Privacy Policy

Last updated: 5 October 2026

Dearly is built to need as little of your data as possible. You may use an optional account for cloud backup, or continue without an account and keep progress only on your device. The Game has no advertising, and its gameplay analytics are optional: no gameplay events are collected until you say yes, and you can change your mind in Settings at any time. The only thing sent before you are asked is an anonymous count of how far a first run gets, described below. The Website uses anonymous, aggregate analytics as described below. The controller is the person named in the Impressum.

1. What we store, and why

• Local progress. Your cemetery, settings and progress are stored on your device whether or not you use an account.
• Optional account. If you choose email sign-in, we store your email address, a hashed password, an internal user identifier and session credentials so you can sign in and protect the account. We never store the plain-text password.
• Password recovery. If you request a reset, our transactional email provider processes your email address and the reset message to deliver one single-use link. We do not enable open or click tracking.
• Messages to us. Email sent to a playdearly.com contact address is forwarded by our email-routing provider to our Gmail inbox. The unmonitored noreply address is discarded rather than forwarded.
• Cloud backup. When signed in, the Game sends your cemetery save and its gameplay progress to our backend so it can be restored or carried to another phone. Guest play does not upload a cloud save.
• Purchase history. When you buy or restore an in-app purchase, Apple processes the payment and gives the Game a signed transaction. Our backend verifies it and stores the product identifier, transaction identifier, grant identifier, storefront environment, current entitlement status and relevant timestamps, linked to the internal user identifier used by the Game. We use this information only to deliver and restore the purchase, prevent duplicate grants, and apply refunds or revocations. We do not receive or store your payment card or bank details.
• Game analytics. The Game asks you once, in-app, whether it may send optional play data. Until you answer yes, no gameplay events are stored on your device for sending and none are transmitted (the anonymous first-run counts below are the only exception). If you agree, we receive events such as which graves are restored, what is bought and for how many coins, how long the cemetery takes to draw on your device, how long you were away, which screen you were on when you last put the phone down, and, if the Game runs into an error, the kind of error and a short fingerprint of where it happened (never the error’s message). Each event carries a random session identifier and, when you are signed in, is linked to your account through the internal identifier that already exists for cloud backup. We never send your caretaker name, a resident’s name, an epitaph, any other free text you write, your email address, your contacts, your location or any advertising identifier. Events go only to our own backend; they are not shared with an advertising network or a data broker, and they are not used to track you across other apps or websites. You can change the answer whenever you like in Settings; turning it off deletes the events still waiting on your device and stops any further collection.
• Anonymous first-run counts. So we can tell which opening screen loses people, the Game adds one to a counter on our backend when a first run reaches certain steps: the pages of the introduction, the answer given at the account offer (play on this phone, email or Apple), Begin on the title, the first collected coins, whether the analytics question was shown and whether you said yes to it, and how many grounds have been completed (1, 2, 3, 5 and 10). Each count is sent with only the day the Game was installed, the platform and the app version. It carries no device identifier, account identifier, session identifier or time of day, and we keep only the totals, so a count cannot be connected to you or to anything else you send us. Each step is counted once per installation. If you answer “Keep it here” to the analytics question, nothing is sent for that answer, any counts still waiting on your phone are discarded, and nothing more is counted unless you later turn analytics on in Settings. If you restore a cemetery from your account onto a new phone, its progress is not counted as that installation’s first run.
• Anonymous website analytics. Vercel Web Analytics records aggregate page views and a small set of interface events, such as viewing a section, opening the mobile menu, trying the restoration example, browsing the ground gallery or following the App Store link. It may process the page path, referrer, approximate country or region, device type, operating system and browser. Links created by Dearly may also use a small published campaign vocabulary (for example, “youtube”, “hallowtide_2026” and “short”) so we can compare our own unpaid channels. Unknown campaign values are discarded. We do not send names, email addresses, form contents, account identifiers, gameplay data, raw URL query parameters or fragments. Vercel Web Analytics does not use third-party cookies, and Dearly does not use it for cross-site tracking or individual profiles.
• Server logs. Our hosting providers process IP addresses technically to deliver content and defend against abuse. We do not use them to identify players.

2. Website analytics preference

Anonymous website analytics help us understand whether visitors can find the release and feature information they came for. Global Privacy Control and Do Not Track are respected automatically. You can also change the setting for this browser here.

3. What we do NOT do

• No advertising, ad networks, tracking cookies, session replay or cross-site profiling.
• No sale or sharing of data for marketing.
• No profiling, no automated decision-making.
• No access to your contacts, photos, location or microphone.

4. Where data lives

Local game data stays on your device. Optional account, cloud-save and verified purchase data is processed by our backend and database providers in the United States and/or European Union under their applicable data-protection terms. Apple processes App Store payments and purchase restoration under its own privacy terms. Password-reset delivery uses Resend. Incoming contact email is routed by ImprovMX to Google Gmail. The Website and its anonymous aggregate analytics are provided by Vercel, and its fonts are loaded from Google Fonts. Those providers may process the information needed to deliver their service, such as an email address, message contents, delivery metadata or technical connection data.

5. How long we keep it

The Game keeps local progress until you remove the Game or erase its data. Account details, the latest cloud save and purchase records linked to that internal account are retained while the account exists. You can delete the account from Settings; this deletes its sign-in details, sessions, cloud save and linked purchase records from our backend while leaving the local cemetery on the phone. Apple may retain App Store purchase records under its own terms. The anonymous first-run counts are totals with no identifier in them, so they cannot be deleted for one person and are kept without a set end date; the small record on your phone that remembers which steps were already counted is removed with the Game.

6. Your rights

Under the GDPR you have the right to access, rectify, erase and restrict processing of your data, the right to data portability and the right to object. Contact us via the details in the Impressum. You also have the right to complain to a data-protection supervisory authority.

7. Children

Dearly is suitable for a general audience and is not directed specifically at children. Children should use account features only with a parent or guardian where local law requires it.

8. Changes

If the Game gains new features that change how data is handled, this policy will be updated and the date above will change.