Privacy Policy

Last updated: November 10, 2026

Meadow & Feather is built so you can play without telling us who you are. This page explains what we store, why, who else is involved and what you can do about it. It applies to meadowandfeather.com and the game at meadowandfeather.com/play/.

In short

Meadow & Feather is for teens and adults, 13 and older. It is not directed at children.
You can play without an account, a name or an email.
Your game is saved in your browser. Photos you take in the game stay on your device, unless you send one to a friend as a postcard.
We do not sell your personal information, and there are no ads today.
You can delete your account and everything in it yourself, at any time.

What we store

A guest cookie (mf_sid) with a random ID, so your game is still there when you come back. It is not linked to your name or email.
How you first found us: one word such as "google", "facebook", "friend" or "direct", kept in a cookie (mf_src) and stored with your saved game, so we can count which ways of finding the game bring players back.
Your saved game: the birds you spotted, your feeders and habitats, tasks, days played and details of your photos (which bird, when, how good), but not the photos themselves. It is kept in your browser (local storage) and, so you can continue on another device, on our server linked to the random guest ID or to your account.
Your photos, only in your browser's storage on your device (IndexedDB). They are not uploaded to us, with one exception: when you send a photo to a friend as a postcard, a small copy (a JPEG picture of at most 600 pixels, which we check before keeping it) is kept on our server only until your friend opens it, then deleted. A postcard nobody opens is deleted after 30 days.
Friends and clubs, only if you use them: your friend code and a name made of two nature words (we pick the words, there is no free text), friend requests you sent or received, who your friends are, players you blocked, gifts and postcards waiting to be opened, and the clubs you joined. Club names are also made of nature words. Nobody becomes your friend until you accept their request. Friends can see your name, level, number of birds, the day you last played and the habitat you share when they visit. Club members see each other's names and how many birds each photographed this week; the person who started a club can remove a member. You can get a new friend code at any time, and old invite links then stop working. Deleting your account or guest game deletes all of this.
Blocking: you can block any player from a friend request or your friends list. Blocking ends the friendship, deletes their unopened gifts and postcards to you and stops their future requests. They are not told.
Your account, if you create one: your email address and, if you continue with Google, the first name Google gives us. A sign-in cookie (mf_auth) keeps you signed in on that browser.
"Notify me" lists: if you ask us to tell you when something new opens (such as the Meadow), we keep your email address for that one email. We do not use it for anything else, and we delete it on request.
Sign-in links: when you ask for a sign-in link by email, we keep the email address and a one-time code. The link works once and for 30 minutes.
Short technical logs kept by our host to run the site and stop abuse (for example, limiting how many requests come from one address).

Details of every cookie and storage item are on our cookie page.

Why we use it

To run the game and keep your progress (needed to provide the service you ask for).
To sign you in and sync your game between devices, if you create an account.
To keep the site safe and working (our legitimate interest).
To count visits and learn which pages help, with Google Analytics (with your consent where the law requires it).

Who else is involved

Cloudflare hosts the site and the database and delivers our emails, such as your sign-in link. Like every web host, it handles your IP address to deliver the pages.
Google sign-in, only if you press "Continue with Google": Google tells us your email address and first name. We never see your Google password.
Google Analytics: it counts visits and pages, the kind of device, the rough location and the site that sent you, not who you are. Outside the EU, the EEA, the UK and Switzerland it uses its own cookies (_ga). In those places it sets no cookies at first, and a small bar asks once; only if you press OK does it use cookies. We have turned off Google signals and Google's data sharing settings, and ad features stay off, so this data is not tied to anyone's Google account or used for advertising. This is the same everywhere, including the US. You can block it with any content blocker or Google's opt-out add-on; the game works the same.
Images of birds and habitats are served from our own server, so your browser does not contact iNaturalist or Poly Haven when you play.

Advertising

There are no ads on Meadow & Feather today. To keep the game free, we plan to show ads in the future through an ad management partner (Mediavine). Before the first ad appears, we will update this policy with the partner's name, what it collects (such as cookies, device identifiers and IP address used to show and measure ads) and how to opt out, and, where the law requires it, we will ask for your consent first. We plan to keep the pages for teachers free of ads.

Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information

We do not sell your personal information and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising. Once ads arrive, if our ad partner's use of cookies counts as "selling" or "sharing" under California law (the CCPA, as amended by the CPRA) or similar laws in other US states, you will be able to opt out with a link on every page, and we will honor the Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal from your browser as an opt-out. You can also write to hello@meadowandfeather.com at any time and we will make sure nothing about you is sold or shared.

Your rights in California and other US states

If you live in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, Utah, Texas, Oregon or another state with a privacy law, you have the right to know what personal information we collect, to get a copy of it, to correct it, to delete it, and to opt out of its sale or sharing. We will not treat you differently for using these rights. In the last 12 months we collected: identifiers (an email address if you have an account, a random guest ID, IP address in short logs), internet activity on our site (game progress, pages visited) and rough location from Google Analytics. We did not sell or share any of it.

You have the right to access your data, correct it, delete it, restrict or object to its use, receive it in a portable format and withdraw consent at any time. The legal bases we rely on are: providing the game you ask for (your saved game and account), our legitimate interest in keeping the site safe (logs and rate limits), and your consent (analytics cookies). Our providers may process data in the United States; they use the safeguards the law requires, such as the EU Standard Contractual Clauses. You can also complain to your local data protection authority.

Children

Meadow & Feather is made for teens and adults, and you must be 13 or older to use it. It is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has given us personal information, write to hello@meadowandfeather.com and we will delete it.

How long we keep it

Your saved game is kept so you can come back to it. An account and everything linked to it is kept until you delete it. A friend request stays until it is accepted or declined. A postcard photo is deleted from our server when your friend opens it, or after 30 days if it is never opened; gifts and postcards from a player you block are deleted at once. Sign-in links expire after 30 minutes. Cookies expire after about 13 months unless you come back. Messages you send us are kept for as long as we need them to answer you.

How to delete your data

Sign in and open your account page.
Press "Delete my account and everything in it", then "Delete everything".
Your account, your email address and your saved game are deleted at once, and you are signed out.

Photos stay only on your devices: clear this site's data in your browser to remove them. Without an account, open your account page in the same browser and press "Delete my guest game" to delete the copy on our server, then clear this site's data in your browser to remove it from the browser too. If you cannot sign in, write to hello@meadowandfeather.com from your account's email address and we will delete it within 30 days. We answer every privacy request within 45 days at most.

Security

Cookies are sent only over secure connections, and we store only a scrambled form (a hash) of sign-in codes, never the codes themselves. No system is perfect, but we keep what we store small.

Changes

If this policy changes, we will update this page and the date at the top. For big changes, such as adding ads, we will tell you on the site before they take effect.

Contact

Questions or requests about privacy: hello@meadowandfeather.com.