Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains what information the Orion Backgammon app (“Orion”, “the app”) collects on iOS and Android, why, where it is stored, and the choices you have. It is written to match what the shipped app actually does, and it is the policy behind the privacy declarations on the App Store and Google Play.

The data controller is Arthea, LLC (“Arthea”, “we”, “us”). You can reach us any time at orion@arthea.ai.

The short version

There is no account sign-up required: no email, no password. Orion creates an anonymous guest profile so you can play online.
We collect a random player ID, your gameplay data (moves, match results, rating, progression and virtual wallet), a display name you choose, and the messages you post in club chat or on the public feedback wall.
That data is used only to run the game: multiplayer, the leaderboard, your progress across devices and provably-fair anti-cheat.
No third-party analytics, no data brokers and no advertising: no banners, no video ads, no ads between turns.
Data lives on an isolated backend in the EU (France). Crash reports go to our own, self-hosted error server, not to a third-party analytics company.
You can delete your account and data in the app on both platforms, at any time.

Information we collect

When you first play online, Orion creates a guest profile. Linked to that profile we store:

User ID: a random, persistent identifier (for example p_a1b2c3…) generated on your device’s first online use. It is not tied to your name, email, phone number, Apple ID or Google account.
Gameplay content: the moves you make, match results and your skill rating. This powers online matches, the public leaderboard and the provably-fair system that lets anyone verify the dice were not tampered with.
Progression and virtual wallet: your level, season-pass progress, virtual coins and gems, and the cosmetics you own are stored server-side on your profile, so your progress and purchases survive a reinstall and follow you across devices and platforms.
Display name: a nickname you choose (a pseudonym). It is shown publicly on the leaderboard, in matches and next to anything you post. It defaults to a generic name and never has to be your real name.
Messages you choose to post: club chat messages and public feedback-wall posts, stored with your player ID and display name so they can be shown, moderated and reported. Chat messages are kept for about 30 days and then deleted automatically.
Purchase records: if you buy an in-app product, Apple or Google processes the payment. We never see your payment details; we receive and store the signed purchase receipt and the entitlement it grants, so your purchase can be verified, credited once, and restored.
Push token (optional): if you allow notifications, we store the device push token so the server can send you the notifications you opted into. Declining notifications changes nothing else about the game.
Crash and error reports: if the app crashes or hits an internal error, a technical report (stack trace, device model, OS version, app version) is sent to our own error server (errors.arthea.ai), which we host and operate ourselves. Reports are configured to exclude personal data; they exist so we can fix bugs, and for no other purpose.
Support email: if you email us, we receive your address and message, and use them only to answer you.

What we do not collect

No email, phone number or password to play as a guest. (If you choose an optional sign-in, we receive only what that provider sends for account recovery; see Optional sign-in below.)
No advertising identifier is ever read: the app contains no advertising SDK.
No location. Orion never reads or stores your location. On Android, the system lists legacy Bluetooth-era permissions (capped to Android 12 and below) that the offline nearby-play feature technically requires on old OS versions; they are used only to discover a nearby opponent’s device, never to determine or record where you are.
No contacts, photos, microphone or camera access.
No analytics SDKs and no advertising SDKs. The third-party code in the app is: the open-source Sentry crash-reporting library, configured to send reports only to our own self-hosted server (no data goes to the Sentry company); and Meta’s Facebook SDK for the optional Facebook sign-in, with advertiser-ID collection and automatic ad-event logging both disabled.

You can play entirely as a guest. If you choose to sign in to save and recover your account, we use the provider you pick and receive only what that feature needs:

Sign in with Apple (iOS): an app-scoped Apple user identifier, used only to recover your account on another device.
Game Center (iOS): Apple’s gaming identity, used for secure account recovery.
Google Sign-In (Android): your Google account identifier, used only to recover your account on another device. The same Google identity can recover your account on iOS too, so your profile can move across platforms.
Facebook (optional, iOS): we request only the basic public profile (your name and profile picture) to label your account and let you recover it. We do not request your email, we do not read your friends list, we do not post to Facebook, and we do not use it for advertising or tracking.
Invites: if you open Orion from a friend’s invite link, we record which player invited you so we can credit the referral reward. Nothing else is read from the link.

