Privacy Policy

1.Information we collect

1.1 Information you give us

Date of birth. Before an account is created, the App asks for your date of birth. If the date means you are under 13, the App stops there: no account is created, the date is not sent to us, and nothing you typed is kept. Otherwise the date is sent to our server once, when your character is created, and stored on your profile. We use it for one thing — to confirm you meet the minimum age — and we keep it so the answer cannot be changed later. It is never shown to anyone, is not readable by the App after creation, is not sent to our AI provider, and is not sent to analytics (only the derived band, such as “18–24”, is). If you tell us the date is wrong, contact us; we may restrict or delete the account rather than edit it.

Character profile. When you create your character we also ask for:

• a display name and a username (these are yours to invent — they do not have to be your real name);
• optional pronouns;
• an avatar selection and three personality traits.

Your display name, username, and pronouns pass through the same content moderation as everything else in the App before they appear anywhere.

Your age does not change the content rules that apply to you or to anyone else. There is one standard for the whole App — see section 2.

Gameplay content. Everything you create in the world: posts, comments, likes, follows, direct messages to characters, story choices you make, and characters you block.

Photographs you attach to a post. You can add a picture to a post. When you do, we receive that image file and store it, along with its dimensions and a short description of what it shows, written automatically so the picture has alt text and so the AI characters can react to it. We only ever receive the image you pick.

Reports. If you report a post, a reply, a message or a character, we record which item you reported, the reason you chose from the list, your profile ID, and the time. There is no free-text field. A copy of the report is written to our moderation log so it can be reviewed.

If you save your account. An anonymous account lives only on your device, so we let you attach a way back to it. If you choose to, we collect either the email address you give us, or the identifier Apple returns when you use Sign in with Apple — which is an address Apple relays on your behalf, unless you choose to share your real one with us. Attaching either one does not change your character, your history, or anything else: your account keeps the same internal identity and gains a way back in.

Support correspondence. If you email us, we keep your message and our reply.

1.2 Information created by playing

The game keeps a record of your play so the story stays consistent:

• your in-game statistics (followers, popularity, reputation, in-game money) and a ledger of every change to them;
• your relationships with the AI characters, and the “memories” characters retain about your interactions with them;
• a short reading of each post you write — its apparent tone, what it seems to be about, and whether it invites a reply — worked out once by a classifier and kept with the post, so the right characters respond to it in the right register;
• notifications generated for you, and whether you have read them;
• counts and timestamps of your actions, used to pace the story;
• if you subscribe, your subscription status — the plan, whether it is active, trialing, lapsed or cancelled, when the paid period ends, which store it came from, and the customer identifier our subscription provider gives us so we can find your subscription if you contact support;
• daily counts of the metered actions you take (AI generations, posts, messages, story events) and the AI cost attributed to them, which is how free and premium limits are enforced;
• a moderation log: for every automated decision to block, hold back, escalate or regenerate a piece of text or an image, we record the decision, its categories, the surface it was headed for, the ID of the item, and your profile ID. The text or image itself is not copied into the log.

We never receive your payment details. Card numbers, billing addresses, and everything else about the transaction stay with Apple or Google. Our subscription provider tells us only whether your subscription is active and when it ends.

1.3 Information collected automatically

• Account identifier. When you first open the App we create an anonymous account for you, identified by a random ID and nothing else. It stays that way unless you choose to save your account, at which point it is linked to the email address or Apple identity you attached — and to nothing else. It is never linked to an advertising identifier.
• Device and technical data. Device model, operating system version, app version, language, and general performance data.
• Log data. Our hosting provider records standard server logs for requests made by the App, including IP address and timestamps, for security and reliability.
• Product analytics. Anonymous, event-level records of how the App is used — for example that a post was created, a story event was triggered, or onboarding was completed. These events are tied to your in-game profile ID, not to your real identity.
• Crash and error reports. If the App fails, we may collect the error, the screen you were on, and device details so we can fix it.
• Push token, if you turn notifications on. Allowing notifications gives us a token that identifies the device, not you — one per phone or tablet you play on. We keep it with the platform it came from and when it was last used, so we can reach you about a direct message, a reply, or a milestone. Turning notifications off in your device settings stops them; a token that a device stops accepting is removed automatically.

1.4 What we do not collect

We do not collect your precise location, your contacts, your microphone, your health data, or advertising identifiers (IDFA/AAID). We do not run third-party advertising in the App and we do not build advertising profiles about you.

We do not read your camera roll. Attaching a photo to a post uses your device’s own picker, which hands us the single image you chose and nothing else — we cannot see the rest of your library.

