Privacy policy

Wist ("the game") is a free card game made by one individual developer ("we", "us"). This page explains what the game stores, why, for how long, who else handles it, and how you can delete it. It covers the Android, iPhone, PC and Mac versions and the online server. In short: we keep as little as possible, never sell anything, and you can delete it yourself.

What stays on your device

• Your settings (language, name, picture, table style) and a game in progress.
• A random device code the game creates on first launch. It identifies you to the online server; it is not linked to your phone number, email or any account.
• Results of games against the computer and usage counts that are waiting to be sent (see below).

What the online server keeps

Only if you play online, sign in, buy something or send feedback:

• The name you picked in the game and your looks (picture, frame, card back and table).
• Your online results: tricks won, games won, games played (shown on the leaderboard), and achievement counts from online matches: hands your team won 13–0, contracts of 10 or more you made, and matches with a friend as your partner (plus the 13–0 count from your device, sent once and kept to at most 3).
• Games against the computer (from 0.31.0): when you finish a match against the computer, the game sends its result to the server once you are online (hands played, your tricks and your team's, the scores, who won, how long it took, how long ago it ended, and a random match ID). The server adds a small share of the points the same result would earn online (1/10, at most 13 points a day) as computer points. They count toward your level only, never toward the leaderboard rank, the match rating or online achievements. The random match IDs are kept for 8 days so that a match counts only once.
• Your profile card: other players can see your name, picture and frame, level, leaderboard rank and points, games, wins and achievements by tapping your picture (in Friends, Recent players, the leaderboard or at a table). It never shows your sign-ins, purchases, gifts, device or which table you're at; only your friends see whether you're online or in a match (as below).
• Your player ID (since 0.30.0), e.g. WIST-7K3Q-X9MD: a short code the server picks at random for your online profile, shown on your profile card and in Settings → Accounts so friends can add you with it. It is not made from your device, your device key or your sign-in, never changes (also when you change your name) and can't be used to sign in. Anyone who has it can find your profile card (the same public card as above). Delete my online data deletes it; it is never given to anyone else.
• The thank-you gift (0.30.0): to know who may claim the free thank-you cosmetics, the server checks when your online profile was made (already kept, see above) and keeps which rewards you claimed with your profile. Delete my online data removes that too.
• A one-way fingerprint (SHA-256 hash) of your device code, so your name stays yours. The code itself is never stored, and the fingerprint can't be turned back into it.
• If you link devices: which device fingerprints belong to the same player. Link codes expire after 10 minutes.
• If you sign in (optional for playing; needed to buy a supporter pack) with Google (Android and iPhone), Apple (iPhone) or Steam (PC and Mac): the account ID that service gives the game (a long number, like google:1234…), so another device can find your profile. Not your email, real name or photo — the game doesn't ask for them. Facebook sign-in is built into the phone apps but is switched off for now: nobody can sign in with it until it is turned on. When it is, Facebook is the one service whose friends list the game uses, as described next.
• If you sign in with Facebook and allow Wist to see your friends list: Wist uses the list of your Facebook friends who also play Wist (Facebook only shows the game friends who use Wist and allowed it too) to add them to your Wist friends automatically, so they see your name, picture and whether you're online, as any Wist friend does. The server stores only Facebook app-scoped IDs (numbers Facebook makes for Wist alone): yours, and those of your Facebook friends who play Wist with a Facebook sign-in, plus whether you allowed the friends list, when it was last read, which of your Wist friends came from Facebook, and any friend you removed (so they aren't added again). It never stores Facebook names, pictures, or anything about friends who don't play Wist. You can switch this off at any time: Settings → Accounts → Add my Facebook friends automatically (or on the Friends screen); friends already added stay until you remove them. Removing Facebook from your account deletes your Facebook IDs and friend data from the server (also from other players' lists); the Wist friends already added stay. Nothing is shared or sold.
• If you use friends: your friends list (players who added you and whom you accepted, or the other way round; up to 200), and friend requests you sent or got that aren't answered yet (up to 50 waiting). Friends see your name and picture, whether you're online right now, and whether you're in a match (seated at a table where a match is running; never which table). Both are worked out while you're connected and never saved. A table invite is passed straight to your friend and not kept.
• Recent players: the last 20 players you sat at an online table with (their server codes, shown to you as their name and picture), so you can add them as friends. You appear in their list the same way.
• If you play public matches: a match rating (a number that goes up and down with results) used to pair players of similar skill. If no other players are found within about 30 seconds (from 0.32.0), the match starts with computer players in the empty seats, and players found later join your table: they watch first (without seeing anyone's cards), then take a computer player's seat when the hand ends. They see your name and picture, as at any table. A match that began with computer players changes no rating and gives no online points or online achievements.
• If you installed the game through a creator's link (a link a content creator shares): which creator and campaign, when, and when your first online match started and finished, kept with your profile so that creator's results can be counted. Table invite links are counted only as daily totals (pages opened, links shared, joins), which name nobody.
• If the game crashes: the error message and technical details of where it happened, with the game version and platform. If you send feedback: your message, the name you play under, the game version and platform, and a short log of your recent online-connection steps (table codes, seats and game phases; never keys or names). Only the developer reads these.
• If you buy a supporter pack (you need to be signed in, so your packs come back on any device): which packs you own, and a record of the purchase — the store's order or transaction number, the pack, when, whether Apple called it a test purchase, its refund state, and for Google Play a one-way fingerprint (SHA-256) of the purchase token, for Steam a one-way fingerprint of the Steam account number that paid (a keyed HMAC-SHA256 with a secret key kept only on the server, so the file alone can't be turned back into the account number) — so one purchase can't unlock a second account and it can come back only to the store account that paid. If a Steam purchase can't be saved at once, its order number, pack, time, that fingerprint and your profile's server code wait in a small file on the server until the pack is added (then they are removed). Payment details stay with Steam, Google Play or Apple; the game never sees them.
• If you gift a supporter pack to a friend (or a friend gifts you one): a gift record — who bought it, who received it (as the server's profile codes, never a name or sign-in), which pack, which store, when, whether the receiver has seen the "gave you" note, and its refund state — plus, while you are paying, a short-lived gift request with the same details and a random number that goes into the store purchase so the gift can only reach that friend. Only mutual friends can gift each other; the receiver sees the buyer's name, as any friend does. If the store refunds a gift, the pack is taken back from the receiver. A paid gift that couldn't be delivered (for example the receiver removed you as a friend before it arrived) is marked "not delivered" in its purchase record, with the reason; on Google Play and Steam the server has the store refund it, and on the App Store the game tells the buyer to ask Apple for the refund. Gift requests are deleted after 30 days, gift records after 400 days; the purchase record itself is kept like any purchase (above). The server also keeps when your Wist profile was made (for profiles made from version 0.28.0 on) and counts the gifts sent and received in the last 24 hours: a new account (less than a week old) can receive only one gift a day, so stolen cards can't be cashed out through fresh accounts.

