At a glance
- We do not ask you to create an account, and we never ask for your real name, address or phone number.
- Your game progress, designs, settings and site-log photographs stay in the app's own storage on your device.
- The app contacts our server for a small amount of configuration data and sends a random installation identifier plus basic app and device technical information with that request.
- We do not sell your data, and we do not share it with advertising networks or data brokers.
- Deleting the app removes everything the app stored on your device.
Contents
1. Who we are
Road Builder Empire is an offline-first pavement engineering puzzle game for iPhone and iPad. In this policy, “we”, “us” and “our” mean the Road Builder Empire team, the publisher of the app and the operator of the roadbuilder.online domain. We are the controller of the limited personal data described below.
You can reach us at any time at [email protected] or through the support page.
2. Data stored on your device
This is the bulk of what the app holds. None of it is uploaded to us.
Everything in the table below is written into the app's private container on your device. We have no copy of it and no way to read it remotely.
| What | Why it exists | Sent to us? |
|---|---|---|
| Firm name and founder name you type in | Labels your company inside the game | No |
| Capital, reputation, research points | Game progression | No |
| Completed contracts and saved pavement designs | Lets you revisit and improve your own results | No |
| Crew, equipment, plant upgrades, unlocked research | Game progression | No |
| Commendations, statistics, daily tender history | Game progression | No |
| Sound, music, haptics and motion preferences | Your settings | No |
| Site log photographs, captions and defect tags | Your own engineering reference cards | No |
| Firm logo image you choose | Shown on your headquarters card | No |
| Installation identifier (random, stored in the keychain) | Lets our server recognise one installation across launches | Yes |
You can erase the game data at any time from Settings → Data → Erase All Progress inside the app, or by deleting the app from your device.
3. Data sent to our server
A small configuration request, and anything you choose to write to us.
3.1 Launch configuration request
When the app starts, it may make a request to our server at roadbuilder.online to fetch configuration — which in-game features are switched on, the current tender rotation, the minimum supported app version and any short in-game notice. This request carries:
- Installation identifier — a random value generated on your device the first time the app runs, stored in the device keychain. It is not your Apple ID, not your device serial number and not the advertising identifier. It cannot be used to identify you as a person.
- App version and build number — so the server can answer with configuration that the installed version understands.
- Configuration schema version — a number describing the format the app expects.
- Device browser user agent string — the standard technical string your device's web engine reports, containing the operating system version and device class.
- IP address — as with any internet request, your IP address is visible to our server and appears in its access logs. We use it only to deliver the response, to keep the service secure and to derive an approximate country. We do not use it to build a profile of you.
If the request fails, or if your device is offline, the app carries on with the settings built into it. The game is fully playable without a network connection.
3.2 Web content shown inside the app
Depending on the configuration returned by the server, the app may display a web page from our domain inside the app using the system web view. Pages loaded this way may set cookies or use local browser storage on your device so that a session is not lost between launches, exactly as a page opened in Safari would. That storage lives in the app's own container and is removed when you delete the app.
3.3 When you contact us
If you write to us by email or through the form on the support page, we receive the email address you provide, the reason you select and the text of your message, together with anything you attach. We use it only to answer you and to fix what you reported.
3.4 What we never collect
- No advertising identifier (IDFA) and no advertising SDK — the app shows no ads.
- No contacts, calendar, health data, microphone audio or precise location.
- No content of your site log photographs, captions or saved designs.
- No purchase or payment data — the app has no in-app purchases.
- No cross-app or cross-site tracking, and no data sold or shared with data brokers.
4. Permissions the app may ask for
Each one is optional, requested in context, and refusable without losing the game.
- Camera — asked for only when you tap “Photograph” in the Site Log or set a firm logo. The image is downscaled and written into the app's own storage. It is never uploaded and never analysed.
- Photo library (read) — asked for only when you tap “Import”. A single image you pick is copied into the app. Nothing else in your library is read.
