On The Run

Privacy Policy

Last updated 31 July 2026

On The Run is a real-world hide and seek game played across a city. To run a game, the app needs to know where players are and what they have revealed. This page explains exactly what is collected, why, and what you can do about it.

Who is responsible

On The Run is operated by Kristoffer Knape, Sweden, who is the data controller for the purposes of the GDPR. You can reach us at ontherun.app.info@gmail.com.

There is no account

On The Run does not ask for an email address, a password, or a social login. When you first open the app you are signed in anonymously and given a random identifier. That identifier is what ties you to the games you play. We cannot identify you by name from it, and we never receive your Apple ID.

What we collect

• Display name and player colour. Whatever you type when you join a game. Other players in that game see it. Nothing stops you from using a nickname.
• Location. While a game is running, your device shares its position so the live map works, so seekers can be told when they are close, and so your route can be shown in the post-game recap. This continues while the app is in the background during an active game, because a hide and seek game does not pause when you put your phone in your pocket. Location is not collected when no game is running.
• Reveal photos and pins. Photos you take as a hider, and the coordinates of the place they were taken or dropped.
• Game events. Tags, tasks, freezes, rule violations and their coordinates, and the timing of everything that happened during a game.
• Notification token. A push token from Apple, so the app can tell you a game is starting or that something happened while you were not looking.
• Usage events. Through Google Analytics for Firebase, a record of how the app is used: screens opened, features used, session length, and similar. We look at this in aggregate to understand which parts of the game people actually play. It is not used to build advertising profiles and it is not sold.
• Diagnostics. Crash reports, error logs, and performance measurements through Firebase Crashlytics and Firebase Performance Monitoring, which include device model, operating system version, app start and response times, and the state of the app when it failed.

Permissions the app asks for

• Location. Required. The game cannot function without it.
• Camera. Only used when a hider takes a photo reveal.
• Notifications. Optional. Used for game events, never for marketing.
• Calendar. Optional. Only used to add a scheduled game to your calendar and keep that entry in step if the host moves it. Calendar entries are written on your device and are never uploaded.
• Local network. Used to discover games hosted by people physically near you. No data leaves your local network for this.

You can withdraw any of these at any time in iOS Settings. Withdrawing location permission will stop the game from working.

Why we are allowed to process this

Location, photos, names, and game events are processed to deliver the game you asked to play, which is the performance of a contract with you. Notifications and calendar access are processed on the basis of the consent you give through the iOS permission prompt. Usage events, crash reports, and performance measurements are processed on the basis of our legitimate interest in understanding how the game is played and in the app not being broken. You can object to that processing at any time by emailing us.

Who else sees it

Other players in your game see your display name, your reveals, and the game events you generate. That is the game.

Beyond that, we use Google Firebase (Authentication, Firestore, Cloud Storage, Cloud Functions, Cloud Messaging, Analytics, Crashlytics, and Performance Monitoring) to store data, measure how the app is used, and run the game's server logic. Google acts as our processor. Where data is transferred outside the EU and EEA, that transfer is covered by Google's Standard Contractual Clauses.

We do not sell your data, we do not run advertising, we do not track you across other companies' apps or websites, and we do not share anything with data brokers.

How long it is kept

Finished games are kept so that you and the people you played with can go back and look at the recap. Games that are abandoned before they start are deleted automatically by a scheduled cleanup.

Deleting the app removes your local identity from your device, but it does not by itself erase anything from our servers.

Deleting your account

Open Settings in the app and tap Delete account. It runs immediately and needs no email from you.

It removes your roster entry from every game you have played, which is your display name, your colour, and your notification token, and it removes every route we recorded for you. Your sign-in is deleted last, so if any step fails you still have an account to try again with. A game you were hosting that had not started yet is closed, the same as if you had left it.

You cannot delete while a game you are in is still running, because a vanishing player strands the people you are playing with. The app tells you this before you tap, and the block clears when the game ends.

What deletion does not remove is the shared record of games you played: the reveals, the photos, the pins, and the task completions. None of it carries your identifier, so we cannot tell which of it was yours, and we cannot single it out to erase it. It also belongs to the other players, who kept playing a game those events are the record of. Reveal photos are part of that shared record, so photos you took as a hider are not erased when you delete your account. They stay with the game they belong to.

Your rights

Under the GDPR you have the right to access the data we hold about you, to correct it, to have it erased, to receive a copy of it, to restrict or object to how it is processed, and to withdraw consent where consent is the basis for processing. For erasure, the fastest route is Delete account in the app's Settings, described above. For anything else, email ontherun.app.info@gmail.com and we will answer within one month.

Because the app has no account, we may need you to tell us which games you played and when, so we can find the right records.

If you think we have handled your data badly, you can complain to the Swedish Authority for Privacy Protection (Integritetsskyddsmyndigheten, imy.se).

Children

On The Run is not intended for children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has used the app and given us data, contact us and we will delete it.

Changes

If this policy changes in a way that matters, the date at the top changes and the app will point at the new version. Continuing to play after a change means you accept it.