Privacy Policy
Sumu · Last updated 4 October 2026
Sumu knows nothing about you. There are no accounts, no advertising, and no tracking of any kind. Everything the app knows about you and your creatures stays on your device.
One exception, and it is the whole of it: the app can send a small count of what happened in the game — a session began, a box was opened — so we can tell whether the game is working. No names, no text you typed, nothing that identifies you or your device. You can switch it off inside the app, and switching it off throws away anything still waiting to be sent.
What stays on your device
The game keeps one save file in the app's private container, shared only between Sumu and its own Lock Screen and Home Screen widgets. It holds:
- your creatures, their names and nicknames, and how you have cared for them;
- your hearts, shards, boxes and purchases;
- your den — its scenes and its wall;
- display preferences, such as appearance and whether the Lock Screen row is folded.
None of that is transmitted anywhere. Deleting the app deletes all of it. We have no copy of your save, because we never had one.
The counts we do send
If measurement is on — it is on by default, and there is a switch in the app's companion screen under Help improve the game — the app sends five kinds of count, and nothing else:
- a session started, and whether it was the first one;
- a blind box was opened, with its rarity, its series and where the tap came from;
- a creature collapsed, with roughly how long it had been left, in buckets of days rather than an exact figure;
- a subscription page was shown, and what opened it;
- a purchase completed, and which product it was.
Each count carries a random identifier that is made once when you install the app and stored only on your device. It is not your Apple Account, not your device's advertising identifier, and not the identifier for vendors. It exists so that two sessions can be recognised as the same copy of the app — which is all that is needed to tell whether people come back — and it is never joined to anything that would make it a person. Deleting and reinstalling the app makes a new one, and the old one can never be connected to it.
Nothing you typed ever leaves. Your creatures' nicknames and the name you give a visitor are deliberately impossible to put into one of these counts: the app will not compile if anyone tries.
The counts go to a server we run on Cloudflare, in Europe, and they are kept for ninety days. We use them to answer questions about the game, never about a person. They are not sold, not shared, and not combined with anything from anywhere else.
To turn it off: the companion screen, then the switch marked Help improve the game. Turning it off stops new counts and discards any that have not yet been sent.
Purchases
In-app purchases and the Sumu Club subscription are handled entirely by Apple. We never see your name, your payment method, or your Apple Account. What the app stores locally is only what it needs to honour what you bought: which products you own, when a subscription period ends, and the identifiers of transactions already applied — the last of these so an interrupted purchase cannot be granted twice.
Your purchase history with Apple is governed by Apple's Privacy Policy, not by this one.
Notifications
Reminders — a hungry creature, a waiting box, a streak about to lapse — are scheduled on your device by your device. Nothing is sent from a server, and no push token is ever created or shared. You are asked for permission only after you have opened your first box, and you can withdraw it at any time in iOS Settings.
Gift and visit codes
Codes are generated and read entirely on your device. A code is ten characters and contains only a version, a kind, a short hash of a creature or series, a random value and a checksum. It carries no name, no identifier of you, and no way to reach you.
How you share a code is up to you — a message, a photo, out loud — and whichever app you use to send it is covered by that app's own privacy policy, not this one. When you label a visiting creature, the name you type is stored only on your device.
What we do not do
- No third-party analytics and no crash-reporting service. The counts described above go to our own server and nowhere else.
- No advertising, and no advertising identifier (IDFA). The app does not use App Tracking Transparency because it has nothing to ask about.
- No third-party SDKs of any kind. The app has no external dependencies.
- No accounts, sign-in, email address or phone number.
- No location, contacts, photos, microphone or camera access.
- No selling or sharing of data with anyone, for any purpose.
Children
Sumu is suitable for all ages and collects no personal information from anyone, including children under 13. The counts described above are about the game rather than about a player, and carry nothing that identifies one. Purchases can be restricted using Screen Time and Ask to Buy.
Your rights
Regulations such as the GDPR and the CCPA give you rights of access, correction, deletion and portability over personal data held about you. We hold none: the counts described above identify a copy of the app and not a person, and we have no way to connect one to you even if you asked us to. Your save is on your device, and deleting the app removes it.
If you would rather send nothing at all, the switch in the app stops it, and the counts already collected expire by themselves after ninety days.
Changes
This page is updated before a version that changes what leaves your device is released, and the date at the top changes with it. The entry on 4 October 2026 is the first of those: until then the app made no network requests at all, and now it can send the counts described above.
Contact
Questions about this policy: bondaz.theo+privacy@gmail.com.