Privacy Policy

1. Summary

• No account registration is required. We do not collect your name, email address, phone number, or date of birth. An anonymous account is issued automatically when you first open the App, and it is tied to you only through the session stored on your device. You can delete the account from the App’s Settings screen (Section 10).
• The App shows advertisements. Ads are served by Google (AdMob), which collects advertising identifiers. If you purchase ad removal or the monthly subscription “Strategist’s Counsel”, ads at breaks between games are no longer shown (for the subscription, only while it is active).
• We do not collect information for advertising ourselves. All we receive are aggregated impression counts and revenue, and notifications that a rewarded ad was watched to the end.
• Your rank, campaign progress, territories, in-game currencies, items, gacha records, and online record are stored on our servers (Supabase) to prevent cheating (Section 3).
• Most display settings and game records are stored only in your device’s local storage (localStorage) (Section 2).
• The App itself contains no analytics tools and no crash-reporting tools that send data externally. Only on the introduction pages and the column (our website) do we measure usage with Google Analytics (Section 13).
• The App does not request access to your location (GPS), contacts, photos, camera, or microphone.

2. Information stored only on your device

The following information is stored in your device’s local storage (localStorage). Apart from the transmissions described in Sections 3 and 4, it is never sent outside your device. When you use a feature that uses generative AI, only your display-language setting is sent, to tell the AI which language to write in.

Display settings (igo.prefs.v1)

Color theme, the look of the board and stones, amount of on-screen information, whether sound effects, music, and haptic feedback are on, reduced motion, display language, whether the AI’s thoughts are on, and similar settings.

Board input and rules settings (igo.placeMode.v1, igo.ruleset.v1)

How you place stones (whether you place tentatively and then confirm), and which Go rules you use (Japanese, Korean, Chinese, or AGA).

Profile (igo.profile.v1)

Your display name (default: “Anonymous”), the ID of your chosen avatar, and the highest AI dan you have beaten.

Game records (igo.records.v2)

For each game: the time it was recorded, whether it was against the AI or online, the AI’s dan, whether you played Black or White, the result, how it ended, the number of moves, end-of-game details such as board size and margin, and the game record (a string listing the moves). Older records beyond the limit are discarded automatically.

Go game records (igo.goRecords.v1)

For each game: the time it was recorded, board size, rules, handicap stones, komi, whether you played Black or White, the AI’s dan, whether it was a campaign or a free game, the campaign number and opponent, the result, how it ended, the margin, the number of moves, and the game record (SGF). Used for your records and game review. Older records beyond the limit are discarded automatically.

Skill measurements and rank copy (igo.goSkill.v1, igo.progress.v1)

Per-game skill measurements (counts such as stones captured and how the position changed) and a display copy of the merit and highest rank received from the server.

Unsent game results (igo.outbox.v1)

Results of games against the AI, sent to receive campaign rewards, that could not be sent yet because of the connection. They are removed once sent (Section 3, “Results of games against the AI”).

Lieutenant for the sortie (igo.advisor.v1)

The ID of the lieutenant you chose on the sortie screen.

Suspended game (igo.game.v1)

Information needed to resume a game you suspended, such as the position, moves, side to move, and clock.

Problem attempts (igo.tsume.attempts.v1)

For each problem: its ID, whether you solved it, the time taken, the number of hints used, the order of your moves, and when it was recorded. Stored only on your device and never sent externally.

Skill estimate (igo.skill.v1, igo.skillTally.v2)

Your estimated skill, the recent game results used for the estimate, whether you have completed the skill assessment, and a copy of the per-game skill tallies.

Skill assessment progress (igo.onboarding.v1)

The stage of the assessment, the results of assessment games, the dan you are playing, when the assessment started, and the confirmed estimate.

Achievement progress (igo.achievements.v1)

The status and progress of each achievement, and the version of the achievement data.

Journey progress copy (igo.journey.v3, igo.journey.grandfather.v1)

Chapter progress, the number of playthroughs, the certificate for each battle (grade and time obtained), and the minimum unlock level kept for players who started on an earlier version.

The AI’s thoughts (igo.advice.v2)

The short pieces of advice received during games and the state of retrieving them (number of retrievals, failures, and so on). The transmissions involved are described in Section 4.