Tables and games in progress live in the server's memory and disappear when the table closes. When the server restarts for an update, the running tables are saved to its disk for that moment, so games carry on, and that copy is deleted as soon as the server is back. Parties (queueing for a public match with a friend) live only in memory.

Usage stats (from version 0.32.0)

To see how many people play and how many come back, the game counts a few things and sends the counts to our own server (no outside analytics company, no third-party software): the app being opened, matches started and finished (online or against the computer), ads shown, purchases (that one happened, not what or how much) and finishing the first-game tips. Each is counted per day.

These stats are not anonymous; they are pseudonymous: they are kept under a random ID the game makes for this purpose, and when you're online that ID is linked to your game profile. They are never linked to your name, email or IP address, and they are used only to count players and how many come back.

• The random ID is not your device code, not made from it, and not linked to your phone. With the counts the game sends the platform (Android, iPhone, Windows, Mac, Linux or web), the game version, the language you play in, a country worked out on your device from its time zone (or, if that doesn't name one, from your phone's region setting; the time zone itself is not sent), and whether the game was installed through a creator's link or a table invite.
• Play without a connection is counted on your device (at most 200 daily counts, kept up to 60 days) and sent when you are online again.
• The link to your game profile is a one-way code (a keyed hash, made with a secret key kept only on the server and never in the backups, so it can't be turned back into your profile). Delete my online data removes it.
• Your IP address is not stored with the stats: it is kept only in memory, for at most an hour, for rate limits (how many counts one address may send).
• The records of a random ID are deleted after 90 days without activity; after that only totals per day and per install week remain (for example "120 players today", "35% came back the next day"), which name nobody. A removed record can stay in the server's own daily copies for up to 7 days and in the off-server backups for up to 90 days (see "Where it's stored and backups").
• You can switch this off at any time: Settings → Profile → Privacy → Share usage stats. Switching it off stops the counting at once, deletes the counts waiting on your device, and has the server delete the records of your random ID (the game keeps asking until the server confirms); if you switch it on again the game uses a new random ID. It is on by default, except in the EU/EEA, the UK, Switzerland and the Crown Dependencies (and on devices whose country the game can't tell), where the game asks you first and it stays off unless you say yes.
• Only the developer sees the totals. Nothing is shared or sold, and nothing is used for advertising.

