In short: we can see where players get stuck and what crashed, and — unless you switch it off — we keep a copy of your progress so it survives a lost phone. We cannot see who you are.
About this game
Serpent of Hours is a single-player game. There is no login, no sign-in screen and no account to create, and you can play the entire game without connecting to the internet. When you are online, the game gives you an anonymous player ID — a random code that is not your name, your email or your advertising ID — so that your progress can be saved to our cloud and your finished runs can be checked for fairness. Both are described below, and both can be switched off.
Information we collect
We do not collect information that identifies you personally. We do collect a small amount of anonymous technical and gameplay information, so that we can find and fix what is broken. Specifically:
- No personal data. Serpent of Hours does not collect your name, email address, contacts, photos, or any other personal information. There is no account to sign in to.
- Cloud save (you can switch it off). While Cloud save is on, a copy of your game progress — for example the floors you have cleared, your companions and your items — is stored in our cloud under your anonymous player ID, together with the app version, your device platform and when you last played. It also notes whether Diagnostics is on. This is what lets your progress survive a lost or reset phone. It contains nothing you typed and nothing that identifies you.
- Run records. When a run ends, the game sends a record of that run — its random seed, the choices made in it, what you brought into it and how it ended — under the same anonymous player ID. We replay these records to check that rankings and shared weekly events are fair. They contain no personal information.
- No advertising identifier. We do not collect or access your device’s advertising ID — permission to read it is removed from the app, and collection is switched off in the game’s own configuration — and we do not track you across other apps or websites. We have no advertising partners.
- Anonymous gameplay reports. The game reports a short, fixed list of anonymous events — for example, that a run started, that a run ended and on which floor, or that a chest was opened. The complete list is below. They tell us where players get stuck. They are not tied to your name, your email, or any advertising identifier.
- Basic technical information. Alongside those events, the reporting tool automatically records things like your device model, operating system version, app version, language, and the country your connection appears to come from. This is how a crash report becomes useful; it is not used to identify you.
- Crash and performance reports. If the game crashes or stops responding, an automatic report is sent so that we can fix it. It contains technical information about the failure and your device — not your personal information.
- A random app ID. So that reports from one installation can be grouped together, the reporting tools use a randomly generated identifier. It is not your device’s advertising ID, it is not linked to you or to anything else you use, and it is reset if you reinstall the game.
- Local notifications only. Serpent of Hours may send you optional reminder notifications (for example, about your Daily Well). These notifications are scheduled entirely on your own device. They are not sent by us, by any server, or by any push-notification service. No information about you or your device is sent anywhere to create, schedule, or deliver these notifications, and they do not contain any personal data.
- You can turn this off. Open Settings inside the game and switch Diagnostics off to stop the gameplay and crash reports, and switch Cloud save off to stop the cloud copy and run records. With both off, nothing is sent, and the game plays exactly the same.
The complete list of gameplay events
We would rather show you the whole list than describe it vaguely. Today the game sends these, and nothing else:
| Event | Sent when | What it carries |
|---|---|---|
ftue_step | You pass a step of the opening tutorial | Which step |
run_start | A run begins | Which campaign, and which kind of run it is |
run_end | A run ends | How it ended, which floor, which campaign, whether it ended on a boss, how many nodes you cleared, how many runs you had finished before it, and how many first-time things it gave you (for example a floor you reached for the first time), and how many of your battle moves in that run were made in each combat mode (Manual, Semi or Auto) — three plain counts — and which companion fought at your side in that run (a number for the companion, not a name) |
run_resume | You return to a run already in progress | Which floor, how many actions you had taken |
daily_well | A Daily Well run is started or cleared | Which campaign, which difficulty tier, which curse was active |
vault_award | You are awarded a sealed chest | Its tier, its quality, its level |
vault_open | You open a sealed chest | Its tier, its quality, how many chests are still waiting, whether it was earned in this session |
meta_screen | You arrive at a screen between runs, or do one of a fixed set of things there — for example claim the daily reward, buy an item with in-game currency, or wait for part of the game to finish downloading | Which screen or which action. A few actions add a small number or a fixed word: which day of play a daily reward was for; how much in-game currency a reward paid and which of the day’s runs earned it; how many end-of-run opening scenes were watched and how many were skipped; which download was waited for, for how many seconds, and whether it finished; and, when a climb ends, a fixed word for how it ended, the highest floor it reached and how much in-game currency its reward chest held |
notif_prompt | You are asked about reminder notifications | Whether you were shown the request, and what you chose |
level_up | Your hero reaches a new level | The new level |
Every value in that table is a number or one of a fixed set of words chosen by us. None of these events can carry text that you wrote, a file from your device, or anything that identifies you or your device beyond the technical information described above.
