Privacy Policy
Effective date: October 18, 2026
This Privacy Policy describes how Fire to Stars ("the Game", "we", "us") handles information when you use the Game at firetostars.com or in the Fire to Stars app for Android.
1. Information We Collect
We collect no personal information, such as a name or email address. The Game has no accounts or registration, and we do not track you across sites. The Game also sends a fixed set of anonymous statistics tied to a random installation ID (Sections 8, 9). We also measure aggregate traffic (Section 3).
2. Game Save Data (Local Storage)
The Game stores your progress (resources, what you have built, settings) on your device: in your browser's local storage on the website, and in the app's own storage on Android, which other apps cannot read. It contains no personal information and cannot be reconstructed from what is sent. Statistics in Section 8 are derived from it and sent separately, per your choice under Section 10.
Delete the save you are playing via Save → Start over, and any other save with Delete on its row in Save. Clearing this site's data in your browser deletes them all. On Android, uninstalling the app or clearing its storage in your phone's settings deletes them all.
Your save leaves your device only when you send it, or through your phone's own backup below. Save to file writes it as a file. On the web the browser downloads it, to your downloads folder unless it asks where. On Android you pick the place: a folder on your device, or a cloud folder you choose, such as Google Drive. The file holds your save and nothing else, never your anonymous ID, and we never receive it. Exported saves are checked for accidental edits when loaded. Load from file reads a file you pick and adds it as a new save; nothing is sent.
On Android, if backup is on for your Google account, Android copies the app's storage, including your save and your anonymous ID, into that account's backup, and restores it on a new phone. Google holds that backup under your account; we never receive it. You can turn it off in your phone's settings. A restored phone keeps the same ID until you use Reset my anonymous ID.
The Game also keeps, for each save, a visit log on your device: the last 200 visits, each with when it started and ended, how long you played, what you did (counts, never taps) and how many galaxies came from where. It is deleted with the save, it is never sent, and it leaves your device only when you press Save visit log on that save's row in Save, which writes a second file to the place you pick. The anonymous measurements in Section 8 are separate, and sent only as your choice in Section 10 allows.
On Android, the app also keeps on your phone the server's time and a running total of your game time for each save, so that a phone clock set forward cannot add time away (Section 4). We never receive either.
3. Cookies and Tracking Technologies
The Game sets no cookies and uses no advertising identifiers or pixels. The website uses Cloudflare Web Analytics, which sets no cookies, stores nothing on your device, and does not fingerprint or track you across sites. The Android app does not use it.
4. Hosting and Server Logs
The Game is served by Cloudflare, Inc., which processes your browser's requests to deliver the site, including your IP address, under Cloudflare's Privacy Policy. We receive only aggregate traffic totals, identifying no one. We also keep a daily count of how many times the game asked which privacy rule applies, split by the two rule categories, with no identifier, no IP address and no time of day, and we publish it as the denominator of our participation figure. We keep the daily count with no time limit.
Every request the Game makes, on the website or in the app, reaches Cloudflare with your IP address. That covers the region question, the statistics messages and the deletion request. Our server stores no IP address.
On Android, when the app starts, it asks our server for the current time, so a phone clock set forward cannot add time away. The request carries no ID and nothing from your game. Like any request, it reaches our server with your IP address and the moment it arrives, as described above; our server stores neither. The app keeps the server's time and a running total of your game time for each save on your phone and never sends them.
The Android app keeps the Game's files on your phone. It reaches our server only for the requests this page names.
5. Third-Party Services
Hosting (Section 4) and traffic measurement (Section 3), both Cloudflare, are the Game's only third-party services. The measurement in Section 8 is stored with the same provider and adds no new third party.
Links to Other Sites
The Game's history notes link out to their original source: www.iter.org, www.nesdis.noaa.gov, arxiv.org, lasers.llnl.gov and ember-energy.org. These links open in a new tab and send those sites nothing from the Game; once you follow one, you are on a site we do not control, and its own privacy policy applies, not this one.
6. Children's Privacy
We do not ask any player's age and do not knowingly collect a name, email address, or other identifying information from anyone, including children. The anonymous ID and statistics in Section 8 measure only whether the Game's pacing matches its design targets; they are never joined to a name, email, or purchase and cannot identify or contact anyone. The identifier is used solely for that internal operation; it is never used to amass a profile, for behavioral advertising, or to contact any individual.
7. Changes to This Policy
Any change to our data practices will be posted here, with a new effective date, before it takes effect.
8. Anonymous Gameplay Measurement
The Game sends the statistics below whenever your choice in Section 10 allows it.
Purpose: measuring whether the Game's pacing matches its design targets. One message sends each time a run ends — by Rebirth, Ascension, or a Challenge start, finish, or abandonment — one each time you open the Game, one each time a visit ends (you leave or switch away for more than half a minute, or the next time you open the Game after it was closed), so we can learn how long a visit lasts, and one each time you make a Crossing. Each carries your anonymous install ID (Section 9), where one exists, plus:
- Build: game build identifier; loaded bundle filename; platform (web or Android); save format version.
