This policy covers two games for iPhone and iPad: The Red Box, where you play the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Red Box: Defence Sec, where you play the Defence Secretary. It also covers the leaderboard pages at ukfactcheck.com/game. We call all of these "the games". The rest of ukfactcheck.com is covered by the website's privacy policy.
Who we are
The games are made by UK FACT CHECK LIMITED, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 14701896). Our registered office is 63/66 Hatton Garden, 5th Floor, Suite 23, London, EC1N 8LE. We are the data controller for the personal data described here. You can reach us at info@ukfactcheck.com.
The short version
- You can play everything without an account. If you do, we collect nothing about you.
- An account is optional. It needs only an email address. We use it to sign you in and never show it to anyone.
- Your results go to our leaderboards only if you say yes. The game asks you after you sign in, and you can change your mind at any time.
- Your name appears on the public boards only if you choose one and switch on Public profile.
- There is no advertising, no analytics and no tracking in the games. They contain no third-party code that collects anything.
- You can delete your account in the game at any time. It is immediate and permanent.
Playing without an account
Your governments, your career record, the facts you have collected and your settings are saved on your device only. We never see them. Deleting the app deletes them.
To show you the leaderboards and the weekly scenario, the game asks our server for them. Like any request on the internet, this tells our server your IP address and which game is asking. We use that only to answer the request and to keep the service secure. It sits in our server's standard logs for a short time. We never use it to identify you or to build a profile of you.
Morning briefings are reminders that your device schedules for itself. Nothing is sent to us to make them work. Links to the sources behind a fact open in your browser, and those websites have their own privacy policies.
If you have chosen to share analytics with app developers in your device's settings, Apple may send us crash reports. They do not identify you.
If you create an account
You create an account by typing your email address in the game. We email you a six-digit code, and entering it signs you in. If your account has a password, you can sign in with that instead. It is the same free UK Fact Check account that the UK Fact Check news app uses, if you already have one.
For the account itself, we hold:
- Your email address, to create the account and send your sign-in codes. It is never shown to other players.
- An account number that we generate, and the sign-in codes we send you. Each code works once and expires after ten minutes.
- Your password, only if your account has one, and only ever as a secure one-way hash. The games never ask you to make one.
- Sign-in tokens, which keep the game signed in. The game keeps them in your device's secure keychain, and we keep a record of them so we can check them.
For each game you sign in to, we also hold a game profile:
- A display name, if you choose one (3 to 24 characters). Without one you are "Anonymous Chancellor" or "Anonymous Defence Secretary".
- A portrait, if you pick one. It is a short code that draws one of the game's cartoon faces. No photos are ever uploaded.
- Whether your profile is public or private. Private is the default.
- The date you first reached No. 10, in The Red Box. With a public profile, this puts you on the Wall of Fame.
Your results on the leaderboards
After you sign in, the game asks whether to post your results. If you say no, nothing is posted. If you say yes, the game sends us your results as each government ends, and every few months while one lasts:
- The Red Box: months in office, months as Prime Minister, your five-year economy score, how many months it took you to reach No. 10, and your weekly scenario scores.
- Red Box: Defence Sec: months in office, your five-year score, how many months it took you to reach No. 10, your weekly scenario scores and your exercise verdicts.
With each result the game sends a summary of the game's own figures behind it, so a result can be checked. That means the averages for growth, inflation and unemployment in your game, the change in debt, your closing approval and how the government ended. It also sends a random number that identifies that game, the game's starting seed and the version of the game. These figures describe the game you played, not you. They are personal data only because they are linked to your account.
We keep your best result on each board. Once you say yes, results from games you finished on this device before you signed in are posted too.
Private results are visible only to you. The game shows you your best and where it would rank. Public results appear with your display name and portrait on the leaderboards in the games and at ukfactcheck.com/game.
You can stop at any time: turn off Post my results on the account screen, and nothing more is sent. To take your results off the public boards, turn off Public profile. To erase them, delete your account, or email us and we will remove them.
Why we are allowed to use it
Under UK data protection law (the UK GDPR), we rely on:
- Contract for your account and for signing you in, because you asked us for an account.
- Your consent for posting your results and for showing them publicly. You give it in the game and can withdraw it there at any time.
- Our legitimate interests for checking results for cheating and keeping the service secure, so that the leaderboards stay fair and the service keeps working.
Who else sees it
We do not sell your data. We do not share it with advertisers or use it for tracking. A small number of service providers handle it for us, only on our instructions:
- our hosting provider, which runs the servers behind ukfactcheck.com;
- Twilio SendGrid, which delivers the sign-in code emails.
Some providers may handle data outside the UK. When they do, we rely on the safeguards that UK law requires, such as adequacy regulations or the UK International Data Transfer Agreement. We may also disclose data when the law requires us to.
How long we keep it
We keep your account, your game profiles and your results until you delete your account. When you delete it:
- your results, your game profiles and your sign-in codes are deleted at once;
- your email address and every other personal detail on the account are erased;
- every device signed in to it is signed out.
We keep an empty placeholder for the account so that the website's own records stay intact. It holds nothing that identifies you. Copies in our backups disappear as the backups are replaced in the normal way.
Deleting your account
In either game, open Settings (the gear on the front screen) or the Menu (the ☰ button during a game). Tap Delete account, then Delete. It happens straight away. Delete account is also at the bottom of the UK Fact Check account screen.
This deletes your UK Fact Check account everywhere, including the news app if you use it. Games saved on your device are not touched, and you can keep playing without an account.
If you no longer have the game, email info@ukfactcheck.com from the address on the account and we will delete it for you.
Your rights
You have the right to see the data we hold about you and to have it corrected or erased. You can ask us to restrict how we use it or object to it, take a copy with you, and withdraw your consent at any time. To use any of these rights, email info@ukfactcheck.com. If you are unhappy with how we have handled your data, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.
Children
The account is not meant for children under 13. If you are under 13, please play without an account. The whole game works without one.
Changes to this policy
If we change this policy, we will update the date at the top. If a change affects what the games collect, we will tell you in the games before it applies.
Contact
Questions about this policy or your data go to info@ukfactcheck.com.