Privacy Policy

Phantom Chase is a real-world, GPS-powered game of tag: phantoms draw a play zone on a live map, split into Hunters and the Hunted, and play the match out on real streets. Because the app is built around live location and proximity data, this policy explains in detail what we collect, why, how it’s shared between phantoms during a match, how long it’s kept, and the choices you have.

1. Who We Are

Phantom Chase is developed and operated by AppMinds.dev Inc. (“Phantom Chase,” “we,” “us,” or “our”). This policy covers the Phantom Chase iOS app and the phantomchase.app website. If you have questions about this policy or how your data is handled, see Contact Us below.

2. Information We Collect

2.1 Account Information

When you create an account, we collect your name, email address, and date of birth. Your email is verified before your account is fully activated. Your date of birth is used to confirm you meet our minimum age requirement (see Children’s Privacy) and to derive two things your Game Master can see about you in a match: a coarse “13–17” safety flag, shown automatically so a Game Master can look out for minors in their match, and your exact age, shown only if you separately opt in — this is off by default and can be turned on or off at any time in Settings → Privacy. Neither is visible to other participants, and the exact-age toggle is independent of the always-on safety flag.

2.2 Location Data

Location is core to how Phantom Chase works and is required to create or join a game. While you are in an active match, we collect your live GPS position:

• Continuously in the foreground, and roughly every 15 seconds in the background, for as long as a match is running.
• To enforce the play zone you and your group drew — including detecting when a phantom crosses the boundary, issuing warnings, and disqualifying repeat or severe violations.
• To power the live map, the pulsing phantom/hunter dots other participants see, and route/distance calculations used in your post-game stats.

The live position other participants see on the map travels directly between devices over an encrypted peer-to-peer connection (WebRTC), relayed through our self-hosted TURN/STUN server only when a direct connection between two devices isn’t possible — this relay doesn’t store what passes through it. Separately, your device also sends us a batch of your recent locations roughly every 10 minutes, and immediately if you background or close the app, so we can keep a record tied to your match — see Data Retention for how long this is kept.

Location tracking stops automatically when a match ends or when you leave the game. Background location access can be revoked at any time in your device’s Settings, though doing so will affect core gameplay (see Your Rights and Choices).

2.3 Bluetooth Proximity Data

When a Hunter attempts to catch a Phantom, we use Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) signals between the two nearby devices — combined with a lenient GPS check — to confirm the two phantoms were genuinely close together before the catch can be submitted for the Game Master’s review. We do not use Bluetooth for any purpose outside of catch confirmation, and it is only active during an active match.

2.4 Gameplay Statistics and Device Diagnostics

We collect gameplay statistics shown in your post-game summary — distance traveled, time played, top speed, step count, and closest-call proximity to another phantom. If you choose to connect Apple Health, some of these stats (like steps) may be sourced from HealthKit instead of our own tracking; this connection is entirely optional and can be disconnected at any time.

We also collect basic device and diagnostic information: battery level and network signal quality (shown to your Game Master so they can account for phantoms who may be about to lose connection), app version, and crash/error reports sent automatically via PostHog to help us find and fix bugs — see In-App Analytics and Error Tracking.

2.5 In-Game Communication

Phantom Chase includes in-game chat for match participants, and push notifications for game events (status changes, zone warnings, chat messages, and SOS alerts). Chat messages are stored to support message history within a match and are visible to other participants in the relevant chat, per your role. We also store a device push token so we can deliver notifications to your device; this token is not shared with other phantoms.

2.6 SOS and Safety Data

Phantom Chase includes an SOS feature you can trigger during a match. Activating it sends your location and a critical, high-priority alert to your Game Master so they can check on you. Once SOS is active, your Game Master can also start a live voice call with you, or any other participant, directly from the SOS screen to check in — this needs microphone access, uses your microphone only for the call’s duration, and the audio travels directly between devices (peer-to-peer, or through our TURN relay when needed); we don’t record or store it. SOS is a convenience feature, not a substitute for contacting local emergency services directly.

2.7 Game Event Log

Every match keeps an event log (joins, catches, disqualifications, zone warnings, jokers played, and similar events) tied to the phantoms involved. This log is visible to participants within the app and can be exported by the Game Master as JSON or CSV for their own records after the match ends — see How Information Is Shared.

2.8 Website Cookies and Analytics

The phantomchase.app website uses one strictly necessary cookie to remember your cookie preferences. If you opt in via the cookie banner, we also use PostHog to collect basic analytics — page views and interaction events. No session replay, no cross-site tracking, no advertising use. See Cookies and Similar Technologies for details and how to manage your preference.

