Privacy Policy
Last updated: 12 October 2026
Sanctuary Five Studios ("we", "us", "our") is a small independent studio in New Zealand. We make Snuggle Sanctuary, a free animal sanctuary game for Android supported by optional ads and optional purchases. This policy explains what information the game uses, why, who can see it, and the choices you have.
At a glance
- 🌱You can play without signing in. The game still keeps a cloud backup of your sanctuary under a random ID, so you don't lose progress.
- 🏷️Your ranger name, scores and badges appear on leaderboards that other players can see. Pick a name that doesn't identify you.
- 📺Ads are rewarded videos you choose to watch. We ask for consent where the law requires it, and ads are rated for general audiences.
- 🔔Notifications are off until you turn them on, and you can turn them off any time.
- 🎂The game asks for your month and year of birth once. The answer stays on your phone and is never sent to us.
- 🚫We don't sell your information, and we don't use analytics tracking tools.
- 🗑️You can delete your online account inside the game: Settings → Online account and cloud save → Delete my online account.
Information the game uses
Your game account
When the game first connects to the internet, Firebase Authentication (a Google service) gives you a random user ID. This is a guest account: it has no name, email or password attached. We use it to back up your sanctuary and to run the online features below.
If you choose to link a Google account (Settings → Online account and cloud save), we also receive your Google account's email address and account ID from Google. We use them only to sign you back in and to restore your sanctuary on another phone.
Your sanctuary and cloud backup
The game stores your progress on your phone and keeps a backup copy in Cloud Firestore (Google's database). The backup contains your game data: animals, currencies, upgrades, outfits, story progress, purchases you own, how many ads you've watched (for VIP levels and the kindness jar), your ranger's name and look, and a random code that tells your devices apart (for example dev-x7k2q9ab; it isn't your phone's hardware ID).
Ranger name
Every ranger name is one of a kind. To keep it that way, we store a record that links your ranger name to your user ID.
Community features
- Leaderboards: your ranger name, scores, VIP level, supporter badge and best event badge.
- Events: your event points, your final rank and any prize you're given.
- Herds: the herd you join, your ranger name, VIP level, supporter badge and the help points you earn.
- Ticket gifts: who sent a game ticket to whom, and on which day (only within your herd).
- The Great Migration and weekly votes: your contribution is added to world totals, and a record of your vote stops you voting twice in a week.
Notifications (only if you turn them on)
If you turn notifications on, we store a notification token from Firebase Cloud Messaging, which choices you made (events and prizes), and your phone's time zone. The daily gift reminder is set up on your phone and doesn't use our server.
Age question
The first time you open the game, it asks for the month and year you were born. We use this only to check that you're 13 or over, because the game is made for players aged 13 and up. Your answer is kept on your phone. It isn't sent to our server, and it isn't included in your cloud backup.
Ads and purchases
See the Ads and Purchases sections below. We never see your payment details.
What we don't collect
We don't use Firebase Analytics or any other analytics or tracking tools. We don't collect your contacts, photos, precise location, microphone or camera. Google Play may collect basic crash and performance reports under its own policies, which helps us fix bugs.
What other players can see
| Where | What other players see |
|---|---|
| Leaderboards and event rankings | Your ranger name, score, VIP level, supporter badge and best event badge |
| Your herd | Your ranger name, VIP level, supporter badge and help points |
| Ticket gifts | The ranger name of the herd member who sent the ticket |
Other players never see your email address, your Google account or your user ID. Because your ranger name is public, please don't use your real full name or anything that identifies you.
Advertising (Google AdMob)
Snuggle Sanctuary only shows rewarded video ads that you choose to watch for an in-game reward. There are no banner ads, no full-screen ads that interrupt play, and no ads you have to watch to progress. Ads are limited to content rated for general audiences.
Ads are provided by Google AdMob. When an ad loads, AdMob may collect your device's advertising ID, IP address, device and app information, and how you interact with the ad, to show and measure ads and prevent fraud. If you're in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, Switzerland or a US state with privacy laws, we show Google's consent message before any ad loads. There you can consent, refuse ("Do not consent"), or manage your choices, and you can change them any time in Settings → Privacy and ad choices.
To learn how Google uses information from apps that use its services, see How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services.
Notifications
The game asks once whether you'd like notifications. If you say yes, it can tell you when an event starts, when an event has 3 hours left, when an event prize is ready, and when your daily gift is waiting. You can switch each one off in Settings → Notifications or in your phone's settings. When you turn notifications off, we delete your notification token.
In-app purchases
Optional purchases (such as gem or heart packs and the Supporter pack) are processed by Google Play's billing system. Google handles your payment details under its own policies, and we never see your card or bank details.
When you buy something, the game sends Google's purchase confirmation to our server, which checks it with Google before giving you the item. So that each purchase is honored once, and to help with refunds and fraud prevention, we keep a purchase record containing:
- your user ID
- the item you bought and Google Play's order number
- when it was bought
- a scrambled fingerprint of the purchase confirmation (not the confirmation itself)
Items you own permanently (such as the Supporter pack or a theme) are also saved to your account so they can be restored on a new phone.
How information is shared
We don't sell your personal information, and we don't share it for other companies' marketing. It is handled only by:
- Google (Firebase, AdMob, Google Play), the services that run the game, as described above. Their handling of data is covered by the Google Privacy Policy, Firebase privacy and security and the AdMob data disclosure.
- Other players, only the public game details listed in What other players can see.
- Authorities, if the law requires it.
Where it's stored, how long, and deleting it
Our game database is hosted by Google in Sydney, Australia (australia-southeast1). Google may process data in other countries under its own safeguards. Information is sent over encrypted connections, and our database rules let each player change only their own records.
We keep your game data while your account exists, so your sanctuary is safe. You can delete it at any time:
- In the game: Settings → Online account and cloud save → Delete my online account. This removes your cloud backup, ranger name record, leaderboard and event entries, event prizes, herd membership, ticket gifts and notification token, and then deletes the account itself.
- By email: see our Account Deletion page.
- On your phone: uninstalling the game removes the copy stored on your phone.
Purchase records (see In-app purchases) are kept for as long as we need them to handle refunds, prevent fraud and meet our legal record-keeping obligations, even after you delete your account.
After deletion, world totals that already include your contribution (such as the Great Migration and weekly vote counts) stay as anonymous totals. Google Play keeps its own purchase records under its own policies.
Your choices and rights
- Play without linking a Google account.
- Change or withdraw ad consent in Settings → Privacy and ad choices, or reset or delete your advertising ID in your phone's settings (on most Android phones: Settings → Google → Ads).
- Turn notifications on or off in Settings → Notifications.
- Change your ranger name any time in Settings → Your ranger and username.
- Delete your online account in the game, or ask us to.
- Ask us for a copy of your information, or ask us to correct it. Under New Zealand's Privacy Act 2020 you can do this at any time, and if you're unhappy with how we handle your information you can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner. Depending on where you live (for example the EU, UK or some US states), you may have similar rights, which we'll honor on request.
Children's privacy
Snuggle Sanctuary is made for players aged 13 and over. It isn't directed at children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect information from them. The game asks for your month and year of birth when it first opens (see Age question). If you're under 13, the game won't let you play, and nothing about your age is sent to us. If you believe a child under 13 has given us information, contact us and we'll delete it.
Changes to this policy
When we add features that change how information is used, we'll update this page and the "Last updated" date. For important changes we'll also let players know in the game.
Contact us
Questions, requests or worries about your information? Get in touch with Sanctuary Five Studios, New Zealand: