What we keep.

Not much. Enough to know whether anyone is playing, and how far down they get.

What we count

When you visit fliinch.com or play one of our games (in your browser, on itch.io or in the Windows app), we count the visit:

• which page or game, when, and for how long it stays open;
• in a game: how many runs, how far you got, what caught you, and whether you made it out;
• in each of our games played here on fliinch.com (ABYSS, HOLD YOUR BREATH, HOUSE RULES, DRAKE'S MANSION and MICHAEL'S ISLAND): a replay of each run, and on a computer or an Android phone or tablet the game's picture too (see Replays below);
• in HOLD YOUR BREATH, DRAKE'S MANSION and MICHAEL'S ISLAND: whether you chose to play with the microphone (never any sound, and never how loud you were);
• only if you say yes before a game: a recording of the whole session, up to 30 minutes: your face and your voice with the game beside them, its picture and its sound (see Recordings below);
• the kind of device, system and browser, and your screen size and language;
• the page that sent you here, if another site did, and any campaign tags on the link;
• roughly where you are — city, region, country, postal area and time zone, with a point on the map for that area — worked out from your internet connection's IP address by our web host (never GPS, and the address itself isn't kept);
• clicks on Play, Download, Buy and Donate, which trailers are played, and when one of this site’s jump scares is shown;
• in the merch store: which products are looked at, added to the bag or taken out of it, and when Checkout is pressed (what and how much, never who).

A random number kept in your browser's storage tells a returning visitor from a new one. Clearing this site's data resets it.

What we don't

• No names or accounts. The only time we ask for an email address is when you write to us through Support & feedback, join the VIP list or apply for work, so that we can answer you. The one time we get your name and a postal address is when you buy merch: Stripe takes them at checkout, and we use them to make and ship your order.
• No exact location. We never ask for your GPS, and we don't keep your IP address. (When you attach files to a message, a scrambled form of it that can't be turned back into the address is kept for a day, to stop floods; see Support & feedback.)
• No advertising, no tracking you across other sites, and we don't sell or share any of it. The one exception is yours to choose: a recording you allowed us to post on our own Instagram, YouTube and TikTok.

What stays in your browser

This site keeps a few things in your own browser and never sends them anywhere: whether you turned the sound on, whether you want jump scares, which game you last looked at in How to play, and, for this visit only, how long you’ve been here (so a jump scare never comes on your first screen). Clearing this site’s data resets them.

The merch store’s bag is kept the same way, in your browser only: what’s in it, and where you said it ships. Nothing in it leaves your browser until you press Checkout (see Merch orders). Emptying the bag, or clearing this site’s data, deletes it.

The microphone (HOLD YOUR BREATH, DRAKE'S MANSION and MICHAEL'S ISLAND)

HOLD YOUR BREATH can use your microphone, but only if you choose to and your browser asks you first. The game measures how loud your room is, a moment at a time, on your own device, so that the monsters can hear you. No sound is ever recorded, kept or sent anywhere, and neither is how loud it was. You can play without a microphone: they still hear your footsteps, your breathing and the doors.

DRAKE'S MANSION can listen the same way, only if you switch its microphone on before you start (it's off unless you do), and your browser asks you first. It works the same: on your own device, a moment at a time, and nothing of it is recorded, kept or sent.

MICHAEL'S ISLAND listens the same way as HOLD YOUR BREATH, only if you check in with your microphone (your browser asks you first): on your own device, a moment at a time, so the sleeping guests and the staff can hear you. Nothing of it is recorded, kept or sent. Without a microphone they still hear your footsteps, your dog and the doors.

That's the games listening. Recording your reaction is a separate choice, made before a game and off unless you say yes: then, and only then, your microphone's sound is kept, in a recording of the session with your camera's picture and the game's own picture and sound (see Recordings).

