Privacy Policy
Cheeky Burrow game and website · last updated 2026-10-12
Who we are
Cheeky Burrow (the mobile game and this website) is made and operated by Oleksii Maksymov, FOP (sole proprietor), Odesa, Ukraine ("we", "us"). We are the data controller. Contact: hello@cheekyburrow.app.
What we collect in the game
| Data | Why | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|
| Your burrow — the soil, rooms, tubes, garden, hamsters, items, goals and settings. Saved on your device. If you are 13 or over and turn on cloud save, a copy is kept on our server under a random, anonymous account (no email, no password). Never in child mode. | To back up your burrow and let you continue on another device. | Contract (providing the game). |
| Your age answer — the game asks for a birth year once. The year itself is never stored or sent; only the result (adult or child mode) is kept, on your device and, for adults, with your account. | To decide whether child mode applies and whether the friends features may be offered. | Legal obligation / legitimate interest in protecting children. |
| Friends (adults only) — a random friend code (it can be changed), the list of friends you added (at most 50) and the emotes, gifts and sleepovers you exchange. Emotes and gifts are chosen from fixed lists; friends see your hamsters only with their generated names. There is no chat and no free text. | To let you add friends you know and send them preset greetings, gifts and sleepovers. | Contract. Only after you choose to use friends. |
| Burrow snapshot (adults with friends) — a read-only picture of your burrow for friends to visit: layout, rooms, tubes, decor, garden and your hamsters' looks and generated names. Uploaded at most every 10 minutes when you leave the game. | So your friends can visit your burrow. | Contract. |
| Leaderboard name — two words picked at random from a fixed list, such as "Fluffy Seed". Nobody can type a name, so names never contain personal or inappropriate words. | Shown next to your scores on leaderboards. | Contract. |
| Scores in Deep Dig, Daily Tube and Harvest Rush, with the solution or the input log of the run and the puzzle's seed. Not sent in child mode. | Leaderboards, and replaying each run on our server to check that the score is genuine. | Contract / legitimate interest in fair play. |
| Link codes — when you move your burrow to another device, a 6-character code that is valid for 10 minutes, works once and is stored only as a hash. | To connect your devices to the same burrow. | Contract. |
| Gameplay statistics — events such as rooms built, goals finished, puzzles started and solved, trips, harvests, shop and ad results, settings changed, screens opened, session length, platform. Linked to a second random, anonymous ID used only for statistics. | To find parts of the game that are too slow, too hard or unclear, fix problems and understand what players enjoy. | Consent where the law requires it (EEA, UK, Switzerland); legitimate interest elsewhere. Only if you allow "Share anonymous stats"; switch it off any time in Settings → Privacy. |
| Technical events — that the app was opened and a performance sample about once a minute of play (frame rate, simulation time, platform). | To keep the game running smoothly on all devices. | Legitimate interest. Sent without any identifier when you haven't allowed statistics, and always in child mode, so they can't be linked to you. |
| Crash reports — error message, technical stack trace, app version, platform. | To fix bugs. | Legitimate interest. Linked to your statistics ID only if you allow statistics; otherwise sent without any identifier. |
| Problem reports — only when you tap Report a problem: the state of the burrow or puzzle, your recent actions, platform, system version, screen size, language and app version. | To find and fix the problem you ran into. | Legitimate interest. Sent without any identifier and without your IP address; deleted after 90 days. |
| Purchases — product, store, transaction ID and a random install ID, which the game shares with RevenueCat. We never see your payment details. | To deliver what you bought, restore purchases and handle refunds. | Contract. |
We do not collect your name, email, phone number, contacts, photos, microphone or precise location, and there is no free text anywhere in the game. The camera is used only when an adult player taps Scan to read a friend's QR code; the picture never leaves the device. Reminders are optional and scheduled on your device; no push token is sent. Our server uses IP addresses only for a moment to limit abuse; they are never stored or logged.
