Privacy policy

The short version

• No ads and no tracking across other sites. Anonymous usage statistics (Google Analytics) are off until you say yes, and you can change that in Settings. Until then Illus. sets no cookies of its own.
• Without an account, your verdicts, favourites and settings stay on your device. We cannot see them.
• With an account, they are also stored in the cloud, so they follow you to your other devices.
• You can download your verdicts and delete your account, with everything in it, in Settings.
• We never sell your data.
• Unless you turn it off in Settings, your verdicts also add 1 to public counters (community results). Nothing links these counters to you.

What stays on your device

Illus. works without an account. Then everything below is stored only in your browser, on this device, and is never sent to us:

• your verdicts (beautiful, ugly, not sure), favourites, grades and notes;
• the cards you own, your buy list, your binders and your duel progress;
• your settings, such as language, theme and price options;
• your Duel of the week and your choice about the community results;
• small notes for the app itself, such as which tips you have seen.

You remove it by clearing your browser data, by using “Delete my collection” in Settings, or by signing out of an account (that removes this device’s copy; the cloud copy stays).

If you sign in

Signing in is optional. You can use a sign-in email (with a button and a code) or your Google account. Sign-in is handled by Google’s authentication service. It keeps an account record with:

• your email address and a random account ID;
• with Google sign-in: the name and profile picture link Google passes on. Illus. only shows your email address (or name) in Settings. It does not store your name or picture itself.

When you sign in, this is stored in our cloud database (Google Firestore), under your account ID:

• your verdicts per card, favourites, grades (1 to 10), notes (at most 1000 characters) and the time of each change;
• the cards you own and how many, your buy list (the cards you want to buy and how many), your binders (name, look, layout and the cards in them), your duel rankings and the order of your favourites;
• your language, theme and vibration setting;
• your friends list (the link ID and the name of each friend) and your sharing settings.

The database rules only let you read and write your own data. Nobody else can read your notes or your list of verdicts, except what you choose to share (next section).

We send the sign-in email ourselves, through a small server function that Google runs in Belgium (europe-west1) and our mail host (mail.mijndomein.nl). For the code, the function briefly keeps a hashed address and a hashed code. The code works for 10 minutes and once, and is deleted as soon as it is used. A request you do not use is removed automatically within about two days. Against abuse, hashed addresses, hashed IP addresses and timestamps are also kept for a short time (about two days), as with the help form. Your address and the code are not written to logs.

For a sign-in email, your browser keeps your address on this device until you sign in, cancel, or clear your browser data.

Sharing with friends

Sharing is off until you turn it on. When you do, Illus. publishes a snapshot under a private link. It contains the display name you chose and only the parts you tick: your verdicts, grades, favourites, champions, or your taste profile (counts and top illustrators).

It never contains your notes, email address, account ID or the time you judged a card.

Anyone who has your link and is signed in to Illus. can read the snapshot. The link cannot be guessed and nobody can list all snapshots. Send it to friends only. You can stop sharing or make a new link at any time; the snapshot is then deleted.

When you add a friend, your account stores their link ID and the name they chose.

A preview picture for your link is a separate choice. It is off until you turn it on, under “Preview in chats” where your link is. Then your browser draws a picture with your display name and, only if you share your taste, your totals of beautiful, ugly and not-sure verdicts. It never contains card images. The picture is stored in Google Cloud Storage under a random name, with those few facts as its description. Anyone who has your link can see that picture, also without an account: chat apps fetch it to show next to your link. A small server function that Google runs in Belgium (europe-west1) reads the description to build that preview. It never sees your snapshot or your verdicts.

The picture, and a small record under your account that holds its random name, are deleted when you turn the preview off, stop sharing or delete your account. A chat app that already fetched the picture may keep its own copy for a while. We cannot remove that.

Community results (anonymous votes)

Illus. can show which cards by an illustrator people like most, and how other players chose in the Duel of the week. For that, your verdicts are added to public counters. This is on by default. You can turn it off at any time in Settings (“Add my votes to the community results”).

When it is on, judging a card adds 1 to one counter of that card (beautiful, not sure or ugly), and finishing the Duel of the week adds 1 to the counter of the artwork you chose (once per week). The counters are plain numbers in Firestore, kept per illustrator or per week and spread over eight documents. Specifically:

• No account ID, name, email address, device ID, order or time is stored with a vote. The request is sent without signing in, also when you are signed in.
• A card counts once per device, a device sends at most 300 votes a day, and a vote is sent about 20 seconds after you give it, so Undo still takes it back. Those memories stay on your device and are never sent.
• Your notes, grades, favourites and your list of verdicts are never part of it.
• The counters are public: anyone can read them. Illus. shows a score for a card only from 5 votes on.

A counter only holds totals, so a vote cannot be linked back to you. That is also why it cannot be taken back or deleted afterwards, not even when you delete your account. Turning the setting off stops new votes. Like any request to a website, the request itself reaches Google’s servers, which see technical data such as your IP address (see “Google”). We do not store that with the vote.