Replays (every game, played on fliinch.com)

When you play one of our games here on fliinch.com, each run is recorded from its start until it ends: you get out, run out of lives, quit, start over or close the page. The recording is a few numbers a second, so we can watch the run back on a map of the game and see where it's too hard, too easy or confusing. In every game it's where you walk, which way you look, where the monsters near you are, what catches you and how the run ends; and in each one:

• ABYSS: from the moment you wake in Cabin 47; which deck you're on, the lives you lose, the panel and the raft.
• HOUSE RULES: from PLAY or CONTINUE; which room you're in, when you break a house rule, when the Butler comes, the rooms you clear, your knock-outs and lives.
• HOLD YOUR BREATH: from the diner where the night begins; which street or floor of the Tower you're on, the parts of the night you reach, when you hide or run out of breath, and when you're caught, what the creature heard in the game's own words (your footsteps, a door, or your voice). Never any sound and never how loud: the replay doesn't touch the microphone.
• DRAKE'S MANSION: from the door; which floor you're on, the numbers you find, the safe, when you hide, when he chases or catches you, and whether you played on easy or with the microphone on (never any sound).
• MICHAEL'S ISLAND: from the dock; where on the island you are, the parts of the night you reach, your dog (near, taken, freed), and when you're caught.

On a computer, the replay also keeps the game's picture: what the game showed you, as a small video (at most 640 by 360, 15 frames a second). On an Android phone or tablet it does too, smaller and slower still (at most 480 pixels on its longer side, one picture a second: for a run of five minutes, less data than one photo), and only where a few seconds' try shows that it doesn't slow the game. Only the game's own picture is recorded: not the rest of your screen, not your other tabs, windows or apps, and not the menus and captions the game puts over it. The picture isn't recorded on iPhones and iPads, nor where your browser says you're saving data, and it's left out when your computer or phone is struggling to run the game.

There's no sound, no microphone or camera, nothing you type and no name in a replay (recordings are separate, below, and only with your yes). Only Fliinch can watch replays. The pictures are deleted after 30 days, and the rest of each replay after 90. Replays aren't made on itch.io or in the Windows app.

Recordings (only if you say yes)

Before every game here on fliinch.com, we ask whether you'd like to record yourself playing. It's off unless you say yes, and it's only for players who are 18 or older. If you say yes, your browser asks your permission too, and then records the whole session, for up to 30 minutes: your face and your voice, through your camera and microphone, together with the game, its picture and its sound. You can tell us your age range in the same question; you don't have to.

