TABBY TRAILS · PRIVACY

What we keep, and what we don't.

Tabby Trails saves your worlds on our server so they are still there if a browser is cleared or you play on another device. Nothing in it needs to know who you are.

UPDATED November 2, 2026

What changed: this page now says who helps us run the game, what happens to your device's address, what stays on your device, and what TELL US sends and where it goes. Unticking a cat in FRIENDS no longer takes you off their list, your collection now holds the cat you last played, and a few other details are more exact.

What we keep

• Your worlds. The saved files themselves: what you built, planted and collected, your cat's look and name as you typed it into the game, the names you gave your pets and places, the world's name, and the cats of friends who have played there.
• Your collection. What is yours in every world rather than in one: the stamps your cats have found and when, what they have done in each world towards the achievements (fish caught, crops picked, things baked and the like), and the packs you have opened and what came out of them. It also holds the cat you last played: its name, its look and what it has on from packs, so your other devices bring the same cat into every world.
• A random number that stands for you, so the server knows which worlds are yours, with when it was made and last seen. When you open or join a world, a ticket that lasts fifteen minutes tells that world's room the number, so it knows who has played there. A world's owner is told nothing by it. Your browser also makes up a number of its own, which a world you play in remembers, so your cat gets its things back when it returns.
• Postcards you send. When you choose SEND A POSTCARD, a small piece of your world round your cat (what is built and growing there, your cat as it is, what it carries and has on), your cat's name and the name you give it, and a small picture of that spot as it was (the world only: no names or words in it), so your friends and anyone you give its link to can play it. Your friends can play it, but they never get its link to pass on: only you do. We also count how many times it has been played, and show you that number. Nothing else of yours goes with it.
• Which worlds you have played in. Each world's invite code, with the random number of each player let into it (its owner's too), and the name and look of the cat each played there. That is how the game knows who to show you, and how you can see who your postcards go to. This takes in the worlds you played in before postcards came too: we read each world's saved copy once for the cats who have played in it, and nothing else in it, and match them to your device when you next open the game. We also looked once at the per-world counts in each collection to see who had played where. Your friends see your cat as you played it with them, and nothing else, and only cats you have played with see it.
• Your friends. A cat becomes your friend when you let it into your world, or it lets you into its own. We keep who your friends are, the name and look of each one's cat, and which world you met in. Cats you played with before friends worked this way are kept too, marked PLAYED WITH: you still share postcards with them, and nothing else.
• Who can see you playing. While you are in one of your own worlds, your friends can see that you are playing and the name of that world, and can ask to join you. In a friend's world, nobody is told you are there. Only your friends see this, never a cat you have only played with, and it isn't kept: it goes within half a minute of you stopping. Every world starts visible. The eye on the screen, or SHARE in the menu, hides you in that world, and it remembers. We keep which worlds you have hidden. Hidden, you don't show as playing, but a cat already in that world can still see you there, and anyone with its invite can still knock.
• Invite links. While your world is open, a link to it shows your cat's name to whoever it is sent to, as in "Mochi wants you to come play". The app it is sent in may keep that card after you stop playing. Once your world is closed, a link shows only the game's name and picture.
• Who you have blocked. If you block a cat in FRIENDS, we keep that, with the name and look its cat had, so you can see who you blocked and let them go again. Nothing tells them.
• Who you don't share with. If you untick a cat in FRIENDS, we keep that, so your postcards stay out of theirs and theirs out of yours. Nothing else changes: you each stay on the other's list. Only you can tick them again.
• Your secret words, only in a scrambled form that can recognise the words when they are typed in, and can't be turned back into them.

What we don't

• No name, email address, age, address or location is asked for or kept with your worlds.
• Your device's address is not kept with your worlds. Our server sees it, as any website does, and holds it in memory until about half an hour after you last connected, so nobody can flood the game with requests. It is not written to our database or our logs.
• Playing a place someone shared with you keeps nothing of yours: the game sets no cookie of its own, saves nothing on your device, and leaves your own worlds and cat as they were. Google Analytics, below, still counts the visit.
• No advertising, and nothing sold. Your worlds are not shared with anyone, except the cats you let in to play, and a postcard you choose to send, which goes only to your friends, the cats marked PLAYED WITH, and whoever has its link.
• Nobody can send you postcards who hasn't been let into a world with you. There is no list of players to look through, and no way to write to anyone: in a world, cats can only say the game's ready-made phrases.

