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Cycle privacy policy

Last updated: October 21, 2026 (Play Games data, stated as the Google Play listing declares it, and one permission fewer)

Summary

Cycle collects data only through Play Games, the Google service that saves your valley to your account and gives you achievements. The app itself collects nothing: there are no accounts of its own, no sign-up, no ads, no analytics, and it has no internet access.

What Play Games collects is collected by Google, goes to your Google account, and the developer does not receive it. This is what the Google Play listing declares under "Data safety", and it is explained below under "Play Games". The whole game works without signing in to Play Games.

What data is collected

By the app, none. It does not send information to any server, the developer's or anyone else's, because it cannot: the package is built without the android.permission.INTERNET permission, so it has no way to open a network connection. The only data that leaves the phone is Play Games data, and it is sent by Google Play Services, not by the app (see "Play Games" below).

The app does not collect or transmit:

• Device or advertising identifiers.
• Your name, email address or any contact details.
• Location.
• Contacts, photos, files, microphone or camera.
• Usage data or gameplay statistics.

What is stored on the device, and only there

Your game and your preferences are stored in the app's private storage, which no other app can access:

• The game (save.json and its backup): the state of the valley, the species discovered, the journal and the game's statistics.
• Preferences (ajustes.cfg): sound, accessibility, reminders and battery saving.
• A local session log (bitacora.jsonl): when the game was opened and what happened in it, to help tune the pace of the game. It never leaves the device; it is written so it can be read on the phone itself during development.

All of this is deleted when you uninstall the app, or from Android settings with "Clear data".

Play Games (optional, since version 1.0.6)

If you have Play Games on your phone, the game offers to sign you in with your Google player profile. It is not required: without signing in, the game is exactly the same, except for the cloud copy and the achievements.

If you sign in, Google Play Services --not the app, which still has no internet permission-- does two things:

• Saves a copy of your game (the same save.json that is on the phone) in the app's private space inside your Google account, so your valley follows you if you change phones.
• Records the achievements you earn, which appear on your Play Games profile.

According to Google, the Play Games service collects the following data to work, which is what the Google Play listing declares under "Data safety":

• Personal info: your gamer name (nickname and avatar) and your Play Games user ID. Optional: only if you sign in.
• App activity: your cloud saves and achievements. Optional: only if you sign in.
• App info and performance: crash logs and diagnostics from the Play Games service itself, which Google uses for its own statistics. These cannot be turned off from the game.

They are collected by Google, are not shared with third parties, are encrypted in transit, and you can delete them from your Google account and from Play Games (see "How to delete your Cycle data" below). Google explains this at <https://developer.android.com/games/pgs/data-collection>, and it is governed by Google's privacy policy.

The developer does not receive your game, your name or your email. There is no developer server: the copy lives in your Google account and is only read by this game on your phone. To stop using it, sign out of Play Games in your phone's settings; any copies in your account are deleted from the Google account itself.

Copying your valley by hand

In Settings, "Copy my valley" puts your game on the phone's clipboard as text, so you can keep it wherever you like. That text does not leave the phone unless you paste it somewhere else.

Android backup

So that changing phones does not mean losing your valley, the app allows system backup. If your phone's backup is turned on, Android saves those three files to your own Google account, encrypted with your phone's screen lock, and restores them when you install the game on another phone.

That backup is made by Android, not by the app, which still has no internet access. The developer does not receive it and cannot see it. It can be turned off, for this and every other game, in your phone's backup settings.

How to delete your Cycle data

The developer of Cycle does not keep any of your data on any server, so there is nothing to ask for: everything that exists is on your phone or in your Google account, and you delete it yourself. These are the steps, depending on where each thing is:

• On the phone (the save.json game, its backups, your settings and the local log): uninstall Cycle, or go to Android Settings › Apps › Cycle › Storage › "Clear data". Everything is deleted immediately and nothing is kept.
• In Play Games (your player profile in Cycle, the achievements and the cloud save): open the Google Play Games app › your profile › Settings, and choose to delete Cycle's data or "Delete Play Games account and data". You can also do it from your Google Account (myaccount.google.com) › Data & privacy. The deletion is done by Google, with the retention periods of Google's privacy policy.
• In Android backup (the copy of your game and settings that your phone keeps in your Google account): go to Android Settings › Google › Backup, or to the backups section of Google Drive, and delete the phone's backup. It is managed by Google, with its retention periods.

Cycle keeps no copy other than these, for any period.

Permissions the app requests, and why

• Notifications (POST_NOTIFICATIONS): for reminders, which are optional and can be turned off in Settings. The reminder is scheduled and shown by the phone itself; no server is involved.
• Vibration (VIBRATE): the feedback when you drag the valley's controls, which can also be turned off in Settings.
• Boot (RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED): used by the component that schedules local reminders, so that a reminder still stands after the phone restarts. It gives no access to any personal data.

And nothing else. Those three, plus an internal one that Android generates for the package itself (DYNAMIC_RECEIVER_NOT_EXPORTED_PERMISSION), are all that the published package declares: checked on the release APK with aapt2 dump permissions, not on the project settings.

Children

The app collects no data on its own, so it collects no data from children; what Play Games collects is governed by Google's policy for children's accounts. It has no in-app purchases, no ads, no content made by other players and no way for people to communicate with each other.

Payment

Cycle is a one-time purchase on Google Play. Payment is handled entirely by Google: the developer does not receive, see or store any payment data. The app contains no billing integration.

Changes

If a future version ever collected any data, this document would be updated before that version is published, and the change would be stated in the release notes.

Contact

For any question about this policy, write to the contact address shown on the app's Google Play listing.