Last updated
In short
- We ask for an email address only for your account: to confirm it's yours, and to send a link if you forget your password. No newsletters, and no ads.
- We don't ask for your real name, your age or where you live.
- An account keeps your email, a name, a password (scrambled), your coins and buildings, and what you've bought.
- There are no ads or trackers, and we don't sell anything about you.
- You can delete your account at any time, from your profile.
Playing without an account
Your island is saved in your own web browser, on your device, not on our servers. So are your name tag and your settings. Clearing your browser's data clears them too, so download a backup from Settings in the game.
What an account keeps
When you make an account, our server keeps:
- Your email address, and whether you've confirmed it. You log in with it, and we only ever email you about your account: a link to confirm the address, and a link to set a new password when you ask for one. It isn't shown to anyone.
- Your name, which other players see. (Accounts made before emails also have the username they log in with.)
- Your password, scrambled (as a "hash"), so not even we can read it.
- When you made the account.
- Your coins, and how many buildings your island has. The game sends these while you play logged in, for the leaderboard.
- Your gems, and the skins and accessories you own and wear.
- Your gem purchases: for each one, the pack, the price and currency, when, and Stripe's number for the payment, plus any refund or dispute of it.
What other players see
Everyone with an account can see your name, your coins, your buildings and how your castaway looks, on the leaderboard and on your player card. Friends who visit your island see your name tag and your castaway. Your email, your password and your gems aren't shown to anyone.
Logging in
One cookie, ie_session, keeps you logged in on a browser for 30 days. It's only for logging in: there are no advertising or tracking cookies.
Short-lived records
To stop people guessing passwords or making lots of accounts, we count tries from each internet address (IP address) for up to an hour. Our web host, Vercel, also keeps short records of visits to the site, as web hosts do. The links we email you stop working after 7 days (to confirm your email) or an hour (to set a new password).
Playing with friends
When you visit a friend's island, or they visit yours, your browsers connect to each other directly, so each can see the other's IP address, as in most online games. To find each other, they use the free PeerJS server and Google's connection server, and where it's set up, a relay run by Cloudflare passes the game along for networks that block direct connections. Only invite people you know.
Who helps run Island Empire
- Vercel hosts the website and the game.
- Upstash keeps the accounts.
- Our email provider sends the account emails, to your email address.
- Stripe takes payments. When you buy gems, you give your card details and email address to Stripe, not to us, and Stripe's privacy policy covers them.
- PeerJS, Google and Cloudflare help players' browsers connect, as above.
We don't sell your details, or give them to anyone else, unless the law requires it.
How long we keep things
An account's details are kept until you delete it. Then they're deleted straight away, apart from the records of its gem purchases, which are kept as payment records. Those hold only a random number for the account, not your email or name.
Your choices
- Change your name and your castaway's look in your profile.
- Delete your account in your profile: Account, then Delete my account.
- Ask what we keep about you, or ask us to correct or delete it: email our help email (coming soon).
Children
Island Empire is for players of all ages. If you're under 13, ask a parent or guardian to make your account, with their email address. We don't ask for a real name, an age or where you live, and please don't use your full real name as your name in the game. A parent or guardian can ask us about their child's account, or have it deleted.
Changes to this policy
If this policy changes, we'll update this page and the date at the top.