- Photo library (add) — asked for only when you save a rendered blueprint of your cross-section to your own photos.
You can review or withdraw any of these at any time in iOS Settings → Road Builder Empire. Declining leaves the rest of the game fully playable.
5. Service providers
We keep the list of third parties as short as the app allows.
| Provider | Role | What it may receive |
|---|---|---|
| Google Firebase (Google Ireland Limited / Google LLC) | Application infrastructure used by the app | Technical identifiers generated on the device, app version and device model information |
| Apple (App Store) | Distribution of the app and its updates | Apple's own download and, if you send one, review data — governed by Apple's privacy policy, not ours |
| Our hosting provider for roadbuilder.online | Serves the configuration endpoint and this website | Request data including IP address, in server access logs |
These providers act on our instructions under contract, or as independent controllers for their own platform purposes as described in their own privacy policies. We do not authorise any of them to sell your data.
6. Why we process data
- To run the game — saving your progress, designs and settings so they are there when you come back.
- To configure the app correctly — telling the installed version which features are active and whether an update is required.
- To keep the service working and secure — detecting abuse of the configuration endpoint, diagnosing failures, and understanding roughly how many installations are active.
- To answer you — replying to support messages and bug reports.
We do not use your data for advertising, profiling or automated decision-making that has legal or similarly significant effects on you.
7. Legal bases (EEA and UK)
- Performance of a contract — providing the app and the features you asked for, including the launch configuration request that makes the installed version behave correctly.
- Legitimate interests — keeping the service secure and functioning, and understanding the approximate number of active installations. We have balanced these against your rights, which is why the identifier we use is random and unlinked to your identity.
- Consent — camera and photo library access, and any information you volunteer when you contact us. Consent can be withdrawn at any time in iOS Settings.
8. How long data is kept
- On your device — until you erase progress in the app's settings or delete the app.
- Server access logs — kept for a short period for security and diagnostics, ordinarily no longer than 90 days, then deleted or aggregated.
- Installation records — kept while the installation is active; records that have not been seen for 24 months are deleted.
- Support correspondence — kept for up to 24 months after the matter is closed, so we can follow up on a recurring issue.
9. Your rights
Subject to your local law, including the GDPR and the UK GDPR, you may have the right to access, correct, delete, restrict or object to our processing of your personal data, and the right to data portability. California residents have comparable rights under the CCPA/CPRA, including the right not to be discriminated against for exercising them; note that we do not sell or share personal information as those terms are defined there.
The simplest and most complete way to exercise deletion is to delete the app, which removes everything held on your device. For anything held on our side, write to [email protected]. Because the installation identifier is random and is not shown to you, we usually cannot link a server-side record to an individual person or request; where that is the case we will tell you so plainly rather than guess. Anything you have sent us by email or through the support form we can always find, correct or delete on request.
We answer requests within 30 days. If you are in the EEA or the UK and you are unhappy with our answer, you may lodge a complaint with your national data protection authority.
10. Children
Road Builder Empire is suitable for a general audience and contains no advertising, no purchases, no chat and no user-generated content shared with other players. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 13 (or the equivalent age set by local law). If you believe a child has provided us with personal data through a support message, contact us and we will delete it.
11. International transfers
Our server and the providers listed above may process data in countries other than yours, including the United States. Where data is transferred out of the EEA or the UK, we rely on the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses, the UK International Data Transfer Addendum, or an applicable adequacy decision.
12. Security
All requests between the app and our server use HTTPS. The installation identifier is held in the device keychain rather than in plain application storage. Access to server-side records is limited to the people who maintain the service. No system is perfectly secure, but the deliberate design choice here is to hold as little as possible: data we never collect cannot be exposed.
13. Changes to this policy
If we change how the app handles data, we will update this page and change the “Last updated” date above. Material changes will also be described in the app's release notes. Continuing to use the app after an update means you accept the revised policy.
14. Contact
Questions, corrections and data requests all go to the same place: