Privacy Policy
Starsown is a free browser game run by one person. It collects the minimum needed to let you have an account, keep the worlds you find, and stop abuse, and nothing else.
The short version. There is no advertising on Starsown. There are no tracking pixels, no advertising or cross-site trackers, no tracking cookies, and no data brokers. The only measurement is aggregate: traffic and speed figures from our hosting provider, and our own daily totals of a few things people look at (both described below). Neither ever identifies you to us. Your information is never sold, rented, or traded. You can play without an account at all, and you can delete your own account any time from your profile page.
Who we are
Starsown is an independent project operated by an individual in Texas, United States. For any privacy question or request, contact justin.l.black@gmail.com.
What we collect
If you play as a guest (no account): your browser generates a random identifier (a UUID such as 3f2b8c10-…) and stores it locally. It contains no personal information and is not linked to your name, email, or device. It exists only so the daily sowing limit can be counted and so worlds you discover can later be claimed if you make an account.
If you create an account:
- Email address: used to sign in, to verify your account, and to contact you about your account. It is never displayed publicly anywhere in the game.
- Password: handled and stored by our authentication provider in hashed form. The game itself never sees or stores your password.
- Google account details: only if you choose to sign in with Google. Google shares your email address and basic profile information with us. We do not post anything to your Google account or read anything else from it.
- Your chosen username, optional bio, and wanderer number: these are public by design (see below).
As you play: the worlds you sow, claim, stake, and like; the names you give your worlds and their moons; the players you follow; the sky events you witness on a world (sightings); the sandbox systems you save to your account; the constellations you make (each one's name, its note if you write one, whether it is private, and the worlds in it); view counts on worlds; the last world you visited (so you return to the same place on any device); and the times these things happened. For your inbox, we also keep notices of what happens to you and your worlds (someone follows you, likes or stakes on your world, a stake you placed is drawn, your world earns a title, your saved system is remixed, your world is added to someone's open constellation), each kept until 90 days after you read it.
To prevent abuse: when a world is sown, we store a one-way SHA-256 hash of the IP address the request came from, alongside that record. The hash is keyed with a secret value held only on our server and never published, so the stored fingerprint cannot be reversed to recover an IP address by anyone who does not hold that key. We use it for one purpose only: enforcing a daily ceiling per connection, so automated scripts cannot flood the registry. Your IP address is never stored in readable form in these records, is never used to identify or locate you, and is never used for any other purpose.
To fix bugs: if something breaks in your browser while you play, the page sends a short error report to our own server: the error message, where in the game's code it happened (a stack trace), the page path, which version of the game you were running, and your browser's user-agent string (which browser and operating system you use). These reports go only to us (no third-party error service), contain no account information, and are used solely to find and fix bugs.
Server logs: our hosting provider, Netlify, automatically records standard web-server request logs, which include IP addresses and browser user-agent strings. These are generated by the hosting platform for operational and security purposes and are retained according to Netlify's own policies.
Traffic and speed figures: Netlify also gives us two aggregate reports. Web analytics counts page views, unique visitors, pages, referring sites, broad locations and bandwidth, worked out on Netlify's side from those same server logs: no script, no cookies. Real user monitoring adds a small script, served by Netlify with the page, that measures how quickly pages load and respond in your browser (the standard "Web Vitals" timings) and sends those timings to Netlify. It sets no cookies. We see only totals and averages from both, never a record of you, and we use them only to see how much Starsown is used and whether it is fast enough.
Daily totals: the page also counts, as one number per day, how often a few things happen: a world opened, a world inspected, the science library opened, the sandbox opened from a world, a world or a saved system shared, and a visit that began on a world's link (counted again, separately, when that browser had never visited before, which the page tells from whether it already holds a guest identifier). Each count sends only the name of what happened. It carries no identifier, sets nothing on your device, and stores nothing about you or your connection, so a total can never be traced back to anyone. If your browser sends Global Privacy Control, nothing is counted. We use these totals only to see which parts of Starsown people find their way to.
What is stored in your browser
Starsown does not use advertising cookies or tracking cookies. It stores a small number of values in your browser's localStorage, which never leave your device except where noted:
| Key | Purpose |
|---|---|
starsown-guest | Your random guest identifier, if you play without an account. Sent to the server when you sow, to count the daily limit. |
starsown-last-seed | The last world you stood on, so a reload returns you there. |
starsown-guest-sown | Worlds you discovered as a guest, so you can claim them if you sign up. |
starsown-guest-merged | A flag recording that your guest history has already been merged into your account. |
starsown-has-sown | A flag that hides the first-time hint once you have sown a world. |
The sandbox also remembers a few preferences in localStorage (keys beginning starsown:sandbox:: the mode, scale and units you chose, the inspector's width, and the last system you had open; and, for one visit only, whether you have seen its welcome), and keeps the systems and designs you choose to save on this device in your browser's own database (IndexedDB, named starsown-sandbox). Those never leave your device. Only what you save to your account is stored on our servers.
