Privacy Policy

Vanikar LLC (“Vanikar,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) operates the website at vanikar.games, including all of its pages (the “Site”), and Card Games by Vanikar, as a mobile application for iOS and Android and as a web application at play.vanikar.games (together, the “App”). This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect when you use the Site and the App (together, the “Services”), why we collect it, who we share it with, and the choices you have. Vanikar LLC is the data controller for that information.

1. Information We Collect

Information you give us

• Account: your name, email address, and a password when you register. Passwords are stored only in hashed form; we cannot read them. You need an account to play online and to play in a web browser; offline play against the computer in our iOS and Android apps does not require one.
• Public profile: the display name you choose and, optionally, an avatar image. If you pick an avatar from your device’s photo library, we receive only the single image you select. Your display name and avatar are shown to other players.
• Discord link: if you choose to connect your Discord account, we receive your Discord user ID, username and avatar from Discord so we can match you with your Discord friends and show your game status there. Linking is optional and can be undone at any time in the App.
• Voice chat: voice at the table is provided through Discord. Your voice travels over Discord’s service, not our servers; we never receive, record or store it. Discord’s handling of voice is described in its privacy policy (section 12). As with any voice call, other participants could record what they hear using their own devices.
• Support messages: anything you send to us by email, including your email address.
• Purchases: Premium is an auto-renewing subscription sold through, and billed by, the Apple App Store or Google Play (in the apps) or Paddle.com, our reseller and merchant of record (on the web). They handle payment; we never see your card number. We receive the subscription status, plan, renewal date, a transaction identifier and, for web purchases, the country of the billing address, so we can unlock Premium on your account, apply tax correctly and honor any Founder price lock.

Information collected automatically

• Gameplay: the games you play, when, against whom (other players or the computer), results, whether a game was finished or left early, scores, statistics, achievements, and leaderboard standing. Some of this is shown to other players — see section 4.
• Device and app: device model, operating system version, app version, language and time zone, and a randomly generated installation identifier. On a phone used without an account we also keep a hashed device identifier — never the raw identifier — to record that the phone has started its one free trial and which three free games it chose, so that neither can be reset by reinstalling, and the account it is later linked to. This is first-party only: no advertising identifiers, and no tracking across apps or websites.
• Diagnostics: crash reports, error logs and IP address, used to keep the Services working.
• Website analytics: the Site uses Google Analytics to understand which pages are visited, from where, and on what kind of device. See section 5.

Information from other sources

• App stores and Paddle: Apple, Google and Paddle tell us whether your subscription is active, renewed, past due, canceled or refunded.
• Discord: the profile details described above, only if you link your account.
• Other players: when a friend invites you to a table, we record that invitation.

We do not collect precise location, contacts, or advertising identifiers, and the App contains no advertising or ad-tracking software.

2. How We Use Your Information

• Create and secure your account and let you sign in on any supported device.
• Run the games: seat you at tables, deal cards, keep score, and sync your progress across devices.
• Provide online features: private tables, invite codes, friends, leaderboards, statistics, achievements, voice chat, and Discord features you have opted into.
• Recognize your subscription, trial status and free-game choices, and apply the Founder price lock where you qualify.
• Send service messages such as account confirmation, password reset, and notices about changes to these terms. We do not send marketing email.
• Detect and prevent cheating, abuse, fraud and breaches of our Terms of Service.
• Fix crashes, improve the games, and decide which games to build next, using aggregated statistics.
• Comply with law and respond to lawful requests.

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for targeted advertising.

3. Legal Bases (EEA, UK, Brazil and similar jurisdictions)

Where the law requires a legal basis, we rely on: performance of a contract to provide the Services you signed up for; our legitimate interests in keeping the Services secure, preventing cheating, and improving them, balanced against your rights; your consent for optional features such as linking Discord, using your microphone, choosing a photo, and website analytics cookies, which you can withdraw at any time; and legal obligation where we must keep or disclose information.

4. How Information Is Shared

• Other players. Your display name, avatar, and game statistics are visible to players at your table and in your friends list. Leaderboards show your display name, avatar and ranking to all players of that game. Your name, email address and Discord details are never shown to other players.
• Discord. If you link Discord, we share your current game status with Discord to display in your Discord profile (“rich presence”), we send invitations and match notifications to the Discord users you choose, and voice chat at your table runs on Discord. Discord’s handling of that data is governed by the Discord Privacy Policy.
• Service providers. Companies that host our servers and databases, deliver email, and collect crash reports, acting on our instructions under contract.
• Apple and Google. As the sellers of record for subscriptions.
• Legal. When required by law, court order or government request, or to protect the rights, property or safety of Vanikar, our players, or others.
• Business transfers. If Vanikar is involved in a merger, acquisition or sale of assets, your information may transfer as part of that transaction under the same protections.