Post-game reviews (igo.review.v2, igo.councilReview.v1)

The text of the post-game reviews you have received (including the AI strategist reviews received in the council, saved per game and display language so that reopening a game shows them without generating them again). The transmissions involved are described in Section 4.

Anonymous account session (igo.auth.v1, igo.clientId, igo.auth.migratedFrom)

The ID of the anonymous account issued when you first open the App, and access and refresh tokens with expiry times. We also store an identifier (UUID) generated automatically for each device and a copy of an identifier issued by an earlier method. None of these is linked to your name or email address.

Ad display state (igo.ads.v1, igo.ads.remote.v1)

The number of finished games and when an ad was last shown (used to space out ads), and a copy of the operating settings for how ads are shown.

Feature switches and splash screen copy (igo.features.v1, igo.splash.v1)

Copies of the feature switches we change during operation and of the splash screen duration, kept so that the App does not need to connect at startup. They contain no information about you.

Dismissed update notice (igo.updateNotice.v1)

The version number, and the time, of a “new version available” notice you dismissed. It is used so the same version is not announced again and contains no information about you.

Store review request records (igo.storeReview.v1, igo.storeReview.remote.v1)

How many times you opened the App, how many times and when we asked the OS to show its rating screen, and a copy of the operating settings for the request interval. Used to avoid asking too often; stored only on your device and never sent externally.

Error records (igo.crash.v1)

When the App ends abnormally, the time, location, a summary of the error, the screen shown, and the device and version, for up to the 5 most recent occurrences. Stored only on your device and never sent to anyone, including us.

Audio recovery method (igo.audioRecovery.v1)

Your choice of how to restore sound after returning from another app on iOS. Saved only if you change it in Settings.

Development and testing settings (igo.adminUnlocked.v1, igo.advice.endpoint.v1, igo.entitlements.endpoint.v1, igo.council.endpoint.v1)

Whether the admin screen has been opened, and runtime overrides of connection targets. None of these is written during normal use.

The names in parentheses are the storage keys in your device’s local storage. All of them begin with “igo.” and are removed together by “Delete all saved data” in the App. We check by automated testing that this list does not miss any key actually used.

Your account in the App is anonymous and is not linked to your name or email address. It is tied to you only through the session stored on this device (the local storage of the device). If that session is lost — for example, when the App is uninstalled, the device is reset, or the device storage is cleared — there is no way to restore the same account. Your rank, campaign progress, territories, in-game currencies (war funds, Mandate stones, and Tamahagane steel), items, and online record will all be lost. A feature for carrying an account over to another device is not currently offered. Items you purchased may become available again, based on your purchase record, when you use “Restore purchases” in the App with the same store account.

3. Information sent to and stored on our servers

To prevent improper rewriting of in-game currencies and items, the App stores the following information on our servers (a Supabase database). When you first open the App (or, if you are offline, the next time you are online), an anonymous account is issued automatically, and later records are tied to its ID. If you only play against the on-device AI offline, none of the transmissions in this section occur.

Anonymous account

An ID (UUID) issued by the server, and when the account was created and when it last signed in.

Profile

Your display name (only if you set one; 1–12 characters; if you have not set one, no display name is stored on the server), when you changed it, the region used for default rules and the rules you chose, the country of the app store you use for purchases (Section 5), your last access time, and when the profile was created and updated. Only the display name and ID are visible to other users.

Progress

Merit (experience) and the rank you have reached, records of first-time campaign clears, conquered regions, when you last collected tribute, and your bond with each lieutenant.

Results of games against the AI

Results of games against the AI that you send to receive campaign rewards. After the server replays the submitted game record to confirm that the game was legal, we store the game ID, the campaign ID, board size, rules, result, margin, the rewards granted, and a digest (hash) of the game record. The game record itself is not stored.

Generalship (skill analysis)

Per-game measurements (such as stones captured and how the balance of the game shifted) and the values of the five axes calculated from them. Only you can read them.

In-game currencies and items

Balances of war funds, Mandate stones, and Tamahagane steel, and a record of each change (reason and time). The items you own and how you obtained them, the items you have equipped, and your forging progress.