Your internet address

The server sees your IP address while you're connected. It is used only to stop abuse (for example, limiting how fast one address can open tables or guess codes) and can appear in short-lived server logs. It is not added to your profile.

Ads (phone apps only)

The Android and iPhone apps show one full-screen ad at a natural break: after a match (also one you leave before the end), when you go back to the menu from a table or the online lobby, or before a new game or rematch right after a finished one. Never during a hand, never around your first game, and at most one ad every 4 minutes (this gap can be adjusted, but never below 1 minute). Ads come from Google AdMob. To show and count ads, Google's ad software on your phone can use your phone's advertising ID, IP address and basic device details, as described in Google's ad policy.

Ads are non-personalised unless Google's consent result allows personalised ads. Where consent is required (for example in the EU and UK), Google shows a consent message first and your answer decides; you can change it any time in Settings → Devices & data → Privacy choices. Where no consent is required, Android ads may be personalised by Google using your advertising ID (you can reset or delete it in your phone's settings). If the consent result is missing, ads are non-personalised. On iPhone, ads are always non-personalised and the game never asks to track you across other apps. The PC and Steam versions have no ads. Any supporter pack, or "Remove ads", turns them off.

What we don't collect

No email, phone number, contacts, location or photos, no voice and no free-text chat (players react with fixed phrases only), and no analytics other than the usage stats above (which you can switch off). The game itself never reads your advertising ID; only Google's ad software does, on phones, as above.

Who else handles data

• Fly.io hosts the online server.
• GitHub stores the server backups as private files (see below).
• Google (AdMob ads on phones, Google sign-in, Google Play payments), Apple (Sign in with Apple, App Store payments), Valve (Steam sign-in and payments) and, once Facebook sign-in is switched on, Meta (Facebook sign-in and friends). Each handles what you do with it under its own privacy policy.

We don't sell, rent or share your data with anyone else.

Where it's stored and backups

The online server runs on Fly.io in Frankfurt, Germany. Its data is copied so it can be restored after a failure:

• On the server's disk: one dated copy a day, kept 14 days (7 days for the usage stats), plus Fly.io's own snapshots of the disk.
• Off the server (since 11 November 2026): a backup every day, kept 30 days, and a backup before each server update, kept 90 days, stored as private files with GitHub, which may keep them outside the EU. They hold the server's files (profiles, results, friends, purchase and gift records, creator-link records and usage stats), never the secret key that links usage stats to profiles.

Backups are used only to restore the server. So data you delete can remain in a backup for up to 90 days; then it is gone.

Deleting your data

In the game: Settings → Devices & data → Delete my online data. This removes your name, points, friends list, friend requests, recent players, achievements and profile card, computer points, gift records and open gift requests that name you, creator-link records, Facebook friend data, linked devices and sign-in IDs from the server at once (and takes you off your friends' lists and other players' recent players). The purchase records above stay, with no name, profile or sign-in attached, so your packs can come back to the store account that paid (sign in again with the same Steam account, or sign in and tap Sync purchases with the same Google Play or Apple account) and a refunded purchase can't be used again; nobody else can claim them. Email us to have them removed too (then the packs can't come back). Copies in the backups are gone within 90 days. See Delete my data.

Your rights

You can delete your online data yourself (above), switch the usage stats off, and change your ad choices at any time. You can also ask us by email for a copy of the data the server holds about you, or to correct it. If you think we have handled your data wrongly, please tell us; you may also complain to the data protection authority where you live.

Age

Wist is meant for players aged 13 and over and is not designed for children. It doesn't ask for anyone's age or personal details beyond a chosen nickname. If you believe a child under 13 has used the online features, use Delete my online data on that device or contact us, and we will delete the data.

Changes to this policy

When the game changes what it stores, we update this page and the date at the top.

Contact

momindoakad1@gmail.com