Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Freeside Studio is the publishing name of an independent game developer based in Portugal. We publish the Android game Driving Good (package name com.freesidestudio.drivinggood) on Google Play and run the website freeside.studio. For the data described in this policy, Freeside Studio is the data controller under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

For anything about your data, write to hello@freeside.studio.

2. What this policy covers

This policy covers the Driving Good app on Android and the website freeside.studio. Google Play itself (installing, updating and rating the app) is run by Google under Google's privacy policy.

3. Data that stays on your device

The game stores your progress (completed topics and tickets, your answers, your position on the roadmap), your settings (language, sound) and your privacy choice in the app's private storage on your device. This data is not sent to us. It is deleted when you uninstall the app or clear its storage in Android settings. If you use Android's backup to your Google account, Android may include this data in that backup; we have no access to it.

4. Usage statistics and crash reports

4.1 Your choice

On the first launch the game asks whether it may send usage statistics and crash reports. Nothing is sent before you tap Allow. You can switch this on or off at any time in the game under Settings → Privacy; switching it off stops all further collection. The game works the same either way.

4.2 Usage statistics (Google Analytics for Firebase)

When allowed, the game records events about how it is used and sends them to Google Analytics for Firebase, a service of Google. Examples of events: the game was opened, a session started or ended, a screen was shown, a topic or ticket was started or finished, an answer was right or wrong, the app version and language. With each event Google receives:

• a random app-instance ID that Google Analytics assigns to this installation of the game; it is not linked to your name or your Google account and changes when you reinstall the game;
• the Android Advertising ID of your device, which you can reset or delete yourself in Android settings (Settings → Google → Ads or Settings → Privacy → Ads, depending on the device);
• technical details: device brand and model, Android version, screen size, app version, system language and time zone;
• your approximate location (country, region and city), which Google derives from the IP address of your device. Google does not log or store the IP address itself.

4.3 Crash reports (Firebase Crashlytics)

When allowed and the game crashes or hits an internal error, Firebase Crashlytics sends a report so we can find and fix the cause. A report contains the stack trace (the list of program steps that led to the crash) and the text of the error; the app version; the device model, processor architecture, amount of memory and free disk space, Android version, whether the device is rooted, and its orientation; the time of the crash; and random installation identifiers (the Crashlytics installation UUID and the Firebase installation ID) that Crashlytics uses to count how many installations a crash affects. Crashlytics also keeps the last few usage events before the crash (so-called breadcrumbs) to show what the game was doing. Reports contain no names, no contents of your answers and no account data.

4.4 What we never collect

Your name, email address, phone number, contacts, photos, microphone or camera data, precise (GPS) location, payment details, passwords or any account data. The game does not ask for access to your contacts, camera, microphone, location, files or photos.

4.5 Why we use this data and on what legal basis

We use usage statistics to see which parts of the game are played, where players stop, whether an update made things better, how many people keep playing after installing, and, when we run install campaigns, how many installs came from them. We use crash reports to fix bugs. We do not build advertising profiles and do not combine this data with data from other sources.

The legal basis is your consent (GDPR Article 6(1)(a)); the identifiers and events above are stored on and read from your device only after you allow it, as EU ePrivacy rules require. You can withdraw consent at any time as described in 4.1. Withdrawal does not affect data sent before it, which we delete according to section 4.7 or on your request (section 4.8).

4.6 Who processes the data and where

Google Analytics for Firebase and Firebase Crashlytics are provided by Google LLC and its affiliates ("Google"). Google processes the data on our behalf as a data processor under Google's data processing terms. Google Analytics collects data from users in the EU, Switzerland and the UK through servers based there before forwarding it to Analytics servers for processing; Google's servers are located in the USA and other countries. Transfers outside the European Economic Area are covered by the EU–U.S. Data Privacy Framework, under which Google LLC is certified, and by the standard contractual clauses included in Google's data processing terms.

We also copy the raw Analytics events into our own analytics database (Google BigQuery) stored in the European Union, where we build aggregate statistics: totals and percentages that contain no identifiers. Only the developer has access to it.

More from Google: How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services · Privacy and security in Firebase · Google Privacy Policy.

4.7 How long we keep it

4.8 Deleting your data

Switch the setting off to stop any further collection. To have the data already collected deleted, send an email to hello@freeside.studio with the Diagnostics ID shown in the game under Settings → Privacy. It is the app-instance ID from section 4.2; without it we cannot find your data, because we have no other way to tell your data from anyone else's. We delete the Analytics data for that ID through Google's deletion tools and from our BigQuery copy within 30 days. Crash reports are deleted automatically after 90 days. You can also reset or delete your Android Advertising ID in Android settings at any time.

5. Google Play

When you install the game from Google Play, Google processes your Google account, device and purchase data under Google's privacy policy. Google Play shows us aggregate statistics (installs, uninstalls, ratings, crash and "app not responding" rates) and public reviews with the reviewer's display name. We do not receive your name, email address or payment details from Google Play.

6. The website freeside.studio

The website is a static page hosted on Google Firebase Hosting. It sets no cookies and runs no analytics. Like any web server, the hosting provider records the IP address and basic request details of visitors in its server logs for security and abuse prevention, for a limited period, under Google's terms.

7. Children

The game is intended for adults aged 18 and over who are learning or practising the rules of the road. We do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 18; the data in section 4 is collected only after the permission prompt. If you believe a person under 18 has sent us data, write to hello@freeside.studio and we will delete it.

8. Your rights

If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, you have the right to access the data we hold about you, to have it corrected or deleted, to restrict or object to its processing, to receive it in a portable format, and to withdraw consent at any time. Because we identify your data only by the Diagnostics ID in the game, a request must include that ID (section 4.8). We answer within one month. You can complain to a data protection authority: in Portugal the CNPD (Comissão Nacional de Proteção de Dados, www.cnpd.pt), or the authority of the country where you live. Users in other countries have the same controls described in section 4.

9. Security

Data is sent to Google over encrypted connections (TLS) and stored in Google's data centres under Google's security measures. Access to our Firebase, Analytics and BigQuery projects is limited to the developer.

10. Changes to this policy

We update this page when something changes and change the date at the top. If a change affects what we collect, for example when advertising or in-app purchases are added, we will update this policy before the release and, where the law requires it, ask for your permission again in the game.

11. Contact

Freeside Studio · hello@freeside.studio