2.9 Website Forms: Waitlist, Newsletter, and Creator Applications

The phantomchase.app website has a few forms you can fill out without creating a Phantom Chase account:

• Android waitlist — your first name, last name, and email address, plus an unchecked-by-default box if you’d also like to join our general newsletter.
• Newsletter signup (in the site footer) — your first name, last name, and email address.
• Creator Program application — your first name, last name, email address, country of residence, primary language, a short written introduction, and, for whichever social platforms you select (YouTube, Twitch, Kick, TikTok, Instagram), that platform’s profile URL and follower/subscriber count.
• Feedback form — your name, email address, and, optionally, your in-game nickname, along with whatever bug report, crash report, feature request, or general feedback you write. Submitting this form requires the Analytics cookie category to be enabled, since it’s stored via PostHog rather than beehiiv — see Website Cookies and Analytics. Every submission (from this form and the in-app equivalent) is also forwarded to a private, staff-only channel in our official Discord server for internal review — see With Service Providers.

Submitting any of these forms requires checking a box confirming you’ve read this Privacy Policy. The waitlist, newsletter, and Creator Program forms are stored via beehiiv, our email marketing platform, which also sends the resulting emails and — for the Creator Program — tracks and reviews applications. The Feedback form is stored via PostHog instead; see With Service Providers for both. None of these forms require or create a Phantom Chase account.

2.10 In-App Analytics and Error Tracking

The Phantom Chase app uses PostHog for two separate things:

• Crash and error reporting — sent automatically to help us find and fix bugs quickly. This is always on and isn’t affected by the toggle below, since it’s about app stability rather than tracking your activity.
• In-app usage analytics — a small set of gameplay-milestone events (account created, game created, game joined, catch confirmed, joker played, game ended), tied to your account so your in-app activity forms one connected history. This never includes chat content, precise location traces, or anything beyond the milestone itself, and you can turn it off at any time in Settings → Privacy.

See With Service Providers for how this fits alongside PostHog’s other uses (website analytics, Feedback form).

2.11 Discord Sign-In and Account Linking

You can optionally sign in to Phantom Chase using a Discord account, or link a Discord account to an existing account from Settings → Connected Accounts. If you do, we receive your Discord user ID, username, and email address (if you grant that permission) — used only to create or link your Phantom Chase account. We never automatically link a Discord account to an existing Phantom Chase account just because the email addresses match; linking always requires you to explicitly connect it while signed in to the account you want it attached to. You can disconnect Discord from your account at any time in Settings → Connected Accounts, as long as it isn’t your only sign-in method. Some accounts also automatically receive a role in our official Discord server reflecting an in-app achievement (for example, an early-access badge) once Discord is connected — see With Service Providers.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use the information above to:

• Create and secure your account, and verify your email and age.
• Run live matches: enforce the play zone, confirm catches, relay chat and push notifications, and keep the map and participant roster up to date in real time.
• Generate your post-game summary and stats.
• Keep matches fair — detecting boundary violations, spoofed locations, or other conduct that breaks the rules — and give Game Masters the tools to review and resolve disputes.
• Respond to SOS activations and other safety-related events.
• Fix bugs, monitor app stability, and improve the game over time.
• Communicate with you about your account, security, and game activity.
• Notify you about Android beta availability, send the newsletter you’ve opted into, or review a Creator Program application, if you’ve submitted one of the website forms described in Website Forms.

4. Legal Bases for Processing

Where the GDPR or UK GDPR applies, we rely on the following legal bases: performance of a contract (running the game you’ve joined), consent (optional features like Health data, age sharing, and non-essential cookies), and legitimate interests (fraud/anti-cheat prevention, app security, and improving the service). You can withdraw consent for any optional feature at any time without affecting matches already completed.

5. Automated Enforcement

To keep matches fair in real time, some enforcement is automated rather than reviewed by a person first: crossing the play zone boundary generates automatic warnings and, after repeated or severe violations, an automatic disqualification. Catch attempts, by contrast, always go through your Game Master for a manual confirm or deny before they take effect. If you believe an automated zone decision was incorrect, your Game Master can review the event log for your match and make the final call.

6. How Information Is Shared

We do not sell your personal information.

6.1 With Other Phantoms, By Role

What other participants can see about you during a match depends on their role:

• Hunters see other participants as anonymized position markers (e.g., “Phantom #3”) on the live map — not names — until a catch is made.
• The Game Master sees full participant details relevant to running the match: name, role, live location, battery/network status, the 13–17 minor safety flag, your exact age if you’ve opted in to share it, and the full event log, in order to oversee fair play and respond to safety events like SOS.
• All participants can see messages they send and receive in shared match chat.

This visibility is scoped to the match you’re playing and ends when the match does.

