privacy & cookies

trymstene.com and Banana World are made and run by me, Trym Stene, in Norway. If anything here is unclear, or you want something deleted, write to me.

Your save · Logging in · What other players see · Letters · Counting and cookies · The shop · Supporting · Messages to me · The newsletter · BananaBOT · Who else is involved · How long things are kept · For parents · Your rights · Your choice

Your save

The first time you make or earn something here, your browser gets a pass: your banana, its outfit, your coins, items, badges, level and homestead. It lives in your browser, and a copy is kept on my server so it is not lost and can follow you to another device. No email is needed for that. Logging in only ties the same save to an email or a passkey.

Your homestead is kept on the server too, because other players can visit it. Both are kept until you ask me to delete them. A save that was never tied to an email or a passkey, and that nobody has opened for two years, is deleted on its own, homestead and all.

If you log in

Logging in takes one email address, and it is there for one job: sending you a link to click. No password. It is not a mailing list — that is a separate thing you would have to ask for (below).

• Your address isn't stored. It is turned into a one-way code the moment you type it, and that code is all the site keeps. I can't turn it back into your address, though somebody who already knew your address could check it against the code, so the codes stay private.
• The mail itself goes out through Resend, who see your address in order to deliver it. The link works once and lasts 30 minutes.
• Whoever can open your inbox can open your pass. That is true of every "email me a link" login — worth knowing rather than glossing over.
• A passkey works without an email: your device keeps the key, and the site keeps only the half that checks it.
• A device stays logged in until it goes six months without a visit. Lost a phone, or logged in on somebody else's computer? Your pass page can log out every other device at once.
• Deleting it: tell me the address you log in with, or write to me from the browser you play in, and I can find your save and delete it.

What other players can see

Letters are private (below). These are not:

• Your banana's name and look, to everyone in the same place while you are there: the rave, the town, the park and the bay.
• Your homestead's name and yard. Anyone with its address can visit, and the address book and the echoes show homes whose owners were about in the last few weeks, with roughly when.
• Notes you write in somebody's guestbook. Anyone who visits that yard can read them, and its owner can report one.
• Your name on the boards: the arcade's if you rank, a weekly plaque if you win one, the North Star list if you name a star, and the supporters' wall if you tick the box when you pay.

Letters

The post office in Banana Town lets players write to each other. A letter is kept on my server: what you wrote, which mailbox it went to, which one it came from, and when. A mailbox is your homestead's sign name, so no email and no real name go with it. A letter is deleted 30 days after it arrives, read or not.

Every letter is checked before it is delivered, and some are stopped: web links, email addresses, phone numbers and "add me on…" handles never go through. The check also counts how friendly the post is: a number, never the words.

A letter that names another app (Discord, Snapchat and the like) is delivered, and a copy goes to my review desk, so I can check nobody is being pulled somewhere unsafe. If you report a letter, it leaves your mailbox at once and a copy goes to the same desk. Copies there are deleted after 90 days. Clarity's screen recordings (below) blank out the mailbox.

Counting and cookies

• Google Analytics counts visits and which parts of the site and the game get used, so I know whether anyone uses what I build. It also counts each sale, with no name on it.
• Microsoft Clarity records how pages get used: taps, scrolls and what is on screen, so I can see where things confuse people. Anything you type is blanked out, and so are letters and my replies to you.
• Meta (Facebook and Instagram) runs only on the shop's own pages, and only if you said yes. It shows me whether the shop's ads work. If you buy something after saying yes, the sale is reported to Meta: your email, phone number, name and address, each scrambled into a code, plus your IP address and browser. Said no, or never asked? Then Meta gets nothing — and nothing from the game ever goes to Meta.
• Cloudflare Web Analytics counts visits without cookies and without telling anyone apart, so it runs for everyone.
• Error reports tell my server when a page breaks: what broke, on which page, and the kind of phone or computer (say, an iPhone with Safari). No cookies and nothing about you, so they run for everyone.

In Europe, the banana asks before Google, Clarity or Meta run. Elsewhere, Google and Clarity run unless you say no below, and Meta never runs without a yes. You can change your answer any time, below.

The shop

• The checkout runs on Shopify, which handles payment — I never see card numbers — and has its own privacy policy.
• Printful prints and ships what you order. It gets your name, address, email and phone number, only for that.

Supporting Banana World

• Memberships and coffees are paid through Polar, which handles the card and the tax and has your email. A few early supporters paid through Ko-fi.
• Your hat finds your banana by your email, which the site keeps only as a one-way code.
• The supporters' wall shows your banana's name only if you tick the box when you pay. A refund, or a membership that ends, takes the name off.

