Privacy policy

Who we are

Chain of Custody is a game by Scott Smith Newtro Studios of Jeffersonville, Indiana, United States. For any privacy question or request, email playtest@chainofcustody.party.

What we collect

When you ask to join

Your name, email address, mobile number, time zone, and anything you choose to add in the optional note on the request form, together with a record of what you agreed to there: the required consent to gameplay calls, call recording, and email, and whether you also ticked the separate, optional box for text messages.

When you set up your investigator profile

• Your name, as you want the characters to use it.
• Your mobile phone number, which is how calls reach you, and texts too if you opt in to them.
• Your time zone and the weekly hours during which the case may contact you.
• A record that you consented: the date, the version of the disclosure, and a fingerprint of the exact wording you were shown — kept separately for the optional text-message consent, if you gave it.

While you play

• Recordings and transcripts of gameplay phone calls. Characters need to remember what you told them, and we need to diagnose calls that go wrong.
• The email you exchange with characters, and the text messages too if you opted in to texts, in both directions.
• Your progress in the investigation — which records you examined, what you pinned to the board, the connections you drew, and the conclusion you submitted.
• Feedback you choose to send us, including an optional screenshot. We strip embedded metadata from screenshots before storing them.

When you browse this site

The public marketing site does not set advertising cookies and does not track you across other sites.

Why we collect it

To run the game and to fix it. Your number and hours exist so a character can reach you. Call recordings and message history exist so characters remember your investigation and so we can find out why a call failed. Progress and feedback exist so we can tell where the experience breaks.

We do not use any of it for advertising, we do not build profiles for marketing, and we do not sell or rent your information to anyone.

Text messages

Text messages are optional. On the request and setup forms, consent to texts is a separate checkbox that is not pre-ticked and is not required to play; if you leave it unticked, the case reaches you by phone calls and email only and no character will text you.

If you opt in, characters in the game text you during play from Chain of Custody numbers. Message frequency varies. Message and data rates may apply. Reply HELP for help. Reply STOP to any message to stop all text messages from Chain of Custody. The SMS Terms of Service set out the program in full.

Who else processes it

Running real calls and messages means a handful of service providers necessarily handle some of your data on our behalf:

Twilio

Carries the phone calls and text messages, and provides the numbers characters call from.

ElevenLabs

Provides the conversational voices that speak during gameplay calls.

Remail

Sends and receives the gameplay email.

Amazon Web Services

Hosts the application and its database.

These providers act on our instructions. Beyond them, we disclose personal information only if the law requires it.

How long we keep it

Case material is kept for as long as your playthrough is active, plus a limited retention window afterwards so we can investigate problems you reported. Every account carries an expiry date after which its data is purged.

When a playthrough is deleted, we remove the local copy and then track each outstanding deletion we owe at a provider until it is confirmed. If a provider deletion cannot be completed automatically, it is escalated for manual completion rather than quietly dropped.

Your choices

• Stop text messages — reply STOP to any message to stop all text messages from Chain of Custody. See the SMS Terms of Service.
• Change when the case can reach you — adjust your contact hours at any time, or ask us to.
• Leave the playtest — email us and we will end your participation.
• Get a copy of your data, or have it deleted — email us and we will do it. We do not require a reason.

Requests go to playtest@chainofcustody.party. There is no charge and no penalty for asking.

Children

The playtest is limited to participants aged 18 or older. We do not knowingly collect information from children. If you believe a minor has given us information, email us and we will delete it.

Security

Access to the game requires a single-use link sent to your email address; there is no password to steal. Case material is served only to the account it belongs to. We restrict administrative access to the project operator.

No system is perfect, and we would rather say so plainly than imply otherwise.

Changes

If this policy changes in a way that affects playtesters, we will update the date at the top and tell active playtesters by email. Material changes to what you consented to will be re-presented for your agreement.