Charles the Snake is a simple mobile game. There is no account to create and we run no server of our own, so no personal data about you reaches us. Three parts of the game do involve someone else's service — the games service of the store you installed from (Game Center on iOS, Google Play Games on Android) and advertising — and this page explains exactly which and when.
Some of it does come back after a reinstall: if you sign in to Game Center (iOS) or Google Play Games (Android) again, your personal bests and your level are restored from the leaderboards described below, your talent build from the cloud save described with them, and your achievements stay as the service recorded them.
If you are signed in to Game Center, the game submits your score to Apple's Game Center leaderboards at the end of each game you score in — not only your best one — so that your ranking can appear in the global standings; classic and dark mode each have a board of their own. After each game it also submits your lifetime XP total to a third board, which is how the game restores your level after a reinstall; that submission carries a short code describing your current talent build as a label, which nothing reads back. Achievements you earn are reported to Game Center as well, and so is your progress toward the ones you have not. All of this is held by Apple against your Game Center identity, and is not deleted by deleting this app.
Your talent build itself is kept as a Game Center saved game: about a hundred bytes written to your own iCloud, in this app's iCloud container, when you close the talent tree after moving a point, and read back when you sign in — which is how your talents return after a reinstall. It lives in your iCloud storage under your Apple Account, not with us, and is not deleted by deleting this app; you can remove it with the rest of this app's iCloud data in your device's iCloud storage settings.
To show the standings, the game reads back the leaderboard rows around yours. Each row carries the display name Game Center supplies for that player, which is usually their alias — though Apple shows you the real name of a player who is a Game Center friend of yours. We never receive your Apple ID, and we get no contact details for anyone.
Game Center is Apple's service, and what Apple does with the data is governed by Apple's Privacy Policy. If you would rather not appear on the leaderboards, sign out of Game Center on your device: the game then submits nothing and plays exactly the same. Scores already on the leaderboards stay with Apple as part of Game Center — you can ask us about them through the support page, and Apple's own privacy controls apply to them.
On Android the same features use Google Play Games instead of Game Center. When the game opens it asks Play Games to sign you in — Google's own automatic sign-in, which shows its prompt at most once and can be declined. If you are signed in, the game submits your score to the Play Games leaderboard for each game you score in (classic and dark mode each have their own), your lifetime XP total after each game (carrying the same talent-build label as on iOS, which nothing reads back), the achievements you earn and your progress toward the ones you have not. Google holds these against your Play Games profile, and deleting this app does not delete them.
Your talent build itself is kept as a Play Games saved game: about a hundred bytes written to a hidden app-data folder of your own Google Drive when you close the talent tree after moving a point, and read back when you sign in — which is how your talents return after a reinstall. Google may ask you once to allow the game that access. It lives under your Google Account, not with us, and is not deleted by deleting this app; you can remove it in Google Drive's settings, under the apps connected to your Drive, or with your Play Games profile.
To show the standings, the game reads back the leaderboard rows around yours. Each row carries the gamer name Play Games supplies for that player. We never receive your Google account details, and we get no contact details for anyone. The Play Games service itself also collects some data of its own whenever it runs inside a game — Google describes it as your gamer identity plus analytics and diagnostics data — and that collection is Google's, governed by Google's Privacy Policy.
If you would rather not appear on the leaderboards, decline the sign-in prompt or sign out in the Google Play Games app: the game then submits nothing and plays exactly the same. Scores and achievements already submitted stay with Google as part of Play Games; you can manage or delete your Play Games profile from the Google Play Games app or your Google Account, and you can ask us about them through the support page.
The game is built to show occasional full-screen ads between rounds, supplied by Google AdMob. We do not serve ads to players we detect in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland: the game checks both the region your device reports and the region Google's consent service places you in, and if either says one of those places — or if it cannot tell — it shows no ads at all.
Where ads are shown, Google may collect and use device information — such as a device advertising identifier, an approximate location derived from your IP address, and how you interacted with the ad — to select and measure them, and those ads may be personalised. That processing is Google's, and is described in Google's Privacy & Terms for partners. We receive no personal data from it, only aggregate figures such as how many ads were shown. Your device's own advertising controls — resetting or limiting the advertising identifier in your system settings — apply to these ads.
The game never asks permission to track you across other companies' apps and websites, and does not use Apple's App Tracking Transparency identifier for that purpose.
The game is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them.
If this policy changes, the effective date above changes with it.
Questions about this policy, and requests about data held on your behalf by Game Center or Google Play Games, can go through the support page, which lists an email address.