Messages to me

The contact form sends me your message, the name and email you give, and your save's id, so I can answer you inside the game. Messages and my replies are deleted after 12 months.

"Something not working?" in the game sends the same kind of message, with what its card shows you: where you are, your level and coins, your screen size, the kind of phone or computer, and any errors the page ran into.

If you ask for updates

Separately from logging in, you can ask to hear when a new area opens. Two different things, on purpose:

• You have to opt in, and then confirm it. I send one mail asking "did you mean this?" — until you click it, you are on no list at all. Nobody gets added because they logged in once.
• It is for 13 and over. The form asks your age first.
• This one does store your address, because there is no way to send you anything otherwise. It lives with Resend, who deliver the mail, and nothing else is kept beside it.
• Every mail has a one-click unsubscribe, and it is honoured immediately. No "are you sure", no login required.
• What you are agreeing to, in full: new areas, new features, items and wearables, fixes worth knowing about, and occasionally new merch. No schedule, no drip, and your address is never sold or handed to anyone.

If you talk to BananaBOT

BananaBOT is the helper in the Banana World Discord. When you mention it or reply to it, what you said to it, and its own last few answers to you, go to Claude so it can write its reply. Nothing anybody else says in the channel goes with it. It also knows what the town's public boards show, like the week's plaques, so it can answer questions about them.

If you type /link, it gives you a code, and your pass page asks you before it ties your pass to your Discord account. After that, /me shows your pass's name, level, badges, the things you made and your homestead. Nothing else: no coins, no email. /unlink in Discord, or Unlink on your pass, undoes it.

/bug sends me what you write, where you say it happened, your Discord name and, if your pass is linked, its name and level, so I can look into it and answer you on Discord. It is kept like a message to me.

Who else is involved

Each of these gets only what its job needs:

• Cloudflare runs the game's servers and stores saves, homesteads, letters and messages to me.
• GitHub hosts the website's pages, and keeps the Bug Sorter's notes on what is broken: a few of your words about the problem, never your name.
• Google (Analytics) and Microsoft (Clarity) count and record, as above.
• Meta measures the shop's ads, only after a yes.
• Shopify runs the shop and its checkout, and Printful prints and ships.
• Polar and Ko-fi take supporters' payments.
• Resend sends the login link and the newsletter.
• Discord hosts the community server, where BananaBOT lives, and Anthropic (Claude) writes BananaBOT's replies and, each night, sorts the error reports into problems.

How long things are kept

• Your save and homestead: until you ask me to delete them. Never tied to an email or a passkey and not opened for two years: deleted.
• A device's login: until it logs out, or six months after its last visit.
• Letters: 30 days after they arrive.
• Copies on my review desk (reported letters, letters that name another app, reported guestbook notes): 90 days.
• Guestbook notes: the newest 40 on each homestead; older ones drop off.
• Messages to me and my replies: 12 months.
• The newsletter: until you unsubscribe.
• The servers' error notes: 7 days. When a save or a tap goes wrong, the server notes where and why, with your pass as a scrambled number. Never your email, a login link or what you wrote.
• Error reports from your browser: 14 days.
• Clarity's recordings: about 30 days. Google Analytics: visit details for at most 14 months.

For parents

Banana World is for all ages, kids included. What that means here:

• Players pick their own names. Help your child pick one that isn't their real name, and remind them never to share their school or where they live.
• Letters and guestbook notes can't carry web links, email addresses, phone numbers or "add me on…" handles. A first letter from a stranger only shows who sent it until your child chooses to let them in. Anything can be reported, and I read every report.
• There are no ads in the game, and nothing from the game goes to Meta.
• The newsletter is for 13 and over.
• To have anything deleted, write to me from the browser your child plays in (it tells me which save is theirs), or tell me the email they log in with. I will delete their save, their homestead, their letters and their name on the boards.

Your rights

You can ask to see what I keep about you, get a copy, have it corrected or deleted, or stop the counting (choose below). Write to me from the browser you play in, so I can find your save. You can also complain to Datatilsynet, Norway's data protection authority, at datatilsynet.no.

Why each thing is allowed: your save, your homestead, letters and the shop are needed to give you what you asked for. Counting and recordings rest on your yes in Europe, and elsewhere on my interest in knowing what works — a no below stops them. Meta and the newsletter only ever run on your yes.

Your choice

Checking your current choice…

Changes apply from your next page load. The banana only asks visitors in Europe, but anyone can choose here.

Things you make here

The workshops are free, and everything approved from them is free for everyone in Banana World to wear or place. In return, what you make with them belongs to Banana World: it can appear in the world and on things we sell, and your name stays on it wherever it goes.

Questions?

Write to me — it goes straight to the banana guy.