Privacy policy
Effective 2026-10-03
- No account, email or phone number needed. You pick a name; that's it.
- No ads, no analytics, no tracking across apps or websites, and we never sell your data.
- We keep what the game needs: your profile and progress (in your online save), the films you make with others, and, briefly, what you put on the big screen.
- You can delete your data in the app at any time: Settings → Privacy & safety → Delete my data.
Who we are
Recess is a game made by the Recess team (“we”, “us”). This policy covers the Recess apps for iPhone, iPad and Android and the game on the web. If you have a question or a request, use the contact form.
What we collect, and why
Your player profile
The name you choose for the credits, your character's look, your pets, your settings, your progress (box office, rank, credits, streaks, Today's Feature results), and the coins, items, furniture and car you've earned in the game. It lives on your device, and when you play online it's copied to your online save on our servers so it can come back on another device. Your save is found by a randomly generated save code (three words and eight digits, like TACO-OTTER-PIZZA-4821-7730); keep it to yourself, because anyone with the code can restore your save. We don't ask for your real name, email address, phone number, contacts or location.
Identifiers we make up
Each time you play, the game gives you a random player ID for that session, and your device keeps one random device key. The key lets people you've blocked stay blocked, and lets us enforce bans. Neither is an advertising identifier, and neither is shared with anyone for advertising.
What you make and share in a room
- Films you draw with others are kept in our archive and in the reels of the players who were there, with the names of the crew in the credits.
- Things you put on the big screen: links (for example YouTube, Vimeo or Twitch), and, in private rooms, videos you upload and photos you add. Uploaded videos and photos are stored only for that room and deleted when the room closes.
- Your camera (“Go live”, only in private rooms and only when you turn it on): the picture goes to the people in your room, directly between devices where possible (WebRTC), otherwise relayed through our server. We don't record or keep it. Going live sends pictures only, never sound (a video you record with your phone's camera to upload keeps its own sound, like any video). A direct connection lets the other devices in the call see your IP address, as with any video call.
- Room information: room codes, who's in a room, where characters are and what they're doing, and what people leave in the places (a flag on the Moon, a parked ship, a high score in the arcade, with the player's name). Kept while the room is open; a room closes about ten minutes after the last person leaves. Private room passwords are stored only as salted one-way hashes.
Reports, blocks and messages
If you report or block someone, we keep the report: the reason you gave, what was going on in the room (for example the reported player's name, device key and save code, and what they had put on the big screen), and one-way hashes of both players' network addresses. If you write to us, we keep your message and the email address you give us, if any. We use these only to keep Recess safe and to answer you.
Technical information
Your device's IP address reaches our servers whenever you play online, as it does with any internet service. We use it to deliver the game, to limit how often requests can be made, and to prevent abuse; where we keep it for bans or reports, we keep only a one-way hash. Our hosting provider keeps standard request logs for a short time.
Your age range
Before you play online, Recess checks that you're old enough: the App Store or Google Play tells the app your age range where they offer to, otherwise the app asks for your birth month and year. Only the resulting age range is kept, on your device, and it's used only to decide whether you can play online. It's never sent to us.
Offline play
Offline play keeps everything on your device and sends us nothing.
How we use it
- To run the game: rooms, saves, films, the big screen and everything else you play.
- To keep it safe: filtering names and titles, handling reports, removing content and banning players who break the community rules.
- To prevent abuse, fraud and spam, and to keep the service working.
- To answer you when you contact us, and to meet our legal obligations.
We don't use your data for advertising, we don't build profiles about you, and we don't track you across other companies' apps or websites.
Where the law asks for a legal basis (for example in the UK and EU), we rely on providing the game you asked to play (contract), on our legitimate interest in keeping it safe and working, and on legal obligations.
Who sees it
- Other players in your room see your name, your character and pet, and what you make, put on the big screen or show on camera. The films you make are seen by everyone who was there.
- Our service providers host and store the game for us under contract, and may process data only on our instructions: Cloudflare (servers, storage and networking).
- Video services you or others choose. When a YouTube, Vimeo or Twitch video (or any other link) is on the big screen, your device loads it directly from that service, which receives your IP address and device information under its own privacy policy: Vimeo, Twitch. Recess uses YouTube API Services to play YouTube videos, in YouTube's privacy-enhanced mode; YouTube's use of your data is covered by the Google Privacy Policy.
- When the law requires it, or to protect someone's safety, we may share information with the authorities.
We never sell or rent your personal information.
How long we keep it
- Your online save: until you delete it.
- Films: for as long as they're in someone's reel. When you delete your data, your slices of the films in your reel are wiped and your name comes off them (they read “Former player”); the other players' slices stay, because they made those.
- Rooms, uploaded videos and photos: until the room closes.
- Reports and messages: until we've dealt with them, then up to one year.
- Bans: until they end.
- Records used to limit requests: about an hour.
Your choices and rights
- Delete your data in the app (Settings → Privacy & safety → Delete my data), on the delete your data page with your save code, or by contacting us.
- Block anyone from Who's here: you stop seeing their name, words, drawings and big-screen picks.
- Your camera is off unless you turn it on, and you can turn it off at any time; you can also take back the camera permission in your device's settings.
- Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, delete or get a copy of your personal data, to object to or restrict how we use it, and to complain to your data protection authority. To use any of these, use the contact form. We'll answer within 30 days.
Children
Recess is not directed at children under 13, and you must be at least 13 (or older, if the law where you live says so) to play online. We don't knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has given us information, use the contact form and we'll delete it.
Security
Everything between the app and our servers is encrypted (HTTPS and secure WebSockets). Passwords are stored only as salted hashes, admin tools need a secret key, and we keep as little as the game needs.
Where your data is processed
Our servers run on Cloudflare's global network, so your data may be processed in countries other than yours, with the safeguards the law requires.
Changes
If we change this policy we'll update the date at the top, and if the change matters we'll tell you in the app before you next play online.
Contact
the Recess team. To reach us, use the contact form.