Privacy Policy
Hostages is a free, no-account game for groups of friends. This page explains exactly what the game handles, who can see it, and when it is deleted.
1. Who runs this
Hostages is run by Aidan McCants, an individual (“I”, “me”). It is a hobby project, not a company. Questions or privacy requests: hostages@aidanmccants.com.
2. What the game handles
| Information | When | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Your display name, team names, team roles | When you join or set up teams. Names can be anything you like — you don’t have to use your real one. | To show who is who in the game. |
| A group phone number | Only if a Hostage team enters one (optional). | So the hunting team can tap “Call my hostages” after drop-off. |
| Precise location (GPS) | Only after you tap a location button and your browser or phone asks permission: Set to My Location (admin, for the start/finish spot), Share My Location (Hostage teams), return check-in, and the Freeze “track my stop” button. While sharing or tracking is on, your position is sent repeatedly (about every few seconds for Freeze). | Radar, power-ups, check-in at the finish, and Freeze enforcement. |
| Photos | Only if you attach one when marking someone found. | Shown to everyone in the game and posted to a linked Telegram chat, if any. |
| Approximate time zone | When a game is created. Cloudflare works it out from the admin’s connection. | To label Telegram updates in local time. |
| IP address and request details | Every time your device talks to the game’s servers. | Needed to deliver the service. Processed by Cloudflare (see section 4). I don’t store or look at IP addresses. |
| Game activity | As you play. | Timers, scores, the Updates feed, and the leaderboard (e.g. who found whom, how long it took, power-ups drawn). |
On your device
The game keeps one item in your browser’s local storage so a refresh doesn’t kick you out of the game: the room code, whether you are the admin, a random player ID, and (for the admin) a private admin token. It also remembers that you accepted the Terms. That’s all strictly necessary to make the game work, so there is no cookie banner — there are no advertising, analytics, or tracking cookies of any kind. Leaving the game clears the session item.
Photos and metadata
Photos are resized and re-encoded on your phone before upload, which normally strips camera metadata such as embedded GPS coordinates. This is a side effect of resizing rather than a guarantee, so don’t photograph anything you wouldn’t want the group to see.
3. How it is used — and not used
Only to run the game you are in. I don’t sell or share personal information, I don’t show ads, I don’t build profiles, and I don’t use game data to train anything.
4. Who can see it
- Everyone in your game. Anyone who has the room code can join, and the game sends its data to every device in the room. The app only displays a phone number or a location to the people it’s meant for, but the underlying data (including shared coordinates and team phone numbers) reaches every phone in the game, and someone who knows how to inspect network traffic could read it. Only share the room code with people you trust, and only turn on location sharing if you are comfortable with that.
- Telegram, if your admin links a chat. Milestone updates (round start, drop-offs, finds) and found-photos are posted to that Telegram chat, where every member of the chat can see them and Telegram’s own privacy policy applies. Content posted there is out of my control and is not removed when the game is deleted.
- Cloudflare hosts the site and the game (Workers, Durable Objects, R2 storage, KV) and necessarily sees IP addresses and request data. See Cloudflare’s privacy policy.
- Map services your device contacts directly, each of which receives your IP address and ordinary browser details. The site’s typefaces and mapping library are served from the game’s own host, not from a third party.
- Esri (
server.arcgisonline.com) — satellite imagery when the admin opens the location map. Esri learns which map area is being viewed. - OpenStreetMap’s Nominatim service (
nominatim.openstreetmap.org) — used by the Street Name Drop and Jurisdiction Leak power-ups. When one fires, the hunter’s phone sends the hostage team’s shared coordinates to Nominatim to look up a street or town name. Address data © OpenStreetMap contributors.
- Esri (
- Legal and safety. I may disclose information if required by law, or if I believe it is necessary to prevent serious harm. Because the game keeps almost nothing, there is very little to disclose.
5. How long it is kept
Game data lives only as long as the game does. About two minutes after the last connected device disconnects, the room is wiped: names, teams, phone numbers, locations, scores, the Updates feed, every uploaded photo, and the Telegram link. I don’t keep backups or archives of games. Things that exist outside the room are not covered by this: photos or screenshots other players saved, Telegram messages, and short-lived operational logs Cloudflare may keep under its own policies.
A game stays alive as long as at least one person stays connected to it, so when you’re finished, the admin should tap End Game and everyone should leave or close the app. The admin leaving the game starts the same countdown for everyone. Nothing else deletes a game early.
6. Your choices and rights
- Location sharing, phone numbers, and photos are all optional, and location is only collected after you tap a button and grant your device’s permission. You can turn sharing off at any time and withdraw permission in your browser or phone settings.
- You can use any name you like.
- You can leave a game at any time; the admin can end it for everyone.
- Depending on where you live (for example California, the EU, or the UK) you may have legal rights to access, correct, delete, or port your personal information, and to object to or restrict its use. Because there are no accounts and games self-delete, most requests are satisfied automatically. If you need something sooner, contact me as described in section 1 with the room code. I will not charge for or discriminate over a request.
- If you are in the EU or UK, I process this information to provide the game you asked to play (contract/legitimate interests), and, for precise location and photos, on the basis of your consent, which you give by tapping the relevant button. You may also complain to your local data-protection authority.
7. Children
Hostages is not for children under 13, and I don’t knowingly collect information from them. If you are 13–17, a parent or guardian must be comfortable with you playing (see the Terms). If you believe a child under 13 has used the game, tell me and I’ll remove the data.
8. Security
Connections to the site and the game use HTTPS. There are no accounts or passwords: the room code is the only thing that stands between a stranger and a game, and the game is built for trusted friend groups rather than to resist someone trying to break in. I can’t guarantee absolute security.
9. Where data is processed
Cloudflare runs a global network, so your information may be processed in countries other than your own, including the United States.
10. Changes
If this policy changes in a way that matters, I’ll update the date above and the game will ask you to accept the new version the next time you create or join a game.