Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Who provides the game

SYNDICATES is provided by SIG Expert, a company registered in Poland, publishing under the name Drypoint Studio. Wherever this document or the game says Drypoint Studio, it means SIG Expert. Write to contact@drypointstudio.com about anything in this document.

Who may play

You must be at least 13 years old. You state your age when you register and you are responsible for stating it truthfully. If you are under 18, play with the knowledge of a parent or guardian.

Your account

You start on a guest account bound to the device you registered on. You may log in with Apple (on iPhone) or with Google; an account you have logged in with can be restored on another device by logging in there. A guest account has no password: if you lose the device, delete the app or reset the device, it cannot be recovered. A syndicate is played on one device at a time — logging in on another device ends the session on the first one. You may log out in the game’s settings; the device then returns to the start screen.

What you get

Agents, gear, skills, programs and every currency in the game are licensed to you for play, not sold. They have no value outside the game, cannot be exchanged for money, and may be changed, rebalanced or removed as the game develops. During the test period progress may be reset.

How to behave

Do not cheat, automate play, exploit bugs, attack the service or interfere with other players’ games. On the zone board, do not harass, threaten, expose or demean anyone. Lines are filtered automatically and may be removed. Breaking these rules may lead to a mute, a suspension or the deletion of the account, at our discretion.

Ending things

You may stop playing at any time. To delete the account, use Delete account in the game’s settings, or write to us at the address above. Deletion takes effect at once and cannot be undone. We may suspend or delete accounts that break these terms, and we may close the game with reasonable notice.

Changes to these terms

When these terms change, the version number changes and you will be asked to accept them again before playing on.

Privacy: what we collect

An identifier of your device, stored as a hash, so the account can sign in. Your age at registration. Your callsign, sigil and everything you do in the game: agents, gear, currencies, battles and results. Lines you post on the zone board, which are sent to an automated classifier without any identifier attached. Technical records when the app fails, without content of your play. If you log in with Apple or Google: the identifier that service gives your account, and a shortened form of its e-mail address — its first letter and its domain — so you can see which account is linked; with Apple, also a token kept only to end the link with Apple when the account is deleted. The full e-mail address passes through our server during login and is not stored. The days on which the game is opened, under the hashed device identifier, to count how many players come back. The addresses that requests come from, in short-lived server logs.

Privacy: advertising

We advertise the game and measure which ads bring players to it. For this the game uses a third-party measurement provider. When the game starts it sends the provider an install identifier the provider creates, the device model, system, language and app version, the address the request comes from, and the device’s advertising identifier — on iPhone only if you allow tracking when the system asks. It also sends, once each, when certain steps of play happen: the intro watched or skipped, registration, the first battle and the first win, the first visit to the Fabricator and to the city, the first gear equipped, the first agent recruited, the end of the tutorial, each campaign chapter cleared, and a return one day and seven days after the first start. Your callsign, your account and anything you write are not sent. The provider matches the install to the ad that led to it and passes the result to the advertising network that showed the ad, such as Google, so that network can show the game to people likely to play it.

Privacy: your choice on advertising

Where the law requires consent, the game asks for it at first start, in a form provided by Google. You may change that choice at any time under Privacy in the Settings tab of your profile. The provider and the advertising networks receive your choice with the data and act on it. On iPhone, tracking can be allowed or refused in the system settings; on Android, the advertising identifier can be reset or deleted in the device’s settings.

Privacy: what we do not collect

No name, full e-mail address, phone number, contacts, precise location or payment details. Apple and Google sign-in is used for nothing but logging in. Notifications are scheduled on your device and no notification token leaves it. We do not sell data.

Privacy: how long and where

Game data is kept while the account exists. When the account is deleted, the device identifier, the linked Apple or Google account and your age are erased from the account at once; the syndicate’s game records are kept without them, so that other players’ battle history stays whole. The days on which the game was opened stay under the hashed device identifier alone, only to count returning players. Server logs are kept for up to 30 days. Data is stored and processed in the European Union; the board classifier is run by a provider that may process lines outside the European Union, and so may the measurement provider. What the measurement provider holds is not linked to your account, so deleting the account does not reach it; write to us and we will have it erased. Apple and Google run their own sign-in, and advertising networks their own measurement; what they receive is covered by their privacy policies.

Privacy: your rights

You may ask for a copy of your data, its correction or its deletion, and you may object to its processing, at the address above. You may withdraw consent to advertising at any time, as described above. You may complain to a data protection authority; in Poland that is the President of the Personal Data Protection Office.

Governing law

Polish law applies, without limiting the protection consumers have under the law of their own country.