What this covers
The Manta Play mobile application and the game service behind it, and this website. The two collect very different amounts, so they are described separately.
The app and the game service
Your account
Signing in creates an account. We receive from Google or Apple — the only two sign-in providers — your email address and, if the provider supplies it, your name. Your account is tied to your Google or Apple sign-in, not to your email address, so a new address at your provider does not change your account. We store the email address so that a friend who already knows it can find you and invite you to a game.
We also store what you tell us in the app: a display name, your time zone, and your birth year, from which we work out an age band used to decide what content and features are appropriate. Where your app store shares it — Google Play on Android, Apple on iPhone and iPad — we also receive the age range it reports for you — a range such as 13–15 or 18 and over, never a date of birth — and how it was established, and use it, with your birth year, for the same purpose and no other. If you or a parent stop sharing it, we delete what we hold. We also keep the settings you choose in the app that should follow you to every device you sign in on: the games you mark as favorites, and how much game-show presentation you want.
You also choose a Manta identity: a Manta name, a color and a marine animal, the last two from lists we provide. We add a four-character Manta ID so that players who choose the same name, color and animal can be told apart. Your Manta name is the name other players see in games and on leaderboards, and it does not have to be unique.
When you change your Manta name, color or animal, we keep a record of the Manta identity you are leaving — the Manta name as it was shown, the color, the animal, the Manta ID, and when you held it — for 180 days after the change. Because Manta names are shared, this record is how we can tell who was using an identity at a particular time when a player is reported or someone is being impersonated. It is not shown to other players, and it is used for support and moderation only.
If we place your account on hold while we look into a support case, or suspend it, we record that, and when, on your account. A suspended account cannot sign in until the suspension is lifted. This is not shown to other players, and it is used for support and moderation only.
We never ask for or store a phone number.
How you play
We store what a game needs to work and to continue: rounds played, answers given, scores, streaks, progress and badges, saved games, lobbies and the players in them, and who you have recently played with. Some of this is visible to other players by design — a leaderboard is a leaderboard.
We also count, in aggregate and not against your account, how often a question is answered correctly. That is how difficulty is calibrated.
If you flag a question, we keep the flag and any comment you write with it, linked to your account, so the question can be reviewed. Flags are how a question or prompt is taken out of play.
Friends, and how contacts are matched
If you look for people you know, the app sends us a one-way SHA-256 hash of an email address, never the address itself. We compare hashes to hashes. We do not store your address book, we cannot reverse a hash into an address, and a person who is not already a Manta Play player leaves no trace of having been looked up.
Other players can also find you by searching for your Manta name. A search shows your Manta name, color, marine animal and Manta ID, and never your email address or your age. A player you have blocked, or who has blocked you, cannot find you this way. Players under 18, and players who have not told us their age, are left out of this search by default, and an adult can never find them by searching.
Subscriptions
If you subscribe, Apple or Google handles the payment. We never see your card or payment details. We record which product you bought, on which platform, when it was granted and when it expires, and the store’s own purchase identifier — enough to know what you are entitled to and to honour a refund or a cancellation.
Notifications
If you allow them, we store a push token for each device and which platform it belongs to, so we can tell you it is your turn.
Diagnostics
We keep server logs to run the service: which request was made, whether it succeeded, how long it took, and the account it belonged to. They are how a fault is found and fixed.
Keeping the service safe
We limit how often the same person or the same device can make a request, so that nobody can hammer the sign-in screen or work steadily through our players looking for names. When a limit actually turns a request away, we record that it happened: which limit it was, which part of the service, when, and a scrambled form of whatever the limit was counting — an internet address, or an account.
We do not keep the address or the account itself. What we keep is that scrambled form, mixed with a secret key we hold, so the records on their own cannot be turned back into who was refused. What they can tell us is that the same someone was refused again, which is what we need in order to see a pattern after the fact.
The record is never used to decide anything about you. Nothing reads it back to refuse you harder, for longer, or at all — every limit is decided there and then, from the count alone. It exists so that abuse leaves a trace, and it is deleted after 90 days.
Advertising
Advertising is not switched on. When it is, our advertising policy governs it in full — including that every ad request, for every player, is treated as child-directed, that advertising never uses your age, and that we do not use location for advertising.
What we do not do
- We do not sell personal information.
- We do not store your address book, or any email address of a person who is not a player.
- We do not collect a phone number.
- We do not use your location.
- We do not use your gameplay to build an advertising profile.
Children
Manta Play asks for a birth year — and receives the age range your app store shares — works out an age band from it, and adjusts what it shows accordingly, including a mode intended for younger players. Your age is never used for advertising: every ad request, for every player, is treated as child-directed, and personalised advertising is not used.
A parent or guardian who believes a child has provided us with personal information may write to us and ask that it be reviewed or deleted.
Sharing
We share information with the companies that run the service for us — hosting, databases, error and delivery reporting, the app stores that process payments — and only so far as they need it to do that work. We may also share information where the law requires it, or where it is reasonably necessary to protect people from harm or misuse.
Keeping it, and deleting it
We keep account and gameplay information while your account exists. You can delete your account in the app — Profile, then Delete account — or ask us to. You are signed out on every device straight away, and seven days later the account is deleted: your sign-in details, your Manta identity and the names you held before it, your progress and badges, your friends, blocks and settings, your devices and your place on every leaderboard. If you sign in again before then, nothing is deleted. Deleting your account does not cancel a subscription; cancel it in the App Store or Google Play. Apple and Google keep the records of what you paid, as the sellers; we keep no purchase record of our own once the account is gone.
When your account is deleted, every game you played with other people shows “Deleted player” in place of your name. So that we can do this, we keep a list of the shared games you were in for as long as your account exists, and it is deleted with the account.
A record of a Manta identity you changed away from is deleted 180 days after the change, or sooner, with the rest of your account, if you delete it.
A record that one of our limits turned a request away is deleted 90 days after it was made. It holds a scrambled form of what the limit was counting rather than an address or an account, so there is nothing in it to find you by.
Aggregate counts that cannot identify you, such as how often a question is answered correctly, are not deleted, because there is nothing personal left in them.
Your choices
- Sign out, or delete your account — in the app, or by asking us.
- Block another player, from People in the app.
- Turn off notifications, in your device's settings.
- Ask us what we hold about you, and ask us to correct it.
Depending on where you live you may have further rights over your personal information; write to us and we will honour them.
This website
The public website at mantafoundry.dev is made from static files. It does not create user accounts, set first-party cookies, run advertising trackers, or submit the contact form to a Manta Foundry server.
Like most web hosting providers, our host may automatically process basic request information — such as an IP address, browser type, requested page, date, and time — to deliver the site, maintain security, and diagnose errors.
The contact form uses client-side JavaScript to open a draft in your own email application. Nothing entered in the form is sent by this website. If you choose to send the resulting email, we receive the information you include and use it to answer your request.
Changes
We will update this policy as Manta Play changes, and change the effective date above when we do. A change that materially affects how we handle your information will be brought to your attention in the app rather than left here quietly.
Contact
Questions about privacy can be sent to [email protected].