Waterbuddies: Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 17, 2026

Waterbuddies ("the app") is a water-drinking game you play with friends. It is made by the Waterbuddies team ("we"). This policy explains what we collect, why, and the choices you have. Questions: [email protected]

What we collect

• Your Google account basics when you sign in: a user ID, your email address and your name. We use them only to sign you in. Your email is never shown to other players.
• Your profile: the nickname and emoji avatar you choose, your 6-character friend ID, your bottle design and your optional personal goal.
• Your drinking data: how much water you logged today and this week, your streak, quests, drops, tickets and the items you own.
• Social data: your friends and friend requests, the groups you're in, reminders you send or get, mini-game scores, and the chat messages and photos you send.
• Notification settings (Android app): whether reminders are on, a push token for your phone, your time zone and language.
• Ads (Android app, unless you removed them): Google AdMob may collect your device's advertising ID, IP address and ad interactions to show and measure ads. In the EU/UK you are asked for consent first.
• Purchases (Android app): if you buy "Remove ads", Google Play processes the payment and keeps the purchase on your Google account. We never see your card details.

Who can see what

• Only you can see your drops, tickets, owned items and notification settings.
• Friends who accepted your request, and people in your groups, can see your nickname, avatar, bottle, today's amount, this week's amounts, streak and game scores.
• Group chats are visible to group members. Private chats are visible only to the two friends in them.
• Nobody can browse the list of players. Someone can find you only if you share your friend ID or a group code, and a friend request does nothing until you accept it.

Services we use

• Google Firebase (Authentication, Cloud Firestore, Cloud Functions, Cloud Messaging) stores the data above and sends notifications. Data is stored on Google Cloud servers, which may be outside your country.
• Google AdMob for ads, and Google User Messaging Platform for ad consent.
• Google Play Billing for the "Remove ads" purchase.
• Netlify hosts the website.

We don't sell your personal data, and we don't use it for anything except running the app.

How long we keep it

We keep your data while you have an account. Chat messages stay until the sender deletes them or deletes their account. When you delete your account, your data is removed right away (see below). Google Play keeps purchase records as the law requires.

Deleting your account

In the app: tap your avatar, then Delete my account. This removes your profile, drinking history, drops, friends, group memberships, your messages, your scores and your sign-in account. You can also follow the steps on the account deletion page: https://waterbuds.netlify.app/delete-account

Children

The app is not meant for children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect data from them. If you believe a child has an account, contact us and we'll delete it.

Your rights

You can see and change your profile in the app, turn notifications off at any time, and delete your account. Depending on where you live (for example the EU/UK or California), you may also ask us for a copy of your data or to correct it: email [email protected]

Security

Data travels over encrypted connections. Database rules limit every read and write to the people allowed to see it, and drinking amounts are checked by the server.

Changes

If we change this policy we'll update the date above, and tell you in the app if the change is important.