General Idler Privacy Policy

General Idler is developed by Istikan Studio / Tornet. This policy explains what the game collects, why, and what choices you have.

It applies to the PC versions distributed through Steam, including the free demo and the full game, and to play on Steam Deck. General Idler is a one-time purchase: there are no in-app purchases, no subscriptions and no advertisements.

1. Information We Collect

We do not collect personal information such as your real name, email address, phone number, or precise location. We do not operate any servers of our own, and we do not hold any account for you.

The game uses the following services, which may collect limited data:

• Unity Analytics (Unity Technologies) — an app-generated analytics user identifier, session identifiers, device and operating-system information (device model, OS and version, platform, language and game version), and approximate (country/region) location derived from your IP address. This is switched off unless you agree to it (see section 5). General Idler sends no custom gameplay events of its own — no events describing your conquests, progress, purchases or settings. Only Unity’s own standard session and device events are sent.
• Steam (Valve) — when the game unlocks an achievement or submits a leaderboard score, Valve associates it with your Steam account. The game itself never reads, stores or transmits your Steam ID; that association happens inside Steam. Your Steam profile name and avatar may be shown publicly next to your entry on a Steam leaderboard.
• Your purchase — handled entirely by Valve. We never see or receive your name, address, card or payment details, and the game contains no payment or in-app-purchase code of any kind.

Stored only on your own computer, and never transmitted to us:

• Your save file — your empire, progress and statistics, written to your local application data folder. ⚠ General Idler does not currently use Steam Cloud, so your save exists only on the machine you play on. If you delete it, it is gone.
• Your settings — audio volumes, controller options (enabled, sensitivity, deadzone), CRT overlay, UI scale, dock layout, and your privacy choice. These are stored in the local Unity player preferences for the game.

Things this game does NOT do, stated explicitly because they are common in other games:

• No advertisements, and no advertising or attribution SDKs.
• No advertising identifier of any kind.
• No Google Analytics / Firebase, no Meta (Facebook) SDK, no AppsFlyer, no Adjust.
• No in-app purchase or virtual-currency system.
• No crash-reporting or bug-report tool, and no mechanism that uploads your save file to us.
• No microphone, camera, contacts, or file access beyond the game’s own data folder.

2. How We Use This Information

• To understand roughly how many people play, on what hardware, and for how long — so we can prioritise performance work and support the right systems.
• To see where players stop playing, so we can improve pacing and difficulty.
• To provide Steam achievements and leaderboards.

We do not use your data to build a profile of you, to target advertising, or to make any automated decision that affects you.

3. Data Sharing

We do not sell or rent your data, and we do not share it for advertising.

Data is processed by the following parties, under their own privacy policies:

• Unity Technologies — the analytics data described in section 1, only with your consent. https://unity.com/legal/game-player-and-app-user-privacy-policy
• Valve Corporation — as required to deliver the game and to provide achievements and leaderboards. Your use of Steam is also governed by Valve’s own policy. https://store.steampowered.com/privacy_agreement/

No other third party receives data from this game.

4. Advertising and Tracking

General Idler does not display advertisements, and does not track you.

There is no advertising measurement, no attribution SDK, no advertising identifier, and no sharing of your activity with any advertising network. Nothing in this game is used to follow you across other apps or websites.

5. Your Choices and Consent

• In-game consent. The first time you launch the game, it asks whether you agree to analytics collection. If you decline, analytics stay switched off and nothing is sent. The full game is playable either way — the choice affects nothing except data collection.
• Changing your mind. We operate no servers and keep no database, so there is nothing held by us to delete. The data described in section 1 sits with Unity, under Unity’s own retention policy. If you want data that has already been sent removed, contact us using the details in section 9 and we will pass the request to Unity.
• Deleting your local data. Deleting the game’s save file from your local application data folder removes your progress from your computer.
• Playing offline. Analytics requires a network connection. If you play offline, initialisation is skipped and nothing is collected; the game runs normally.

6. Children’s Privacy

General Idler is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided us with information, please contact us and we will delete it.

7. Data Retention

Analytics data is retained by Unity according to its own retention policy. Achievement and leaderboard data is retained by Valve in association with your Steam account for as long as you keep the game on your account. Your save file and settings remain on your computer until you delete them. We hold no database of our own and retain nothing directly.

8. Your Rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, delete, or object to the processing of your data, and to withdraw consent at any time.

The most direct control is the consent prompt itself: decline it and nothing is ever sent, so there is nothing to request later. We hold no data ourselves — we run no servers and keep no database — so any request about data already collected is passed to Unity, who store and retain it under their own policy (section 3). To exercise these rights, contact us using the details below.

9. Changes to This Policy and Contact

We may update this policy from time to time. Material changes will be reflected in the “Last Updated” date above, and the game will ask for your consent again where required.

If you have questions about this policy, contact us at: danar@istikan.studio