Cartwake is an Android emulator for NES and SNES games. This policy explains what happens to information about you when you use it.
In short: Cartwake has no accounts of its own, no ads, no analytics and no crash reporting, and Astraneta runs no servers for it. Nothing you do in the app is sent to us. The three features that use the network talk directly to the service or device they need, and two of them are off until you use them.
| Feature | What leaves your device | Sent to | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| Games, saves, settings, screenshots | Nothing | Stays on your device | Always |
| Box art | The title of the game whose cover is being looked up | GitHub | On by default. You can turn it off in Settings. |
| RetroAchievements | Your username and sign-in, which game you play, achievements, scores and play activity | RetroAchievements.org | Only after you sign in |
| Netplay | Controller input, the game's state, which game it is, your device's network address | The other players' devices | Only while you host or join a game |
Like any connection over the internet, a request to GitHub or RetroAchievements also shows them your device's IP address.
1Who is responsible
Cartwake (package name com.astraneta.cartwake) is published by Astraneta (“we”). You can reach us at [email protected].
2What Cartwake does not do
- It does not ask for your name, email address, phone number or any other contact details.
- It does not show ads and does not read your device’s advertising ID.
- It contains no analytics, tracking or crash-reporting software, from us or anyone else.
- It does not access your location, contacts, camera, microphone or photos.
- It does not sell, rent or share information about you with anyone.
- It does not include or download any games.
3What stays on your device
The app keeps the following in its own storage on your device. We cannot see any of it.
- Your games. You choose a folder with Android’s system folder picker. Cartwake reads only that folder, copies the game files it finds into its private storage, and computes a fingerprint (hash) of each one to recognise it.
- Saves. In-game battery saves, save states, and the cheat codes you enter. Rewind history is kept in memory only.
- Settings. Your preferences and control layouts.
- Screenshots. Saved to your device’s Pictures through Android’s media store, and only when you take one.
- Box art. Downloaded covers are cached so each is fetched only once.
If Android backup is turned on for your Google account, Android may include app data such as settings in that backup. Google handles those backups under its own privacy policy.
4Features that use the network
Box art
To show a cover for each game, Cartwake downloads artwork from the libretro-thumbnails project, which is hosted on GitHub. It fetches a list of the available covers from api.github.com and the images from raw.githubusercontent.com. These requests contain the title of the game being looked up and identify the app as “Cartwake”. Nothing else about you or your device is sent.
Box art downloads are on by default. Turn them off in Settings, where you can also clear covers already downloaded. GitHub’s handling of these requests is covered by the GitHub General Privacy Statement.
RetroAchievements
RetroAchievements is an independent community service that awards achievements for classic games. Using it is optional and needs an account you create on their website.
When you sign in, your username and password are sent once, over an encrypted HTTPS connection, to retroachievements.org. Your password is never stored. What is kept is the sign-in token RetroAchievements returns, encrypted with a key held by the Android Keystore.
While you are signed in and playing, the app sends RetroAchievements a fingerprint of the game so it can be recognised, the achievements you unlock, leaderboard scores you post, whether hardcore mode is on, and periodic updates on what you are doing in the game. RetroAchievements shows this on your profile and handles it under its own privacy policy and terms. Signing out deletes the token from your device.
Netplay
Netplay lets you play with people on the same Wi-Fi network. To find each other, devices announce hosted games with broadcast messages on the local network. During a game, devices exchange controller input every frame, and the host sends the starting state of the game and the identity of the game being played. Each device sees the others’ network addresses.
This traffic goes straight between the devices in the session. There is no relay server and nothing reaches us. If you type in the address of a device outside your local network, the same data travels over the internet to that device. Netplay traffic is not encrypted, so play only with people and on networks you trust.
5Android permissions
Cartwake asks for no storage permission. Access to your games folder is granted through the system folder picker, and you can revoke it at any time in Android’s settings.
6Children
Cartwake does not collect personal information from anyone, including children. RetroAchievements accounts are subject to RetroAchievements’ own terms, including any minimum age.
7Security
Connections to RetroAchievements and GitHub use HTTPS. The RetroAchievements sign-in token is stored encrypted using the Android Keystore. Everything else the app keeps is in its private storage, which other apps cannot read.
8Keeping and deleting data
We hold no information about you, so there is nothing for us to keep or delete.
Everything Cartwake stores stays on your device until you remove it. Clearing the app’s storage in Android settings, or uninstalling it, deletes all of it except screenshots you saved to Pictures. You can delete your RetroAchievements account on their website.
9Your rights
Depending on where you live, laws such as the EU and UK GDPR, Turkey’s KVKK (Law No. 6698) and the California Consumer Privacy Act give you rights over your personal data, including access and deletion. Because we collect none, requests about data held by RetroAchievements or GitHub should go to them. We are glad to answer any question about how the app handles data: write to [email protected].
10Changes to this policy
If the app starts handling data differently, this page will be updated before that version is released, and the date at the top will change. Significant changes will also be mentioned in the app’s release notes.
11Contact
Questions about this policy: [email protected].