Sandlings
Privacy Policy.
In short: Sandlings does not collect, store, transmit, sell or share any personal data. It has no accounts, no advertising, no analytics, no tracking and no third-party code that collects data, and the game itself never connects to the internet. Your worlds, your progress and the few settings it remembers stay on your device. If you choose to speak to the Sandlings, your speech is recognised on your device wherever it can be; on Apple devices that cannot, Apple’s speech service may process it, and on Android the App listens only where your phone can recognise speech itself, as described in section 4.
This policy explains how WAW Etc Ltd (“we”, “us”, “our”) handles information in connection with the Sandlings app for iPhone, iPad, Mac and Android (the “App”) and when you contact us. We have written it to comply with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (“UK GDPR”), the Data Protection Act 2018 and, where applicable, the EU General Data Protection Regulation.
1. Who we are
The App is published by WAW Etc Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales under company number 17466895, whose registered office is at 29 Chalk Hill, Watford, WD19 4BL.
For the limited personal data described in section 6 (messages you send us), WAW Etc Ltd is the data controller, registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office under reference ZC261095. You can contact us about privacy at any time at hello@wawetc.com.
2. Information we do not collect
We designed Sandlings so that we don’t need any information about you. Through the App we do not collect or receive:
- your name, email address, phone number or any other contact details;
- device identifiers, IP addresses or advertising identifiers;
- location, photos, contacts or camera data;
- recordings of your voice, or what you type or say to the Sandlings;
- usage analytics, gameplay data or the worlds you make in the App;
- health, financial or any other sensitive information.
The App contains no third-party software development kits (SDKs) that collect data, no advertising networks, analytics services or social media integrations, and it makes no network connections of its own. On Android it does not even ask for permission to use the internet.
3. Information stored only on your device
To work as expected, the App saves information locally on your device, in the App’s own private storage. This information is never sent to us or anyone else.
| What | Why | How long |
|---|---|---|
| The worlds you make, including the Sandlings in them, their memories and what you have said to them | So you can come back to a world where you left it | Until you delete the world or the App |
| Which Discoveries you have found, and your awards | To show your progress in the Discoveries book | Until you choose “Start Over” or delete the App |
| Your sound, touch-feedback (haptics), tilt, sky and on-device AI preferences, and the order of your bag | So the App remembers your choices | Until you change them or delete the App |
Deleting the App removes this information from your device. If you back up your device (with iCloud or a computer on Apple devices, or with Android’s backup to your Google Account), this information may be included in that backup, which is handled by Apple, Google or you in line with your own backup settings, not by us.
4. Device features the App uses
- Microphone and speech recognition. Only if you tap the microphone to speak to the Sandlings. Your device will ask your permission first, and you can type instead. What you say is turned into text by the speech recognition built into your device. On iPhone, iPad and Mac that is Apple’s: wherever your device can recognise speech on the device itself, the App uses that, and nothing leaves it; on a device that cannot, Apple may process the audio on its servers under Apple’s Privacy Policy, and we never receive it. On Android, the App listens only where your phone recognises speech on the phone itself, so your voice never leaves it; on other Android phones the microphone isn’t offered. The App does not record or keep audio. The text of what you said is kept only as part of the world it was said in, on your device.
- On-device AI. On devices that support it, the App can use the language model built into the device to help the Sandlings understand what you say to them and to phrase their replies: Apple Intelligence on Apple devices. This runs entirely on your device and sends nothing anywhere. The Android app uses no language model. You can switch it off in the settings panel; the Sandlings’ minds, memories and relationships work without it.
- Motion sensors. If “Tilt to change gravity” is switched on, the App reads your device’s orientation in real time so the world can respond as you tilt it. This data is processed instantly on your device, is not recorded or stored, and never leaves your device.
- Sound and haptics. The App plays sounds and vibrations.
The App does not request access to your location, photos, camera, contacts, calendar, health data or any other permission-protected data.
5. Apple, Google and the app stores
Sandlings is distributed by Apple through the App Store and by Google through Google Play. When you buy, download or update the App, the store you use processes your information (such as your Apple Account or Google Account and payment details) as an independent controller, under Apple’s Privacy Policy or Google’s Privacy Policy. We never receive your payment details or your identity from either. They give us only aggregated, non-identifying sales and download reports.
If you have chosen to share analytics with app developers in your device settings (on Apple devices, Settings › Privacy & Security › Analytics & Improvements › Share With App Developers; on Android, your device’s usage and diagnostics setting), Apple or Google may provide us with crash reports and aggregated usage statistics. These do not identify you to us, and we use them only to find and fix problems in the App. You can turn this sharing off at any time in the same setting.
6. When you contact us
If you email us, or write to us through the form on our support page, we will receive your email address, your name if you include it, and anything you choose to write or attach (on the form, that includes the device details you type in). We use this information only to read and respond to your message and to keep a record of our correspondence.
- Lawful basis: our legitimate interests in responding to you and supporting our App (UK GDPR Article 6(1)(f)).
- Retention: we keep correspondence for up to 24 months after our conversation ends, unless we need it for longer to deal with a legal claim or meet a legal obligation, and then delete it.
- Sharing: we use a reputable email service provider to send and receive email, and a reputable database provider to store messages sent through the support form. Each processes them on our behalf as a data processor under a contract that requires it to protect your data. We do not otherwise share your messages with anyone unless the law requires us to.
- International transfers: if our email or database provider processes data outside the UK, we make sure appropriate safeguards are in place, such as UK adequacy regulations or the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or Addendum.
Please don’t send us sensitive personal information you don’t need to share.
7. No selling, tracking or profiling
We do not sell or rent personal information, and we do not “share” it for cross-context behavioural advertising, as those terms are used in US state privacy laws such as the California Consumer Privacy Act. We do not track you across other companies’ apps or websites, and we do not carry out profiling or automated decision-making about you.
8. Children
Sandlings is made with children in mind. Because the App collects no personal data from anyone, it collects none from children. We have considered the UK Information Commissioner’s Age Appropriate Design Code: the App has no accounts, advertising, in-app purchases, external links in gameplay, location features or data sharing. Talking to the Sandlings is a conversation with characters in the game; no other person can see or hear it, and nothing said is sent to us. If a child emails us or uses the support form, we will use their message only to reply. A parent or guardian can ask us to delete any such correspondence at hello@wawetc.com.
9. Your rights
Under UK data protection law (and EU law if you are in the European Economic Area) you have the right to:
- be informed about how your personal data is used (this policy);
- access the personal data we hold about you;
- have inaccurate data corrected;
- have your data erased;
- restrict or object to how we use your data;
- data portability, where it applies.
In practice, the only personal data we could hold about you is correspondence you have sent us. To exercise any of these rights, email hello@wawetc.com. We will respond within one month, and there is normally no charge. We may need to confirm your identity before acting on a request.
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your data, please contact us first so we can try to put things right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority, at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or on 0303 123 1113. If you live in the EEA, you can also complain to your local data protection authority.
10. Security
Information the App stores on your device is protected by your device’s own security, including your passcode or screen lock and the operating system’s data protection. Correspondence with us is held in a secure email account and, for the support form, a secure database, both protected by strong authentication, and only authorised people at WAW Etc Ltd can access it.
11. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time, for example if the law changes or we change the App. We will post the updated version on this page and change the “Last updated” date above. If we ever plan to start collecting personal data through the App, we will update this policy, the App’s App Store privacy information and its Google Play Data safety section before the change takes effect, and tell you in the App where appropriate.
12. Contact us
WAW Etc Ltd
29 Chalk Hill, Watford, WD19 4BL
Email: hello@wawetc.com