Privacy policy

Dobiverse is built for children, so we've kept this as simple as the site itself: here is exactly what happens (and doesn't happen) when you or your child use it.

Who runs Dobiverse

Dobiverse and this website are run by Naresh Sekar, who is responsible for how the site handles personal information.

For any question about privacy, email privacy@dobiverse.com.

Children's information

We don't ask children for any personal information, and nothing on the children's pages collects it. There are no accounts, logins, comments or chat. The only form on the site is the grown-ups letter sign-up, which is for adults only.

Cookies and tracking

This website sets no cookies of its own and runs no analytics, advertising or tracking scripts. Loading a page only contacts the server that hosts dobiverse.com, and nothing else, until you tap a video (see "Watching videos" below). This website shows no ads.

Hosting

The site is hosted by Netlify. Like any web host, Netlify's servers receive what every browser sends when it asks for a page: your device's IP address and details of the request, such as the page address, the time and the type of browser. Netlify keeps these in its server logs.

Netlify explains how it handles this information in Netlify's privacy policy.

What is stored on your device

• Game scores: when your child finishes a Memory Match game, the best score for that level (the fewest moves) is saved in your browser's local storage, on your own device.
• Offline copies: so the site keeps working on a patchy connection, your browser saves copies of the pages you visit and of the site's own files (such as styles, scripts and pictures) using a small script called a service worker.

Both stay on your device and are never sent to us or to anyone else.

To remove them, clear the data for dobiverse.com in your browser settings (usually under "Cookies and site data" or "Website data"). The site works the same afterwards; only the saved scores and offline copies are gone.

Watching videos

Videos are hosted on YouTube, which is run by Google. Until you tap a video, your browser does not contact YouTube at all: the picture you see is a copy kept on dobiverse.com.

When you tap a video, it loads from YouTube's privacy-enhanced mode (youtube-nocookie.com), straight from YouTube to your device. From then on, YouTube (Google) receives your device's IP address and the fact that the video is being played on dobiverse.com (the site's address, not the page), and YouTube may store information on your device. Links inside the player that would open YouTube are switched off.

Google explains what YouTube does with this information in Google's privacy policy.

This website shows no ads, but YouTube decides whether an ad plays with a video. YouTube says that views in privacy-enhanced mode are not used to personalise the viewer's YouTube experience or the ads they see elsewhere, and that any ads shown on those videos are not personalised (YouTube's help page on privacy-enhanced mode).

YouTube API Services

To publish our videos we use software we built ourselves, which talks to YouTube through the YouTube API Services. Only we use it, and only to upload our own videos to our own channels. Visitors to this website never use it, and it never touches anyone else’s YouTube account.

In using it we agree to be bound by the YouTube Terms of Service.

Google explains how it handles information in the Google Privacy Policy.

• What it accesses: the software signs in as the owner of a Dobiverse channel and uses that sign-in only to upload a video, set its thumbnail, set its title, description and tags, and add it to one of our own playlists. It reads nothing about any other channel, viewer or creator.
• What it stores: the YouTube video id of each video we publish, so that running it again never uploads the same video twice. Those ids are ours and are public once a video is live. Nothing else from YouTube is stored.
• Who it is shared with: nobody. The video ids stay in our own project files, and the sign-in tokens stay in the keychain of the computer that runs the software. Neither is sent to any other person or company, and neither is used for advertising or profiling.

The software runs on our own computer, not in your browser. It places nothing on your device and collects nothing from it.

Revoking access: a channel owner can remove this software’s access at any time from the Google security settings page. Doing so immediately stops it from publishing to that channel.

Deleting data: if you ask us to delete data we hold about you, or if we can no longer confirm that access was authorised, we delete it within 30 days. Write to privacy@dobiverse.com.

The grown-ups letter

The grown-ups letter isn't open for sign-ups yet, so this site collects no email addresses. Before it opens, this section will name the email service that sends it and link to its privacy policy.

Emails you send us

When you email us, we use your message only to reply to you. It is kept in our mailbox, which is hosted by Zoho Mail, and we delete it if you ask.

Changes to this policy

If what the site does changes, we will update this page and the date at the top.

Contact

Questions about this policy or how the site works? You can also find us on the Contact page.