentage, how many places and items were found, how many outings it took, the distance walked, when the story was started and solved and how long it took, and which numbered ending was reached (never what it was). Friends never see where you walked, your starting point, your area, any place in your story or its text, or when you were last active. You can remove a friend or block a player at any time; blocking also hides each of you from the other and removes the stories you sent each other. A story you send to a friend is kept for them until they dismiss it, and we keep that record until either of you removes the friendship, blocks the other or deletes your account.
A story link can be opened by anyone who has it, with or without the app; the page it opens shows the story's title, short description and author credit, never your progress or location.
Services that process data for us
- Apple provides Sign in with Apple, App Store subscriptions and Apple Health. Health data stays on your device until the app sends the workouts you allowed to our server.
- RevenueCat manages subscriptions. It receives your Sparkle Detective account identifier and your purchase records from Apple.
- Google AdMob shows ads in the free version. It receives what it collects from your device when it loads an ad (see Advertising), not your Sparkle Detective account identifier, story or location data.
- OpenStreetMap. Our server looks up real places inside your painted area using OpenStreetMap data through the public Overpass API. That request contains a map area, not your identity.
- Anthropic provides the AI that writes stories and drafts lines for Sparkle Detective Pro. When you ask for a story, our server sends Anthropic the description you typed, the story type and the rating you chose. When you draft lines, it sends the text of the story you are writing: its title and synopsis and, for each stop, the kind of place, its screens, the lines already written and the names of the stops around it, with any word on our blocked-word list replaced by blanks. Each request carries a random-looking code made from your account, the same on every request, so Anthropic can spot misuse; Anthropic can't turn it back into your account identifier. It never sends your account identifier, your name, handle or email, your location or your progress. Anthropic processes this text under its commercial terms.
- Sentry (Functional Software, Inc.) receives error reports from our server and the app when something goes wrong, so we can fix it: the kind of error, where in our code it happened and which part of the app was being used. We strip your account details, the contents of your requests, your location and your routes before a report is sent.
- Cloudflare R2 stores profile photos, privately: a photo is reachable only through a link our server signs, which stops working within two hours.
- OpenFreeMap serves the map tiles. Your device requests tiles directly, so OpenFreeMap sees your device's IP address and which map tiles it loaded.
Advertising
The free version of Sparkle Detective shows a full-screen video ad from Google AdMob when you find a story location, after the first screen of that find. Subscribers to Sparkle Detective Pro see no ads.
To choose and measure ads, Google's ad software in the app collects, directly from your device: your IP address (and the approximate location Google infers from it), device and operating system details, an identifier for this app installation, which ads you saw and tapped, and crash and performance data about the ad. Before ads start, iOS asks whether Sparkle Detective may track you. Only if you allow it does Google also receive your device's advertising identifier, which lets it personalize ads using activity in other apps and websites. If you decline, ads still show but are not based on that activity. In regions that require it, Google also asks for your consent before showing ads.
Google handles this data under its own policy: How Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services. Your precise location, walk tracks, workouts and Health data are never shared with Google or any advertiser and never used for ads.
What other players see
Your reviews are public: anyone using Sparkle Detective can read your stars and text next to your handle, with a note when you finished the story. They never show your detective name, your profile, your location or your runs. Hearts are shown only as a count per story. What you saved, and whom you reported or blocked, is never shown to anyone; a player you block stops seeing your reviews and stories, and you stop seeing theirs.
If you use a profile photo, a person at Sparkle Detective looks at it first. Once approved, everyone who sees your profile, your reviews or your stories can see it; until then only you see it. A photo can be reported, and we may hide or remove a photo that breaks our rules, telling you why.
We review reported reviews and may hide them; a review several players report is hidden automatically. We filter review text for a short list of offensive words before it is posted.
Retention and deletion
We keep your data while your account exists. You can delete your account and all of its data in the app (Settings → Delete account) or by emailing us. Deletion removes it from our live database right away; our database backups are kept for 14 days and then purged, so deleted data is fully gone within 14 days.
You can also delete a single story you wrote, in the app (Your stories, then the story's menu, then Delete story). Stories you delete, or that remain when you delete your account, stay playable by anyone who has them, without your name: they are taken out of the library, and your name, handle and pen name are removed from them.
Your profile photo is deleted when you remove it in the app or delete your account. Photos are not kept in our database backups. A photo we did not approve is deleted 7 days later.
Your reviews, stars, hearts, saved stories, reports, blocks and AI requests are not kept that way: they are deleted with your account, and story ratings are recalculated without them.
Where data is stored
Our server is operated in the United States. If you use Sparkle Detective from elsewhere, your data is transferred to and stored in the United States.
Children
Sparkle Detective is not meant for children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect data from them. If you believe a child under 13 has used the app, contact us and we will delete the account.
Your choices
You can deny or revoke location, notification and Health permissions in iOS Settings at any time; parts of the app that depend on them will stop working. You can change whether Sparkle Detective may track you in iOS Settings → Privacy & Security → Tracking. You can ask us for a copy of your data, or to correct or delete it, by emailing us.
Changes to this policy
We will post any change on this page with a new effective date. If a change materially affects how we use your data, we will also tell you in the app before it takes effect.
Contact
Corban Productions
[email protected]