Pre-release terms for the current beta. Some clauses are still being finalized with counsel; the complete version will be published before any paid release. Questions? Use our contact form.

Accretion: Privacy Policy

Effective date: September 3, 2026
Last updated: September 29, 2026
Who we are: Tideglass Studio, the studio that makes and runs Accretion. Accretion and the Tideglass Studio name are owned by Zorath LLC. On Google Play the developer account is Tide Glass Studio.
Contact: the contact form at tideglass.studio/contact.
Game: Accretion: Clash of Planets, on Google Play for Android and in a web browser at tideglass.studio.

Accretion comes in two builds that handle your data very differently. The Android app never talks to our servers; Google holds everything for it. The web game uses a Tideglass account on our servers. This policy answers each build separately. Read the part for the one you play.

What changed since July 18, 2026

The Android app moved to Google Play Games. It no longer creates a Tideglass account and no longer contacts our servers. Google holds your sign in, your save and your scores.
On Android, your leaderboard row now shows the planet name you typed and the level of the run, next to your Play Games name. Everyone reading the board sees it.
Deleting your game data on Android erases the phone and your cloud save, but not your leaderboard score, which only Google can remove. This policy says how.
Everything about payments was removed. Accretion sells nothing on either build, so there is no payment data.
Web rewarded ads are built but switched off. Nothing on the site loads an advertising script today.
From version 0.3.0, the Android game reports a small set of gameplay counters to Google Play Games, such as the level a run reached. Google keeps them, and we see totals only. Section 2.5 says what they are.

1. The short version

We do not sell your data, and we do not track you across apps or sites. The web game runs no analytics. The Android game reports gameplay counters to Google Play Games, which section 2.5 describes.
Android: no account with us, no data reaches us. Google signs you in, stores your save and your scores, and shows the advertising you choose to watch.
Web: a Tideglass account (email, username, password), your cloud save, and your place on the leaderboard live on our servers.
Anything you put on a leaderboard is public: your name, your planet name, your score and your level.
You can delete your data yourself on both builds. Section 8 says how, and what deletion cannot reach.

2. On Android

2.1 Nothing reaches us

The Android app makes no request to tideglass.studio or to any server of ours. We have no account for you, no database row about you, and no way to look you up. Every online feature in the app is a Google service under your own Google account and Google's privacy policy.

2.2 Sign in

Google Play Games signs you in automatically with the Google account on your phone and gives the game your Play Games player id and display name. The game uses them to show who is signed in, to key your save and to label your scores. Google stores the player id as part of your Play Games profile; we keep no copy of it off the phone and never use it for advertising.

2.3 Your save

Your progress is stored in Play Saved Games under your Google account: your planet, its name, your best score, your lifetime statistics and the run in progress, including the record of that run needed to resume it. It is written from the phone to Google and read back on any phone signed in to the same account. Google keeps it until you delete it (section 8).

2.4 The leaderboards

Accretion has two Google Play leaderboards, all time and this week. When a run beats your best, the game sends your score to Google together with a short tag holding the level of that run, a one-letter code for the path your world followed, and the planet name you typed, up to sixteen characters. Google shows that row, with your Play Games display name and rank, to every player who opens the board, including friends who use Google's friends view. Your row is only listed publicly if your Play Games profile is public, which is Google's setting, not ours.

The game also reads the public board so the rival planets you meet in a run can carry real players' display names. Those names are shown inside your own game only and are never sent anywhere.

2.5 Gameplay counters

From version 0.3.0 the Android game reports a small set of gameplay counters to Google Play Games Services: the level a run reached and the level it ended at, the skills picked, how often a moon was captured or thrown, how long a burn lasted, and a few more of the same kind. Each one is a whole number. Google ties them to your Play Games profile and shows us totals and how many players they came from. We use them only to understand how the game is played and where it is too hard. No name, no email, no device identifier, no location and no free text is sent, and we keep no copy. Nothing is counted unless you are signed in to Play Games.

2.6 What stays on your phone

The rest lives in the app's private storage on your phone and never leaves it: your lives clock, your Stardust, the counters that decide when to ask you for a review or show you a tip, the record of the rewarded ads you have watched, and your sound and motion settings. Uninstalling the app removes them.

2.7 Advertising on Android

Accretion shows rewarded ads only: short videos you choose to watch for an in game bonus. They come from Google AdMob. To serve them, Google and its partners may use your device's advertising ID and information about your device and the ad you watched, under Google's privacy policy and how Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services. In the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland the app shows Google's consent form before any personalised ad, and you can reopen your choice at any time under Settings, then Privacy options. You can also reset or delete your advertising ID in your phone's Google settings. The app is not directed at children and does not request child directed ad treatment.

2.8 What Google Play sees

The Google Play Data safety section for Accretion says the same as this policy: a user id, your game progress and your scores, all stored by Google, the gameplay counters of section 2.5, collected for analytics, and a device advertising identifier shared with Google for advertising. No location, no contacts, no photos, no messages, no crash reports.

3. On the web

3.1 Your account

Playing on the web needs a Tideglass account: an email address, a username and a password. We store the email and the username, and a one way hash of the password, never the password itself. We use them to sign you in, to recover your account and to contact you about it. A cookie keeps you signed in; the Cookie and Storage Policy lists it.