- Bookkeeping: session identifier; per-session sequence number; messages dropped before sending; message identifier for deduplication; milliseconds elapsed within the batch; message format version; message type.
- Choice: your sharing choice; applicable region category.
- Event: run-ending type; seconds attended this run; seconds away this run; away seconds that still earned resources; accounting accuracy percentage, no clock time; deepest tier ever reached; Rebirths banked before this run; total Ascensions; Stellar Legacy Points banked this run; associated Challenge identifier.
- Visit (open, leave, and Crossing): visit number within the session; seconds since the previous visit ended; seconds the game was open this visit; seconds attended this visit; Crossings this visit; Claims this visit; Rebirths this visit; Legacy tree purchases this visit; galaxies gained this visit; tab open when the visit ended; current era; Rebirths banked so far; Crossings made so far; Claims made so far this climb; galaxies claimed so far; seconds into the visit a Crossing was made; visit number in this save's visit log; seconds since the previous visit, across launches; standing Claims waiting when the visit opened; how the visit ended; times you briefly left during the visit; seconds spent away during the visit; galaxies from Claims; galaxies from the first Claim; galaxies from waiting Claims; galaxies from the Day Shift bonus; galaxies from Relics; galaxies from Rite bounties; the plan the new climb began with (memory or a Rite); the plan the climb that ended had; the Shift the new climb began with; the Shift the climb that ended had; seconds the climb that ended took; seconds attended in the climb that ended; Rite eras closed in the climb that ended; Rite eras that climb had in all; Rite eras closed this visit; Atlas stops reached this visit; whether a Rite was under way when the visit ended. These are counts of what you did, never which button you pressed or when.
- Device (once per session): screen size bucket; pixel density; screen orientation; reduced-motion preference; light or dark mode preference; touch or mouse input mode.
We never send the time of day you play. Our server adds the date it received each message: the day, never the time. We never send your name, email address, or any other means of identifying you, and we never send taps, clicks, mouse movements, or any session recording.
A message that cannot send yet waits on this device, and is dropped after 30 days.
Stored in Cloudflare D1, in the same account that hosts this site (Section 4), and nowhere else; retention is in Section 11.
9. Your Anonymous ID
The ID is a random string, unrelated to your device, that cannot be linked to your name or email address; it identifies this installation, not you. It is created automatically when the Game first prepares to send a statistics message allowed by your sharing choice and applicable privacy rule, where a notice-only rule applies; where consent is required — including the EEA, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Brazil, and wherever the applicable rule cannot be determined — it is created only after you consent. It persists until reset or deleted, does not expire or rotate, and never appears in your save file or export.
10. Your Choice: Notice, Consent and Opt-Out
Outside consent regions, a one-time notice states measurement is on by default, with an immediate opt-out. In consent regions, measurement begins only if you accept a prompt; declining, or dismissing it, counts as declining and is not asked again. The Share my play data control in the Save panel changes this choice at any time; a Global Privacy Control signal is treated as opting out. To pick your rule, our server reads the country Cloudflare attaches to the request. It keeps only the rule category, never the country or your IP address.
11. Data Retention and Deletion
Raw measurement records are kept 90 days, then deleted; only aggregated, anonymous statistics with no ID remain after that.
The Save panel provides Show my anonymous ID, Reset my anonymous ID, and Delete my data; the last erases every record tied to your ID, on our server and on this device, and resets the ID. If our server cannot be reached, this device keeps only your ID as a receipt for at most 30 days, retries the deletion, and removes the receipt the next time the game starts once it confirms or the 30 days pass. If your device is unavailable, email us (Section 12) with your ID, if known, or approximate play dates, and we will delete what we can identify.
12. Contact
Questions about this policy, or a request under Section 11: natewepp@firetostars.com.
Changelog
Revised October 18, 2026: Section 8 now names the visit messages, sent when you open the Game, when you leave it, and when you make a Crossing, and the counts they carry. Section 2 now describes the visit log kept on your device for each save, which is never sent. Section 9 now says the ID is created when the Game first prepares to send a message your choice allows, not on first launch. Section 2 now says where Save to file puts the file on the web, and that exported saves are checked for accidental edits when loaded. Earlier versions of this page said nothing about visits because the Game did not send them.
Revised October 17, 2026: Sections 1 and 8 now say the statistics are being sent. Earlier versions of this page said nothing was collected yet. That stopped being true when a build that sends them went live before this revision. Added the Android app: its storage, Save to file, Load from file and backup (Section 2), and its clock check (Section 4). Section 8 now names the date stored with each message and how long an unsent message waits; Section 10 says how our server picks your rule.
Revised September 3, 2026: added Sections 8–11 and Contact; updated Sections 1, 2, 5, and 6 to describe player telemetry ahead of release.