Privacy policy

Idle is built to need very little about you. This page says exactly what it uses, why, who can see it, and what you can do about it. It is written for people, not lawyers.

1. What information is involved

On your computer (stays there)

• A local usage log (metrics.jsonl): event names such as "game started", game names and timings.
• Settings: where you last put the popup, your office code, your nearby-play and poll choices, a random secret that protects the local hook endpoint, a random anonymous install id (see below), and whether first-run steps have happened.
• Your AI tools' settings files, only if you connect them: Idle edits ~/.claude/settings.json and/or ~/.codex/hooks.json to add its entries, keeping a backup. It reads those files only to make that edit.
• The clipboard, once, on the first launch, to look for an invite code left by the download button. Anything else on the clipboard is ignored and not stored.

Shared with other players and the relay (while Idle is running)

• A random device id and your first name, taken from your computer's account name. Other Idle apps on your network, and anyone in your office code, can see these while you are available.
• Your office code, if you joined one through an invite link.
• Game moves and messages between you and the person you are playing, such as your move in chess.
• Anonymous product feedback, only if you choose to give it. If you answer the "would you wager real money?" question, the answer (yes or no) is sent together with a random install id, so that each install counts once. That id is not linked to your name, account, network address or anything else. If you type feedback in the feedback box, the text you type is sent with the app version and your operating system (Mac or Windows). It carries no name or account, and I may receive it by email. Please do not put personal information in it.
• Your approximate area, only if you switch on nearby play (it is off until you choose it). The relay's host works out your city, region and country from your IP address, never from GPS, and the relay uses it only to pick other players near you. It is not stored, and you can turn nearby play off at any time from the menu-bar or tray icon.
• Your public IP address and basic connection details, which the relay and its host (Cloudflare) necessarily see, as any website you visit does.

On this website

• The site's host (Cloudflare) keeps ordinary server logs (such as IP address, time and page requested) for security and reliability.

What Idle does not collect

Your prompts, your code, the contents of your AI tools' conversations, your files, your contacts, your precise location (Idle never asks for GPS), or your payment details. Your AI tool passes event details to its hooks, but Idle's hook is written so that it never reads them, and sends only "busy" or "idle". You can check this yourself, step by step, on the Trust page.

2. Why, and the legal basis

• To run the game (showing you to people you can play with, and passing moves between you): this is needed to provide the service you asked for.
• To keep it working and safe (preventing abuse, fixing faults): my legitimate interest in running a reliable service. You can object (see rights).
• To learn what people want (the poll and feedback): my legitimate interest in improving Idle. Answering and sending are always your choice.
• To change your AI tools' settings: only with your consent, when you click Connect. You can withdraw it by removing the hooks.
• To join an office: only with your consent, when you confirm "Join office?".
• To match you with people in your area: only with your consent, when you switch on nearby play. You can withdraw it at any time by switching it off.

I do not sell your information or make automated decisions about you.

3. Who sees it

• Other players see your first name and office membership while you are available, and your moves while you play them. If you switch on nearby play, players in your area who have also switched it on can be matched with you.
• Cloudflare, Inc. hosts the website and the relay, and so processes connection data on my behalf. See its privacy policy.
• Me. I have no database of players. I see what Cloudflare's dashboard shows an account owner (such as request counts and logs).
• Authorities, if the law genuinely requires it.

4. How long it is kept

• The relay stores nothing: it holds who is connected, in memory, only while they are connected, and forwards messages without recording them.
• Poll answers and feedback text are kept until I delete them. They are anonymous, so I cannot look up a person's entry; if you want yours removed, tell me what you wrote.
• Cloudflare's own logs are kept according to its policies.
• Files on your computer stay until you delete them. Deleting the app and the dev.idlegames.app folder under Application Support (macOS) or AppData (Windows) removes them.

5. International transfers

Cloudflare operates a global network, so connection data may be processed in countries other than yours. Other players may also be in other countries. Where the law requires safeguards for such transfers, I rely on the provider's contractual and technical measures.

6. Your rights and choices

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to ask what I hold about you, to have it corrected or deleted, to restrict or object to its use, to withdraw consent, and to receive a copy. Idle does not keep an account or profile for you at present, so there is usually little to find, but ask and I will check. You can also, at any time:

• remove Idle's hooks from the menu-bar or tray icon;
• leave an office by deleting the app's data folder;
• quit Idle, after which you are no longer visible to anyone.

7. Security

Messages to the relay use an encrypted connection (TLS). The local hook endpoint listens only on your own computer and needs a per-install secret. Rock paper scissors uses a commit-and-reveal step so neither player can cheat by waiting. No system is perfectly secure, and Idle is early software: see the Terms and the Trust page for the limits (for example, it is not sandboxed and not yet independently reviewed).

8. Future features

I may add more games, platforms and features, and may consider real-time play involving money or prizes. None of that exists today. Any such feature would involve information the current app does not collect (for example, age and identity checks, location and payment details), and would be offered only after this policy has been updated, and with your explicit agreement to the new terms. The free version is not designed to depend on it.

9. Changes

If this policy changes, the date above will too, and I will say so on the site if the change is significant.

10. Contact

To ask a question or use any right above, message me on LinkedIn or through GitHub. I aim to reply within 30 days.