• What's in a recording. One film, from your yes until you press Stop, leave the page, or 30 minutes have passed (it tells you at 29 minutes, and stops by itself at 30). On a phone or tablet, when the page goes out of sight (another app, the home screen, a locked screen) the recording waits: come back within about a minute and it carries on; stay away longer and it has ended where you left. On a computer its picture is laid out like a stream, 1280 by 720 pixels, or 1920 by 1080 if you pick 1080p in the question (offered where your computer can make it; your browser remembers what you picked, and whether a 1080p recording had trouble, in its own storage): what the game shows you, large, with your face next to it, and around them Fliinch's name, the game's name, fliinch.com, a clock and the date. Its sound is the game's own sound mixed with your microphone. Only the game's own picture is recorded: not the rest of your screen, not your other tabs or windows, and not the menus, captions and on-screen counters the game puts over its picture. On a phone or tablet, and on a computer that's struggling to run the game, it's your face and your voice with the game's sound, without the game's picture. Recording never changes what you see or hear in the game.
• Only with your face in it. Before anything is recorded, your browser checks for about a second that your camera shows a live picture (a few tiny looks at it, on your device; nothing is kept or sent), and it remembers which camera that was, in its own storage, to try it first next time. If it can't see you (your camera is off, or another app is using it), nothing is recorded; if your camera stops while you play, the recording waits until it's back, and ends after a minute without it.
• You're in control. A REC button with a clock stays on screen the whole time you're recorded, and a small picture of your camera sits in a corner so you can see yourself (one tap folds it away; it's never part of the recording). Stop turns the camera and the microphone off at once and opens your recording in a new tab, at fliinch.com/recording: there you can watch it, download it, delete it, and say whether we may show it and whether we may post it. The download is the same film, with Fliinch's name in its picture.
• Who sees it. You, in the browser you played in, and Fliinch, in our own private control room. Because a recording reaches us in pieces while you play, we can watch it there while it is still being made, about half a minute behind you. A recording appears on our Community page only if you allowed it (a tick when we ask, or the switch on the recording's own page, which you can take back at any time) and we checked and approved that recording; anyone can watch it there. And only if you tick the second box ("Fliinch may also post my recording, or cuts from it, on its Instagram, YouTube and TikTok"), or switch it on later on the recording's own page, may we post it, or short cuts from it, on our own accounts there. Without that tick we never do. You can take the tick back at any time, on the recording's own page or by writing to us: from then on we post nothing more from it and take down what we posted from it; deleting the recording does the same. What other people have already copied or shared on those sites is out of our hands. Recordings made before that second box existed (it was added in October 2026) are never posted, unless you switch it on yourself on the recording's own page.
• Where it's kept, and for how long. In private storage at our database host (Supabase): it goes there from your browser in pieces of about ten seconds (five on a phone or tablet) while you play, and on a phone or tablet what has been recorded so far is sent the moment the page goes out of sight. It's kept until you delete it or ask us to. We don't delete recordings because of their age.
• What's kept with it. With each recording we keep: when it started and ended, and how it ended (Stop, leaving the page, the 30 minutes, the camera going away); which game it was; how long and how big it is, and the film's format and picture size; what happened in the game and when (the moments you can jump to) and its replay's number (so we can watch the two together); whether you allowed us to show it, and whether you allowed us to post it on our social accounts (and when that answer last changed); and the age range you picked, if you picked one. About what you played on: the kind of device, its system and browser, your screen size and language. About where you were: the city, region, country, postal area and time zone, and a point on the map for that area (a latitude and a longitude). The place is worked out from your internet connection's IP address by our web host (Netlify); it's the area your connection appears to come from, never your address, and never your device's GPS. And the random visitor number that our visit counter keeps in your browser, if it has one (the one under "What we count" at the top of this page), so we can see the recording beside that visit.
• Deleting it. Delete, on the recording's own page or under My recordings in the browser you played in, removes the video from our storage at once; or write to us and we'll delete it. What stays is a note that a recording was made, with everything listed under "What's kept with it" and nothing of the film itself: when it started and ended, which game, how long it was and how it ended, what happened in the game, the device and the place as above, the visitor number, the age range if you gave one, and that you deleted it and when. No picture and no sound. We keep that note and don't delete it because of its age; write to us if you want it removed too.
• Which recordings are yours. Your browser keeps a random code in its own storage and sends only a scrambled form of it with each recording; that's how it can open, list and delete your recordings, and nothing else can. Clearing this site's data loses it (write to us and we'll delete them for you). To stop anyone flooding the storage we also count recordings per connection, using a scrambled form of its IP address that can't be turned back into the address; it's cleared after a day.
• That we asked. Each time the question is shown we note it, and what came of it (no answer, no, yes, the browser refused the camera, no camera, recorded): with the game, the time, whether it was a computer, a phone or a tablet, the country, and the visitor number our visit counter keeps in your browser, if it has one. Nothing from your camera or microphone, and nothing else about you. We keep these notes.
• Clips from before. Until October 2026 we kept short clips around the scariest moments instead of whole recordings. Those private clips are still deleted after 30 days, as we said then; you can delete yours sooner under My recordings.
• Never sold. Your recordings are never sold, never used as training data, and never run through face recognition. They are never shared and never used for advertising, with one exception that only you can choose: the second tick above, for our own Instagram, YouTube and TikTok. We don't ask your name.

Support & feedback, and donations

The Support button (and fliinch.com/feedback) sends us what you write: your email address, what it's about, the message, the page you were on and your browser and screen size (to help with bugs). It is kept by our web host's form service (Netlify Forms) and emailed to our own inbox, and we use your address only to reply to you. Before it sends, we check that the address can receive mail by looking up its domain (only the part after the @) in the public DNS. Ask us and we'll delete your message.

Files you attach (photos, videos, screenshots, a PDF or a text file: up to 5, and 500 MB together) go from your browser straight to our database host's private storage (Supabase), not to the form service. Nobody can open them but Fliinch: your message reaches us with a private link to each, and the links stop working after 30 days. The files themselves are deleted after 60 days, or within a day if the message isn't sent; you can remove a file before you send, and it's deleted at once. We keep a record of each file (its name, size and type, and when it came and went) for a year. To stop anyone flooding the storage, we also count how much each connection sends in an hour, using a scrambled form of its IP address that can't be turned back into the address; it's cleared after a day. Ask us and we'll delete your files sooner. (In a browser with JavaScript turned off, fliinch.com/feedback can still send up to 3 small screenshots inside the message itself; those are kept by the form service with the message.)

Donations go through Stripe's own page: the Donate button just takes you there. We never see or store your card details; Stripe tells us the amount and sends you the receipt.

