Privacy Policy
1. Who we are
Rules Arbiter (“the app”, “we”, “us”) is an independent Dungeons & Dragons 5th-edition rules-reference app. It is operated by James Hawkes, United Kingdom, who is the data controller for the information described here.
Contact: rulesarbiter@gmail.com.
Rules Arbiter is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Wizards of the Coast.
2. The short version
We hold the minimum needed to run the app. If you sign in, we keep your Google sign-in and a monthly question count. Our servers do not store the questions you ask or the answers you get; the app keeps your recent history on your device only so it is still there when you reopen it — we cannot see it, and you can clear it any time in Settings. We run no analytics or advertising, and we use no third-party tracking. There is one narrow exception to the “no question storage” rule: if you report an answer, that reported exchange is sent to us and kept so we can review it.
3. What we collect, and why
| Data | When | Why (lawful basis — UK/EU GDPR) |
|---|---|---|
| Your Google account email and Google user ID (your name and profile picture are received from Google but not used or displayed beyond your email) | When you sign in | To create and operate your account and enforce usage limits — performance of a contract |
| Your subscription tier and your question count for the current period | Created automatically when you sign in; updated as you ask questions | To operate the free/paid limits — performance of a contract |
| A one-way salted hash of your IP address (never the address itself) | On every request to our server | To rate-limit abuse and enforce the anonymous free trial — legitimate interests |
| A content report: the reported question and answer, the reason you chose, and any note you add. No account ID or IP is attached. | Only if you tap “Report this answer” | To review and moderate AI-generated content — legitimate interests and compliance with app-store policy |
What we do not collect
- The text of your questions or the answers — our servers process them to produce a reply and then discard them (see §5). A copy of your recent history is saved locally on your device for your convenience and is never transmitted to us.
- Analytics, usage statistics, crash reports, or advertising identifiers — the app contains no analytics or advertising SDKs of any kind.
- Your location, contacts, photos, or files.
- Any persistent device identifier.
4. Voice input
When you ask a question by voice, the recording is handled entirely by your device’s own speech-recognition service (on most Android phones, this is Google). The audio is never sent to us. We receive only the transcribed text, exactly as if you had typed it. That audio is subject to your device provider’s privacy policy, not this one.
Answers read aloud use your device’s built-in text-to-speech and involve no network transmission.
5. Who processes your data (sub-processors)
| Provider | Role | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Supabase | Hosts our server, database, and the sign-in system | European Union (eu-west-1, Ireland) |
| Provides Google Sign-In; also, via your device’s operating system, the speech recognition used for voice input | Google infrastructure | |
| Anthropic | Generates the answer to each question. Your question text and relevant rules excerpts are sent to Anthropic’s API to produce the reply. | United States |
Anthropic may retain API inputs and outputs for a limited period (currently up to 30 days) for safety and abuse-prevention purposes, after which they are deleted. Anthropic does not use data submitted through its API to train its models.
We do not sell your data and we do not share it with anyone for their own purposes.
6. International transfers
Your account data is stored in the EU. Your question text is transmitted to Anthropic in the United States for the sole purpose of generating an answer, with no account identifier attached. This transfer is covered by Anthropic’s Data Processing Addendum, which incorporates the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses and the UK International Data Transfer Addendum — the mechanism approved by the UK Information Commissioner for UK-to-US transfers.
7. How long we keep it
- Account data (email, Google ID, tier, question count): until you delete your account.
- Hashed IP records: automatically deleted after roughly 60 days of inactivity.
- Content reports: kept until reviewed; deleted within roughly 180 days after being actioned.
- Question and answer text: not retained on our servers (except within a content report). A local copy of your recent history stays on your device until you clear it (Settings → Clear question history) or uninstall the app.
8. Your rights
If you are in the UK or EU, you have the right to access, correct, delete, restrict, or object to our processing of your personal data, to data portability, and to withdraw consent where processing is based on consent. To exercise any of these, email rulesarbiter@gmail.com.
You can delete your account and its data at any time from within the app (Settings → Delete account) or on the account-deletion page.
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your data protection authority — in the UK, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ico.org.uk).
9. Children
Rules Arbiter is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect data from them. If you believe a child has provided us with personal data, contact us and we will delete it.
10. Security
All traffic uses HTTPS. IP addresses are stored only as a salted one-way hash. Database access is restricted to our server. No system is perfectly secure, but we keep the amount of data we hold small on purpose.
11. Changes
If we change this policy we will update the date above and, for material changes, notify you in the app.