Gacha records

For each draw: the request ID, the version and fingerprint of the table used, the item drawn and its rarity, the random value used for the draw, whether it was a duplicate and how much Tamahagane steel it was converted into, whether it was a pity exchange, and your pity points.

Online matches

The game ID, the IDs of the Black and White players, the result and how the game ended, the margin, rules, board size, komi, handicap stones, the list of moves and the game record (SGF), start and end times, and whether the game was rated. As your record: your rating, number of games, wins, losses, and draws for each board size.

Purchases and rewarded ads

Entitlements based on purchase notifications from the stores (item ID, which store, and whether active), records of those notifications, and the reservations taken before purchases. For rewarded ads: the transaction ID in the notification Google sends when an ad has been watched to the end, the single-use verification value we issued for it, and the number of Mandate stones granted.

Latest version check

The store versions of the App (iOS and Android) read the latest version number published on the store from our server when they start and when they return to the foreground (the read is made with your anonymous account). This check does not send your version number or information about your device, and nothing new is stored for it. The comparison with the version you use is made on your device. No check is made while a game or its result screen is shown.

Network information

By the nature of communication, the IP address you connect from reaches our servers. We handle it only as needed to establish communication and prevent misuse, and do not store it in the database (for the converted value used for rate limiting, see Section 4).

On the game screen of online matches, your display name, avatar, rating, and overall record are shown to your opponent. Rankings are not currently offered. Your region and store country are not made public. Do not include information that can identify you in your display name.

4. Communications involving AI

The App has three features that use generative AI (Google Gemini). All three are available only with the monthly subscription “Strategist’s Counsel”; nothing is sent without the subscription. All of them go through our server functions (Supabase Edge Functions); the App never connects to the generative AI directly. Because the three differ in what triggers them and what they send, we describe them separately.

(1) The AI’s thoughts — only with the monthly subscription, automatic

Only if you have the monthly subscription, sent automatically during games against the on-device AI, without waiting for you to do anything (“The AI’s thoughts” in Settings is on by default, and you can turn it off). Without the subscription, nothing is sent even if the setting is on. It sends the current position (board size, the placement of black and white stones, the side to move, and the number of captured stones), the previous move, the move number, and your display language. It is not sent on every move, and there is a limit per game. It is not sent during online matches.

(2) Generalship assessment — with the monthly subscription, only when you ask

With the monthly subscription, sent only when you ask for an assessment on the record screen. It sends the values of the five generalship axes and the sample count for each, your total number of games, and your display language. The game records themselves are not sent.

(3) Post-game review — with the monthly subscription, only when you ask

With the monthly subscription, sent only when you ask for a post-game review (the strategist’s review). It sends the game record (the list of moves), board size, rules, whether you played Black or White, the result and margin, the dan of the AI you played, and your display language.

If you have the monthly subscription and want to stop “The AI’s thoughts”, turn off “The AI’s thoughts” in Settings. When it is off, this communication does not take place. Items (2) and (3) are sent only when you ask, so nothing is sent unless you ask. Without the monthly subscription, none of the three is sent.

What we pass to the generative AI (Gemini) is only the content of games and skills; it does not include your name, email address, account ID, display name, or IP address. However, the App may send your account ID to our own server for rate limiting and entitlement checks (it is not passed to the generative AI).

The generative AI API key exists only on the server side and is not included in the App. To prevent abuse and runaway costs, our server applies rate limits and records the following identifier in our database to count requests.

When you are signed in

We record the account ID (UUID) itself, so that people sharing a network are not limited together and the limit follows you even if you change networks. This ID is not linked to your name or email address.

When you are not signed in

We record a value obtained by passing the IP address you connect from through a one-way conversion (a SHA-256 hash). The raw IP address is not stored. In a configuration where no secret value (salt) is added to the conversion, the original value may be guessable by trying candidate IP addresses exhaustively, so we treat this value as information about an individual and use it for nothing other than counting for rate limits.

These records are used only to count requests for rate limiting. Retention is described in Section 9.

The AI’s thoughts, assessments, and reviews are all generated automatically by generative AI. Their accuracy is not guaranteed.