The Duel of the week is played on your device. Your own picks stay there. Only with the setting on, the artwork you chose is added once a week, as described above.

Help & ideas form

The form on the Help & ideas page works without an account. When you send it, we receive:

• your message (at most 2000 characters);
• your email address, only if you fill it in (it is prefilled when you are signed in; you can change or remove it). We use it only to reply;
• the page you came from, the app version, your language and your browser type.

The message goes through a small server function that Google runs in Belgium (europe-west1). It is sent by email to our support mailbox, through our email host (mail.mijndomein.nl). The message is not stored in the database.

To stop spam, the function counts requests per sender. For that it stores a hash of your IP address, made with a salt that changes every day, plus a few timestamps. Your IP address itself is not stored. The record is removed automatically after about two days.

Support and idea messages stay in our mailbox for at most 12 months after the last contact. Then we delete them.

Card images, data and prices

The card data and prices in Illus. come as files from our own site. Opening them sends nothing about you to anyone else.

Most card images are loaded directly from assets.tcgdex.net, run by TCGdex. Like any website, TCGdex then receives your IP address and browser details and sees which images are requested. Some images are served from our own site.

Two options send more. Both are described again where you switch them on:

• “Fetch live prices” is off by default. When you turn it on, the ids of the cards you look at are sent to api.tcgdex.net to fetch current prices.
• Prices in euros need an exchange rate. When you show prices in euros (the default with Dutch as language), your browser asks api.frankfurter.dev for the rate. That request has no card data, but the service sees your IP address.

Shop links (affiliate)

Illus. is run as a business and contains affiliate links. Some cards link to TCGplayer through TCGplayer’s partner programme (run by Impact). If you buy something after clicking, the operator may earn a commission. The price for you stays the same.

Illus. adds nothing about you to these links. After you click, TCGplayer and its partners receive your visit, and they may set their own cookies on their own sites. Their privacy policies apply from there.

The “Buy on TCGplayer” button of your buy list is one such link. It carries the TCGplayer product numbers and the quantities of the cards on your list, so TCGplayer can fill your cart, and nothing else from Illus. TCGplayer and its partners see that list when you click.

Google

Illus. runs on Google services: Authentication (sign-in), Firestore (database), Cloud Storage (the optional preview picture of your link), Hosting (this website) and Cloud Functions (the help form, the sign-in email and the link previews). Google acts as our processor and processes your data on our behalf. Google’s servers also see technical data such as your IP address when you visit, and may keep standard server logs.

The Google code starts a few seconds after the first card, also when you are not signed in. It can then contact Google servers, for example to check for a sign-in that was in progress. Nothing from your collection is sent without an account.

To keep bots and abuse away from the database, Illus. uses Google reCAPTCHA (as part of App Check). It starts together with that code, also when you are not signed in. Google then receives technical data such as your IP address and browser and device signals. This is used only for security. reCAPTCHA places one cookie (“_GRECAPTCHA”, on google.com) and a note in the browser’s storage on your device. Google’s own privacy policy applies to that check.

If you use “Continue with Google”, Google’s own privacy policy applies to that sign-in. The same goes for Google Analytics, if you say yes to the usage statistics (see the next sections).

Google can process data in other countries, including outside the European Economic Area. It does so under the safeguards in its data processing terms, such as the EU standard contractual clauses. The database is stored in Europe (eur3 multi-region, Google Cloud), and the functions (the help form, the sign-in email and the link previews) run in Belgium (europe-west1).

Anonymous usage statistics (Google Analytics)

We would like to know how Illus. is used, so we can make it better. For that we use Google Analytics 4, a service of Google, and only if you say yes. We ask once, at a calm moment: after you have judged 10 cards, or when you sign in. You can also switch it on or off at any time in Settings, under “Anonymous statistics”. If you say no, or close the question, we do not ask again for 12 months.

Until you say yes, nothing happens for the statistics: no Google Analytics script is loaded, no request goes to Google Analytics and no cookie from Google Analytics is set.

After you say yes, we count:

• which type of page is visited (for example “card page”, never which card, and nothing else from the address after the page name, except what the next point says);
• if you came through a link with a campaign label (for example from a post or an ad), that label, such as the name of the site or the campaign. It is sent once. The label describes the link, not who you are. Illus. does not store it on your device;
• that you reached your 1st, 10th or 100th verdict, without any verdict or card;
• that a poster, a duel result or your friends link was shared, saved or copied, and which of the three it was;
• that a Buy link was clicked, and whether it was on a card page, on the buy list or in a binder; that a card was put on the buy list, and from where;
• that an account, a binder or a duel was made, and for an account whether it was with Google or by email link;
• that the app was installed.

We never send your name, email address, account ID, verdicts, notes, cards, share links or anything you typed. We use no user ID, no Google signals and no ad personalisation, and the advertising signals of Google stay switched off. Google Analytics also receives what any website visit gives it: your browser, device type, screen size, language and a rough location (country or region) worked out from your IP address. Google states that Analytics 4 does not log or store IP addresses.

