Privacy

What stays on your device

Your progress, stars, cards, settings and the puzzles you have solved are saved in your browser's own storage (localStorage), or on the phone for the iPhone app. They never leave your device unless you choose to keep your journey (below). If you clear your browser data, they are gone. No account is needed: you can play everything with no sign-in and no password.

If you choose to keep your journey

Accounts are not switched on yet. When they are, keeping your journey is your choice, offered after a win, and the game works the same without it. An account holds:

• a made-up name of three friendly words (you can roll a new one; you never type one);
• your save, so another device of yours can play the same journey, and a copy of it from each of the last 7 days;
• the ways you sign in: this device's own key (made on the device; we keep only its public half), and Apple, Google, a passkey, Steam or CrazyGames if you link them. Apple or Google may give us an email address (Apple lets you hide it); we use it for nothing but signing you in;
• the devices signed in, so you can see and remove them;
• runs and machines you choose to put on a board, which other players see with your made-up name.

Moving a journey with a code ("Point your phone here") needs no account: your save is locked on your device, and the key travels only inside the code's picture, never to us. We hold the locked box for 15 minutes.

You can download everything an account holds, or delete the account, from Settings, Your account. Deleting takes effect at once; our backups clear within 30 days. The journey on your device stays.

Your account and our counts are never joined: no count below carries your account, your name or any id.

What we count

If your device allows it, the game sends small counts to our own counting tool (Umami, run by us, no cookies). Each is a name and a few numbers, yes/no answers or short words. Times are never sent exactly: only a range such as "1 to 2 minutes".

• the game was opened: how many days since this device first opened it (a number, not a date), the web address of the page that hosts the game (for example itch.io or our own site), and which build of the game it is;
• every count says which build of the game sent it, such as "itch-7722afb";
• the game became ready to play: how long that took, as a range (under 1 second, 1 to 3, 3 to 8, or more), and the build;
• a puzzle outside the map was started, won or left: its kind, its level, its ring (how far out it is), and how many tries and hints you used;
• a map puzzle opened, was left unsolved, or ended: its number along the journey (for example "puzzle 85 of journey 1"), its difficulty band, whether it is a boss or one of the stop's spare puzzles, how the last puzzle ended (won or lost), whether it was won, whether it was won perfectly, roughly how many tries it took (1, 2, 3, 4 to 5, or 6 or more) how many hints a win used and, as a range, how long you played it. Time counts only while the game is in front and you are using it. This tells us which puzzles are too hard or too easy;
• Go was pressed: which try it was (as a range), the puzzle's number, and whether the last try on it was a loss;
• how long a sitting lasts: when you have played for 1, 5, 15, 30 or 60 minutes, with a range for how many puzzles you started, and when you start your 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 10th or 20th puzzle. A sitting ends after 30 minutes away;
• the game was opened on a new day: how many days since this device first opened it (exact up to a week, then a range). No date is sent;
• which sitting of the day this is on this device: the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th and later. No date is sent;
• the game went out of view with a map puzzle open: the puzzle's number and how many tries it had had;
• at the end of a try at a map puzzle, what was used: which kinds of part you had (for example "ramp" or "fan") and whether you used each kind, roughly how many you placed and left over, and yes-or-no marks for speeding up, looking around, placing a part while the marble rolled, tapping a part, taking a move back, an Assist, a Teleport, a Revive and holding an item. Never where you put anything;
• the first time this device wins a puzzle, how long it had been played before that, as a range;
• a choice was made: "Try a different one", an Assist, the extra marbles after a near miss (offered, and taken free, with an ad or with a purchase), the way back from no lives (an ad, the free refill or a purchase), or an item: which one was offered, got (with an ad or a purchase) or used;
• a life was won: from the gem meter or from a secret's heart, with the puzzle's number;
• a win opened a secret, and whether a puzzle played again was in a region whose secret you had not found yet: a yes or no with the puzzle's number, never where the secret is;
• the Daily was played, at which level, and whether it was won;
• the shop was opened;
• Share was pressed, or something was shared: the moment it came from (a win, a boss, the Daily, a milestone, the map, a postcard or a Workshop machine), and whether it was text, a clip or a picture, and for a clip which kind (your run, a challenge, or the older clip). The link in a share says the same words, so we can count which ones bring people. It says nothing about you;
• in the Workshop: the Bench or the Board was opened, a room card was laid or refused, a machine was shared (and whether it got a code), a machine was played (from where, how many rooms, and whether it was won), or someone arrived on a shared machine by its link or code and pressed Start collecting. Never which cards, which machine, its code, its name or your maker tag;
• play was moved between itch.io and tinkets.com: a link was made, or a save was taken;
• with accounts: the offer to keep your journey was shown or put off, a way of signing in was pressed and whether it worked (Apple, Google, a passkey, this device, a code, or the site's window), you signed out or deleted the account; a "Point your phone here" code was shown, typed, expired or brought a journey, with which kinds of build it went between (for example "itch" to "ios"); and when the game opens, whether this device is signed in and whether its journey came from another device. Never your account, your name or the code;
• an outfit was put on: which one in our catalogue (its name, not the card's own look);
• the game broke: a count with the kind (a script or a file that did not load) and the build, never the message. On a phone, the app stopped while it was open: the kind and the build it stopped on. A build that has an error address set may also send the error's message and the place in the code where it happened, cut short, with the build's name and nothing about you;
• a friend's shared puzzle opened: whether you played it or started the lessons, and, if you played it as a guest, whether it was won. Never which puzzle, who sent it or the link;
• on tinkets.com, a page was viewed (which one: the home page, the Daily, How to play, the press kit, privacy, For grown-ups, or the game), and, in a visit, the first move and the first win. If the link that brought you carries utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign or utm_content words (for example utm_source=share), those words are counted with it, and nothing else of the link. If another site sent you, one word says which kind of place it was (such as "reddit", "google" or "other"), and never the address of the page;
• a card was used.

What we never send

A name, an email, an id we made for you or your device, a cookie, your boards, your layouts, anything you typed, your location, the address of a page that sent you, or a list of what you have solved. The game keeps no install id, no player id and no session id, and it does not store or send back anything our counting tool hands it.

What our counting tool sees

Like any web server, our counting tool sees the connection a count arrives on (the address and the browser) and when it arrives. It makes a temporary hash from them, which is rotated regularly, to tell one visit from another. We do not use it to follow anyone, and it is not part of the counts above. It may also work out a country from the connection.

Your choice

Settings has "Send anonymous play counts", on the web and in the iPhone app. Turn it off and nothing is sent: no count and no error report. It is also off for you if your browser sends Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control. Builds for kids' portals and the offline file send nothing at all.

Moving your progress

Settings can make a link, "Play on tinkets.com with my progress". Your save is inside the link, after the #. A browser never sends what follows the # to any server, so it reaches nobody but you. tinkets.com asks before it takes the save in, and then clears it from the address. A link that has been changed or damaged is refused. We count that a link was made or a save was taken, and nothing of what is in it.

Other places

Cloudflare carries tinkets.com and our counting tool's traffic, and sees connections as any web host does. We have not turned on Cloudflare's own visitor counting.

On itch.io, itch.io's own page may count visits under its own rules. Our game does not share anything with itch.io beyond what any web page does.

Questions

Use the Feedback link in Settings.