Privacy Policy

Version 1, effective 13 November 2026

This policy explains what Last Active: Chat Stories ("the app") does with information about you. It is published by [PUBLISHER NAME TO BE ADDED BEFORE RELEASE] ("we", "us").

1. The short version

• There are no accounts. You do not give us your name, email address or phone number.
• There are no adverts, no analytics and no tracking. We do not sell or share your information.
• Your name, your progress and your settings stay on your phone.
• When you reach an ending, the app sends an anonymous record of it so we can show how stories usually end.

2. What stays on your phone

The following is stored only on your device and is never sent to us:

• the name you type when you first open the app, which is used only to fill in the stories' messages;
• your progress in each story, the endings you have found and your settings;
• the stories, pictures and recordings you have downloaded.

The app also keeps a random identifier it makes up for itself the first time it runs (an "install ID"). It is a string of random characters. It is not derived from you or from your phone, and it cannot be used to find out who you are.

Deleting the app deletes all of this.

3. What the app sends to our server

The app contacts our server for the following, and nothing else:

• To list, download and update stories and their pictures. Nothing about you is included.
• When you start a story for the first time: the story, its version and your install ID. The server replies with a signed ticket that the app keeps.
• When you reach an ending: the story and its version, which ending you reached, the choices you made in that playthrough, your install ID and the ticket. The replies in the app are pre-written, so the choices are identifiers of which reply you picked. Nothing you write yourself is sent, because the app has nowhere for you to write freely.

Like any server on the internet, ours sees the IP address your phone connects from. We use it to limit abuse (for example, too many requests from one place). With an ending record we keep a one-way coded value of the network part of that address, so that one network cannot swamp a story's statistics. We do not keep the address itself with the record, and the coded value cannot be turned back into it. Our hosting provider's own logs may record IP addresses for a short time for security and troubleshooting.

4. What we do not collect

We do not collect your real name, email address, phone number, contacts, location, photos, microphone or camera input, advertising identifier, or any information from other apps. The app does not ask for permission to use any of them. The name you type in the app is not sent to us.

5. Why we use it

• To deliver the stories you ask for.
• To show, on a story's ending screen, what share of players reached each ending on their first try. These figures are totals across all players.
• To keep the service working and to stop the statistics being falsified.

Where data protection law asks for a legal basis, ours is our legitimate interest in running the app and keeping it honest, in a way that does not identify you.

6. Notifications

If you allow notifications, the app uses them to tell you when someone in a story has written back. They are scheduled on your phone by the app itself. We do not send them from a server, and no notification address for your phone is sent to us. You can turn them off in your phone's settings.

7. Other services

The app contains no advertising or analytics software from other companies.

Our server is run for us by a hosting provider, which handles the data described here only on our behalf. The data may be stored and handled in a country other than yours.

The "Find a helpline" link opens a website run by others, in your phone's browser. We do not control that site, we do not tell it anything about you, and its own privacy policy applies once you are there.

8. How long we keep it

Ending records are kept for as long as we show statistics for that story. They hold an install ID and not your identity. Everything on your phone stays until you delete the app.

If you want a record removed, write to [CONTACT EMAIL TO BE ADDED BEFORE RELEASE]. Because we do not know who you are, we can only find your records if the app is still installed and you can tell us its install ID; if you have deleted the app, nothing we hold can be linked to you any longer.

9. Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to ask what we hold about you, to have it corrected or deleted, to object to our use of it, and to complain to your data protection authority. To use any of these, write to [CONTACT EMAIL TO BE ADDED BEFORE RELEASE].

10. Children

The app is intended for people aged 16 and over. Its stories deal with subjects such as stalking, controlling relationships, grief and loss. We do not knowingly collect information from children. If you believe a child has used the app and you would like any record removed, write to us.

11. Changes to this policy

If we change this policy in a way that matters, the app will show you the new version and ask you to agree before you carry on. The version and date at the top tell you which one you are reading.

12. Contact

[PUBLISHER NAME TO BE ADDED BEFORE RELEASE]

Email: [CONTACT EMAIL TO BE ADDED BEFORE RELEASE]