NearMiss privacy notice

NearMiss stores aircraft, upgrades, scores, settings, and ad-reward receipts on your device. This local gameplay data stays on your device, with one exception: if you use the online features, your best flight results are sent to the global leaderboards, as described below.

Global leaderboards

NearMiss has two global leaderboards: the highest points from a single flight, and the longest time survived after the first Leviathan is destroyed. A result is queued only when it beats the best this device has already had accepted for that board, so a flight that does not improve on your best is never sent. As your best improves, more than one result is sent over the life of an installation.

A queued result is sent the next time the game connects to the official NearMiss server. A flight you finish while offline is saved on your device and sent later, when you next open Online or the Leaderboard screen. If the server's confirmation never reaches your device, the game keeps the result queued and sends the same result again on a later connection, until the server confirms it. The server keeps only the highest accepted value per board, so sending the same result again does not change what is stored or shown.

For each board, the game sends the value itself, the number that flight has in your own device's flight history, and how long that flight lasted. The duration is used to check that the value is possible for a flight of that length. The flight number identifies which of your own flights a result came from, so the server can tell your device which result it will not accept. Neither is shown to other players, and neither is used to identify you. Your accepted value is stored against the random public account ID the service already assigned you. No email address and no new identifier about you is collected for the leaderboards.

Other players see your rank, your gamertag, and your value. Nothing else about you is published, and the leaderboards sent to your device do not contain other players' account IDs. Deleting your online profile also deletes your leaderboard entries, and they stop being shown.

If you never use the online features, no result is sent.

Online multiplayer

Opening Online connects to the official server. It processes an install-bound random credential, stores only a scrambled ownership check derived from it and never the credential itself, and assigns a separate random public account ID. It stores your unique gamertag and its case-insensitive reservation, friend/request/block relationships, party invites, and a legacy six-character recovery/join code. While connected, it processes presence, selected aircraft, lobby privacy and membership, plane position, and gameplay messages required to synchronize a shared match. Players in your online room receive your public account ID, gamertag, aircraft, legacy recovery/join code, lobby presence needed for friend/party features, and shared-match state. The install-bound credential, its ownership check, and your block list are never sent to other players.

Traffic between the game and the online server is encrypted in transit. The server that hosts it may process IP addresses and connection diagnostics in standard security logs for operation, security, and troubleshooting.

You can permanently delete the online profile in the app under Online > Privacy & Online Account. Deletion removes the profile and its friend, request, block, invite, install-identity, and leaderboard records. A new unrelated profile is created only if you open Online again. Safety reports already filed may be retained for abuse prevention, security, and legal compliance.

If you cannot access the app, you can contact NearMiss support to request deletion help. Support may need the gamertag and recovery details shown by the app to identify the anonymous online profile.

Reports and moderation

Report & Block sends only the reporter and reported random account IDs, one fixed category, and server time. No free-form report text is accepted. Blocking is private.

Advertising

NearMiss uses Google Mobile Ads. Optional rewarded ads can grant an item upgrade, one revive per run, or double one completed run's earnings. A transition interstitial may appear when you create or join a multiplayer lobby; the ad network controls the creative and whether it can be skipped. The game requests consent through Google's User Messaging Platform before requesting production ads and exposes Google's privacy-options form when it is required. Production ad requests use the published consent configuration and request non-personalized ads. Google Mobile Ads may process device, network, advertising, consent, and diagnostic data under Google's policies. NearMiss does not request App Tracking Transparency permission.

Tester signup

If you ask for closed-test access from this website, you type your email address into a form and choose which of the five site languages we should use when we contact you. The address is stored in encrypted form while the request is waiting. We do not display it on the page or place it in the web address.

The form answers the same way whatever the address is, so it cannot be used to find out whether somebody has requested access. Requests are rate limited, and submitting the form does not itself grant Google Play access or send an automatic message.

A pending request is kept for no more than 90 days unless it is processed or removed sooner. Using the email opt-out removes the pending address; only a non-reversible suppression record may remain so we do not write to it again.

The tester page does not ask for a Google sign-in and does not display your Google profile name, picture, or account address. NearMiss never receives a Google password or account credential.

This website

The website has no analytics, no advertising and no tracking, and it stores one thing in your browser: a cookie named nm_lang holding a language code, so the site opens in the language you picked. Until you pick one, the language your browser asks for is used to choose which version of the home, credits and tester pages to show; that preference is read from the request and not kept. Clearing site data removes the cookie.

The unsubscribe prompt in the footer sends the address you type in the body of one request to the opt-out service. The page never shows the address back to you, never puts it in the web address, and the answer is the same whatever the address is. The full email opt-out page does the same thing and needs no JavaScript.

Your choices

You may play single-player without opening Online, the Leaderboard screen, or watching an ad; nothing about your flights leaves your device that way. Ad rewards are always optional. You can unfriend, block, unblock, decline invitations, report and block, or delete the online profile inside the app.

Contact

max@cresis.org is the contact point for privacy and deletion questions. To stop receiving NearMiss testing invitations by email, use the email opt-out page — that is separate from the game data described above and does not change any access you already have.