Privacy in Dumpling Garden

Last updated August 30, 2026

The whole game lives on your iPad. There is no server behind it, no network code inside it, and therefore no way for anything your child does in the village to travel anywhere else.

The save file, item by item

One JSON file sits in the app's private folder so the village is still there tomorrow. Here is everything it can contain:

Who's playing

The nickname typed on the title screen and the animal face chosen next to it. These exist so siblings can tell their villages apart, and they are shown nowhere except inside the game itself.

Math progress

Which of the fifteen skills have been practised, and the current difficulty rung (1–5) for each.

The village itself

Coins, planted crops, learned recipes, owned tools, bought house plans, finished houses, and which animal friends have moved in.

Switches

Music on/off, sounds on/off, art style, and the difficulty floor a grown-up may have set.

Nothing else is written down — not a birthday, not an email, not a device fingerprint, not a play-time clock. Removing the app removes the file; a grown-up can also erase any single profile from the dashboard.

Questions a careful parent might ask

Does it ever go online?

No. It has no reason to: the pictures are drawn by the game's own code as it runs, and the music and sound effects are synthesized on the spot when the app opens. There is nothing to download and nowhere to phone home to.

Are there ads, trackers, or analytics?

None. The app contains no code from advertising or analytics companies — or from any other company at all.

Does it ask for the camera, photos, microphone, or location?

Never. It has no use for them.

What about COPPA?

The law restricts what may be collected from children online. This game collects nothing and is never online, so there is no data for the law to worry about.

Could an update change all this?

If a future version ever behaved differently, this page would say so plainly before that version appeared, and the date above would change.

Reaching the developer

Dumpling Garden is made by one person, not a studio. Email russlambgames@gmail.com with any privacy question and the developer himself will reply.