Odd Doodle privacy
Odd Doodle is a drawing party game for families. It's built to collect as little as possible: no accounts, no ads, no tracking, and nothing that identifies a child.
What we don't do
- No accounts, no email addresses, no phone numbers, no photos, no contacts, no location.
- No ads, and no advertising or analytics companies. The game makes no requests to any other company's servers.
- We don't sell or share information with anyone.
What the game uses while you play
- A nickname you type (it doesn't have to be a real name). Other players in your room see it. Our server keeps it only while the room exists, and forgets it when the room closes (30 minutes after everyone leaves).
- Word pairs a host types for their room ("Your words"): kept only while the room exists.
- Your drawings, votes and guesses during a game, so the other players in the room can see them. They live only in the server's memory while the room exists and are never saved.
- A random player number made on your device, so a dropped connection puts you back in the same game. It isn't linked to you or your device in any other way.
- Your device's language, to show the game in it, and the region in that setting (like US or UK, never your location), so a host's room can add a few word pairs for that country.
- Odd Doodle Plus, if a host buys it in the app. Apple handles the purchase and payment; we never see a name, an Apple ID or payment details. The app sends our server the App Store's signed proof of the purchase when the host's room opens. The server checks it, marks the room as having Plus, and keeps nothing from the proof: the room forgets it had Plus when it closes.
What stays on your device
Your nickname, the random player number, the sound setting, any custom word pairs you type and any word packs you make with Odd Doodle Plus are saved on your own device so the game remembers them. When you share a word pack, its words are written into the link itself (after the "#", a part browsers never send to a server), so we never receive or store a shared pack; whoever you send the link to can read its words. You can clear them by deleting the app or clearing the browser's site data. Reading the secret word aloud uses your device's own voice; the word isn't sent anywhere to be spoken.
What our server keeps
- Daily totals, like how many rooms were started and games finished each day, which languages games were played in, and which link a room came from (for example, a link we posted). These are counts only: no names, no drawings, no player numbers, no addresses.
- Internet addresses are needed to connect at all. Our server holds them in memory for up to an hour only to stop one connection from creating too many rooms, and doesn't write them to its logs. Our hosting provider, Fly.io, runs the servers in the United States and handles connections as part of providing that service.
Children
Odd Doodle is made for families to play together. It doesn't ask children for personal information and doesn't keep what they type or draw after the game. A room's host can require approval before anyone joins ("Ask before people join"), and any player can hide a drawing from their own screen.
Changes and questions
If this changes, we'll update this page and its date. Questions, or anything you'd like us to know: jun@busyslacker.org.