5. Cookies and Website Analytics

Analytics are optional, and where the law requires it we ask first. If you are in the European Union, the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, the Site shows a short banner with Accept and Reject, and no analytics code loads until you accept — until you choose, and permanently if you choose Reject, nothing is requested from Google, no cookie is set, and your IP address is never sent to them. Elsewhere analytics load without a banner, and you can switch them off whenever you like. Either way the choice is yours to change at any time.

If you accept, the Site loads Google Analytics 4, which sets cookies (such as _ga) to tell repeat visits apart and reports page views, approximate location derived from IP address, browser and device type, and referring site. We enable IP anonymisation. Google processes this data on our behalf and may use it as described in its privacy policy.

Cookie settings at the bottom of every page opens that choice for anyone, anywhere, whether or not you were shown the banner. Choosing Reject there also deletes the analytics cookies already on your device. You can additionally block them in your browser or install the Google Analytics opt-out add-on.

Your choice itself is stored in your browser’s local storage, not in a cookie, and is never sent to us. The Site sets no other cookies and carries no advertising trackers. The App does not use Google Analytics.

The home page may ask our game service for the country your connection comes from, to list games played in your region first. The service answers with a two-letter country code derived from your IP address and keeps nothing; your browser remembers the answer, and you can change or clear the region on the page at any time. IP geolocation by DB-IP.

6. Device Permissions

The App asks for permissions only when you use the feature that needs them: microphone for voice chat (the audio itself is carried by Discord, not by us), photos to choose an avatar, and notifications for match and friend alerts if you turn them on. You can revoke any of these in your device settings; the related feature will stop working but the rest of the App will not.

7. Data Retention

We keep your account and gameplay data for as long as your account exists. When you delete your account we remove your personal information within 30 days, except that we may keep it for up to 90 days where needed to resolve a dispute or a suspected breach of our Terms, and longer where the law requires. Leaderboard and match records are anonymised rather than deleted so other players’ histories stay intact. Aggregated statistics that cannot identify you may be kept indefinitely. Server logs are kept for up to 90 days.

For a phone used without an account we keep the hashed device identifier, the trial start date, the three chosen free games and, once you link one, the account it was linked to, indefinitely: that is what prevents a trial or a free-game choice from being reset. Anonymous gameplay telemetry from such a phone is kept for 90 days. To have the record for your phone deleted, email info@vanikar.com.

8. Security

All traffic between the App, the Site and our servers is encrypted in transit (TLS 1.2 or higher). Passwords are hashed. Access to personal data is limited to people who need it to operate the Services. No system is perfectly secure; if we learn of a breach affecting your data we will notify you as the law requires.

9. Children

The Services are not directed to children under 13, or under 16 where local law sets that age, and we do not knowingly collect information from them. If you believe a child has created an account, email us and we will delete it.

10. Your Rights and Choices

• Access, correct, delete, port. You can change your display name and avatar in the App. For anything else, or to receive a copy of your data, email info@vanikar.com from the address on your account. We respond within 30 days.
• Delete your account. Use the account deletion option in the App, or email us from the address on your account. Deletion is permanent: your statistics, achievements, friends and free-game choices cannot be restored. Active subscriptions must be canceled separately in your App Store or Google Play settings.
• Discord. Unlink your Discord account in the App at any time; we then stop sharing game status with Discord.
• Voice chat. Voice is off until you join it. You can mute yourself or individual players at any time, and leaving the table leaves the voice channel.
• Analytics cookies. See section 5.
• Object or restrict. Where the law provides, you may object to or restrict processing based on legitimate interests; email us.
• Complain. If you are in the EEA or UK you may lodge a complaint with your data-protection authority. We would appreciate the chance to address it first.

California residents: we do not sell or share personal information as defined by the CCPA, and we will not discriminate against you for exercising your rights.

11. International Transfers

Vanikar LLC is based in Massachusetts, United States, and our servers and service providers are located in the United States and other countries. Where your data is transferred out of the EEA, UK or another jurisdiction with transfer rules, we rely on recognized safeguards such as Standard Contractual Clauses.

12. Third-Party Services

The Services work with these third parties, each under its own privacy policy: Apple (App Store, subscriptions), Google (Google Play, subscriptions, and website analytics), Paddle (web checkout, subscriptions and payment; Paddle is the merchant of record for web purchases and processes your payment details under its own policy), and Discord (optional account linking, presence, invites and community servers). Links from the Site to other websites are outside our control.

13. Changes to This Policy

We will post any revised policy here with a new date. For material changes we will also notify you in the App or by email at least 14 days before they take effect.

14. Language

This Policy is published in several languages for convenience. Where a translation differs from the English version, the English version controls.

15. Contact

Vanikar LLC
Email: info@vanikar.com
Web: vanikar.games