🛡️ Your data stays on your device wherever possible. A few optional features use Google services: sign-in for limited-edition pets, rewarded ads, push messages and purchases. We do not sell your personal information. The details are below.
📌 1. What we collect and why
Shimeji Pet works without an account. Most of what the app knows about you stays on your phone.
- Only on your device: your chosen pets and roster, settings, level, XP, streak, missions, daily-login and Mystery Box progress, pets you have unlocked or are trying, and any to-do notes you write. We do not receive these.
- We never ask for your name, email address, phone number, contacts or location. The app has no analytics or crash-reporting SDK.
- Like any app that uses the internet, the Google services below may receive technical data such as your IP address and device information when they do their job.
💾 2. Stored on your device
This data is kept on your device using Android SharedPreferences:
- Selected companion pets and your pet-slot roster (2 slots free; up to 4 by watching ads or Shimeji Plus)
- Walking speed and screen-boundary settings
- Status bar battery emoji preferences
- Your level, XP, streak, missions, daily-login board, Mystery Boxes and time-limited pet access
- To-do notes and alarms you create
🔐 3. Optional Google sign-in and limited-edition pets
Signing in is optional. It is only needed to subscribe to a limited-edition Heroic pet (only 5 people can own each one). If you subscribe:
- We store your Google account ID, your Google display name and the date your subscription is paid until in Google Firebase (Cloud Firestore).
- Your display name is shown publicly on that pet's page as an owner, for as long as you hold the spot. You are told this and asked to agree before you pay.
- When your subscription ends, your spot is released (or taken over by someone else) and your name disappears from the list.
- Google Firebase Authentication also holds the Google account details used to sign you in, such as your email address. We do not use or display your email.
- Signing in does not create a synced account. Your pets, level, XP and settings (section 2) stay on this device and are never linked to your Google account. Signing out, or signing in with a different Google account on the same device, does not change, hide or move them — the sign-in is only used to hold your limited-edition pet subscription.
📣 4. Rewarded ads
Some features let you choose to watch a rewarded ad, for example to use a pet for 30 days or earn a Mystery Box. Ads are only shown when you choose to watch one, and never over other apps or on your home screen.
- Ads are provided by Google AdMob. AdMob may collect and use your device's advertising ID, IP address and device information to deliver and measure ads and to prevent fraud.
- Where the law requires it (for example in the European Economic Area and the UK) you are first shown Google's consent form, and no ad is requested until you have chosen.
- You can reset or delete your advertising ID, or turn off ad personalization, in Android Settings → Privacy → Ads.
💳 5. Purchases and subscriptions
Payments are handled entirely by Google Play. We never see or store your card or payment details. The app asks Google Play which subscriptions are active on your Google account so it can unlock the right pets, and restore them on a new phone.
To check purchases and restore them reliably we use RevenueCat (RevenueCat, Inc.). RevenueCat receives an anonymous app user ID, what you bought and when, and basic device and country information. It does not receive your name, email address or card details from us. See https://www.revenuecat.com/privacy.
🔔 6. Push messages
The app uses Google Firebase Cloud Messaging so we can send news and announcements. This gives your device a token and subscribes it to two topics: one for everyone and one for your app language (for example lang_en). You can turn notifications off at any time in Android Settings.
⚙️ 7. Android system permissions
To provide floating pets and widgets, Shimeji Pet requests these permissions:
SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW (Display over other apps): lets desktop pets walk and float over your home screen and apps. No window content is read or recorded.FOREGROUND_SERVICE: keeps pet animations running. A notification is shown while pets are active.POST_NOTIFICATIONS: shows the pets notification, mission rewards and news.INTERNET and ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE: downloading pets, notices, ads, sign-in and purchases.AD_ID and Android's ad-services permissions: used by Google AdMob as described in section 4.
🌐 8. Other services the app contacts
- openpets.dev: artwork for downloadable community pets. No device identifiers or tokens are attached.
- Our GitHub Pages website: public files such as announcements and promotions for our other apps. Like any web host, GitHub may log ordinary request data such as an IP address. We do not add personal data to these requests.
- Google Play, RevenueCat, Firebase and AdMob: as described above. See Google's Privacy Policy at https://policies.google.com/privacy.
🗑️ 9. Keeping, deleting and your rights
- On your device: erase everything in the app via Settings ➔ Account & Data Deletion ➔ Delete & Reset Local Data, or clear the app's storage in Android Settings, or uninstall the app.
- Sign-in account and owner record: delete them yourself in the app via Settings ➔ Account ➔ Delete my account (Google asks you to confirm first). This deletes your sign-in account and gives up your owner spots, so your name disappears from the owner lists at once. How account deletion works, including how to ask us by email if you cannot use the app. Deleting the account does not cancel a Google Play subscription, so cancel that first. Without deleting, your owner record is also removed automatically when your subscription ends and your spot is released.
- Ads: manage your advertising ID in Android Settings, and withdraw ad consent through Google's consent form when it is offered again.
- If you live in the EEA, the UK or a similar region, you have the right to access, correct, delete and object to the use of your personal data, and to withdraw consent. Email us to use these rights. Our legal bases are: your contract with us (subscriptions and limited-edition ownership), your consent (ads, where required) and our legitimate interest in showing who owns a limited-edition pet and keeping the app secure.
👶 10. Children's privacy
Shimeji Pet is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child has given us personal information, contact us and we will delete it.
🔄 11. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy. The effective date above will change, and important changes will be announced in the app.
📩 12. Contact us
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us: