Privacy policy

Then What? · last updated 1 September 2026

Then What? is an interactive fiction game. It has no accounts, asks for no name, email address or phone number, and never requests access to your contacts, photos, location or microphone. This page describes the little it does collect, who else processes it, and how to have it removed.

1. Who is responsible

Ritmi, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, operates Then What? and decides how the data described here is used. For anything in this policy — access, correction, deletion, or an objection — write to newglad.apps@gmail.com.

2. How you are identified

On first launch the app generates a random player ID that looks like user_mtfm0lw1_zc1v4pwafw. It is not derived from your device, your Apple ID, your Google account, an advertising identifier or anything else about you — it is random, and it is the only identifier the game has for you.

The ID is kept in secure device storage — the Keychain on iOS, encrypted shared preferences on Android. On iOS the Keychain entry is marked for iCloud sync, so reinstalling the app or setting up a new device restores the same ID and your subscription and progress follow you; on Android the ID does not survive an uninstall, and "Restore purchases" is what reconnects you to your subscription. On a device where secure storage is unavailable the app falls back to ordinary app storage.

Anyone holding that ID is treated as you. Nothing is stored under it that would identify a person, but it is what links the records below together.

3. What is collected

On your device only

Your chosen language, your theme preference and your progress in the current story are stored on the device and are never sent anywhere. Removing the app removes them.

On our server

The story you are playing: Which story you picked, the language it runs in, your choices, the text the AI generated in reply, a running summary of the plot, your inventory and statuses, how many steps you have taken, and how the story ended.
Premises you write yourself: If you create a custom story, the text you write is stored with that game and is used as the prompt for it.
Your access and activity: Whether your complimentary story has been claimed or completed, how many steps you have taken in total, the list of games you have started, and whether a subscription was active the last time we looked.
Ratings: If you rate a story, the rating is stored against that game and step.
Technical records of each AI request: The model used, token counts, timings and whether the attempt succeeded, so we can measure cost and speed. These records reference the game and player ID but do not contain the story text.
Your IP address: Used only to enforce abuse limits — how many new players, games, ratings and subscription checks one address may create in a given window. It is held in a short-lived counter that deletes itself when the window closes, and it is not stored with your games or your player ID.

4. Who else processes it

OpenAI: Generates the story. Your choices, the plot so far and any premise you wrote are sent to it for each step. Text you write for a custom story is also sent to OpenAI's moderation service before the game will use it, so that unsafe input is refused rather than played out.
RevenueCat: Handles subscriptions. It receives your player ID and reports back whether a subscription is currently active. It never receives your story text.
Apple and Google: Whichever store you bought from takes the payment. We never see your card details, name or billing address — only whether a subscription exists.
Google Firebase Analytics: Records which parts of the game are used: starting a story, taking a step, finishing, seeing the paywall, completing a purchase. Events are tagged with the player ID. Story text is never sent as an analytics event.
Error reporting: When a crash or error occurs, a diagnostic report tagged with the player ID may be recorded so the fault can be found and fixed.

5. What is never collected

No name, email address, phone number or postal address.
No contacts, photos, calendar, microphone, camera or location access.
No advertising identifier, and no advertising or cross-app tracking of any kind.
No payment card details — those stay with Apple or Google.

6. How long it is kept

Abuse counters expire automatically within hours. Your games, allowance, ratings and AI request records are kept for as long as the game runs, so that a story you started remains playable and your free allowance cannot be reset by reinstalling. Write to us and they will be deleted.

7. Deleting your data

Write to newglad.apps@gmail.com from any address and include your player ID. Everything stored under that ID — games, story text, premises you wrote, ratings, allowance and AI request records — is deleted. If you do not know your ID, say so and we will explain how to read it from the app. Deleting data does not cancel a subscription; that is done in your Apple ID settings or your Google Play subscriptions.

Because the game has no account, the player ID is the only way to find your records. If you have deleted the app and lost the ID, we have no way to locate them — but equally, nothing that identifies you is stored under it.

8. Children

Then What? is rated 16+ and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect anything from a child below that age. If you believe a child has been playing, write to us and the records will be removed.

9. Changes

If this policy changes materially, the date at the top changes with it, and the new version is published here before it takes effect.