6.2 With Service Providers

We share limited data with the service providers that make the app work, strictly to provide the service:

• Apple, for push notification delivery (APNs) and app distribution via the App Store.
• Our email provider, to send account verification and transactional emails.
• Map and routing providers, to render the live map and calculate routes/distances during a match.
• beehiiv, our email marketing platform, if you join the Android waitlist, subscribe to our newsletter, or apply to our Creator Program via the website — see Website Forms.
• PostHog, our product analytics and error-tracking platform, for website analytics (if you opt in), Feedback form submissions (website and app), in-app crash/error reporting, and in-app usage analytics (if enabled) — see Website Cookies and Analytics, Website Forms, and In-App Analytics and Error Tracking.
• Discord, if you choose to sign in with or link a Discord account (see Discord Sign-In and Account Linking), and for our staff’s internal review of Feedback form submissions and crash/error reports forwarded from PostHog into a private channel in our official Discord server.

These providers only receive the data necessary to perform their function and are not permitted to use it for their own purposes.

6.3 Legal and Safety Disclosures

We may disclose information if required by law, or if we believe in good faith it’s necessary to protect the safety of a user or the public, prevent fraud, or enforce our Terms of Service.

6.4 Business Transfers

If Phantom Chase were to be involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, user information may be transferred as part of that transaction, subject to the protections of this policy.

7. Game Master Event Log Exports

Because a Game Master oversees a match, they can export that match’s full event log (JSON or CSV) after it ends, for their own records. This export includes the same match-scoped event data already visible to them in-app during the match — it does not include data from other matches or other Game Masters’ games.

8. Data Retention

• Live location exchanged directly between devices during a match (peer-to-peer, or via our TURN relay) is never stored on our servers. The periodic location batches your device sends us during a match (see Location Data) are retained for up to 30 days after the match ends, then permanently deleted; your post-game stats (distance, speed, etc.) are retained indefinitely as a summary tied to that match.
• Game event logs are retained indefinitely as your permanent match history, viewable in your past-game summaries.
• Chat messages are retained to preserve history within a match.
• Account information is retained for as long as your account is active, and deleted (or anonymized where retention is required for the integrity of past matches’ event logs) after account deletion.
• Website form submissions (waitlist, newsletter, Creator Program applications) are retained until you unsubscribe using the link in any email we send, or ask us to delete them.

You can request deletion of your account and associated personal data at any time — see Your Rights and Choices.

9. Children’s Privacy

Phantom Chase requires all users to confirm their date of birth at signup, and accounts for users under 13 are not permitted. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If we learn that we’ve collected information from a child under 13, we will delete it. Users between 13 and the age of majority in their region should have a parent or guardian review this policy with them.

10. Data Security

We use industry-standard measures to protect your information, including encrypted connections (TLS) between the app and our servers and access controls on our backend systems. No method of transmission or storage is 100% secure, but we work to protect your information appropriately for its sensitivity.

11. Your Rights and Choices

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, delete, or export a copy of your personal information, and to object to or restrict certain processing. To exercise any of these rights, contact us at the email below.

You also have direct control over several things in the app itself:

• Location and Bluetooth permissions can be managed anytime in your device’s Settings. Revoking them will prevent you from creating or joining games, since location is required for core gameplay.
• Notification permissions, including critical SOS alerts, can be managed in your device’s Settings.
• Age sharing can be toggled on or off in Settings → Privacy.
• In-app usage analytics can be turned off at any time in Settings → Privacy; this doesn’t affect crash/error reporting, which helps us keep the app stable.
• Health app connection can be disconnected in your device’s Settings at any time.
• Account deletion removes your account and personal information as described in Data Retention.
• Marketing emails (the Android waitlist and newsletter) can be unsubscribed from at any time via the link included in every email, or by contacting us directly.

12. International Data Transfers

Your information may be processed in a country other than the one you live in. Where required, we take steps to ensure such transfers comply with applicable data protection law.

13. Cookies and Similar Technologies

The phantomchase.app website uses one strictly necessary cookie to remember your cookie preference. If you opt in to the Analytics category via the cookie banner, we also load PostHog, which sets its own cookies/local storage to collect page views and interaction events tied to a pseudonymous identifier — no session replay, no cross-site tracking, no advertising use. Opting out (or not opting in) means nothing is sent to PostHog at all.

The Android waitlist, newsletter, and Creator Program forms don’t depend on this choice: submitting one sends your information directly to our backend and on to beehiiv, without setting any additional cookie or tracker. The Feedback form is different — since it’s transported via PostHog, submitting it requires the Analytics category to be enabled.

You can review or change your cookie choice at any time using Cookie Preferences.

14. Third-Party Links

The app and website may link to third-party destinations we don’t control, such as the App Store. This policy doesn’t cover how those third parties handle your information — please review their own privacy policies.

15. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy as Phantom Chase evolves. If we make material changes, we’ll update the “Last updated” date above and, where appropriate, notify you in the app.

16. Contact Us

Questions, requests, or concerns about this policy or your data can be sent to services@phantomchase.app.