3.2 Your save

Your progress is saved to our servers under your account so another browser or device can continue it: your planet, its name, your best score, your statistics, your run in progress and the record of that run.

3.3 The leaderboard

When a run beats your best, the game sends the run to our servers, which check it and place it on the season board. The board shows your planet name (or your username until you name a planet), your score, your level and your rank to everyone who opens it, signed in or not. Because the board is public, a recording of your best run can also be offered to other players as a "ghost" to race against; that shows them your name and how your planet grew over that run, nothing else. RESET BEST in the game removes your row and your ghost.

3.4 Other things you can send us

The newsletter: your email address, with your consent, until you unsubscribe. We keep a record of the unsubscribe.
The contact form: what you write and the address you give, so we can reply.
A report about a name on the leaderboard: the name and the reason, so a person can review it.

3.5 Advertising on the web

Rewarded ads on the web are built and switched off. No advertising script loads on the site today. When they are switched on they will come from Google AdSense and work the same way as on Android: only when you choose to watch, and behind Google's consent form where the law requires it. Third party vendors, including Google, will then use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits, and you can opt out of personalised advertising at Google's Ads Settings. We will update this policy before the switch is turned on.

3.6 The site itself

Our hosting provider keeps ordinary server logs, including your IP address and browser type, for security and to keep the site running. We run no analytics and no advertising trackers on the site.

4. What we never collect, on either build

Location, contacts, photos, videos, audio, files, calendar, messages, camera, microphone, payment details, crash reports, browsing history. If a future build adds any of these, this policy changes first.

We run no usage analytics in the web game or on this site. On Android the only usage data is the gameplay counters of section 2.5, which Google keeps.

5. Why we use your data, and the legal basis

To run the game and the features you use: sign in, saves, leaderboards, ghosts. Basis: our contract with you.
To keep the leaderboard honest and the service safe: checking submitted runs, acting on reports, preventing abuse. Basis: our legitimate interest in a fair game.
To send you the newsletter, and to show personalised ads where consent is required. Basis: your consent, which you can withdraw at any time.
To answer you when you write to us. Basis: our legitimate interest in answering you.

On Android, Google is the provider of every online feature and we hold no personal data from it. We read the totals of the gameplay counters in Google Play Console to understand how the game is played. Basis: our legitimate interest in improving the game.

6. Who sees your data

Other players: whatever you put on a leaderboard, and on the web the ghost of your best run.
Google: everything on Android, and advertising on both builds once web ads are on.
Our hosting and email providers, who process data for us under contract and do not use it for their own purposes.
Nobody else, unless the law requires it. We do not sell personal data and we do not share it for other companies' advertising.

7. Where your data is kept, and for how long

Our servers are in the United States. Where the law requires safeguards for moving data from the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, we rely on the standard contractual clauses approved for that purpose.

Web account, save, board row and ghost: for as long as your account exists. Deleting the account removes them.
Rewarded ad records on the web (once ads are on): only as long as needed to settle the reward.
Server logs: for a short period set by our hosting provider.
Newsletter: until you unsubscribe, plus the record that you did.
Android: nothing is kept by us. Google keeps your save, your scores and the gameplay counters under your Google account until you delete them.

8. Deleting your data

On the web. In the game, open Settings, then DELETE ACCOUNT, and confirm with DELETE FOREVER. Or use the deletion page on this site. Either one permanently deletes your account, your save, your leaderboard row, your ghost, your planet name and everything banked to the account. It takes effect immediately and cannot be undone.

On Android. In the game, open Settings, then DELETE MY GAME DATA. That erases everything on the phone and your Play Saved Games snapshot. It cannot erase your score on the Play leaderboard, because Google holds that under your own Play Games profile and no game is allowed to remove it. To remove it, open the Play Store app, then Settings, General, Play Games Profile, Privacy and Settings, and choose Delete profile and game data; Google lets you delete the data for Accretion alone or for every game. The gameplay counters of section 2.5 are kept by Google with that same Play Games data. We hold no copy of them, so that Google setting is the place to delete them.

9. Your rights

Depending on where you live you may have the right to see the data we hold about you, to correct it, to delete it, to receive a copy, to object to or restrict some processing, and to withdraw consent. Write to us through the contact form and we will answer within thirty days. You can also complain to your data protection authority. Residents of California and other US states with privacy laws have the rights those laws give; we do not sell personal data, and where a personalised ad you consent to counts as sharing under such a law, your consent choice is the opt out.

10. Children

Accretion is for players aged 13 and over, or older where your country sets a higher age for online consent. The web game asks your year of birth and does not admit younger players. On Google Play the app is rated for a general audience of 13 and older and is not designed for children. If you believe a child under 13 has given us personal data, contact us and we will delete it.

11. Security

Everything between the game and our servers, and between the game and Google, travels encrypted. Passwords are stored only as one way hashes. Access to our servers is limited to the people who run the game.

12. Changes

When this policy changes we update the date at the top and, for material changes, tell you in the game or on this site.

13. Contact

Tideglass Studio. The contact form at tideglass.studio/contact reaches us fastest.

These terms apply to the current release and may be updated. Questions? Use our contact form.