Our authentication provider also stores your session in your browser so you stay signed in. Clearing your browser's site data for Starsown removes all of the above and signs you out.
What is public
If you have an account, these are visible to anyone: your username, your wanderer number, your bio if you write one, the worlds you have claimed and the names you give them and their moons, the sky events you witness on a world (your username appears among its witnesses), the sandbox systems you list in the gallery, and the constellations you leave open (their name, note and worlds, with your username as their maker) to anyone you give their link to. A private constellation only you can open; constellations are never listed anywhere. A system you save unlisted stays out of the gallery and off your profile, but anyone you give its link to can open it. Your email address is never shown anywhere in the game: not on your profile, not on worlds you own, not in shared links or previews. If your account came from Google, your real name from Google is likewise never displayed; only the username you choose is shown.
Why we are allowed to use it
We process this information to provide the service you asked for (running your account and keeping your worlds), and for our legitimate interest in keeping the game working and free from abuse. Where consent applies (for example, choosing to sign in with Google), you give it by choosing that option, and you can withdraw it by deleting your account.
Who it is shared with
We share data with three service providers, each only to the extent needed to run the game:
- Netlify: hosts the website and runs the server functions. Sees web requests and server logs.
- Neon: provides the PostgreSQL database and the authentication service that stores accounts and sessions. Data is stored in the United States (AWS us-east-2).
- Google: only if you choose to sign in with Google, and only for that sign-in.
We do not share your information with anyone else. We do not sell it, rent it, or trade it. We do not use it for advertising, and we do not allow anyone else to. We would disclose information only if legally compelled to do so.
How long we keep it
Account and profile information is kept while your account exists. Sown worlds are permanent by design (the registry is the point of the game), but if your account is deleted, the worlds are disconnected from you and no longer attributed to your name. The same goes for names you gave worlds and moons, reports you filed, and your sows in the registry's statistics: they stay, with no link to you. Everything else is erased: your profile, likes, stakes, follows, sightings, the worlds you visited, your saved systems, your constellations, and your inbox. Abuse-prevention hashes are kept only as long as needed for the daily limits they enforce. After an account is deleted, its username is reserved for 30 days, unclaimable by anyone, to prevent impersonation, then released.
Your choices and rights
- Play without an account. Exploring and sowing work as a guest, with no email and no personal information at all.
- See or correct your information. Your username and bio are editable on your profile page. For anything else, email us.
- Delete your account. Sign in, open Settings, and use Delete account at the bottom: it is self-serve and immediate. Your worlds, and the names you gave worlds and moons, remain in the registry but are disconnected from you (their provenance reads “a wanderer”); everything else tied to your account is erased, and your username rests for 30 days before anyone else may claim it, to prevent impersonation. If you cannot sign in, email justin.l.black@gmail.com from your account's email address and we will run the same deletion for you.
- Take your data with you. Sign in, open Settings, and use Download your data: one file of everything tied to your account, a few times a day. Left out are the keyed hashes that enforce the daily limits (they identify no one), anything secret from signing in, and short-lived internal records, such as the answer kept for a day so that a press sent twice counts once. Or ask, and we will send you a copy.
Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights under laws such as the GDPR or the CCPA, including the right to object to processing or to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority. We honor these requests regardless of where you live. We do not and will not sell personal information as those laws define it.
Children
Starsown is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. You must be at least 13 years old to create an account. If you believe a child under 13 has created an account, email us and we will delete it promptly.
Security
All traffic is served over HTTPS with HTTP Strict Transport Security. Passwords are handled by our authentication provider and are never stored by the game. Sessions are verified server-side against the database on every privileged request. No system is perfectly secure, but we keep the amount of information we hold deliberately small: the best protection for data is not to have collected it.
To report a vulnerability, see /.well-known/security.txt.
International visitors
Starsown is operated from the United States and its data is stored there. If you use it from elsewhere, you understand your information is processed in the United States.
Changes to this policy
If this policy changes we will update the date at the top. If a change is significant (for example, if we ever began collecting something new), we will say so clearly in the game itself rather than quietly editing this page.
Contact
Questions, requests, or complaints: justin.l.black@gmail.com. A real person reads it.