The Wee Pier: privacy

The Wee Pier is made by Peatstack. This note covers the one thing the game sends to us over the internet: anonymous play stats. It is also at stats.peatstack.co.uk/privacy.

In short

What is sent: anonymous numbers about how you play (sessions, milestones, what you buy with in-game quid, a snapshot of your pier), tied to a random id made on your device.
Never sent or kept: your name, any account, email, IP address, cookies, device ids, or anything you type.
On by default: in the browser on itch.io, Newgrounds and GX.games, with a note saying so and a Turn off button.
Asks first: on play.peatstack.co.uk: nothing is sent until you say Yes.
Off: on CrazyGames (nothing is sent there at all), and off by default in the Steam and downloaded versions.
To turn it off: Settings, Play, Share play stats.

What is sent

While you play, the game sends a small batch of numbers about once a minute, and again when you switch tabs, close the page or quit.

The random id

A random install id: A random number (a UUID) made on your device the first time you play and kept in your save and in a small file beside it (telemetry_id.json), so a reload before you start still counts as you. It isn't built from anything about you or your device. Starting a new game ("Start fresh") makes a new one, and so does time: an id is replaced after about 13 months. It is never put in a save code.

Sessions and loading

Sessions: When a play session starts and ends, how long it lasted, how it ended (tab hidden for a long while, page closed, quit, Start fresh, stats turned off), which session this is for the install id, how long it has been since the last one (in broad bands, such as "between 2 and 4 hours"), and how many in-game quid the "While you were ashore" card paid for that time. Each session also has its own random id, made fresh and never saved. Switching tabs for a short while doesn't end a session.
The welcome-back card: How many times the "While you were ashore" card showed, and which kind of "waiting for you" line it had on it (a summer to start, Sea Glass knots, a notice, a fish not in your catch log yet, or none). Only the kind: not the words, the fish or the notice.
Loading: How long the game took to start, in milliseconds. If the page can't start the game at all, one message says at which step it stopped (WebGL 2 missing, a browser feature missing, a start error, or still loading after two minutes). That message uses a throwaway random id that isn't saved.
The first minutes: How many seconds after the page opened you first saw the title, pressed New game or Continue, baited the line, landed a fish, sold a box and bought something.

How you play

Milestones, with the minutes played when you reached them: A new fishing spot, the Bait tin, your first hired hand, each Lore node, each skill learned, each part of the game as it first shows (a menu tab, KIT, the stars and so on), the end of the demo and the ending; and, after the ending, each new summer you start, each pier-tree node, the Sea Glass you have found (rounded to a band), and whether the end-of-summer card was answered with a new summer or Keep fishing.
What you buy and earn in the game: Each purchase (a TRAIN, gear, a kit, a skill, a Lore node, a lure, an errand upgrade), how many, and how many quid it cost; and the quid earned by fishing, offline, errands and tips. Only in-game money: the game has no real-money shop.
A snapshot of your pier: At the end of a session, every five minutes of play and when you reach a milestone, a short list of numbers about your save: minutes played and how many sessions; the quid in your purse and the quid earned in all (rounded); each skill's level, the highest, the total and how many skills you have learned; how many fishing spots you own; your rod, reel and line levels; hired hands; Lore nodes and Tales; notices handed in and errands run; how many catch log entries you have found; which summer it is, the Sea Glass you hold and have found, and your pier-tree nodes; and whether you have reached the ending. Only numbers: nothing you typed, and not the save itself.
How you fish, as counts: Added up over each batch (about a minute), not sent one by one: casts, bites and fish hooked, with the middle length of a fight in seconds; shoals that showed up and shoals you clicked; bottles and gulls that showed up; in-game Tales earned and spent; the highest catch streak; how often you moved the practice pin; and each skill synergy the first time it lights.
Stuck moments and dry spells: Stretches of a minute or more with something to buy and nothing bought (with the kind of the cheapest thing you could afford, and whether the next fishing spot was in reach), and stretches of 20 seconds or more with nothing you could afford (with what you were saving for). Only in-game items: a skill, a spot, a piece of gear and so on.
Panel opens and a few counts: How many times each menu (Skills, Tackle, Lore and so on) was opened, bottles caught, errand tips taken, and changes of the buy amount (x1, x10 and so on).
Some settings, when you change them: Volume levels, music on or off, reduce motion, text size, the Bait tin's on/off switch, and turning the stats off (see below).

