Return to Crab: Privacy Policy

Last updated 8 November 2026

Return to Crab is a game by Mudbrain Studios ("we"). This page says what the game collects, why, how long it is kept and what you can do about it. Questions: privacy@mudbrainstudios.com.

What the game collects

• An account, made for you. The first time the game goes online it makes a random account ID on your phone and signs in with it. It is not your phone's hardware ID or advertising ID, and it is not linked to your name, your email or your Google account.
• Your crab's name, put together from the game's own word lists (for example "Salty Hermit 27"), or one you type instead (letters, numbers and spaces; a name with rude words in it, or one passing for another player's or the game's own, is refused). Other players see it on the leaderboards, on the island, in their friends lists and in online games. Your name from parts is kept beside a typed one, and a typed name that several players report as rude goes back to it. There is no chat.
• Your friends: the players you've added or asked, and those you've blocked. A report you make about a player (its reason, from the game's own list, and who it is about) is kept for us to read.
• Your progress: your pearls, the looks you own and wear, your records and your places on the leaderboards. When a run ends while you're online, the game sends what happened in it (how long it lasted, the crabs knocked in, the rounds won) so that our server can work out your pearls and your place.
• Online duels: while you play one, your phone sends your moves to our game server and receives the other crab's. Only the result is kept.
• Feedback you send from the game's name page: what it is about, the words you type, your crab's name, the game's version and your phone's model. It is kept with your account for us to read and answer; an answer from us shows once on the game's title.
• Error reports. When something goes wrong in the game on your phone, the game sends us its own error message (what went wrong and where in the game's code) and the game's version, now and then, so we can fix it. Our server counts them without your account: nothing in them names you.
• Your IP address reaches our servers whenever the game connects, as with anything online. We don't keep a record of it; it can appear in a server's own error log, which is overwritten as new entries come in.

The game has no ads, no analytics and no tracking (its error reports say what went wrong in the game, not what you do), and it doesn't use your contacts, location, photos, microphone or camera.

Who else sees it

Nobody we sell or give it to: we don't. Our servers run at Vultr, our hosting provider, in Sydney, Australia; other players see your crab's name, your places on the leaderboards and your crab on the island and in online games. The game is on Google Play, under Google's own privacy policy.

How long it is kept

• Your account and progress, and the feedback you send: until you delete your account.
• Error reports: 14 days.
• Backups: our server's database is backed up every night and each backup is kept for 14 days; our host also keeps backups of the whole server, replaced regularly. Data you delete is gone from all of them within 30 days.
• Server logs: each part of our server keeps at most 30 MB of its own log, overwritten as new entries come in. An entry can name your account's ID (for example, "this account was deleted").
• On your phone: your account ID and the game's save are in the app's own files. If your phone's Google backup is on, Android backs those files up to your Google account (Google's service), so a reinstall or a new phone keeps your account.

Deleting your account

In the game: Play → online → tap your crab's name → delete account. Your account is deleted from our server at once, and the game's save on your phone starts again. Without the game, or for anything else, see Deleting your account.

Children

The game doesn't ask anyone's age, name, email or other contact details, and players can't send each other messages. A typed name is optional, and the game asks players not to use their real name. What it keeps is what the game needs to run: the account above and its progress.

Security

Everything your account sends to our server goes over HTTPS, and the game's messages to our game server in online games (your crab's name, a one-time ticket naming your account, and your moves) are encrypted too.

Changes

If this policy changes, the new version is posted here with its date.

Contact

Mudbrain Studios, privacy@mudbrainstudios.com