Privacy

Last changed 11 October 2026. This covers the game on the web and the Android app.

What stays on your device

The household: residents, drawings, notes, keepsakes, progress and settings. The browser keeps it in its local storage (under shelflife.v4); the Android app keeps it in its own storage. It does not leave the device unless you send it somewhere: a backup file, a postcard or cloud save. Backups and postcards go only where you send them.

Two small records sit beside the household, outside the save: the last 20 errors the game ran into (what went wrong, in which file and when, never anything about your shelf) under shelflife.errors, and any problem reports waiting to be sent under shelflife.feedback. They stay on the device unless you send a report.

Clearing the site's data, or uninstalling the app, removes it. If Android's own backup is switched on, your phone may include the app's storage in the backup it keeps in your Google account. That is between you and Google; we never see it.

What reaches a server, if you turn on cloud save

Cloud save is off until you choose More → Cloud save → Turn on cloud save. Guest play never needs an account. With it on, these are stored:

• The save. The same data as a backup file, so your shelf can follow you to another device.
• Your email address, only if you add one. It is used to send the 6 digit sign-in code and for nothing else. There are no passwords.
• A random device id, such as android-k2x9q4mz, so the game can tell your own devices apart. It is made up by the game, not read from your phone.
• An account id, a friend code and the name you choose, plus when the save was last written.

Friends

Friends need cloud save. If you use them, the server also keeps:

• Your friend code and friend list: who you have asked, who has asked you and who has accepted. Nobody becomes your friend without accepting, and a request you send does not show the other player's name until they do.
• Your shelf on show: a snapshot of your residents (their names, looks and moods), your display name and how many curios you have. Only friends you have accepted can see it.
• Shelf Court summonses between friends: the case, the two residents in it and the verdict.
• Daily arcade scores. Friends see yours with your name. Everyone else sees only anonymous numbers: how many people played, what share of them a score beat, and the day's top score, never whose it was.
• Blocks and reports. You can block anyone and report them. A report keeps your reason and a copy of that player's name and shelf as they were, so a person can review it for moderation. It is removed if either account is deleted.
• A short record of friend codes tried, so nobody can guess their way into your list.

There are no public profiles and no chat. Strangers never see your name, your shelf or your residents; at most, your score is one of the numbers in the anonymous day's results.

Problem reports you send

More → Report a problem sends what you write (up to 1000 characters), the kind of report and, if you choose, what you were doing. The game shows you everything in the report before it goes. If you leave Attach diagnostics ticked it also carries: the game's version, whether it is the web game or the Android app, your browser's user agent, the screen size, the effects and Calm settings, how many residents you have, how many days the shelf has existed, the save's size, which screen was open, whether the device was online, whether cloud save was on (never your email) and the last 20 errors. It never carries your save, your residents' names or drawings, or your email address.

A short “How is it going?” question appears at most three times (after your second day, after your first Shelf Court hearing and after your seventh day). If you answer, the rating, anything you add, the version and how long the shelf has existed are sent the same way.

Reports go only from a device signed in to cloud save, and are tied to that account so we can tell reports apart. Signed out, a report waits on the device until you sign in, or you can copy it into an email instead. Nobody can read reports through the game or the API; only the project owner can, in the Supabase dashboard. They are deleted after a year, or with your account.

Which days you play

With cloud save on, the game records the dates on which you opened it: one line per day with your account id and the date, nothing else (no times, no device, nothing about what you did). It tells us how many testers come back after a day, a week and a month. It is on by default with cloud save, and More → Help improve the game: count which days I play switches it off; switching it off also deletes the days already recorded. Dates older than about 400 days are removed.

If you are in a coven, the same kind of record (the dates you opened the game, for the last 60 days) is how a friend you invited earns their invite reward. The same switch covers it: switching it off deletes those dates too and stops them being recorded, so an invite reward cannot count your days until you switch it back on.

Who holds it

Cloud save runs on Supabase, which stores the data and sends the sign-in emails on our behalf, and handles them only to provide that service. The sign-in session stays on your device under shelflife.cloud, never inside the save or its backups.

What we do not do

• No advertising, and no advertising identifiers.
• No analytics or crash reporting services and no tracking pixels. The only counting is the play days above, which you can switch off, and the reports you choose to send.
• No third-party trackers or SDKs of any kind. The fonts ship with the game.
• No selling or sharing of data, for marketing or anything else.
• No location, contacts, photos, camera or microphone.

Notifications and the narrator

Nudges in the Android app are local notifications. The phone schedules them from what the game already knows; there is no push server and nothing is sent anywhere. They stay off until you switch them on.

The narrator uses your device's own voices. Some browsers also offer online voices that send the text to the browser's maker to be spoken; the voice list marks those as online.

Children

Shelf Life is meant for players aged 13 and over. It is darkly comic: cartoon peril, curses and a great many funerals. We do not knowingly collect anything from children under 13, and cloud save is not for them. If a child under 13 has made an account, ask us and we will delete it.

Keeping and deleting

Cloud data is kept while the account exists. You can delete it at any time, with or without the app: see delete your account. That removes the account, your email, the cloud save, the device id, your friend code and name, friend links, your shelf on show, summonses, scores, blocks, reports made by you or about you, the problem reports you sent and your play days. Copies in the provider's routine backups expire on its normal schedule. The household on your device is left alone.

To see the cloud save itself, choose More → Back up: the file holds the same data.

Questions

Ask through the issue form. Issues are public, so please do not post your email address there. Say you need a private word and we will arrange one.

If this page changes, the date at the top will too.