Advertising
Adults can watch optional rewarded videos and, later in the game, see occasional ads between activities through Google AdMob. In the EEA, UK and Switzerland we first ask for consent with Google's consent form; on iOS we also ask for App Tracking Transparency permission. If you agree, ads may be personalised using your device's advertising identifier; if you decline, you receive non-personalised ads. Google may still process limited data (such as IP address and device information) to deliver and measure ads and prevent fraud — see how Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services. You can change your choice in Settings → Privacy → Ad privacy options. Buying "Remove Ads" turns off the ads between activities.
Children
Players who say they are under 13, or prefer not to say, get child mode: no ads at all (the ad SDK isn't even started), no tracking prompt, nothing personalised, statistics limited to the two technical events above and never linked to an ID, no friends, visits, gifts or sleepovers, no leaderboards, no cloud save, reminders only after a grown-up check, and a grown-up check before purchases. Switching to child mode deletes any friends data on our server. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children beyond what is described here. Parents can contact us at any time to delete their child's data.
This website
We count visits to this website with our own cookieless statistics: page viewed, which store button was used, approximate screen width, browser language, the language the site was shown in, and the referring site or campaign (UTM) tag. These statistics use no cookies, no device storage and no identifiers, so visits can't be linked to you. Friend invite pages (/f/…) show the code from the link and store nothing about it. We do not use third-party analytics or advertising cookies on this website.
Who we share data with
- Your friends — the people you add see your burrow snapshot, your hamsters' generated names and the emotes, gifts and sleepovers you send them. Nobody else does.
- Google (AdMob, User Messaging Platform) — ads and the consent form. Google acts as an independent controller for ad personalisation.
- RevenueCat, Inc. (USA) — processes purchase receipts on our behalf.
- Apple / Google — app stores, payments and app distribution, under their own privacy policies.
- Expo / 650 Industries, Inc. (USA, EAS Update) — delivers small game updates; the game sends its version, platform and a random update ID.
- Hetzner Online GmbH (Germany) — hosts our server, this website and the encrypted backups.
- Cloudflare, Inc. — our domain name service, and forwarding of emails you send to hello@cheekyburrow.app to our mailbox.
We never sell your data. Some providers are outside your country (e.g. in the USA); transfers are protected by the providers' standard contractual clauses or equivalent safeguards.
How long we keep data
Statistics events, technical events, crash reports and problem reports: 90 days. Scores on daily and weekly leaderboards and the replays used to check them: 90 days. Burrow snapshots: until you have not played for 90 days. Emotes and gifts: 14 days. Finished sleepovers: 7 days. Your cloud save, friend list, leaderboard name and all-time Deep Dig score: until you delete them, or after 24 months without the game going online. Link codes: 10 minutes. Purchase notifications: until you delete your data, or 24 months after the last one. Our encrypted backups are replaced on a rolling basis, so deleted data also disappears from them within 30 days. Server logs contain no IP addresses and are rotated within days.
Deleting your data
Settings → Privacy → Delete my data works immediately: it deletes your cloud save, scores, leaderboard name, link codes, friend code, friend list, burrow snapshot, emotes, gifts and sleepovers, your statistics with their crash reports, and resets the game on the device. Your friends simply no longer see you. It also deletes the purchase notifications we received for your install and asks RevenueCat to delete its customer record. Apple and Google keep their own purchase records. See Delete your data.
Your rights
You can access, correct, export or delete your data, object to processing, withdraw consent at any time (without affecting earlier processing) and complain to a data-protection authority — in Ukraine the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, in the EU/EEA your local supervisory authority. Most of this works right in the game (Settings → Privacy); for anything else email hello@cheekyburrow.app. We answer within 30 days. Because we don't know who you are, we may ask you to send the request from within the game or to share your friend code so we can find your data.
US residents
We do not sell personal information. The only "sharing" for targeted advertising under US state laws is Google's ad personalisation, which happens only if you allow it; you can opt out any time with the ATT setting on iOS, Settings → Privacy → Ad privacy options, or your device's advertising settings. You have the right to know, correct and delete your data, and we never treat you differently for using these rights.
Security
Data is encrypted in transit (HTTPS). Account tokens, install IDs and link codes are stored on our server only as hashes, backups are encrypted, and access to the server is restricted. Our server is located in the EU (Germany).
Changes
If we change this policy we'll update the date above and, for important changes, tell you in the game.