Privacy Policy

Downing Draft is designed to collect as little as possible. There are no accounts and no logins. You play as a fictional Prime Minister of your own naming — we do not ask you for your real name, email address or any other personal contact information to play or share. This policy covers the Downing Draft website and the Downing Draft Android and iOS apps.

What we collect

• Game activity and results. When you play In Office, we send a small record when a career starts, at coarse career checkpoints, and when it is completed or reset. This lets us count starts, completions and broad game outcomes without adding third-party app analytics. The existing career identifier prevents retry requests from being counted twice; we do not add a persistent device or advertising identifier for this. When you finish any game, we may also send and store a summary so that short share links work, results can be checked, game statistics can be produced and the moderated leaderboard can operate. A result summary contains your in-game choices and outcome — the name you gave your Prime Minister and party, your cabinet picks, priorities and final scores. These names are part of your game and are entirely of your choosing; please do not enter real personal details into them.
• Public leaderboard. Eligible completed results, including In Office careers, are automatically considered for a public Top 25. In Office and Daily Brief display names may appear before retrospective review. A public row may show its rank, a moderated Prime Minister name, a moderated party name, tenure, election wins, signature policy, game mode and cabinet era, depending on the mode. We may reject or hide a result, or replace a submitted display name, including by starring out part of it. Approved results outside the current Top 25 are not displayed but may be retained so that the table can be recalculated. Older Quick Play results collected before its leaderboard notice remain private unless we provide a separate submission process. Completed In Office careers already collected may enter its leaderboard; older careers without a comparable delivery measure are ranked without treating that old measure as verified delivery data.
• Local game preferences. The website and apps may remember your five most recently completed fictional Prime Minister and party names and your ten best runs on the current device or browser. Downing Draft does not sync this local data between devices. It may be included in a device backup managed by your operating system and may be lost if you clear storage or remove the app.
• Usage analytics (website only). We use a basic, non-persistent form of PostHog analytics to produce aggregate statistics about visits, referral sources, pages and game activity so that we can improve the website. Choosing "Basic only" does not store a persistent analytics identifier in your browser. If you choose "Allow all", PostHog also stores a random browser identifier in local storage so we can understand repeat visits and journeys through the website. We do not send fictional Prime Minister or party names, cabinet choices, the contents of result links, precise location or advertising identifiers to PostHog. Automatic click capture and session recording are disabled. The apps do not include PostHog analytics.
• Advertising measurement (website only). If you choose "Allow all", we use Meta Pixel to measure visits, game starts, game completions and clicks to download the app. We do not send your fictional names, Cabinet or manifesto choices, political answers, scores or other detailed game information to Meta. Meta Pixel is not loaded if you choose "Basic only", and it is not included in the Android or iOS apps.
• Advertising identifiers (app only). The Android and iOS apps show adverts to free users, supplied by Google AdMob. To do this, the app may access your device's advertising identifier and share it with Google for ad delivery, measurement, and fraud prevention. On iOS, this is subject to your Apple tracking permission and privacy choices. If you purchase the Parliament Pass, ads are switched off and this no longer applies.
• Purchase information (app only). If you buy the Parliament Pass, our payments provider (RevenueCat) and the relevant app store process your purchase and retain a record of it, so your entitlement can be restored if you reinstall the app or switch devices. We do not see or store your payment card details - these are handled entirely by the relevant app store.

We do not collect your precise location, contacts, or photos. The website contains no advertising identifiers or tracking beyond what's described below; the apps' use of advertising identifiers is limited to serving ads as described above.

Advertising

Website. The website does not currently show programmatic advertising. With your permission, Meta Pixel measures whether visits from advertising lead to game activity or an app download click. It may also enable Meta to associate your visit with its advertising services.

Apps. To keep the free version of the Android and iOS apps supported, they show adverts supplied by Google AdMob — small banners on the results and leaderboard screens, an occasional full-screen advert when starting a new game, and optional adverts you can choose to watch in exchange for an extra re-roll, historic access or another Daily Briefing attempt. These optional adverts are never required for your first attempt or the core game. If you are in the UK or the EEA, the app will ask for your consent before showing personalised ads, using Google's certified consent tool. On iOS, Apple's tracking permission is requested only if you choose to allow more relevant ads. If you buy the Parliament Pass, none of these adverts are shown.

Google's use of advertising data is governed by Google's Privacy & Terms, and you can review or control personalised advertising through your device's advertising ID or tracking settings.

Cookies

The website does not currently use analytics or advertising cookies. Basic analytics use in-memory state only and do not retain an analytics identifier after the page is closed. If you choose "Allow all", PostHog uses local storage rather than a cookie to retain its random browser identifier and analytics state. We also store your analytics choice so we do not ask on every visit. If you choose "Allow all", Meta Pixel may set or access first-party and third-party cookies or similar identifiers for advertising measurement. Choosing "Basic only" does not load Meta Pixel. Turning analytics off prevents PostHog and Meta Pixel from collecting further events. The apps do not use cookies, but may use your device's advertising identifier for AdMob as described above.

Service providers

• Neon: the database that stores game activity and completed results for statistics and share links.
• Railway: hosting and serving the website and the results API.
• PostHog: consented product analytics for the website only.
• Meta: consented advertising measurement for the website only.
• Google AdMob: serves the adverts that keep the Android and iOS apps free, and provides the consent tool shown to UK and EEA users of the apps.
• RevenueCat: processes and verifies your Parliament Pass purchase and manages your entitlement across app devices.

These providers may process technical information such as IP addresses transiently in order to deliver and secure the service, in line with their own policies. Data is transmitted over an encrypted (HTTPS) connection.

Retention and deleting your data

Stored game results are kept so that share links continue to work and the approved leaderboard can be recalculated. If you would like a result deleted, send the share link (or its short code) to contact@downingdraft.com and we will remove the corresponding record unless we need to retain limited information for security, legal or abuse-prevention reasons. As there are no accounts, the share link is what lets us locate your data.

Purchase records for the Parliament Pass are retained by the relevant app store and RevenueCat in line with their own retention policies, so that your entitlement continues to work; we do not separately store your payment details.

You can change or turn off website analytics at any time through "Analytics choices" in the footer. Turning it off stops future analytics collection and resets the analytics identity held in your browser. You can also contact us at contact@downingdraft.com about deletion of analytics data.

Your rights

We do not ask for your real name or email in order to play, but user-entered names may still contain personal information. We rely on our legitimate interests in operating, securing and improving the game, providing result links, validating competitive results and maintaining a moderated Top 25. You can object to this use or request deletion of a stored result by contacting contact@downingdraft.com.

Children

The game is intended for a general audience. Players should not enter a real name or other personal information into the fictional identity fields. Public results are limited to a moderated Top 25, and submitted display names can be rejected, hidden or replaced before publication. A parent or guardian can contact us using the address above about a child's result.

Changes

We may update this policy from time to time. Material changes will be reflected by the date at the top of this page.