5. Advertising and purchases

The App shows ads at breaks between games. When you choose “Watch an ad for Mandate stones” on the merchant screen, it also shows a rewarded ad that gives you Mandate stones when watched to the end. Rewarded ads have a daily limit.

When a rewarded ad is shown, the App passes Google a single-use verification value issued by our server (a random value that does not identify you). If you watch to the end, Google sends our server a notification carrying that value, and our server uses it to confirm who receives the reward and grants the Mandate stones. Your account ID is not passed to Google.

Ads are served through Google AdMob. To display ads, prevent invalid clicks, and measure effectiveness, Google collects the following information.

• Advertising identifiers (the advertising ID on Android, the IDFA on iOS). These identifiers are assigned to each device, and you can reset or delete them at any time. They are not linked to your name or email address.
• Approximate location estimated from your IP address — coarser than a city, not a street address or coordinates.
• Technical information such as device model, OS version, language, and screen size.
• How many times ads were shown and whether they were clicked.

Google collects and uses this information as an advertising provider; we do not receive it. All we receive are aggregated impression counts and revenue, and notifications that a rewarded ad was watched to the end (Section 3). For how Google handles this information, see “How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services” (https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites).

You can stop ads, or make them not based on your interests, as follows.

Purchase ad removal or the monthly subscription

Ads at breaks between games are no longer shown (for the subscription, only while it is active). Ads are not loaded until your purchase status has been confirmed. Rewarded ads are shown only when you choose them.

Do not allow tracking on iOS

After launch, the App asks for permission to track before it initializes its advertising components. Choose “Ask App Not to Track”, or change it later in the device’s Settings › Privacy & Security › Tracking. Ads are still shown if you do not allow tracking, but they are not based on your interests.

Consent in the EEA, the UK, and Switzerland

In these regions, we ask for your consent to the use of information for advertising through Google’s consent mechanism. If you do not consent, ads are still shown, but they are not based on your interests.

Delete the advertising ID on Android

You can delete or reset the advertising ID from the device’s Settings › Google › Ads. After deletion, ads are not based on your interests (ads are still shown).

We use RevenueCat (RevenueCat, Inc., USA) for purchases and for managing purchase status. Payment itself is handled by the App Store / Google Play; neither we nor RevenueCat obtain payment information such as credit card numbers.

RevenueCat records the products purchased, when they were purchased, whether they were refunded, the country of the app store used, and the ID of your anonymous account. On receiving notifications from RevenueCat, we record the entitlements to purchased items in our database and use them to decide whether to show you ads, whether you can use an item, and whether you can use the monthly subscription (the AI strategist’s advice and move scoring).

Whether the gacha can be offered in your region is determined not by self-declaration but by the country of the app store you use for purchases. The App sends your device’s store country to our server, and the server records that country in your profile only if it matches RevenueCat’s record. If it cannot be matched, the gacha is not offered.

6. Purposes of use

• Running games, deciding results, and recording and displaying game results
• Recording and displaying campaign progress, rank, territories and tribute, lieutenant bonds, and forging
• Recording in-game currencies, items, and gacha draws, and preventing their misuse
• Estimating your skill and suggesting suitable difficulty and opponents
• Calculating online ratings
• Keeping your chosen display, sound, and control settings
• Generating “The AI’s thoughts” during games (only with the monthly subscription; can be turned off in Settings)
• Generating generalship assessments (with the monthly subscription, when you ask)
• Generating post-game reviews (with the monthly subscription, when you ask)
• Rate limiting the features that use generative AI, and preventing abuse and runaway costs
• Showing ads and granting rewards for rewarded ads (if you have purchased ad removal or the monthly subscription, ads at breaks between games are not shown)
• Providing purchased items and the monthly subscription, and confirming whether they have been purchased
• Determining whether the gacha can be offered in your region
• Detecting and preventing misconduct and abuse, and investigating outages

We do not use information for any purpose other than those above. We never use game records, progress, or settings for ad delivery or for analyzing your interests, and we never pass them to advertising providers.

7. Information we do not collect

The App does not obtain the following information. Information collected by Google for advertising is described separately in Section 5 (it is not collected by us, so it is not included here).