The device and the build

The device, in broad buckets only: Whether you play with a mouse, keyboard, controller or touch; the window size as one of five sizes (and whether it's taller than wide); and, in the browser, only whether it's a phone or tablet or a computer (outside the browser: a computer or a Steam Deck). In the browser the game works that out on your device from what the browser says about itself; the browser's own text is never sent.
Errors: How many engine or script errors happened, by type only. No error text, file names or paths are sent.
Buttons that lead out of the game: When you press a wishlist, store, Discord or privacy button (or another link out of the game), which one and on which screen.
About the build: Demo or full game, the version number, the version this install id started on, the text size (100% or 125%) and the platform (web, Windows, Linux or macOS). There is also an empty slot for testing two versions of a change against each other; it holds only a short label like "a" or "b".

That's everything. The server drops anything else it's sent.

What is not sent or kept

No names, no accounts, no email addresses, no cookies, no fingerprinting, no location, no device model, no browser name or version, no screen resolution. The server doesn't read or store your IP address or your browser's user agent, and request logging is switched off. It stores only the date a batch arrived, not the time.

Why

To see how far players get, where they stop or get stuck, what they buy, how long a session lasts and whether they come back, so we can set the length of the demo and the pace of the game.

Turning it off

Settings, Play, Share play stats. In the browser, a small note at the bottom of the screen also says the stats are on the first time you play, with a Turn off button. It never stops you playing and goes away by itself.

When you turn it off, the game sends one last message saying it was turned off, along with the end of that session. After that nothing is queued or sent.

The browser versions (itch.io, Newgrounds and GX.games) have it on by default.
On the game's own site (play.peatstack.co.uk, which galaxy.click also shows) it is off until you say Yes to a small question when you first play; until then nothing is sent or stored, and No keeps it off.
Downloaded builds have it off by default.
The Steam version has it off by default.
On CrazyGames the stats are off and the switch is hidden: nothing is sent there.
A copy of the game on any other website sends nothing.
In the Steam and downloaded versions, switching it on in Settings sends the same numbers as above.

Where it goes and who can see it

The stats go to a small Cloudflare Worker run by Peatstack and are stored in a Cloudflare D1 database. Cloudflare runs the servers; the Worker's own code never reads your IP address or any other part of the request but the batch itself. Only Peatstack can read the stored rows, to make the game better. They are never sold or shared, and never joined with any other data.

How long it is kept

Each row keeps the date it arrived, the random install id and the numbers above. Rows are deleted 13 months after the day they arrived: a clean-up runs once a day. The install id itself is replaced after about 13 months too, so the rows never follow one player for longer than that.

Deleting your stats

Your stats are tied only to the random install id, so we can't tell which rows are yours. To start clean, turn the setting off, or choose Start fresh, which makes a new id. The new id's first message says it came from a Start fresh and how many minutes the old game had, but nothing that points to the old id.

Newgrounds medals, GX.games challenges and Steam achievements

On Newgrounds, if you are logged in there, the achievements you earn are also sent to Newgrounds as medals: the game's app id, your Newgrounds session and the medal. Logged out, nothing is sent to Newgrounds.

On GX.games, once the game has challenges there, your best scores (most quid, most Sea Glass found and your biggest fish) are sent to GX.games for its challenge leaderboards. Your GX.games sign-in ties the score to your GX account, so it is covered by Opera's privacy policy. Signed out, the scores don't count on the board.

In the Steam version, achievements are sent to Steam, your current fishing spot shows to your Steam friends ("Fishing at the Deep Channel"), and Steam Cloud keeps a copy of your save. Those are Steam's own features and follow Valve's privacy policy.

Contact

Questions about this note or your stats: email hello@peatstack.co.uk, leave a comment on the game's itch.io page, or ask in the Peatstack Discord. Peatstack is a small game studio in Scotland.