Privacy policy
Effective October 2, 2026
VUK is a pinball rules app for iPhone and Android, plus this website. It is an independent project run by Rick Abruzzo ("we"). Questions or requests: dev@vukpinball.app.
The short version
- You can use VUK without an account.
- VUK has no ads, no advertising ID, and no analytics or tracking SDKs. We don't sell your data.
- We only collect what a feature needs, when you use it:
- your email, if you sign in;
- your location, when you look for machines near you;
- a photo, when you ask VUK to read a score or name a machine.
What we collect, and why
Your account (optional).
- To sign in, you give us your email and we send you a one-time code.
- We keep your email, your account record and your sign-in sessions. A session lasts 30 days, renews as you use the app, and ends after 180 days at most.
- Our server's logs record your email on requests you make while signed in.
Scores. When you log a score, we store it with your account: the machine, the score, the date, and the venue you picked (venues come from Pinball Map).
Favorites and recents. These sync to your account, with the time you added or opened each one.
Location.
- VUK asks for your location only while the app is open, and only when you look for machines near you.
- It asks for an approximate location. It sends the coordinates, or an address you type, through our server to Pinball Map (pinballmap.com) to find nearby venues.
- We don't store your location.
Photos to read a score or name a machine.
- When you take one of these photos, it goes through our server to Google's Gemini service. Gemini sends back the score or the machine's name.
- We don't keep the photo.
Playfield photos you contribute.
- If you contribute playfield photos to the tutorial library, we keep them, together with the machine, the venue and your email as the contributor.
- Your phone removes location (GPS) data from each photo before it's uploaded.
- To turn the photos into tutorials, we process them with image and language model services from OpenAI and Anthropic.
Reports and messages.
- If you report a mistake or send us a message, we store what you write, plus the app version and platform. Messages include Contact us, requesting a machine and submitting a rulesheet.
- We store your email if you give it to us.
- A report sent while you're signed in is stored with your account email.
Diagnostics.
- To find and fix bugs, the app sends usage events and crash reports. They contain:
- the app build, platform, device model and OS version;
- which machine screens you opened;
- error messages;
- a random ID that changes every time the app starts.
- They never contain your location or your photos.
- Usage events go to Honeycomb, our diagnostics service. iPhone crash reports are stored on our server.
Videos. Some machines link to YouTube tutorials. Their thumbnails load from YouTube, and the videos play in YouTube's embedded player, under Google's privacy policy.
Editors. If you volunteer as an editor, Cloudflare Access handles your sign-in to the editor. We record your email against the changes you make.
This website's sign-up form.
- We collect your name (optional), your email, what you're interested in, and the machines you'd like to see.
- Cloudflare Turnstile checks that you're a person.
- We use what you send us to invite you to the beta or the editor, and to email you about VUK.
- The website has no analytics and no advertising.
Security. To prevent abuse, we keep these records:
- rate-limit records, which carry a one-way hash of your IP address;
- sign-in code records: your email, a hash of the code and a hash of your IP;
- a log of account actions, which includes your email.
We never store your raw IP address.
Who processes data for us
| Service | What for |
|---|---|
| Cloudflare | Hosting, our server, database and file storage, Turnstile, editor sign-in |
| Resend | Sending sign-in codes |
| Google (Gemini) | Reading a score or naming a machine from your photo |
| Pinball Map | Finding venues near you |
| Honeycomb | Diagnostics and server logs |
| OpenAI, Anthropic | Turning contributed playfield photos into tutorials |
| YouTube (Google) | Embedded tutorial videos |
We don't sell or rent personal data, and we don't share it for advertising.
How long we keep it
- Account, scores, favorites and reports: until you delete them or delete your account.
- Photos to read a score or name a machine: not kept.
- Contributed playfield photos: kept as part of the tutorial library. If you delete your account, your email is removed from them.
- Messages, website sign-ups, diagnostics and security records: kept as long as we need them to run and protect VUK. Email dev@vukpinball.app to have yours deleted.
Your choices
- Use VUK without an account.
- Turn location off at any time in your phone's settings. Everything except "near you" still works.
- Delete your account (see Delete your account, below).
- To ask for a copy of your data, or for its deletion, email dev@vukpinball.app from the address you use with VUK. We reply within 30 days.
Children
VUK isn't directed at children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect their data.
Changes
When this policy changes, we update the date at the top. If a change is significant, we'll also say so in the app or on this site.