Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Sideways Lab ("we", "us", or "our") collects, uses, shares, and protects information when you play Swarm Sector, our game for Android. It supplements our general Sideways Lab Privacy Policy; where the two differ, this Swarm Sector policy governs the game.

1. Who We Are

Sideways Lab Ltd is the data controller for the personal data described in this policy — we decide why and how it is used. We are registered in England and Wales under company number 17139067, with a registered office at Apartment 405 Manor Apartments, 2-4 Manor Row, Bradford, BD1 4AZ.

For any privacy question or to exercise your rights, email [email protected] or write to us at the address above.

Responsibility for data protection at Sideways Lab Ltd sits with our Privacy Officer, who can be reached at [email protected] or at the registered office above. Requests and complaints reach a person, not an unmonitored inbox.

2. Information We Collect

Swarm Sector has no accounts. There is no email, password or login, and most of what the game knows about you never leaves your phone.

On your device only

• Your game progress, settings and expedition checkpoints.
• Whether you own Supporter, so the purchase still works offline.
• Your answer to the consent form, if you were shown one.

We cannot see any of this. There is no cloud save.

Your anonymous player ID

• When you first open the game, it signs in to Unity Gaming Services anonymously. This creates a random player ID that is not linked to your name, email or Google account. The leaderboard and analytics below use it. You can see it in Settings.

The Endless leaderboard

• When you finish an Endless run, the game submits your score, your pilot callsign and a tamper seal that stops scores being faked. Unity also receives your IP address when the game connects.
• Your callsign and score are public. Every player can see them on the leaderboard. Your callsign is whatever you type, so don't use your real name or anything else that identifies you. You can change it in Codex → Scores, and the new callsign appears with your next score.

Ads

• Swarm Sector shows only rewarded ads, and only when you choose to watch one for an in-game bonus. There are no banners and no ads between levels.
• Where ads are allowed (see section 6), the ad tools start when you open the game and load an ad in advance, so one is ready if you choose to watch it. Whenever they load or show an ad, our ad partners process your device's advertising ID, information about your device and the game, your IP address, and how you interact with the ad.

Analytics

• Where you have agreed to it (see section 6), or where the law doesn't require us to ask, the game records how ads and the Supporter purchase are used: when a bonus ad is offered, started, completed, skipped or fails, and when a purchase is started, completed or cancelled.
• These events are tied to your anonymous player ID. Unity Analytics also records its own session information, such as when you play, your device model and operating system, and your approximate country, worked out from your IP address.

The Supporter purchase

• Supporter is one optional, one-time purchase through Google Play. Google handles the payment entirely. We never see your card or payment details; the game only checks with Google Play whether you own Supporter.
• Google sends us order records for accounting: the order number, product, price and your country.

We do not use crash reporting, attribution or any other tracking tools.

3. How We Use Your Information

• To run the Endless leaderboard and keep scores honest.
• To show the rewarded ads you choose to watch, which keeps the game free.
• To understand how players use bonus ads and the Supporter purchase, so we can improve them.
• To unlock Supporter and keep our accounts.
• To answer your privacy requests.

We do not sell your personal information for money. Outside the countries where we ask for consent, ads may be personalised, which some US state laws treat as a "sale" or "share". See section 12.

4. Our Legal Bases for Using Your Data

If you are in the UK, data protection law requires us to have a legal basis for each purpose. Ours are:

• Legitimate interests: the anonymous sign-in and the leaderboard, including the tamper seal. These use little data, the leaderboard is something you choose to take part in, and you can object at any time (section 11).
• Consent: showing ads, personalising them, and analytics. You give or refuse it in the consent form, and can change your answer at any time in Settings → Privacy options. Withdrawing consent does not affect anything done before you withdrew it.
• Performance of a contract: unlocking Supporter once you have bought it.
• Legal obligation: keeping order records for tax, and responding to your rights requests.

