The short version: you can play without an account, your progress stays in your own browser, and the sound from your guitar never leaves your device.
Scores, stars, badges, settings and practice history are saved in your browser's local storage on your own device. If you play without an account, they stay there: clearing your browser data, or playing on another device, starts you fresh.
If you make an account, we also keep your gaming name, your email address (to log you in), your progress, your Shredbucks and what you've unlocked, so they follow you to any device. They're stored with our database provider, Supabase. You can delete your account and everything in it at any time from the account panel.
With an account, we email you about your account: your login codes, a welcome when you pick your gaming name, a receipt for anything you buy, and a note if you delete your account. Those always come.
Everything else only comes if you say yes (the box is unticked until you tick it): tips and progress (setting up your guitar, what you're close to unlocking, new badges, a reminder if you haven't played in a while) and news (new games, songs and stages). Every one of those has an unsubscribe link at the bottom, and you can change them any time in your account panel. We send them through our email provider, Mailgun, and we never sell or share your address. If an address can't receive email, we stop sending to it.
If you choose to play your real guitar, the game asks for permission to use your microphone or audio interface. The sound is analyzed on your device, in real time, only to work out which note you played. It is never recorded, stored or uploaded. You can turn it off at any time in the game or in your browser's settings.
The Fret Arcade Amp is a Windows app included with some Fret Arcade accounts. You sign it in once through fretarcade.com in your own browser; the app never sees your email or your login. To check that it's yours, it contacts fretarcade.com about once a week when you're online. For each computer you sign in, we keep its name (as Windows calls it, such as "DESKTOP-4F2K9"), when it was signed in and when it last checked, so you can see and remove your computers in your account (up to 3). Your guitar's sound in the app is processed on your computer only: it is never recorded, stored or uploaded. Your app settings stay on your computer.
If you claim a Founders pass, we store the email address of your account, the date and which page you claimed it on. It's kept with our database provider, Supabase, and used only to link your pass to your account and to send occasional big Fret Arcade news. We never sell it or share it for marketing. Email us to have it deleted at any time.
We don't use advertising cookies or sell any data. To load quickly, the pages use fonts from Google Fonts and code from a public code library (jsDelivr). Like any website, those services see your IP address when your browser downloads from them.
We see how many people visit each page with Cloudflare Web Analytics, from Cloudflare, the network that delivers the site. It uses no cookies, doesn't follow you to other sites and doesn't build a profile of you: it counts page views, where visitors come from (a link, a search) and how fast the pages load, in totals only.
Game plays we count ourselves. For each game you play we note: which game and mode, whether you tapped or played a guitar (and through a mic or an interface), whether you're on a phone, tablet or computer, how long you played, and whether you finished. To tell one player's visits from another's, your browser keeps a random ID that we make up; it isn't linked to your name, email, IP address or anything about your device. If you're logged in, plays are linked to your account. "I want this" votes on games that are coming soon are kept the same way. We use these numbers only to decide what to build and fix, and never share or sell them.
Fret Arcade is suitable for all ages, and you can play every game without giving any personal information. If you're under 13, please ask a parent before claiming a Founders pass with an email address.
If this policy changes, we'll update this page and the date above. Questions? Email hello@fretarcade.com.
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