01Who we are
Skanimalz is made by CSX Developers, an independent app studio based in the United Kingdom. We are the data controller for the small amount of personal data described on this page.
This policy covers the Skanimalz Android app and the skanimalz.com website. It does not cover any other CSX Developers product.
02What stays on your device
Skanimalz has no accounts and no cloud save. The overwhelming majority of the game lives in a database on your phone and nowhere else. That includes:
- Every creature in your collection, with its stats, level, nickname and battle record
- Your scan history — which barcodes you've scanned and when
- Your player profile: username, level, XP, coins, diamonds, streak
- Eggs, teams, missions, achievements, unlocked cosmetics and your Cyber Pet
- Your settings
We cannot see any of this. It is not backed up to us and there is no way for us to retrieve it. If you uninstall the app without exporting a backup first, it is gone permanently — including anything you have paid for.
Backups are yours to hold. The in-app backup feature writes a file to storage you choose. We never receive it. Keep it somewhere safe if your collection matters to you.
03The League Table
Skanimalz has a public League Table at skanimalz.com/leaderboard.html. Each time you open the app, it sends your current stats to that table. This happens automatically in the background.
What gets sent:
| Data | What it is |
|---|---|
| Player ID | A random identifier created on your device the first time you open the app. It is not linked to your name, your phone, your Google account or anything else. Its only job is to make sure your stats update your existing row rather than adding a new one. We cannot trace it back to a person or a device. |
| Username | Whatever display name you set in the app. This is shown publicly. If you'd rather not be identifiable, use a nickname. |
| Profile photo | Only if you have set one. It is shown publicly next to your name. |
| Game stats | Level, XP, total and unique creature counts, your rarity breakdown, highest rarity found, battles fought and won, total scans, streak days, coins, shiny count, research points and achievement progress. |
What is not sent: your scan history, which specific barcodes or products you scanned, your individual creatures, your location, or anything about your device.
Don't want to be on it? Email us with your username and we will remove your row and any profile photo. See Your rights.
04Sharing a find
You can choose to share a creature you've discovered to the public Finds feed. This only ever happens when you tap Share and confirm. Nothing is shared automatically.
When you share a find, we receive:
- The creature's name, kingdom, rarity, species, element and power
- The product name you typed in — for example "Tesco Digestives"
- Your trainer name, or "A trainer" if you leave it blank
- Optionally, a picture of the creature and a photo of the product, if you choose to attach them
- Optionally, the nearest town — see Location below
Everything you share to the Finds feed is public. Anyone can view it and rate it, and it may appear on the world map at skanimalz.com/explore.html.
Uploaded images are re-encoded on our server, which strips out any embedded metadata such as EXIF location tags from the original photo.
Please don't photograph people. Product photos are meant to show the thing you scanned. Avoid faces, addresses, receipts and anything else you wouldn't want on a public page.
05Location
Skanimalz asks for coarse (approximate) location only, and only when you choose to attach a location to a find you are sharing. The app never requests precise location, and it never collects location in the background.
When you allow it, the app finds the nearest town name and rounds the coordinates to roughly one kilometre before sending them. Our server rounds them again on arrival, so we could not store a more precise position even if the app sent one. The result is a marker that can only ever land on a town, never on a home or a street.
Declining the location permission does nothing except leave the town off your shared find. The rest of the app is unaffected.
06Camera and barcodes
The camera is used for one thing: reading barcodes. Barcode detection runs entirely on your phone using Google's on-device ML Kit — no image is ever uploaded for scanning.
The camera preview is not recorded. No photo is saved unless you deliberately take one to attach to a shared find.
The barcode number itself is stored in your local scan history on your device. It is not sent to us.
07Battles and trading
Bluetooth and Wi-Fi battles and trades connect your phone directly to the other player's phone. The data travels between the two devices over Bluetooth or your local network. It does not pass through our servers and we never see it.
During a battle or trade, the other player's device receives your trainer name and the details of the creatures involved. Only connect with people you're happy to share that with.
Bluetooth scanning is declared with the neverForLocation flag, which tells Android we only use nearby-device results to find an opponent and never to work out where you are.