5. Third Parties & Service Providers

• Unity Technologies runs the anonymous sign-in, the leaderboard and analytics for us, as our processor. Unity also runs the LevelPlay ad mediation and Unity Ads, and for those it acts as an independent controller under its own policy: the Unity Game Player and App User Privacy Policy.
• Google serves ads through AdMob and shows the consent form. For those it acts as an independent controller: Google Privacy Policy and How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services.
• Google Play processes the Supporter payment as an independent controller under the Google Privacy Policy.

We do not share your information with anyone for their own marketing.

6. Ads, Consent & Your Choices

Where the law requires consent, including the UK, the game shows a consent form when you first open it, before any ad is requested.

• If you agree, ads may be personalised and analytics is on.
• If you decline, the game shows no ads, so bonus ad offers don't appear, and analytics stays off. If you use Manage options to allow ads but not personalisation, you get ads that aren't based on a profile of you.

Where the consent form applies, Settings → Privacy options reopens it at any time, and a change takes effect straight away.

Elsewhere, the game doesn't ask. Ads may be personalised using your advertising ID, and analytics is on. The game has no switch to turn analytics off there. To stop ads using your advertising ID, delete it or turn off ad personalisation in your device's settings.

7. International Transfers

Our partners process data outside the UK. Each transfer has a safeguard UK law recognises:

• Google, in the United States: the UK Extension to the EU–US Data Privacy Framework.
• Unity, in the United States: standard contractual clauses with the UK Addendum.
• Unity's LevelPlay team (formerly ironSource), in Israel: the UK's adequacy regulations for Israel.

8. Data Retention

• On your device: until you uninstall the game or clear its data.
• Leaderboard entries: for as long as the leaderboard runs, or until you ask us to remove yours.
• Analytics: Unity deletes raw analytics events after 13 months. Summary figures worked out from them are kept until we delete them or you ask us to.
• Your anonymous player ID: until you ask us to delete it.
• Order records: up to 7 years, for tax and accounting.
• Ad data: held by our ad partners under their own policies (section 5).

9. Deleting Your Data

• To delete what is on your device, uninstall the game or clear its data.
• To delete what is held online (your player ID, leaderboard entries and analytics), email [email protected] with the player ID shown in Settings. We will delete it from Unity's services within one month.
• If you have reinstalled the game, it has a new player ID and can no longer link your old entries to you. Tell us your old callsign and roughly what you scored, and we will remove the entry if we can find it.

10. Children's Privacy

Swarm Sector is not directed at children and is not intended for anyone under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.

• Where the law requires consent, ads and analytics stay off unless consent is given.
• If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child under 13 has played, email [email protected] with the player ID shown in the game's Settings, and we will delete the data.

11. Your Rights & Choices

If you are in the UK, you have the right to access, correct, delete, export, or restrict the processing of your personal data, to object to processing based on legitimate interests, and to withdraw any consent you have given. Similar rights apply in many other countries.

In the game you can:

• change your consent answer in Settings → Privacy options, where the consent form applies;
• change your callsign in Codex → Scores;
• find your player ID in Settings.

For anything else, email [email protected] with your player ID. We will respond within one month. There is no charge, and we may ask you to confirm the player ID is yours.

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your data, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO): ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint, helpline 0303 123 1113. We would appreciate the chance to put things right first.

12. Your US Privacy Choices (Do Not Sell or Share)

Where the game doesn't ask for consent, ads may be personalised, which shares your advertising ID with our ad partners (Google AdMob and Unity Ads). Some US state privacy laws, including the California Consumer Privacy Act as amended by the CPRA, may treat this as a "sale" or "share" of personal information. We do not exchange your personal information for money. To opt out, delete your advertising ID or turn off ad personalisation in your Android device's settings.

13. Where Swarm Sector Is Offered

Swarm Sector is not offered in the European Economic Area (EEA). Players in the UK are protected by the UK GDPR.

14. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy as Swarm Sector changes. We will revise the "Last updated" date above. Where a change needs your consent, the consent form will ask you again before the change applies.

15. Contact Us

Questions about this policy or your data? Email [email protected], or write to Sideways Lab Ltd, Apartment 405 Manor Apartments, 2-4 Manor Row, Bradford, BD1 4AZ.