Turning it off
Open Settings inside the game and switch Diagnostics off. It is on by default. One switch governs both channels: with it off, the game sends neither the gameplay events nor crash reports. Your choice is stored on your device and is remembered the next time you open the game.
Two honest notes. Turning Diagnostics off stops anything further being sent; it does not reach back and delete reports that were already sent, because nothing is attached to those reports that would let us find yours. And switching it off means we lose your crash reports too. That is a real cost, and it is your call to make, not ours.
Who processes this data
Everything described on this page is processed on our behalf by Google: the anonymous reports by Firebase Analytics and Firebase Crashlytics, the anonymous player ID by Firebase Authentication, and your cloud save and run records by Cloud Firestore. Those four Firebase services are the only third-party services in the game that receive anything.
There is no advertising SDK in the app, no push-notification service, and no social login — Firebase Authentication is used only to create the anonymous player ID, never to sign you in to anything. We do not sell your data, we do not share it for advertising, and there are no advertising partners receiving information from this game.
One thing we will not leave out: Firebase Analytics is permitted to ask Google Play how an install arrived — for example, which store link led to it. That is a built-in part of the analytics tool rather than a separate tracker, it says nothing about who you are, and it belongs to the same Analytics collection that the Diagnostics switch turns off.
Where your progress is kept
On your device — and, while Cloud save is on, also in our cloud under your anonymous player ID. Cloud save is on by default and you can switch it off at any time in Settings; with it off, the game keeps everything on your phone only and uploads nothing. Your device settings (language, notifications) are not part of the cloud copy; it only notes whether Diagnostics is on.
One thing we will not leave out, because it is the one way your progress does leave the phone: Android has its own backup feature, and this game takes part in it. If you have device backup switched on, Android may copy the game’s data — your progress, your collection and your settings — into the backup your phone makes to your Google account. That copy sits in your Google account, not ours; we have no access to it and cannot read it. The practical effect is worth stating plainly: if you set up a new phone from that backup, your progress can come back with it. The switch that controls this is in your own Android settings, not in the game.
There is one deliberate exception. The record of a run that is still in progress is kept out of that backup on purpose, because restoring an old copy of it would wind the game back on itself mid-run. Everything else is included.
The first version of this page promised that if we ever added a cloud save of our own, it would be optional and this page would be updated before it shipped. Cloud save is that feature: this page was updated first, and the switch is in Settings.
Children’s privacy
Serpent of Hours is not directed to children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone, including children. The anonymous reports described above are not tied to a person and are never used to build a profile of any player.
Your choices
- Diagnostics. You can switch the anonymous gameplay and crash reports off at any time: open Settings inside the game and turn Diagnostics off. They are on by default. Turning them off changes nothing about how the game plays.
- Notifications. Local notifications are entirely optional (opt-in). If you enable them and later change your mind, you can turn them off in the game’s Settings, or in your device’s system settings (Settings > Apps > Serpent of Hours > Notifications, or the equivalent on your device).
- Cloud save. Open Settings inside the game and switch Cloud save off. From then on nothing more is uploaded; your progress stays on your phone. It is on by default.
- Delete cloud data. Open Settings inside the game and choose Delete cloud data. The game asks once, then sends a deletion request and switches Cloud save off. We erase your cloud save, your run records and your entries in shared weekly events from our storage within 30 days of receiving the request. The game on your phone keeps working and keeps your progress. If you are offline, the request is sent the next time the game connects. If you later switch Cloud save back on, the game starts a new cloud copy under a new anonymous player ID; nothing is ever written again under the deleted one.
Two limits, stated plainly. Totals of a shared weekly event that you took part in stay as they are, because they record only how much the whole community did, not who contributed. And the anonymous analytics and crash reports carry no player ID, so we cannot look those up or delete them for one particular player — there is nothing attached to them that would let us find you. If you have a question about any of this, please write to us at the address below.
This website
This site sets no cookies, runs no analytics, and loads nothing from any third party — no fonts, no scripts, no trackers. It is plain text and one stylesheet, served by our host. Reading this page tells us nothing about you beyond what any web server necessarily sees to deliver a page.
Changes to this policy
We will publish any change to this policy on this page before that change takes effect, and every update carries a new effective date at the top. We encourage you to check back here periodically.
(The first version of this policy was published on 3 September 2026. The version effective 29 September 2026 added the anonymous player ID, Cloud save, run records, and the Cloud save and Delete cloud data controls in Settings. This version, effective 20 October 2026, corrects the list of gameplay events: it adds level_up, which the game was already sending but this page had left out, and it describes the extra values that run_end and meta_screen carry, including the new count of battle moves made in each combat mode (Manual, Semi or Auto), and which companion fought at your side, that run_end now sends. Nothing else changed.)
Contact
If you have questions about this policy or the game, contact us at: