THE HOBBY: CARD CAREER is a paid, single-player iPhone game. It is designed to be played offline, it does not require an account, and your careers are saved on your own device.
1. Who operates the app
THE HOBBY: CARD CAREER is developed and published by Otto House Productions Ltd.
If you have any question about this policy or about the information described here, please write to support@ottohouseproductions.com.
2. Scope
This policy covers the iOS application THE HOBBY: CARD CAREER and this website page. It does not cover the Apple App Store itself, which Apple operates under its own policies.
3. Your game data stays on your device
The game does not use accounts. There is no sign-up, no login, no password and no cloud profile.
- Careers, saves, collections and settings are stored locally on your iPhone.
- Otto House Productions cannot see, read, retrieve or restore your careers.
- Because the data is local, deleting the app, resetting the device or losing the device may remove your saved careers permanently.
- If the game provides an export or backup option, keeping your own exported copy somewhere safe is the only way to preserve a career independently of the device.
4. Anonymous gameplay and performance information
Version 1.0 of the game includes optional, anonymous, first-party analytics. This is used to understand how the game is played and how well it performs. It is sent to an endpoint operated by Otto House Productions. It is not sent to an advertising network or a tracking company.
How sessions are grouped
So that related events can be grouped together, the app generates two random identifiers:
- an anonymous install identifier, created the first time the app runs on a device
- an anonymous career identifier, created when you start a new career
Both are random values generated by the app itself. They are not derived from Apple's advertising identifier, from any hardware or device identifier, or from any name, email address or account information. They are not used to build an advertising profile, and they are not shared with anyone else.
What may be sent
- Session activity, such as when the app is opened and roughly how long a session lasts
- Which screens of the game are used
- Career progression, such as the in-game season and week reached
- Packs and boxes bought using fictional in-game currency
- Whether packs were opened or kept sealed
- Whether break events are used
- Simulated market purchases and sales inside the game
- Anonymous totals describing a collection or in-game economy, such as how many cards are owned
- Advance Week performance timings
- Loading and start-up performance timings
- A general error code when something goes wrong, and the screen it happened on
- Whether the game's save-recovery process was used
- Basic technical context such as app version, iOS version and device model
All monetary amounts in this information are fictional in-game values. The game contains no real money, no real payments beyond the single App Store purchase, and no way to convert in-game currency into anything of real-world value.
Why it is collected
- To improve the game, by seeing which parts are actually used
- To keep the in-game economy balanced across broad, aggregated usage rather than guesswork
- To find performance problems on real devices, particularly on very long careers
- To find errors, crashes and save-recovery situations that would otherwise never be reported
5. Optional help and feedback submissions
You may choose to send a problem report or feedback from inside the game. Nothing is sent until you type a message and explicitly tap the relevant Send button. No account, name or email address is required.
A submission contains the text you choose to enter. A problem report may also include an optional area selected by you and optional text describing what you expected to happen. To help us understand the report, the app automatically includes only:
- the app version and build number
- the current in-game season and week, if a career is loaded
- the save-format version
Submissions are used to respond to support requests, investigate problems and improve THE HOBBY. They are sent to infrastructure operated for Otto House Productions and delivered to the owner-controlled support mailbox at hello@thehobbygame.com.
The app does not automatically include your name, email address, account information, device identifier, advertising identifier, career or save identifier, device model, iOS version, collection, save file, logs, diagnostics, stack trace, crash dump, screenshot or other attachment. Please do not include passwords, payment information or other sensitive personal information in the text you submit.
Exporting a career for support is a separate, explicit action that opens the iOS share sheet. A career is never automatically attached to or uploaded with a problem report or feedback submission.
The hosting provider may process ordinary network metadata, such as an IP address, in access or security logs for service operation and abuse prevention. The app does not add an IP address to the report payload.
6. Information the app does not collect automatically
Except for text that you voluntarily submit through the help and feedback forms described above, the app does not collect, request or transmit any of the following:
- Your name
- Your email address
- Your phone number or postal address
- Your contacts
- Your location, precise or approximate
- Apple's advertising identifier (IDFA) or any other advertising identifier
- Career names or text entered elsewhere in the game
- Your photos or photo library
- Microphone or camera data
- Health or fitness information
- Payment card details, bank details or any real financial information
- The contents of your save files
- Detailed card-by-card or command-by-command records of how you played
- Screenshots or session recordings of any kind
- Any information about your activity in other apps or on websites
The app does not ask for any iOS permission that would give it access to your contacts, location, photos, microphone, camera or health data.
7. No advertising and no tracking
- The game contains no advertising of any kind.
- There is no targeted or personalised advertising.
- Otto House Productions does not sell player information.
- Player information is not shared with data brokers.
- There is no cross-app or cross-site tracking, and no advertising identifier is used.
8. Offline play
The game is built to work without an internet connection. You can play a full session in airplane mode.
If analytics is enabled and no connection is available, a small amount of anonymous information may wait on the device and be sent later when a connection returns. If it cannot be sent at all, it is discarded.
Analytics never blocks, delays or interferes with gameplay. If the endpoint is unreachable or unavailable, the game continues to work exactly as normal.
Problem reports and feedback are sent only when you tap Send and require a network connection. If sending fails, your message remains in the open form so you can try again. The app does not place support messages in a persistent background queue.
9. Turning analytics off
The game includes a setting along the lines of "Share anonymous usage data".
- The information described in section 4 is anonymous and helps improve the game.
- No personal information and no advertising identifiers are collected.
- Turning the setting off stops further optional analytics being collected or sent.
- Turning it off does not change how the game plays. Every feature continues to work in exactly the same way.
10. How long information is kept
Anonymous analytics information is kept only for as long as it is reasonably required to operate, analyse, support and develop the game, and is then removed or reduced to aggregated summaries.
Because the information described in section 4 is not linked to a name, email address or account, Otto House Productions has no way to locate the records belonging to a particular person.
Support and feedback submissions may be retained for up to 12 months for support, investigation and product-improvement purposes. If a submission remains relevant to an unresolved issue, it may be retained for as long as reasonably necessary to resolve that issue. After it is no longer needed, it is deleted in accordance with the support process.
11. Apple
THE HOBBY: CARD CAREER is distributed through the Apple App Store. Apple independently processes information relating to your download and purchase, and may collect crash and usage information from your device, under Apple's own terms and privacy policy.
Otto House Productions does not receive your payment card details, billing address or Apple ID credentials from Apple. We receive only aggregated sales and, where you have chosen to share it with developers, aggregated crash information.
12. Children
THE HOBBY: CARD CAREER is a football card collecting and trading simulation intended for a general audience. It is not specifically directed at children.
The app does not ask for a name, an age, an email address or any other identifying information, and it has no messaging, chat or social features of any kind.
13. Changes to this policy
If this policy changes, the updated version will be published on this page and the "Last updated" date at the top will change. Material changes affecting what information is collected will be reflected here before or at the time the change takes effect in the app.
14. Contact
Player support and feedback can be sent to hello@thehobbygame.com. Questions specifically about this policy or Otto House Productions Ltd can be sent to support@ottohouseproductions.com.
See also the support page for help with saves, careers, performance and purchases.