This Privacy Policy explains how Sprout & Soil (“we”, “us”, or “our”) handles information when you visit this website or play the browser game. It applies to the public pages, the interactive harvest quick-check, and the local game save. It does not apply to third-party sites we link to.
Effective date: . If we make material changes, we will update this page and the date above.
1. Who we are
Sprout & Soil is an independent game project. The site includes a static marketing section, a browser-based harvest calculator, and a playable browser game. You can reach us at hello@sproutandsoil.game. For the purposes of the EU/UK General Data Protection Regulation, we act as the controller of the limited personal data described below.
2. The short version
- We do not ask you to create an account.
- Your farm, inventory, achievements, and game settings are stored locally in this browser.
- The harvest quick-check runs in your browser and does not send your selections to us.
- The focused-session feature measures whether this tab is visible while you are on the Farm view; that measurement stays local.
- If you email us, we receive what you choose to include in that message.
- Our hosting provider processes basic technical request data to deliver and protect the site.
- We use Google AdSense. Google and its partners may use cookies to serve and measure ads, subject to your consent where required.
- You can control advertising personalization through Google’s settings and your browser.
3. Information you choose to give us
If you contact us by email, we receive your email address, your name (if you include it), the contents of your message, and any attachments or technical information your email client includes. We use that information to answer you, investigate a bug or content issue, and keep a reasonable record of the conversation. Please do not send passwords, payment card numbers, government identifiers, or other sensitive information through the contact channels on this site.
4. Information collected automatically
Like most websites, this site relies on a hosting and content-delivery network. Our hosting provider may process technical information needed to serve pages and keep the site secure, including your IP address, browser type, device information, the page requested, the time of the request, and a referring URL. These records are used for operating, securing, and debugging the service. We do not use them to build a profile of you.
The interactive field kit does not transmit your crop or grade selections. It uses no cookies for the calculation and stores no calculator history in your browser’s local storage.
The playable game stores its save in this browser’s local storage under a Sprout & Soil key. That save can include coins, seeds, crops, plot timers, orders, machines, journal discoveries, achievements, and statistics. It is not sent to us or to any game server. Clearing this site’s browser data removes the save and cannot be undone by us.
The focused-session achievement uses the browser Page Visibility API to check whether this tab is visible while the Farm view is active. The timer and its progress remain in the page’s memory and are not transmitted; only the resulting achievement is stored in the local save.
5. Cookies, pixels, and similar technologies
Cookies are small text files placed by a website or a third party. A pixel or similar identifier can work alongside cookies for advertising measurement. This site does not set first-party analytics cookies at the time of this policy. Our advertising partner may set cookies when ads are served, subject to your consent where required by law.
Google AdSense and advertising cookies
We use Google AdSense to support the site. Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on a user’s prior visits to this website or other websites. Google’s use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to our users based on their visits to our sites and/or other sites on the Internet.
Depending on your location and consent choices, Google may also use cookies for ad measurement and reporting, frequency capping, and fraud prevention. Advertising cookies are not used to identify you by name. They are linked to browser identifiers, not to information you send us by email.
You can read how Google uses information from sites and apps that use its services at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites and review Google’s privacy policy at policies.google.com/privacy. Google’s advertising policy is available at policies.google.com/technologies/ads.
Your advertising choices
You can opt out of personalized advertising from Google by visiting Google Ads Settings. You can also opt out of a third-party vendor’s use of cookies for personalized advertising at optout.aboutads.info and learn more at aboutads.info/choices.
Where the law requires consent for advertising cookies, we will request it through a Google-certified consent management platform before personalized ads are served. You can change your browser’s cookie settings at any time, and clearing cookies will remove choices stored by this site. Blocking all cookies may affect how ads are displayed, but it will not prevent the core content and the field kit from loading.
6. How we use information
- To deliver, secure, and troubleshoot the website.
- To answer questions, bug reports, and correction requests.
- To understand, in aggregate, whether the site is being used and how it performs.
- To display and measure advertising in accordance with your choices.
- To comply with legal obligations and enforce our terms.
7. Legal bases for visitors in the EEA and UK
Where the GDPR or UK GDPR applies, we rely on the following legal bases: our legitimate interests in operating, securing, and improving the site; the performance of a contract or steps at your request when you ask us to respond to a message; consent for personalized advertising and any non-essential cookies where consent is required; and legal obligation where we must retain or disclose information. You may withdraw advertising consent at any time without affecting the lawfulness of processing that occurred before withdrawal.
8. Sharing and service providers
We share information only with service providers that help us operate the site, such as our hosting and content-delivery provider, our email provider, and Google for advertising and measurement. These providers process information under their own terms and privacy commitments. We do not sell personal information for money. We may disclose information if required by law, to protect rights or safety, or as part of a transfer of the project.
9. International transfers
The site is served through a global content-delivery network, and Google and our email provider may process information in countries other than the one where you live. Where required, we rely on recognized safeguards such as standard contractual clauses or an equivalent lawful mechanism.
10. Retention
We keep contact correspondence only for as long as needed to answer the request and keep an appropriate record, then delete or archive it on a reasonable schedule. Hosting logs are retained by our provider for its operational period. Advertising data is retained according to Google’s policies and your settings. We do not maintain a personal account database because there are no accounts.
11. Your rights and choices
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to request access to, correction of, or deletion of your personal information; to object to or restrict certain processing; to request a portable copy; and to withdraw consent. Contact us at hello@sproutandsoil.game and we will respond within the period required by applicable law. We may need to verify your request before we can act on it.
If you are in the EEA, the UK, or Switzerland, you also have the right to complain to your local data protection authority. If you are a California resident, you may have the right to know, delete, correct, or limit the use of personal information, and not to be discriminated against for exercising those rights. We do not sell personal information for money. Advertising cookies may be treated as “sharing” under some laws; the advertising opt-out links above are the fastest way to exercise that choice. You can also contact us directly.
12. Children’s privacy
This site is not directed to children under 13 (or under 16 where local law requires a higher age of digital consent). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has sent us personal information, contact us and we will take reasonable steps to delete it.
13. Security
We use a static publishing model, HTTPS, and reputable infrastructure providers to reduce risk. No method of transmission or storage is perfectly secure, however. Email is not an encrypted channel end to end, so please use care when deciding what to include in a message.
14. Third-party links
Pages on this site link to Google’s advertising controls and may link to other resources. Those external sites are governed by their own privacy policies, not this one. We are not responsible for their content or data practices.
15. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy to reflect changes in the site, our providers, or the law. The revised version will appear on this page with a new effective date. If the changes are material, we will take reasonable steps to make them clear.
16. Contact
Questions about privacy, cookies, or this policy can be sent to hello@sproutandsoil.game. Please include “Privacy” in the subject line so we can route your message quickly. Our contact page also explains what to include in a message.