The Mesozoic: Privacy Policy

Effective date: 23 October 2026

The Mesozoic is an app about dinosaurs and the other animals of their time. It is made by Vladimirs Matusevics ("we"). This page explains, in plain words, what the app keeps on your device, the little it sends to us, and what you can do about it. If you look after a child who uses the app, this page is for you too.

The short version

• No account, no sign-in, no name, email address or birthday asked for.
• No ads, no tracking across other companies' apps or websites, nothing sold or shared for advertising.
• The chat with Tiko and the creatures, and the stories you make, stay on your device. They are written by Apple's on-device model and are never sent to us or anyone else.
• The app sends us anonymous usage notes (which pages, games and stories are opened, and for how long) so we can see what works and fix what doesn't. There is a switch to turn this off in Settings → Privacy.
• If you allow notifications for new creatures, your device's push address goes to our notification service.
• The season pass is a subscription bought through Apple. We never see your name, your Apple Account or how you pay.

What stays on your device

Your progress lives on your device: creatures read, quiz scores, badges, cards and stickers, eggs and hatchlings, volcanic ash, the season pass's steps, favorites, settings, and the stories you made. Chat messages and anything typed into the app stay there too. The app runs Apple's on-device language model for the chat and the stories, and that runs entirely on the device. We cannot see any of it.

If you are signed in to iCloud, the app can also keep a copy of your progress in your own iCloud account, so it follows you to your iPad or a new iPhone. That copy is stored by Apple in your account, not by us, and we cannot see it; you can remove it in the Settings app (your name → iCloud). Chat messages are not copied. Deleting the app removes what is on the device.

The app does not use the camera, the microphone, photos, contacts or your location.

The story voice is a recording we made in advance; the app plays it, it does not listen.

What the app sends to us

Usage notes (analytics)

To learn which parts of the app are enjoyed and which are confusing, the app sends short notes about how it is used, for example "a creature page was opened", "a game was finished in 90 seconds", "an egg hatched", or "a picture failed to load". Each note comes with:

• a random number made by the app (it says nothing about who you are, and reinstalling the app makes a new one); for readers under 13, or who haven't told the app their age, the number is new each time the app opens and is never kept, so their notes can't be joined up from one visit to the next (we count them as visits, not as people), and on the very first visit the notes wait on the device until the age is answered or the app is closed; whether the number is one that lasts; a second random number for each visit;
• the app's version, the iOS version, the kind of device (iPhone or iPad), whether the screen is wide or narrow and upright or on its side, and the time zone offset (for "what time of day" charts);
• the app's own settings that change what you see (for example short names on or off, notifications allowed).

The notes never contain your name or anything you type or say, where you are, your contacts, your device's name, the advertising identifier, or anything that could find you outside the app. Our server does not keep your IP address or browser details.

We use the notes only to run and improve the app ("support for internal operations"): counting visits, seeing where people get stuck, checking that new versions work, and deciding what to build next. We do not use them to build a profile of any person, to contact anyone, or for advertising, and we do not combine them with other data.

Seasons: the season pass's seasons can change without an app update, so the app asks our server which seasons are coming, at most once an hour. That question carries nothing about you.

Trying two versions: now and then we try two versions of one part of the app (for example a shorter welcome) to learn which helps more people. When the app opens it asks our server which tests are running; that question carries nothing about you. Which version you see comes from a random number made by the app that stays on your device and is never sent, so you keep the same version each time. A usage note says which version was shown, nothing more. With the switch below off, everyone sees the usual version and no note is sent.

Turning it off: Settings → Privacy → "Help make the app better". When it is off, nothing is sent and notes waiting on the device are deleted. Turning it back on asks a grown-up's question first.

Notes from test versions of the app (TestFlight) go to a separate test copy of our store.

Notifications

The app can remind you about your egg and the daily question. These reminders are made on the device and nothing is sent for them.

If you allow notifications for new creatures, your device gets a push address from Apple, and the app sends that address (with the app's version) to our notification service so we can tell you when something new arrives. Turning notifications off in iOS Settings stops them; we remove addresses Apple tells us no longer work.

The season pass

The season pass is an optional subscription. You buy it, and manage or cancel it, through Apple, and Apple's own privacy policy covers the payment. The app learns from Apple, on your device, only whether a pass is active, when a free week ends (to remind you the day before) and when a pass was paid for (to give a season's rewards back after a reinstall). We receive none of this, except that a usage note may say that the pass's page or offer was shown, or that a pass was bought, with no price, account or payment details. Readers under 13, or who haven't told the app their age, see a grown-up's question before the offer.

Downloads from Apple

Some parts of the app (moving paintings, card looks, the story voice) are downloaded after you install it. These come from Apple's servers, like the app itself; Apple's privacy policy covers that download.

Who handles the data

Our usage store, the seasons and the notification service run on Cloudflare (Workers, D1 and R2), which hosts them for us and does not use the data for itself. Apple delivers the app, its downloads and push notifications, handles purchases, and keeps your iCloud copy. Nobody else receives anything from the app.

How long we keep it

• Individual usage notes: deleted after 13 months.
• Totals made from them (for example "visits per day"), which no longer contain the random number: deleted after 25 months.
• Push addresses: kept while they work; removed when Apple reports them as no longer valid.

We keep the notes only as long as they help us improve the app, then delete them automatically.

Children

The Mesozoic is made for curious minds of 10 and up and their families, and we expect children to use it. The app asks the reader's age once, when it first opens, and keeps the answer only on the device; we receive only an age range (under 10, 10-12, 13-17, 18 or older), never the age. We do not ask for or keep any personal information from children beyond the usage notes described above, which for readers under 13 carry no number that lasts, and which we use only to run and improve the app. There are no ads, no chat with other people, and no way to share personal information with others in the app. Links that leave the app are behind a grown-up's question, and so is sharing a picture for readers under 13.

A parent or guardian can at any time:

• turn the usage notes off (Settings → Privacy);
• ask us to delete everything we hold for a device: the number to send us is shown in Settings → Privacy under "This device's number" (for readers 13 and older; under 13 no number is kept, so nothing can be joined up). Email it to privacy@mesozoicapp.com and we delete every note with that number within 30 days;
• give the device a new number by deleting the app and installing it again.

Your rights

Depending on where you live (for example under the GDPR in the EU or the UK GDPR), you may have the right to ask what we hold about you, to have it corrected or deleted, to object to its use, or to complain to your data protection authority. Because we hold no names or contact details, we can only find your data by the number in Settings → Privacy; send it to privacy@mesozoicapp.com with your request.

Our legal basis for the usage notes is our legitimate interest in keeping the app working and improving it, with the off switch always available.

The website

mesozoicapp.com has no ads, no cookies and no analytics, and loads nothing from other companies.

If you leave your email address to hear when the app is out ("Tell me at launch"), we keep it in our own store on Cloudflare, send you one email when The Mesozoic is on the App Store, and then delete it. We never share it or use it for anything else. To have it deleted sooner, write to privacy@mesozoicapp.com. The sign-up is for grown-ups: if you're under 13, ask a grown-up to do it.

To stop the same visitor signing up again and again, the site counts sign-ups per day with a one-way code made from the connection's address. The address itself is never kept, and the counts are deleted the next day.

Changes

If this policy changes, we update this page and its date. If a change means the app collects something new, we will say so in the app before it happens.

Contact

Vladimirs Matusevics, privacy@mesozoicapp.com