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Default Alive privacy policy

Last updated: October 16, 2026

Default Alive is a single-player game for iPhone and Android, made by Dave Paola and published by Enginery. In this policy, "I" is Dave. Here is exactly what the app collects, including the gameplay data it sends so I can see how the game plays and where players get stuck.

In short

  • There is no account. At your first seed round, the app asks once for an email address, and you can skip it. It never asks for your name, your Apple ID or your Google account.
  • There are no ads, and the app does not track you across other companies' apps or websites.
  • The app sends gameplay events to PostHog, an analytics service, tied to a random ID made for your install. If you give an email address, PostHog keeps it with those events.
  • Your company's save stays on your phone. Deleting the app deletes it from the phone.

Data I collect about you

No account, and one optional contact detail. Default Alive has no accounts. The only contact detail it can collect is an email address, if you give one at your first seed round. It does not ask for your name, and it does not ask for access to your contacts, photos, camera, microphone or location. It does not use the advertising identifier. It does send gameplay analytics, described below.

Your email address, if you give it

At your first seed round, the game asks once: "Your board wants investor updates. Where do we send them?" You can tap "Not now", and nothing in the game changes either way.

  • What: the address you type, and nothing else.
  • Where: the app sends it to enginery.co, which stores it in Cloudflare's database (D1) with the time it arrived and the word "default-alive".
  • Why: email about the game, for example when a new stage ships, and to see how players who give an address play. Nothing else, and I never sell it.
  • Joined to your gameplay: after enginery.co stores the address, the app also adds it to your install's profile in PostHog, so your address and your gameplay events are together. That lets me see how you play and write to you at a useful moment, for example when your company reaches its next round.
  • Stop: use the unsubscribe link in any email, or email me to delete the address.

Data the app stores

The app keeps your company (the save) in its own private storage on your phone, with a few settings, such as your answer to the "How did you hear about Default Alive?" question. It also keeps your daily garage results and the codes you played, on your phone. On Android, Save Image puts a card's picture in your phone's Pictures folder; the app does not read your photos. I do not run a server for the game. The save does not leave your phone unless you send it yourself (see TestFlight builds, below), or your phone's own backup copies it.

On an iPhone, if you back up to iCloud or to a computer, the backup includes the save, as it does for other apps. On Android, if backup is on, Android can copy the save, the settings and the install ID to the backup in your Google account, and a restore on a new phone brings back your companies with the same install ID. I cannot see either backup.

Deleting the app deletes the save, the settings and the install ID from your phone. A new install starts a new company with a new ID, unless an Android backup restores the old ones. Deleting the app does not delete the events that PostHog already has; to have those deleted, see Your choices, below.

Gameplay analytics

The app sends gameplay events to PostHog, an analytics service. PostHog stores them on its US cloud, in the United States. I use them to see how the game plays: which cards players answer and how, where they get stuck, and whether they come back. The events include:

  • When you open the app, and how many game weeks passed while you were away
  • The cards the game shows you, the answer you pick, and how many seconds you took
  • The plan settings you change, such as your price, your hours, ad spend and hiring
  • Your speed and your pauses in the garage
  • The stories, board decks and numbers you open, and the people you tap in the office
  • The term sheet you take: its valuation, its terms, and whether the investor takes a board seat
  • What you do with someone on your team, such as feedback or a promotion, with their role (never a name)
  • The founder's week: the moves you book, their hours, and their results
  • When a notification opens the app, which kind of notification it was, and on Android how many minutes late it came
  • How a run ends, and whether you share its card
  • Your answer to the one-time question "How did you hear about Default Alive?": a friend or colleague, a post in a community or online, something else, or skip
  • If you answered "a post", your answer to "Where was the post?" (a Slack community, X, LinkedIn, Hacker News, somewhere else, or skip), and on every install your answer to "What do you do for work?" (engineer, engineering manager or leader, founder, product or design, something else, or skip). Each is one tap, asked once
  • The daily garage and codes: the day, the market code, your result and score, the codes you enter and whether they work, and when a link opens the game, which kind (today's garage or a code) and whether it works
  • When you share a card or save its image: which card, and the app you picked (on an iPhone, the kind of app, for example Messages; on Android, the app's package name, for example com.whatsapp), never who you sent it to
  • Your answer to the notification permission, and whether you gave an email address (the address itself goes on your profile, not into each event)
  • With every event: the game week, the stage of the game, the kind of run (your company, a daily garage or a code), whether your company is default alive or default dead that week, and the app's build number, and whether your phone is an iPhone or an Android phone
  • Your device model, operating system version (iOS or Android), app version, language and region setting, time zone, screen size, and network type (Wi-Fi or cellular), which PostHog's software adds
  • A timestamp, and a random ID that PostHog's software makes the first time the game runs, so events from the same install can be grouped

PostHog also receives the IP address of each request. PostHog keeps it with the event and uses it to estimate an approximate location: the city, the region, the postal code, the country, and an approximate latitude and longitude for that area (not the position of your phone). The app itself never asks for your location.

Every event carries the same install ID, so PostHog groups your events into one profile for your install. Under Apple's definitions, this data is linked to you. The events do not contain your name, your Apple ID or your Google account. If you give an email address, PostHog keeps it on your install's profile, so it is joined to your events. The events do not contain the name you give your company or an advertising identifier. I never sell this data or use it for advertising.