2.How we use information

We use the information above to:

• create and operate your character and your world;
• generate the story: characters’ posts, comments, replies, and direct messages respond to what you have done, so your gameplay content is sent to our AI provider to produce them;
• moderate content for safety — every piece of text you write, every piece of text an AI character produces, and the identity details on your profile pass through a rules check and, where enabled, an automated classifier. One standard applies to everyone regardless of declared age or subscription: sexual content is not permitted anywhere in the App, by any author, on any surface. Because the App is open to players aged 13 and up, and because content the characters write is shown to all of them, everything that can reach the shared world is judged as though a 13-year-old will read it. Your declared age is not an input to these decisions in either direction. If the classifier cannot be reached, your content is held back and you are asked to try again, rather than published unchecked;
• enforce the minimum age — to refuse an account to anyone under 13 and to restrict an account we later learn belongs to someone under 13;
• provide and enforce free and premium access: count the metered actions you take, apply the daily limits for your tier, and unlock premium features while your subscription is active;
• investigate reports, enforce our Terms of Service, and prevent abuse, spam, and automated misuse (including rate limiting);
• measure and improve the App: understand which parts of the experience work, fix crashes, and track the cost and reliability of AI generation;
• send you a notification, if you have allowed them, when something in your story happens while you are away;
• respond to you when you contact us;
• comply with law and respond to lawful requests.

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising.

2.1 Legal bases (UK/EEA users)

Where UK or EU data protection law applies, we rely on:

• Contract — to provide the App you asked for;
• Legitimate interests — to keep the App safe and secure, prevent abuse, understand usage in aggregate, and improve the product;
• Legal obligation — to comply with applicable law;
• Consent — where we ask for it, which you can withdraw at any time.

3.What other players can see

Very little, and nothing you write.

Not visible to other players:

• your posts, your comments, and any photograph you attach to a post. These are shown to you and used to drive the AI characters’ reactions. Another player’s app cannot retrieve them.

Readable by other players’ apps: nothing. Another player’s app cannot read your profile, your likes or who you follow. Our database rules answer requests for another player’s rows with nothing at all. Your display name, username and avatar are shown only to you and used only in your own world.

Private to you:

• your direct messages, and the threads they sit in;
• your in-game statistics and the record of how they changed;
• your relationships with characters and the memories they keep;
• your notifications;
• any report you file;
• your date of birth and the age band derived from it;
• your subscription status and your usage counts;
• your account identifier and any information you send us by email.

Even so, do not post your real name, your address, your school or workplace, your phone number, or your other social media handles. The App does not need any of it, your account is anonymous by design, and the less of it we hold the less there is to lose.

Photographs deserve their own thought. A picture can say where you live, where you go to school, and who you are with, whether or not you meant it to. It is not shown to other players, but it does reach our servers and our image classifier, and it stays until you delete the post or your account. Do not post a photograph of somebody else without asking them.

You can block any character from your feed in the App, report anything a character posts or sends you, and delete any post or reply you wrote. We review reports.

4.AI processing

Main Character is powered by large language models run by OpenAI through its API. This section says exactly what leaves our servers for theirs.

What is sent, and when.

• When a character reacts to your post: your display name, username, personality traits and follower tier (a label, never a number), the text of your post, the alt-text description of any photo on it, up to three recent character posts as world context, the reacting characters’ persona notes, and the short “memories” those characters hold about you.
• When a character replies to a direct message: the same details about you, the character’s persona, their memories of you, and the most recent twelve turns of that conversation.
• When a story beat is written: your display name, username and tier, the beat’s authored template, and the names of the characters involved.
• When a long conversation is summarised into a memory: the turns being summarised.
• For moderation: the text being checked and two labels — whether it is headed for the shared feed or a private thread, and whether a person or a model wrote it. Nothing about who you are, and nothing about your age, is sent with it.
• For a photograph: the image itself, to OpenAI’s moderation endpoint and, if it passes, to a vision model for the one-sentence description. A picture that has not been through that check is never shown to anyone — if the classifier is unavailable, the post is refused rather than published unchecked.
• Once per post, a classifier reads the post to label its tone and subject so the right characters respond in the right register.

What is not sent. Your account identifier, your email address or Apple identity, your IP address, your date of birth, your subscription status, your device details, and your reports never go to the AI provider. Requests are made from our servers under our API key; the provider does not know who you are.

Retention at the provider. Under OpenAI’s API terms as we understand them at the date above, content sent through the API is not used to train their models by default, and may be retained by OpenAI for a limited period (they state up to 30 days) for abuse and misuse monitoring before deletion. We do not control that retention and cannot shorten it. Please read OpenAI’s own policies for the authoritative statement.

Retention with us. Every AI call is recorded in our cost ledger with the job type, model, token counts, cost, latency and your profile ID — not the prompt or the response. The generated text that reaches you (a comment, a reply, a story beat) is stored as part of your world, exactly as your own posts are, and deleted with them. Prompts themselves are not stored.

Regeneration. If a character’s reply fails our moderation check, we may ask the model for a second attempt with the same context before falling back to authored text. This is recorded in the moderation log as a regeneration.

Fallback. If no AI provider key is configured, or our daily spending ceiling is reached, the App runs on a deterministic local generator and no content leaves our own infrastructure.

AI-generated content can be wrong, odd, or unintentionally offensive despite our safeguards. Please report anything that crosses a line.

