Plonkie Privacy Notice
This notice explains how the Plonkie browser game and website (the "Service") handle information.
1. Who can use Plonkie
Plonkie is intended for players aged 13 and older. Plonkie is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly permit children under 13 to create accounts or use public community features. If we learn that information was collected from a child under 13 contrary to these rules, we will take appropriate steps. A parent or guardian may contact privacy@plonkie.com.
2. Information Plonkie handles
Account information. Plonkie may create a guest account so that progress can be saved. A guest account still has a server-side account identifier. If you claim or sign in to an account using Google, we may receive your email address and Google identity information needed for login. We also handle your username, friend code, account status, login/session information, account creation time, and recent activity.
Game information. We save information needed to operate the game, including your Plonkies, eggs, appearances, mutations and variants, discoveries, catches, hatch state, shelf positions, favorites, quests, story progress, daily rewards, avatars, statistics, gems, items, equipment, gifts, and system mail. We keep game-ledger and action records where needed to calculate balances, prevent duplicated rewards, investigate cheating, and correct technical errors.
Profiles, chat, and social features. Your username, avatar, friend code, selected statistics, collection information, account status, and recent activity may be visible to other players. Chat messages appear publicly with your displayed username, rank, and time. Do not place real-world contact details, passwords, payment information, or another person's private information in usernames, profiles, gifts, or chat.
Diagnostics, telemetry, and security. We process game and technical events to operate, secure, debug, and improve Plonkie. These may include session and onboarding events, gameplay interactions, build information, authentication or database failures, network/resume failures, error messages, limited diagnostics, rate-limit records, and fraud or security signals. These records can be associated with your Plonkie account identifier; we do not describe them as anonymous.
Browser, device, and network information. Plonkie and its infrastructure providers may receive ordinary technical information such as IP address, browser or device type, language, request time, requested URL, and security signals. The game uses browser storage for authentication sessions, preferences, tutorial and onboarding state, selected items, a small telemetry retry queue, and other local game state.
Purchases. Plonkie supporter packs are sold outside the game: the digital Founder Light pack through our payment provider (Lemon Squeezy, as merchant of record), and the physical Superchib collectible through the independent nodemerch store. When you redeem an order code in-game, we process the code, your Plonkie account, and verification/fulfillment status. Plonkie never receives or needs your full card number.
3. Why we use information
- create and authenticate accounts;
- save progress and provide requested game, profile, chat, gift, and mail features;
- calculate and protect gems, rewards, items, and entitlements;
- prevent duplicated actions, cheating, fraud, abuse, and security incidents;
- provide support and respond to privacy, deletion, safety, and refund requests;
- diagnose failures and improve performance and game design;
- moderate community features and enforce the rules; and
- comply with applicable legal obligations and resolve disputes.
Where applicable, these activities may be based on providing the Service you requested, our legitimate interests in operating and securing Plonkie, consent for genuinely optional processing, and legal obligations relating to purchases or safety. Optional analytics or marketing requiring consent will not be added without an appropriate choice.
4. Who receives information
- other players, for the public/social information described above;
- Supabase — authentication, database, and realtime backend services;
- Google — when you choose Google login, and for Google-hosted resources (such as fonts);
- hCaptcha — bot and abuse prevention;
- Cloudflare — hosting, CDN, and security for the website;
- Lemon Squeezy — payment processing for digital packs (as merchant of record);
- nodemerch — the independent store selling the Superchib collectible; and
- professional advisers, platforms, or authorities when reasonably necessary and lawfully required.
We do not use Plonkie account information for behavioral advertising and do not sell it for money.
5. International processing
Our service providers may process information outside your country, and Plonkie is operated from the Philippines (Republic Act No. 10173, the Data Privacy Act of 2012, applies to the operator). Where applicable law requires a transfer safeguard, we will use the safeguard applicable to the provider and transfer. Contact privacy@plonkie.com for information about relevant arrangements.
6. How long information is kept
- account and saved-game data: kept while your account exists; deleted on a verified account-deletion request;
- chat and moderation evidence: chat messages are kept while the Service operates; rule-breaking messages are hidden rather than erased so moderation and anti-abuse limits keep working, and hidden content is retained as moderation evidence;
- linked telemetry and diagnostics: retained while we operate and secure the beta, without a fixed schedule; account-linked telemetry is removed when the account is deleted;
- gifts and mail: kept while the accounts involved exist;
- security and game-ledger records: kept while needed for balance integrity, duplicate prevention, and abuse investigation;
- purchase and redemption records: kept as required for verification, refunds, disputes, and accounting; and
- backups: automatic daily backups are kept for about two weeks (the newest 14 daily copies) and then rotated out; occasional manual pre-maintenance copies are kept only as long as needed.
Deletion from active systems may not immediately remove information from protected backups. Restored data must be reconciled with completed deletion requests before being returned to service.
7. Your choices and rights
Depending on where you live, you may have rights to request access, correction, deletion, a copy, restriction, objection, or withdrawal of consent, and to complain to a data-protection authority. Legal exceptions may apply.
Send a request to privacy@plonkie.com and include your Plonkie username or friend code if available. We may verify that you control the relevant account. Never send us a password, full card number, or authentication code.
Signing out or clearing browser storage does not by itself delete the server account. To request account deletion, email privacy@plonkie.com. We will explain any limited records that must be retained for security, disputes, accounting, or legal reasons.
8. Security
We use reasonable technical and organizational measures appropriate to the Service and the information handled. No online service can promise absolute security. Contact security@plonkie.com if you believe your account or information has been compromised.
9. Changes
We may update this notice as Plonkie changes. We will post the new effective date and provide additional notice or obtain a new choice where required for a material change.
10. Contact
Privacy and data requests: privacy@plonkie.com
Player support: support@plonkie.com
Operator: thesmoldepartment, an independent game studio based in the Philippines, reachable at the addresses above.