What the App Store privacy details say

The App Store privacy details for Default Alive declare six data types. None is used to track you. The first five are used for analytics only and are linked to you through the install ID:

  • Coarse Location: the approximate location that PostHog works out from the IP address
  • Device ID: the random install ID
  • Product Interaction: the gameplay events listed above
  • Other Usage Data: the properties on each event and the device details that PostHog adds
  • Other Data: your answer to "What do you do for work?", only if you answer
  • Email Address: for analytics and for the developer's own email about the game, linked to you, not used to track you, and only if you give one

What Google Play's data safety section says

The data safety section on Google Play declares the same data in Google's terms. The app collects it and shares none of it: PostHog and Cloudflare process it only for me, so Google does not count them as sharing. All of it is encrypted in transit, and you can ask me to delete it (see Your choices).

  • Approximate location: the approximate location that PostHog works out from the IP address, for analytics
  • Email address: only if you give one, for analytics and for my own email about the game
  • App interactions and other actions: the gameplay events listed above, and your answers to the one-tap questions (how you heard of the game, where the post was, what you do for work), for analytics
  • Installed apps: on Android, the package name of the app you pick when you share a card, for analytics
  • Device or other IDs: the random install ID, for analytics
  • Other app performance data: the device details that PostHog adds, and how late a notification came, for analytics

What the app does not do

  • No ads, and no advertising software.
  • No tracking. The app does not combine its data with other companies' data for advertising, and it does not share data with data brokers. It does not use the advertising identifier: on an iPhone it never shows Apple's App Tracking Transparency prompt, and on Android it does not ask for the advertising ID permission.
  • No screen recording. The app does not record its screens.

Notifications

Notifications are local. The app schedules them on your phone, and no server sends them. The game asks for permission when you start the clock (Android 12 and earlier does not ask, and notifications are on unless you turn them off), and it sends at most three a day, none from 9 p.m. to 8 a.m. On Android, a notification can come up to about an hour late, because Android groups alarms to save battery. When a notification opens the app, the gameplay events record that, and which kind of notification it was.

TestFlight builds

The beta on TestFlight has two features that the App Store version does not have:

  • Send my run. In the tester menu and on the ending screen, Send my run opens the share sheet with three files: the save, the app's state, and a log of every move in the run. Nothing leaves your iPhone unless you choose where to send the files, for example in an email to me. I use them only to find bugs and to tune the game, and I delete them when you ask.
  • Send the beta. This shares the TestFlight link through the share sheet. The app records that you tapped it and on which screen. It does not see who you send it to.

TestFlight is Apple's service. Apple sends me crash reports from the beta and any feedback you submit, with its screenshot and comment. If you joined through the public link, Apple does not show me your name or your email address; it shows me your number of sessions and crashes, the day you installed the game, and the version you have. Apple's TestFlight terms and privacy policy cover what Apple collects.

The Google Play test

Before Default Alive can go public on Google Play, Google requires a closed test. To join, you join a Google Group with your Google account, then opt in on Google Play. I can see that account's email address in the group's member list, and Google sees it too. Other testers cannot see it. I use it only to run the test, and I do not add it to an email list. Leave the group to remove it. The test app is the same game as the public release, with no Send my run and no Send the beta. Google's terms and privacy policy cover what Google collects.

Crash reports

If the App Store version crashes and you have turned on Share With App Developers in your iPhone's settings, Apple sends me a crash report. It holds what went wrong in the code, your device model and your iOS version, not who you are or what is in your save.

On Android, if you share usage and diagnostics with Google, Google Play sends me crash reports. They hold what went wrong in the code, your device model and your Android version, not who you are or what is in your save.

This website

This page is on enginery.co, which counts its own visits with PostHog. The site's privacy page describes that.

Children

Default Alive is rated 4+ on the App Store and Everyone on Google Play. On Google Play, its target audience is adults, 18 and over. It is not directed at children under 13. It collects nothing from any player beyond what this page lists. I do not knowingly collect any data from children.

Your choices

  • Turn off notifications: on an iPhone, in Settings, then Notifications, then Default Alive; on Android, in Settings, then Apps, then Default Alive, then Notifications.
  • Stop the emails with the link in any of them, or email me to delete your address from enginery.co and from PostHog.
  • Stop all collection by deleting the app. Its save, its settings and its install ID go with it, and the app sends nothing more.
  • See or delete what PostHog holds. Email me. The install ID is random and I cannot see who you are, so tell me your phone model, roughly when you started playing, and your city. If you gave an email address in the game, tell me that address, and I can find your events from it. I will find your install's events and send them to you or delete them, whichever you ask for.

Anyone can use these, wherever you live. If you are in the EU or the UK, you can also complain to your local data protection authority, though I hope you would tell me first.

Changes to this policy

If I change this policy, I will update the date above and post the new version at this address. I will also note material changes in the release notes for the next version of the game.

Contact

For any question about this policy or how the game handles your data, email dave@enginery.co. Default Alive is published by Enginery, Pittsburgh. There is no support team, so I answer it myself.