LEGAL

PRIVACY POLICY

Effective date: October 12, 2026

PlumeClue is operated by Lucholli Game Studios ("PlumeClue," "we," "us," or "our"). This Privacy Policy explains the information handled when you use the PlumeClue iOS app and related services.

Information We Collect

Account and profile information

We collect your email address, birder alias, internal user identifier, sign-in provider information, profile settings, and limited account-status information. If you use Sign in with Apple, Apple provides us with an account identifier and, depending on your choices, your name or email address. We do not receive your Apple ID password.

Content and gameplay information

We collect content you create or submit, including bird photos, sighting titles, clues, species answers (common, scientific, and family names), guesses, scores, rankings, stakeout memberships, comments and discussion, follows, blocks, reports, beta feedback, My Birds collection entries, and related gameplay activity. Private stakeout activity is available to the people participating in that stakeout as the game requires. Public cases and their related results may be visible to other PlumeClue users.

Photos and camera

PlumeClue accesses only the photos you select or images you capture for a sighting. We do not scan your entire photo library. Uploaded images are processed to create a game-ready display copy and to remove unnecessary embedded metadata, including EXIF and GPS metadata, before that copy is shown in gameplay.

Safety information

We collect content reports, moderation decisions, block relationships, and limited security and audit records used to protect users and enforce our rules.

Notifications and diagnostics

If you enable notifications, we collect an Apple push-notification token and your notification preferences. PlumeClue may also receive limited technical diagnostic information when you contact support, such as your device model, iOS version, app version, and a description of the problem.

Location

PlumeClue does not request or collect your precise or background device location, and it does not track where you are.

Species Answer Processing

After a case closes, PlumeClue may send the correct species name and a birder's submitted species answer to an AI service to evaluate whether the two names mean the same species. Before transmission, PlumeClue inspects the text for obvious personal information, such as email addresses, phone numbers, and web addresses. If removing that information would make the answer unreadable or change its meaning, the answer is not sent. The AI service recommends an outcome; PlumeClue makes the final decision about scoring. PlumeClue does not send player names, account information, profile photographs, location information, persistent device or account identifiers, or case photos for this purpose.

How We Use Information

• Provide accounts, private stakeouts, public cases, guesses, reveals, scoring, and leaderboards.
• Process and display the sightings and other content you choose to submit.
• Maintain your My Birds collection of earned species identifications.
• Deliver requested notifications and remember your notification choices.
• Moderate content, investigate reports, prevent abuse, and protect the service.
• Measure product reliability and understand whether core features work.
• Review beta feedback and plan product improvements.
• Respond to support, privacy, security, and legal requests.

How Information Is Shared

We share information only as needed to provide and protect PlumeClue, when you direct us to share it through the game, or when required by law. Our service providers include:

• Supabase for authentication, database hosting, and server functions.
• Cloudflare for private media storage, image processing, and delivery.
• Apple for Sign in with Apple and push-notification delivery.
• OpenAI for automated content-safety review and limited species-answer equivalence review.

These providers may process information for us under their own service terms and privacy commitments. We do not sell personal information and do not use personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising.

Retention and Account Deletion

We retain information while your account is active and as reasonably needed for gameplay integrity, safety, fraud prevention, legal compliance, dispute resolution, product improvement, and backups. Feedback may be retained after account deletion without its account link or birder alias. Some completed-game or audit records may be anonymized or retained where necessary to preserve other players' history or meet legal and security obligations. Backup copies may expire on their normal schedule.

Your Choices and Rights

You can update your alias, manage notification preferences, revoke notification or camera access in iOS Settings, report content, block other users, and delete your account. Depending on where you live, you may also have rights to request access, correction, deletion, or a copy of certain personal information. Contact privacy@plumeclue.com to make a request. We may need to verify your identity before completing it.

Children's Privacy

PlumeClue is intended for people age 13 and older and is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has provided information, contact us so we can act.

Security

We use technical and organizational safeguards designed to protect information, including encrypted connections, access controls, private media storage, and database authorization rules. No system is perfectly secure. Report a suspected security issue to security@plumeclue.com.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy as PlumeClue evolves. We will update the effective date above and provide additional notice when required by law.

Contact

Lucholli Game Studios
Privacy: privacy@plumeclue.com
Support: support@plumeclue.com