Privacy Policy

Playtopia mobile app · Last updated 22 July 2026

This policy explains what the Playtopia app collects, why, and what we do with it. The app is published by The Playtopia Foundation, a non-profit organisation based in South Africa, as the companion app for the Playtopia games festival.

The short version: the app does not ask for your real identity. There are no adverts, no analytics SDKs and no tracking, and we do not sell or share your data with anyone.

What we collect

• A festival access code — a five-character code used to sign in. Codes are issued for the festival and are not derived from any personal information.
• A display name — a name of your choosing, attached to your code. You may use any name; it does not have to be your real one.
• Your votes — which game or artwork you voted for, and when.
• Your bookings — which workshops and talks you registered for, and when, so we can manage limited seating.
• Sign-in timestamps — when your code first and last signed in, and when the app last refreshed festival content.
• A push notification token — a device identifier issued by Apple or Google that lets us send festival announcements. This is collected for guests as well as signed-in users. It identifies a device, not a person, and is removed when you uninstall the app or disable notifications.

What we do not collect

• No real names, email addresses, phone numbers or postal addresses
• No location or GPS data
• No contacts, photos, camera, microphone or files
• No advertising identifiers and no behavioural tracking
• No payment or financial information — the app never takes payment
• No third-party analytics or advertising SDKs of any kind

Why we collect it

Solely to run the festival features in the app: to keep you signed in, to count votes fairly (one vote per code per category), to hold your place in workshops and talks with limited capacity, and to send you festival announcements if you have allowed notifications. We also count aggregate request volume to keep the service running — these counters are totals only and are not linked to individual users.

Browsing without a code

You can browse the games, artworks, map, food, schedule and talks as a guest without signing in. As a guest, no account is created and nothing is stored about you apart from a push notification token if you have allowed notifications.

Where your data is stored

Data is held in a Cloudflare D1 database operated on behalf of The Playtopia Foundation, and is transmitted over an encrypted HTTPS connection. Cloudflare acts as our hosting provider and does not use this data for its own purposes.

Sharing

We do not sell, rent or share your data with third parties. We do not transfer it for advertising or marketing. The only disclosure we would make is where we are legally required to do so.

How long we keep it

Festival data — codes, names, votes and bookings — is retained for the duration of the festival and deleted within 90 days after it ends. Push notification tokens are deleted when they stop being valid, which happens when you uninstall the app or turn notifications off.

Deleting your data

You can ask us to delete everything associated with your code at any time, before or after the festival, by emailing info@theplaytopiafoundation.co.za with your festival code. We will delete it and confirm by reply. You do not need to give a reason.

Children

The app is not directed at children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect information from them. If you believe a child has provided information through the app, contact us and we will remove it.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy we will update the date at the top of this page. Material changes will be announced in the app.

Contact

The Playtopia Foundation
Email: info@theplaytopiafoundation.co.za
Web: theplaytopiafoundation.co.za