The cookie that saves your worlds

The game sets one cookie of its own, tt_device, so the server can tell which device is yours. It holds only a random number for the device and a secret that proves it is yours. It lasts ten years, and that starts over each time you play. Without it the game still works; your worlds are simply kept on that device and not online.

Your browser also keeps your worlds, your cat, its diary and your settings in its own storage on your device, so the game can save as you play. Clearing the site's data from the browser clears them.

Counting how the game is played

To see which parts of the game get used and for how long, the game sends plain counts to Google Analytics, such as "a game was started" or "a minute of play", and the error's message when something breaks. Advertising features and personalised ads are switched off, and its cookies last only until the browser is closed. These counts are not joined to your worlds, your cat's name or your secret words, and the page's address and title are sent with no invite code or cat's name in them. As with any website, Google receives the address of the device that connected and what kind of device and browser it is, and works out roughly where in the world it is. We see that as totals, never the address.

To find out why friends sometimes can't get into a world, or get dropped from one, the game also counts how those went, such as "a join didn't work: nobody was home" or "the connection dropped for a few seconds". If a count can't be sent at the time, it is kept on your device until it can be, then cleared. The server keeps daily totals of the same kind. None of these holds an invite code, a name, or anything that says which player or world it was.

Each time the game opens it also loads two typefaces from Google Fonts, so Google receives the device's address that way too.

Your secret words

They open your worlds, so keep them private. Friends join a world with an invite, never with your secret words. If they get into the wrong hands, anyone who has them can open and play your worlds.

Taking things away

• From a device: in the game, open the gear (SETTINGS) and choose I'M DONE HERE - REMOVE MY WORLDS. That device forgets you and your worlds; they stay safe online, and your secret words bring them back.
• A postcard you sent: on the home screen, open POSTCARDS, then its MINE tab, press its bin and YES, DELETE FOREVER. It is deleted from our server straight away: your friends no longer see it, and its link stops working.
• Postcards from someone: untick their cat in FRIENDS: neither of you sees the other's postcards any more. To stop sharing postcards with the cats you only played with in a friend's world, delete that world from your list of worlds: your friends stay friends until you remove them.
• A friend: choose their cat in FRIENDS, then REMOVE: you leave each other's lists and stop sharing postcards, and they have to knock to come into your worlds again. Or BLOCK: that too, and they leave your world at once, and can't knock on your door any more. Nothing tells them either way.
• One world: delete it in the list of worlds. It can be put back for thirty days (DELETED WORLDS, at the end of the list); after that its saved copies are removed from our server. A few bytes stay, its name and invite code among them, so that a friend's list can say it has gone and it can't come back by mistake.
• From our server: tell us in the game (pause menu, HELP, TELL US), with a world's name and roughly when it was last played, and we will delete everything saved for you.

Our host also keeps daily safety copies of the whole database, to bring the game back if it is ever lost. Something deleted can stay in those copies until they age out.

Telling us about a bug

When you send a note with TELL US, the game sends the note along with in-game details and a screenshot of just the game screen, so we can find the bug. Our server passes it straight on to a private Discord channel of ours and keeps nothing itself. The details are what kind of device and browser you are on, which build of the game it is, where your cat is and what it was doing, a small map of the ground around it, the last minute or so of its movements, and any errors the game showed. The screenshot is of the game screen only, with no words or menus in it. None of it says who is playing: no names, no world code and no seed are sent, and your device's address isn't passed on. The note's own words are yours to choose, so please leave real names out of them.

Who helps us run the game

• Railway runs our server and its database, so what this page says we keep is on their computers, held for us.
• Google counts how the game is played (Analytics) and supplies two typefaces (Fonts), as this page says above.
• Discord holds the notes sent with TELL US.

We send nothing to anyone else.

Questions

Use TELL US in the game, or ask a grown-up to. When this page changes, UPDATED shows above PRIVACY on the home screen until you have opened it.