Palermo Noir privacy policy

Your account

Every VGraphics game uses one account, your VHub account, run by us at vgraphics.gr/hub. The first time your phone joins a room, VHub makes a guest account for it: a random identifier with no name, email or other contact details. If you have signed in to VHub (for example with Google), you play under that account instead. What VHub keeps about you, and how signing in works, is in VHub's privacy policy.

The game has its own Google Firebase project for its rooms. VHub gives your phone a session for that project with the same identifier, so the game knows which seat is yours. The game never makes accounts of its own and never asks for your email.

Your age

The game is for ages 13 and up. The first time a phone joins a room, it asks for a year of birth. We work out an age group from it (under 13, 13 to 15, or 16 and over) and keep only the group and the date it was given, on your phone and, if you have a VHub account, in your account. The year itself isn't kept anywhere.

• Under 13: the phone can't join a room. The answer is kept on the phone for 24 hours, so another year can't simply be tried at once, and then forgotten.
• 13 to 15: we never ask for consent to analytics or personalised ads. Analytics stays in its consent-denied mode and ads are never personalised (see below).
• 16 and over: the game asks once whether you allow analytics.

The TV doesn't ask: no person signs in on it.

Rooms and games

A room is stored in Google Firebase Realtime Database, in Google's data centres in Belgium (europe-west1), and run by our server code on Google Cloud Functions in the same place. For each room it keeps the room's code, the host's rules and, for each player:

• the VHub identifier, and the name and picture you play under: your VHub username and picture, or a name for that room only (2 to 16 characters) and one of the game's preset pictures;
• whether your phone is connected;
• the role the game dealt you, readable only by your phone (and by your partners if you are a killer);
• what you do in the game: your night taps, accusations and votes, and what happened to you.

Everyone in the room, and anyone watching it, sees the names and pictures, who is still in the game, and what happens in the open: accusations, open votes and the verdicts. Secret votes and night actions stay on our server. When the game ends, it shows the room the truth: every player's role, and the story of every night and day, including the secret votes unless the host turned that off. A first player out may also see the roles during the game, as the night announcer (a Greek custom), if the host allows it; the TV then says so.

A room closes 30 minutes after its last phone goes offline, or 8 hours after it was opened, and is deleted automatically 24 hours after it closes.

The TV

The host's phone shows a link for the room's big screen (a smart TV's browser, a laptop or a computer). That screen signs in to the game's Firebase project as a display, with an anonymous identifier that isn't linked to any person and is never turned into an account. It can only show the room its link names, and it can't play, vote or act. It holds no progress, and it is forgotten when the room ends.

Results, XP and achievements

When a game ends, our server keeps a summary of it in Google Firebase Cloud Firestore, so we can balance the role setups: the setup and rules, the number of players, nights and days, and which side won. It has no player identifiers, names or votes in it, and it is kept for 12 months.

It also sends VHub one result for each player: your VHub identifier, your role and team, whether your side won and whether you were still in the game, and counts such as your votes against killers, saves and finds. VHub turns them into XP, achievements and your match history, under VHub's privacy policy.

Information stored on your device

The game keeps a few things in your browser's storage on vgraphics.gr: your age group and when you gave it, your answer about analytics, the name and preset picture you last joined with, and your VHub session, which every VGraphics game on vgraphics.gr shares. Clearing the site's data in your browser deletes them.

Analytics and error reports

We use Google Analytics (through Google Firebase) to see how the game is played: for example how many players a room has, how long a game lasts, which side wins with which setup, and where phones lose their connection. It receives no names, no VHub identifiers and no roles. If you are 16 or over and allow it, it uses an identifier stored in your browser. If you say no, if you are under 16, and always on the TV, it runs in its consent-denied mode: it stores nothing on your device and sends only basic signals without an identifier. You can change your answer by clearing the site's data for vgraphics.gr in your browser: the game then asks again. See Privacy and Security in Firebase.

When something goes wrong in the game, it sends us an error report through our own server to Google Cloud Logging, so we can fix it: the error and where in the code it happened, the game's version, the room's internal identifier (not its code), the step of the game, your browser and its version, the kind of device (phone, tablet, TV or computer) and the page's address without its query. Reports never contain names, roles or anything secret, and they are kept for 30 days.

The Android app, when it comes, will use Firebase Analytics and Firebase Crashlytics instead, and this policy will say so before it does.

Advertising

To keep the game free, it shows ads only between games: a short video on the TV when the host starts the next game, and a small banner on the phones in the room's lobby and on the end screen. Never during a game, and never before a room's first game. The ads are delivered by Google AdSense and Google's ad placements for web games. Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your earlier visits to our website or other websites. Google's use of advertising cookies lets it and its partners serve ads based on your visits to our website and/or other sites on the internet. You can opt out of personalized advertising in Google's Ads Settings. See How Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services.

Google may automatically collect information such as your IP address (and the rough location it reveals), your browser and device, your language, and how you interact with ads. It uses it to show ads, limit how often you see the same ad, measure results, prevent fraud and, where you allow it, to personalize ads. We don't receive this information about you personally.

Where the law requires it (for example in the European Economic Area, the UK and Switzerland), Google's consent message asks for your consent before your data is used for personalized ads (see the Google Privacy Policy). Players aged 13 to 15 only ever get ads that aren't personalized. If you live in a US state with a consumer privacy law (such as California, Colorado, Connecticut, Texas or Virginia), you can opt out of the sale or sharing of your personal information for ads with the "Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information" link that Google's consent tool shows. You can change your choice at any time with the privacy settings link that Google's consent tool adds to the page.

Children

The game is for ages 13 and up, and a phone that gives a year of birth under 13 can't join a room. We don't knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has played anyway, contact us and we will help remove their data.

Your rights

We don't hold your real name or contact details through this game. You can see what the game shows about you in the room, change the name you play under for a room, and delete everything as described under "Deleting your data". If you'd like a copy of your data, anything else deleted or corrected, or have a question about your data, email us and we'll help. You also have the right to complain to the Hellenic Data Protection Authority (dpa.gr). For data collected by Google for ads, use the links above. Firebase and Google Cloud are provided by Google; see Privacy and Security in Firebase.

Changes to this policy

If the game starts handling information differently, we will update this page and the date at the top.

Contact

The game is published by, and your data is controlled by: