Effective date: October 8, 2026
Porchlight is a cozy Halloween game. You can play the whole game offline. The online extras (visiting other players’ streets, friends, leaderboards, house contests and cloud saves) use a small game server we run at porchlight.reecedev.ca. This policy says exactly what that involves.
| Data | Why | Who can see it |
|---|---|---|
| Random player ID (generated on your device, not a hardware ID) and login tokens | To recognise your game when it reconnects | Only our server |
| If you choose Sign in with Apple or Google: a scrambled (hashed) copy of the account identifier Apple or Google gives us, and for Apple a revocation token | So signing in on another device finds your save; so we can cancel the Apple sign-in when you delete your account | Only our server |
| Display name (up to 16 characters, filtered for bad words) | Shown to other players | Other players |
| Age band (under 13 / 13 and over), parent PIN (stored only as a hash) | Child-safety settings, see below | Only our server |
| Cloud save and a public snapshot of your house (decorations, trophies, costumes, arcade bests) | Cloud save, friends visiting your house, contests | You; the snapshot is visible to friends and contest voters |
| Friends, friend requests, house ratings, preset gifts | The friends features | You and those friends |
| Leaderboard scores with your display name and platform | Leaderboards | Everyone |
| Your character’s position, costume and animation while online | So players in the same area see each other | Players in the same area |
| Bug reports you choose to send: your text, game version, device model, OS, graphics card, screen size, player ID, the last lines of the game log | To fix bugs | Only the developer |
| Reports you send about another player | Moderation | Only the developer |
| IP address (in server logs and rate limiting) | Security and abuse prevention | Only our server |
There is no chat. Gifts and emotes use preset messages only.
Photos you take in the game are saved or shared only through your device’s own share sheet; nothing is uploaded to us.
Players who say they are under 13 get a child account: their name is shown as “Kid #1234” instead of a chosen name, they can only be seen by friends, and a parent can set a PIN that guards online settings, friend requests and scare levels. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children beyond what is listed above, none of which identifies a child in the real world. A parent can delete a child’s online account in the game, or ask us to delete it by email.
In the game: Settings → More → Delete online account. This permanently deletes your online account, friends, cloud save, house snapshot, contest entries and leaderboard scores from our server, and disconnects any Apple or Google sign-in. Your saved game on the device stays until you delete the app. You can also email us to ask for deletion.
You can block or report another player from the friends list, friend requests, contest entries, and the list of players in your online room (Settings → More → Blocked players, where you can also unblock). Blocked players cannot send you requests or gifts and are hidden from you. Reports are reviewed by the developer, and offending names or content are removed.
We keep online account data until you delete your account. Bug reports, reports about other players and server logs are kept only as long as needed to fix problems and prevent abuse.
If this policy changes, we will update this page and its effective date.
Questions or requests: reecemarkowsky@gmail.com