08Purchases
In-app purchases are handled entirely by Google Play Billing. Skanimalz never sees or stores your card details, billing address or any other payment information — Google handles all of it and only tells the app whether a purchase succeeded.
Google's handling of that data is covered by the Google Privacy Policy. Refunds are handled through Google Play, not by us.
Purchases unlock content in your local game database. Because we hold no account for you, purchases cannot be restored to a different device or recovered after an uninstall unless you have made a backup.
09The website
Beta signups
If you enter your email address to join the beta, we store that address, the date, and the IP address it came from. It is used only to contact you about the Skanimalz beta. We never sell it, and we don't use it for anything else.
Ratings
When you rate a find on the Finds page, we record your IP address alongside that rating so that one person can't rate the same find repeatedly. It isn't used to identify you or for any other purpose.
Server logs
Like nearly all websites, our host records standard access logs including IP addresses, for security and troubleshooting. These are held only as long as our hosting provider retains them.
Cookies and fonts
skanimalz.com sets no cookies and runs no analytics or advertising scripts. The site does load fonts from Google Fonts, which means Google receives your IP address when a page loads. If you would rather avoid that, a content blocker will stop it and the site will still work.
10Children
Skanimalz is a family-friendly game and we expect younger players. We have deliberately kept the data footprint as small as possible for that reason: no accounts, no ads, no tracking, no ad identifiers, no precise location and no messaging between players.
Two features are public, and parents should know about them:
- The League Table shows the username and profile photo you set in the app.
- The Finds feed shows anything you deliberately choose to share, which may include a town name and photos you attach.
We recommend children use a nickname rather than a real name, and don't attach photos that show people or places. If you are a parent or guardian and want anything about your child removed, email us and we will delete it promptly — we won't ask you to prove anything first.
The app also offers in-app purchases. Parents can turn these off or require a password using Google Play's parental controls.
11How long we keep things
| What | How long |
|---|---|
| Your game data | On your device, for as long as you keep the app installed. We hold no copy. |
| League Table row | Until you ask us to delete it. Each new post replaces the previous one. |
| Shared finds | The feed keeps the 300 most recent finds. Older ones drop off automatically. |
| Uploaded images | Alongside the find or profile they belong to. |
| Beta signup emails | Until the beta ends or you ask to be removed, whichever comes first. |
| Rating records | Alongside the find they relate to. |
12Your rights and how to delete
Under UK GDPR you have the right to ask us for a copy of any personal data we hold about you, to have it corrected, to have it deleted, to object to how we use it, and to complain to a regulator.
In practice, here's how each of them works:
Delete everything on your phone
Uninstall the app, or use Android Settings → Apps → Skanimalz → Storage → Clear data. This is instant and permanent, and it removes your entire collection along with anything you've purchased.
Remove your League Table row
Email us your username and we'll delete the row and any profile photo. We'll confirm when it's done.
Remove a shared find
Email us with the creature name and roughly when you shared it, and we'll remove the post and its images.
Remove your beta signup email
Email us and we'll delete the entry.
We respond to all of these within 30 days, usually far sooner, and there is no charge. Because we hold no accounts, we can't verify identity in the usual way — so please email from the address you signed up with, or tell us the exact username so we remove the right row.
Complaints. If you're unhappy with how we've handled your data, you can complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113. We'd appreciate the chance to put it right first.
13Legal basis
Where we process personal data, we rely on:
- Consent — for sharing a find, attaching a location or photo, and joining the beta mailing list. You give it by choosing to do the thing, and you can withdraw it by asking us to delete the result.
- Legitimate interests — for the League Table (running the game feature players expect), for rate-limiting by IP (keeping the site usable and spam-free), and for server logs (security).
- Contract — for delivering in-app purchases you've paid for.
Our data is stored on servers in the United Kingdom and the European Economic Area with our hosting provider. We do not sell personal data, and we do not share it with third parties for their own purposes.
14Changes to this policy
If we change what data the app collects, we'll update this page and change the date at the top. For anything significant we'll also say so in the app's release notes. This page is always the current version.
Questions, or want something deleted?
Email us. A real person reads it, and we don't need an account number.
info@skanimalz.comCSX Developers · United Kingdom · csxdevelopers.co.uk