To recognise a returning browser without knowing who you are, Google Analytics sets two cookies on your device: “_ga” and “_ga_” followed by our measurement number. They contain a random number and a session counter, and last up to 2 years. They are set only after you say yes.

The basis is your consent. Counts are kept by Google Analytics for 2 months and are then removed. You can withdraw your consent at any time with the switch in Settings: counting stops at once and the two cookies are removed from your device. Counts made earlier cannot be traced back to you, so they cannot be removed one by one; they disappear when the 2 months are over.

Cookies and storage on your device

Illus. sets no cookies of its own and has no advertising. Until you say yes to the anonymous usage statistics, no cookies for the statistics are set. It does keep things on your device that it needs to work:

• your collection and settings (in your browser’s own storage);
• a copy of the app and the card data, so it loads fast and works offline (a service worker and its caches);
• your sign-in state, kept by Google’s authentication service in the browser’s own storage, not in a cookie;
• your answer about the usage statistics (yes or no, and the date), in your browser’s storage, so we do not ask again;
• the security check of Google reCAPTCHA: one cookie (“_GRECAPTCHA”, on google.com, set by Google) and a note in the browser’s storage.

This is strictly needed for the app and its security, so it needs no consent. The two Google Analytics cookies (“_ga” and “_ga_” plus our measurement number) are not needed, so they are set only after you say yes, and removed when you switch the statistics off. Clearing your browser data removes all of it. Other sites you visit through Illus. (Google sign-in, TCGplayer) can set cookies of their own.

Why we use data, and on what basis

• To run your account and sync your collection between devices: this is needed to provide the service you ask for (contract).
• To answer your help message: our legitimate interest in helping you, or your own request.
• To limit spam on the help form: our legitimate interest in keeping the service working.
• Live prices: only with your consent, which you give by switching it on and can withdraw by switching it off.
• The preview picture of your link: only when you turn it on, and until you turn it off.
• Security (Google reCAPTCHA): our legitimate interest in keeping bots and abuse away from the service.
• Anonymous usage statistics (Google Analytics): only with your consent, which you give with “Allow” or with the switch in Settings and can withdraw there at any time.
• Community results: our legitimate interest in showing which artworks people like. The counters hold no personal data, and you can turn the setting off.

We do not use your data for advertising, profiling or automated decisions about you.

How long we keep data

• On your device: until you remove it.
• Account data, shares and preview pictures: until you delete your account in Settings, turn the preview off or stop sharing. We do not delete inactive accounts automatically, so if you stop using Illus., delete your account first if you want your data gone.
• Help and idea messages: in our mailbox for at most 12 months after the last contact, then deleted. We clean the mailbox out once a year.
• Spam counters of the help form (hashed IP address and timestamps): removed automatically after about two days.
• Sign-in codes (hashed address and hashed code): deleted as soon as they are used; an unused request (valid for 10 minutes) is removed automatically within about two days. Abuse counters for signing in (hashed address and IP address, timestamps): removed automatically after about two days.
• Usage statistics: 2 months at Google Analytics. The two cookies on your device last up to 2 years, or until you switch the statistics off.
• The reCAPTCHA cookie on your device: set by Google, it lasts about 6 months, or until you clear your browser data.
• Community counters: kept. They hold only totals and cannot be linked to anyone, so there is nothing to delete for one person.

When you delete your account, your data is removed from the live database straight away. Google may need a short time to remove copies from its own systems.

Your rights

Under the GDPR you have the right to see your data, correct it, have it deleted, limit or object to its use, and take it with you. If we rely on your consent, you can withdraw it at any time.

• See and correct: your data is in the app; you can change it there.
• Take it with you: Settings has “Download as JSON” and “Download as CSV” for your verdicts, favourites, grades and notes. Ask us at support@illuscards.com for the rest of your data.
• Delete: “Delete my collection” removes your verdicts; “Delete my account” removes your account and everything stored under it, including your share and its preview picture. You may need to sign in again first.

Write to support@illuscards.com for any other request about your data. A request under privacy law is answered within one month (this can be extended by up to two months for complex requests; we then tell you why). That is the legal period. For ordinary support questions there is no fixed period: we try to answer as soon as we can.

You can also complain to the Dutch data protection authority, the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens.

Children

Illus. is not meant for children under 16 without permission from a parent or guardian. If you think a child has made an account without permission, write to support@illuscards.com and we will delete it.

Security

Illus. uses an encrypted connection (HTTPS). Database rules only let you reach your own data. Shares use long random links. No service is perfectly safe. If a breach puts your rights at risk, we will tell you and the authority as the law requires.

Changes to this policy

If Illus. starts using data in a new way, we update this page first and, for a big change, tell you in the app. The date and version at the top show which text is current.

Contact

Illus. is run by BISTUA NOVA SOLUTIONS, the Netherlands. Questions or requests about your data: support@illuscards.com. We try to answer as soon as we can. See also the Terms of use.