The VIP list (only if you join)

If you give us your email address for the VIP list (on the home page, in the footer, on the card that shows as you leave, or in the merch store’s bag while its checkout isn’t open), we keep it with which form you used, the page, when, and the rough place your visit came from (country, region and city, worked out from your connection as we count visits; the connection's address itself isn't kept). Before it's saved we check the address can receive mail, by looking up its domain (only the part after the @) in the public DNS. We use it only to email you about Fliinch: big updates and new games. It's never sold or shared and never used for advertising. Every email lets you unsubscribe, or write to us and we'll take you off the list and delete your address. It's stored with our database host (Supabase).

Job applications (only if you apply)

The form on fliinch.com/careers sends us what you put in it: your name and email address, the role, where you are, links to your work, your cover letter, and your resume (and a cover letter file, if you add one), both as PDFs. It travels the way a Support & feedback message does: the files go from your browser straight to our private storage (Supabase), and the application is kept by our web host's form service (Netlify Forms) and emailed to our own inbox with a private link to each file. Only the studio reads it; nothing is public, and it is never sold, shared or used for advertising. The links work for 30 days and the files are deleted from our storage after 60; the application stays in our inbox while we are considering you. You must be 18 or older to apply. To have your application deleted, write to fliinchofficial@gmail.com from the address you applied with.

Merch orders (only if you buy)

When you press Checkout in the merch store, your bag (which products, colours and sizes, how many, and the region it ships to) goes to our server, which prices it from the store’s own list and opens a checkout for it at Stripe. You pay on Stripe’s own page: Stripe takes your card details, and Fliinch never sees or keeps your card number.

For the order, Stripe tells us your name, your email address, your shipping address and your phone number (carriers ask for one), what you bought and what you paid. We use them only to make and ship your order and to write to you about it:

• we pass your name, shipping address, phone number and the order to our print partner (Printful), which prints it and hands it to the carrier that delivers it;
• Stripe emails you the receipt;
• we never add you to the VIP list or send you anything else because you ordered, and we never sell or share your details or use them for advertising.

We keep the order (what you bought, what you paid, where it went) as long as tax law asks a business in Canada to keep its records: six years. Stripe keeps its own records of the payment under its own privacy policy, and so does our print partner (Printful’s). To see, correct or delete what we hold about your order, write to fliinchofficial@gmail.com from the address you ordered with.

If checkout isn’t open yet and you leave your email in the bag, that joins the VIP list, noted as coming from the store, and nothing else.

MICHAEL'S ISLAND's full game (only if you buy it)

The full game is sold through Stripe’s own page, with Stripe’s Link as the seller: Link collects your email and your payment, works out the tax, and emails you the receipt. We never see your card. For each purchase we keep its Stripe purchase id, the date, the amount, its number (the first 500 are FOUNDERS), a one-way SHA-256 fingerprint of your email address in lower case (never the address itself: it only lets us match a restore), your name for the credits if you choose to give one, and how many times it was restored. Your browser keeps a cookie (mi_owner) that says it owns the game; it is sent to fliinch.com only, and only to unlock the game.

When you restore the game with your email and the last 4 digits of your card, both go to our server, which asks Stripe for that email’s purchases of the game at that moment; neither is kept. The full terms of sale say the rest.

Who sees it

Only Fliinch, with two exceptions that only you can choose: a recording you allowed us to show and we approved, which is on the Community page for anyone to watch; and a recording you allowed us to post on our own Instagram, YouTube and TikTok, where anyone can watch what we post from it. (Your own recordings you can open yourself, in the browser you played in.) It's stored with our database host (Supabase) and passes through our web host (Netlify); the replay pictures, recordings and the files you attach to a message go from your browser straight to the database host. Our pages, their scripts and the games are served from fliinch.com itself. The one exception is the lettering of HOUSE RULES and DRAKE'S MANSION: their fonts load from Google Fonts, so Google sees that request (your connection's address and your browser, as any website would), but nothing about you or your play. If you buy or download a game on itch.io, itch.io's own privacy policy covers that. If you buy merch, Stripe and our print partner see what they need for your order (see Merch orders).

Opting out

Browsers that send the Global Privacy Control signal aren't counted at all, and no replays are made of their runs, in any game. Recordings are only ever made when you say yes, every time. You can also ask us to delete what we hold about your browser, replays included, through our page at fliinch.itch.io.

Updated October 2026