Privacy policy

Effective date: December 1, 2026

Overworld is made by Great Desktop Apps, LLC. This policy covers the Overworld app for Android and buying an Overworld license.

The short version

Overworld has no accounts, no analytics and no ads. It runs on your device and keeps what it reads there. On its own, the app goes online only to check for a new version of itself, at most once a day, and you can turn that off. If something goes wrong, you can choose to send us your app's logs, and testers who join the beta send us crash details automatically. When you buy a license, our store, Lemon Squeezy, handles your payment, and we use your email address to send you your license file.

What the app does on your device

• Reads your game while you play. Overworld reads the running game's memory from RetroArch on the same device, over the device's own loopback connection. It only reads. It never changes your game or your saves.
• Reads your ROM file. With your permission (Android's All files access, which is optional), Overworld finds the ROM you're playing, works out which game it is, and reads names such as species and moves from it. The ROM is never copied anywhere and never leaves your device.
• Shows the companion screen. The companion page is served from your device to your device only. Overworld never listens on your Wi-Fi network, so other devices can't reach it.
• Keeps logs and crash details. Overworld writes small log files inside its own app storage, to help with problems. When the app or the part that reads your game crashes, it writes down what happened in the same place. The logs never include your license's email address or license ID in normal use. They stay on your device unless you send them to us, or you join the beta (see below).
• Stores your license. When you load a license file, Overworld keeps a copy in its own app storage and checks it offline. Nothing is sent to us or anyone else to check it.

Uninstalling Overworld removes everything above from the device, apart from files you saved elsewhere yourself.

The update check

Once a day at most, when you open Overworld, it downloads one small file from our public release page on GitHub to see whether a newer version exists. The request carries only the app's name ("Overworld"). It carries no cookies and nothing about you, your device, your games or your license. If an update exists and you tap Update, Overworld downloads the new version from the same place.

Like any website, GitHub sees the internet (IP) address the request comes from. GitHub's handling of that is covered by GitHub's privacy statement. We don't receive it.

You can turn the update check off in Settings → Updates. Overworld then makes no network requests on its own. It only contacts us after you send your logs or while you're in the beta, as described next.

Sending your logs to us

If something goes wrong, you can tap Help → Send logs to the developer. Nothing is sent until you tap Send. The screen lists what will be sent:

• your device's make and model, its Android version, the Overworld version, and whether you're in the beta
• Overworld's own logs and crash details: what the app did, which game and ROM version it recognised, connection problems and errors
• the note you type, if you type one

Before anything leaves your device, Overworld removes the things it recognises that could identify you: email addresses, internet (IP) addresses, passwords and other secrets, license details, and the names of folders on your storage (the file name of your ROM stays, since it tells us which game it is). This works by recognising patterns, so we can't promise it catches everything, which is why the screen tells you what's sent before you send it.

Your logs never include your license file, your ROMs or saves, your Wi-Fi network, your location, your contacts, other apps' logs or any number that identifies your device's hardware.

The first time you send, your device gets a random ID, made up on the spot and not taken from your hardware, and the app shows you a short support code from it (like OW-7KQ2-M9XX). Give us that code in Discord or an email and we can find your logs.

For 30 days after you send, the app checks with us when it starts and every 6 hours while it's open, to see whether we've asked for more logs. If we have, it asks you first and sends nothing unless you tap Send. After 30 days without a send, it stops checking.

The beta

You can join the beta in Settings → Beta with a code we give to testers. Before you join, the app shows what the beta sends. While you're in the beta:

• crash details are sent to us automatically when they happen, cleaned the same way as above
• if we ask for your logs, they're sent without asking you first, and a notification tells you
• the app checks for beta versions instead of regular releases

You can leave the beta at any time in Settings → Beta. The app then stops sending crash details and asks you again before it sends logs.

Where your logs go, and how long we keep them

Logs and crash details go to our own service, which runs on Cloudflare and stores them in Cloudflare's data centres. Like any website, Cloudflare sees the internet (IP) address of each request. We use it only to limit how fast new devices can sign up, and we don't store it. Cloudflare's handling is covered by Cloudflare's privacy policy. Only we can read your logs. We may use an AI assistant to help us read and search them; it reads them through our service and can't change or delete them.

We delete logs after 30 days and crash details after 90 days, or sooner if our storage fills up. If your device hasn't contacted us for 180 days, we delete everything about it.

To delete everything we hold for your device straight away, tap Send logs to the developer → Forget this device. If you've already uninstalled Overworld or cleared its data, email us your support code and we'll delete it.

Permissions

• Notifications (optional): shows that Overworld is running and whether it's connected to your game, and tells you when we've asked for your logs.
• All files access (optional): lets Overworld find and read your ROM, as above. Without it, Overworld still works but shows fewer names.
• Install apps (only if you use in-app updates): Android asks for this when you first tap Update. Android itself checks that an update is signed by us before installing it.

Buying a license

Licenses are sold through Lemon Squeezy, which acts as the merchant of record. Lemon Squeezy collects your payment details and handles tax, and its own privacy policy covers that. We never see your full card details.

From your order, we receive your name, email address, country, what you bought and when. We use them to:

• create your license file, which contains your email address, an order-based license ID, what you bought and the date your updates run until
• email the license file to you
• answer you if you contact us, and send you a replacement license if you lose yours

We send your license email through Resend, an email delivery service. To deliver it, Resend receives your email address, the email itself and your license file. Resend's own privacy policy covers how it handles them.

Your email address is inside your license file so that a license can be traced back to its order. Anyone you share your license file with can see it, so please keep it to yourself.

We don't sell your information, share it for advertising, or send you marketing email unless you ask for it. We keep order records for 7 years.

Your choices and rights

You can ask us for a copy of the information we hold about you, or ask us to correct or delete it, by emailing [email protected]. If we delete your order record, we can no longer send you a replacement license. Depending on where you live, you may also have the right to complain to your local data protection authority.

Children

Overworld isn't directed at children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect information from them.

Changes

If this policy changes, we'll update the date at the top and note the change in the app's release notes.

Contact

[email protected]
Great Desktop Apps, LLC