5.Who we share information with

We share information only with service providers who help us run the App, and only so far as they need it. They are bound to protect it and may not use it for their own purposes.

We may also disclose information if we are legally required to, if we need to protect the rights or safety of our users or the public, or in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets — in which case we will tell you before your information becomes subject to a different policy.

6.International transfers

We are based in the United Arab Emirates and our providers operate in the United States and elsewhere. If you use the App from outside those countries, your information will be transferred to and processed there. Where required, we rely on appropriate safeguards such as the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses (and the UK Addendum) for these transfers.

7.How long we keep information

• Anonymous accounts that never created a character are deleted automatically 48 hours after sign-in.
• Accounts that created a character but never took a single action are deleted automatically after 30 days.
• Active accounts are kept for as long as you use the App, so your world and story survive between sessions.
• Posts and replies you delete yourself are removed immediately, with their photograph, replies and likes.
• Restricted accounts (for example, found to belong to someone under 13) can no longer be used and are deleted either by the account holder from the restriction screen, or by us under the retention rules above; personal data is not kept beyond that.
• When you delete your account — there is a Delete account control in the App, and you can also ask us by email — the deletion is immediate and irreversible. Your profile, stats, relationships, memories, messages, posts, comments, photographs, likes, follows, blocks, subscription record and usage counters are removed in a single operation. Two things survive, and both stop naming you: the cost records of AI work already done keep their token and price figures with the link to you removed, because the money was really spent and our daily spending ceiling has to keep seeing it, and the moderation log keeps the fact that a decision was made without recording whose content it was about.
• What characters remember about you is bounded rather than endless: we keep the most recent memories for each character and let older ones fall away.
• A push token is removed when the device stops accepting notifications, and with your account when you delete it.
• A photograph that fails moderation is deleted immediately and is never readable by anyone, including you. Photographs on approved posts are kept as long as the post is, and are deleted with it or with your account.
• Moderation and safety records may be kept for up to 12 months after the related content is removed, so we can enforce our rules consistently.
• Aggregated and anonymised analytics that can no longer identify you may be kept indefinitely.

Backups are overwritten on a rolling basis and deleted content disappears from them within 30 days.

8.Your rights and choices

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to:

• access the personal information we hold about you;
• correct information that is wrong;
• delete your account and its content;
• export a copy of your data in a portable format;
• object to or restrict certain processing;
• withdraw consent where we relied on it;
• not be discriminated against for exercising these rights.

Deletion has a control in the App, under your profile — that is the fastest route and it takes effect at once. For anything else, email privacy@maincharacter.world and tell us your in-game username. If your account is still anonymous we may need you to confirm it is yours from the device you play on, since there is nothing else tying it to you; if you have saved it with an email address or Apple, writing from that address is enough. We respond within 30 days.

California residents. We do not sell or share personal information as those terms are defined by the CCPA/CPRA, and we do not use sensitive personal information for purposes requiring a right to limit. You may exercise your CCPA rights using the contact address above, and you may use an authorised agent.

UK/EEA residents. You have the right to lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority, though we would appreciate the chance to resolve it first.

UAE residents. We are established in the United Arab Emirates and handle personal data in line with Federal Decree-Law No. 45 of 2021 on the Protection of Personal Data. You may exercise the rights above using the contact address in section 12.

Analytics opt-out. You can ask us to stop collecting product analytics for your account by emailing us.

9.Children and teens

Main Character is not for children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13. The App asks for a date of birth before it creates an account; a date under 13 ends the sign-up before any account exists and before anything is sent to us. If you believe a child under 13 is using the App despite that, email privacy@maincharacter.world — we will restrict the account so it can no longer be used and delete it.

If you are 13 to 17, you may use the App where permitted by law and, where required, with a parent or guardian’s permission.

The content rules do not depend on anyone answering honestly, because they do not depend on the answer at all. Sexual content is blocked for every author at every age, and everything that can reach the shared world is moderated as though a 13-year-old is reading it — which, in an App open to 13-year-olds and with a shared cast writing to all of them, one may well be. Your date of birth is not visible to other players. We never show behavioural advertising to anyone, of any age.

10.Security

We protect your information with encryption in transit (HTTPS), database rules that enforce the split in section 3 — your private data is readable only by your own account, while shared-world content is readable by the world it belongs to — server-side enforcement of every write, a private image store whose contents are reachable only through short-lived links and only once the post carrying them has been approved, secrets held outside the app bundle, rate limiting, and access controls on our own systems. No system is perfectly secure, but we take this seriously and we will notify you and the relevant regulator as required if a breach affects you.

11.Changes to this policy

We may update this policy. If the changes are material we will tell you in the App before they take effect and update the “Last updated” date above. Continuing to use the App after a change means you accept the updated policy.

12.Contact us

Main Character

Email: privacy@maincharacter.world

If you are in the UK or EEA, you may contact us at the same address regarding any data protection question.