• Analytics or behavioral measurement in the App itself (Google Analytics, Firebase Analytics, or any other analytics tool). For the introduction pages and the column (our website), see Section 13.
• Crash-reporting or error-collection tools that send data externally (Firebase Crashlytics, Sentry, and so on). The App keeps a summary of abnormal terminations only on your device (“Error records” in Section 2), but never sends it to anyone, including us.
• Name, email address, phone number, postal address, date of birth, or gender.
• Precise location from GPS, contacts, calendar, photos, camera, microphone, or health information.
• Credit card numbers or other payment information. Payment is handled by the App Store / Google Play, and we do not receive this information.
• Browsing history or your use of other apps.

8. Provision to third parties

We do not provide information we obtain to third parties except as required by law. We never sell the information we obtain.

However, we use the following providers, and information is processed on their servers. All of them are US companies, and even for those whose database or match server is located in Japan, the information may be accessed from their bases in the United States.

Supabase, Inc. (database, authentication, and server functions)

Used to issue anonymous accounts, store the information in Section 3 (progress, in-game currencies and items, gacha, online match records, and purchase entitlements), count requests for rate limiting the features that use generative AI, and run the server functions (Edge Functions) that perform gacha draws and receive rewarded-ad and purchase notifications. Our contractor; the database is located in the Tokyo, Japan region.

Google (Gemini API)

Used to generate “The AI’s thoughts” during games, generalship assessments, and post-game reviews. Only the content of games and skills is sent, with no information that can identify you. Our contractor.

Google LLC (Google Analytics — usage of the introduction pages and the column)

Used to measure usage of the introduction pages and the column (our website). Google obtains and uses the information as an independent business. Its servers are located in the United States. What is sent and how to stop measurement are described in Section 13. Not used in the App itself.

Google (AdMob — ad serving)

Used to serve ads and to notify us that a rewarded ad was watched to the end. Google is not our contractor; it obtains and uses advertising identifiers and other information as an independent advertising provider. What is collected and how to stop it are described in Section 5.

Fly.io, Inc. (online match server)

Current status: online matches are not offered yet, and no information is sent to Fly.io at this time. Once they launch, it will be used to pair players and run online matches. Moves during a game and game results are processed on this server, and results are recorded in the Supabase database. Our contractor; the server is located in Tokyo, Japan.

RevenueCat, Inc. (purchase status management)

Used to record and confirm purchases and to verify the app store country. Our contractor. It does not handle payment information.

In accordance with the Act on the Protection of Personal Information of Japan, we provide the following information about providing personal data to third parties in foreign countries. The destination country is the United States (all of the providers above are US companies). For the personal information protection system of the United States, see the survey of foreign systems published by the Personal Information Protection Commission of Japan (https://www.ppc.go.jp/). If you would like details of the measures taken by each provider, please contact us.

9. Retention period

Data on your device

Kept until you delete it or the device storage is lost. Game records have a limit, and the oldest records beyond it are discarded automatically.

Account data on our servers

The information in Section 3 is kept until the account is deleted (Section 10).

Unused anonymous accounts

An anonymous account with no display name and with none of the following — merit, campaign clears, conquered regions, generalship, bonds, items, a balance of in-game currency, an online record, or purchase records — is deleted automatically 30 days after its last use. If you have even one piece of progress, currency, or item, the account is not subject to this automatic deletion.

Records kept after account deletion

Online match records (shared records with your opponents), records of purchase notifications, gacha draw records, and records of rewarded-ad grants are kept in a form no longer linked to you (anonymized) when the account is deleted, and those older than 365 days from their creation are deleted by a daily scheduled process.

Content sent to generative AI and rate-limit records

The game and skill content sent to the generative AI is not stored on our servers. Rate-limit counts (the identifiers in Section 4) are recorded in our database, and records more than 2 hours past the end of their counting period are deleted by an hourly scheduled process. The raw IP address is not stored.

10. How to delete your data

You can delete the data stored on your device yourself at any time.

1. Open Settings in the App.
2. Under “About”, tap “Delete all saved data”. To prevent accidents, tap it once more to confirm, and the data is deleted.