How and why we use it

We use the information above for app functionality only:

To match you with opponents and run online games.
To calculate ratings and display the live leaderboard.
To keep your progress, wallet and purchases attached to your account, across devices and platforms.
To operate provably-fair dice and anti-cheat: the server commits to a hashed dice seed before each game and reveals it at the end so anyone can verify every roll.
To run the social features you use: clubs, chat, friends and the public feedback wall, including moderation of reported content.
To fix crashes and bugs, and to prevent abuse of the service.
To provide support when you contact us.

We do not use your data for advertising, profiling or any form of sale. Under the GDPR, our legal bases are the performance of the service you requested (Article 6(1)(b)) and our legitimate interest in keeping online play fair, secure and working (Article 6(1)(f)).

Advertising

Orion shows no advertising of any kind: no banners, no interstitials, no video ads, and no ads between turns. The app contains no advertising SDK and never reads your advertising identifier (the IDFA on iOS or the Advertising ID on Android). If an optional, opt-in rewarded video is ever introduced in a future update, this policy will be updated first, and you will be asked for permission (on iOS, through Apple’s App Tracking Transparency prompt) before any advertising identifier is read.

Virtual currency

Orion is free to play. In-game coins and gems are virtual items with no monetary value. They cannot be exchanged for real money and Orion offers no real-money prizes, no gambling and no cash-out. Optional in-app purchases of gems and the season pass are processed entirely by Apple or Google.

Where your data is stored, and for how long

Orion’s backend runs on an isolated Amazon Web Services (AWS) environment hosted in the European Union: Paris region (eu-west-3), France. AWS acts as our data processor under a standard GDPR data processing agreement. Our crash-report server is self-hosted and operated by us.

Your profile (ID, name, rating, progression, wallet, entitlements) persists so the service can keep running, until you delete it.
Fair-play match records (game ID, dice commitments, moves) are public by design so anyone can verify a game, and expire automatically about 35 days after the game.
Club chat messages expire automatically after about 30 days.
Crash reports and server logs are kept only as long as needed to diagnose issues, then rotate out.

We do not sell your data and we do not share it with data brokers. The parties involved in running Orion are: AWS, which hosts the backend in the EU on our behalf; and Apple and Google, which process payments and operate their own sign-in services under their own policies. Your display name, rating and anything you post publicly (leaderboard, feedback wall, club chat) are visible to other players by design.

Your rights & how to delete your data

Because there is no login, we identify your data by your in-app player ID. You can find it in the app under Settings. To exercise any of the rights below, email orion@arthea.ai and include your player ID.

Access: request a copy of the data linked to your guest profile.
Deletion: you can permanently delete your account directly in the app at any time (Settings › Account › Delete account & data), on both iOS and Android. This immediately and permanently deletes your profile row: ID, name, rating, progression, wallet, entitlements and sign-in links. Messages you posted and pseudonymous fair-play records age out on the automatic timers above. You can also email us to request erasure.
Rectification: correct your display name (you can also do this in-app).
Objection / restriction: as provided under the GDPR.

EU residents also have the right to lodge a complaint with their local data protection authority.

Children

Orion is a classic board game with no violence and no real-money wagering: matches are played for virtual coins that cannot be cashed out. The game includes optional in-app purchases, which are always gated by the platform’s own purchase confirmation and parental controls. Orion is not directed to children, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from a child. Because guest profiles contain no email, name or contact details, the data we hold is minimal for every player; if you believe a child has provided us personal data, contact orion@arthea.ai and we will delete it.

This website

This marketing website uses no tracking cookies and no third-party analytics. If a page of this site hits a script error in your browser, a technical error report (the error, the page URL and browser version, with query strings and identifiers scrubbed) is sent to the same self-hosted error server as the app, so we can fix it. That is the only telemetry this site has, and it identifies nobody.

Changes to this policy

If we make material changes we will update the “last updated” date at the top and, where appropriate, notify players in the app. Continued use of Orion after an update means you accept the revised policy.

Contact

Arthea, LLC. Privacy enquiries: orion@arthea.ai. General support: orion@arthea.ai.

Our registered postal address is on file with Apple and Google and available on request; it will be published here once our EU trader verification is complete.