This deletes your account data on our servers (progress, in-game currencies, items, online record, and so on) and then removes the data on your device and the session of your anonymous account. If the App cannot reach our servers, nothing is deleted. If you cannot use the in-app deletion, you can also request deletion at our contact address. Deleting it permanently removes all in-game currencies and items. The records kept in anonymized form are described in Section 9. For details, see the “Delete your account and data” page.

Requests for disclosure, correction, or suspension of use are accepted at the same address. We respond to the extent that we can confirm the request comes from the person concerned.

11. Security measures

• Communication with our servers uses encrypted connections.
• Row-level access control (RLS) is set on every table in the database. Users can read only their own rows and the items made public to other users (display name, rating, and overall record).
• In-game currencies, items, progress, gacha, and game results cannot be rewritten directly from the App; only server-side functions record them. Gacha draws are performed on the server, and random values or results sent from the App are not used.
• Secret keys for generative AI, advertising, and purchases exist only on the server side and are not included in the App.
• Our policy is not to write secrets such as credentials or tokens to logs, and this is enforced by automated checks.

12. Use by minors

The App is intended for users aged 13 and over and is not directed to children under 13. The App does not ask for or collect your age or date of birth. Ads are shown as ads for a general audience, not as child-directed ads (consent for ads and permission to track are described in Section 5).

Purchases by minors require the consent of a legal guardian (Terms of Service, Article 3). Parents and guardians, please check your children’s use as appropriate, together with the parental features of each OS (such as purchase approval and age-based restrictions).

13. Analytics (introduction pages and the column only)

To understand how the introduction pages of the App (the pages in each language under https://igo.aicreonext.com/) and the column (articles under https://igo.aicreonext.com/column/) are used, we use Google Analytics, provided by Google LLC. Only the introduction pages and the column are covered; it is never used in the App itself.

Recipient

Google LLC (Google Analytics). Its servers are located in the United States. Measurement data may be sent to Google’s servers (www.google.com) as well as to Google Analytics servers. In every region, we are set to always deny storing cookies for advertising and using data for advertising (Google Consent Mode’s ad_storage, ad_user_data, and ad_personalization are fixed to denied).

Information sent

The URL of the page viewed and the referrer (which page you came from), the type of device and browser, screen size, language settings, approximate region estimated from your IP address (the IP address itself is not stored), an identifier stored in a cookie (a code that does not identify you personally), that you pressed a button on the page (which link led you to a store page), that you pressed a link in the “Related apps” section at the end of the page to one of our other games or the operator’s site (the destination of the link and where you pressed it), whether the page viewed is part of the column, and the date and time of viewing and how long you stayed. When you press a store button or a link in the “Related apps” section, the language of the page you were viewing is also sent. In addition, how far down the page you scrolled, words you entered in the site search, playing and pausing videos on the page and how long they played, file downloads, that you pressed a link to another site, and your use of input fields (which field you used and that you submitted it; what you typed is not sent) are also sent.

Retention period

Measurement data is kept in Google Analytics for 14 months and is then deleted automatically.

Purpose of use

To improve the introduction pages and the column and to understand which links lead people to the store pages, and to understand how well we refer people to our other apps and to the operator’s site. It is not used for any other purpose.

If you do not want to be measured, you can stop it in any of the following ways.

• Visits from the European Economic Area (EEA), the United Kingdom, and Switzerland are not measured unless consent is given. Because we do not show a consent request (consent banner) on the introduction pages and the column, no measurement takes place in these regions. Whether a visit comes from these regions is determined by the browser’s time zone and language settings; if it cannot be determined, no measurement takes place.
• No measurement takes place if your browser has “Do Not Track” or Global Privacy Control enabled.
• You can stop measurement by installing the opt-out add-on provided by Google (https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout).
• For how Google handles information, see Google’s Privacy Policy (https://policies.google.com/privacy).

14. Changes to this policy

We may change this policy in response to changes in law or the addition of features. The revised policy applies from the time it is posted on this page. If a change substantially expands the types of information collected or the purposes of use, we will announce it in the App in advance.

15. Contact

For inquiries about this policy and the handling of information, and for requests for disclosure, correction, or deletion, please contact us at the following address.

Operator

AICREO NEXT LLC (合同会社AICREO NEXT)

Email

contact@aicreonext.com