Privacy Policy

This policy explains how TAGONSOFT SRL (“we”, “us”) processes personal data when you use Macau: the iOS and Android apps, the web app at play.macao-online.ro, the servers behind them, and this website, macao-online.ro (together, the “Service”).

It is written under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679, the GDPR), Romanian Law no. 190/2018, and the ePrivacy Directive as transposed in Romania by Law no. 506/2004.

Effective date: 5 November 2026.

Who we are

• Controller: TAGONSOFT SRL
• Registered office: Str. Clopotari 6, 700706 Iași, Romania
• Trade Registry no.: J2013000605225
• Tax ID (CUI): RO31439694
• Privacy contact: privacy@macao-online.ro
• Support: support@macao-online.ro
• Data Protection Officer: not appointed; Article 37 GDPR does not require one at our scale.

You can complain to your data-protection authority at any time. In Romania that is the ANSPDCP (Autoritatea Națională de Supraveghere a Prelucrării Datelor cu Caracter Personal), B-dul G-ral. Gheorghe Magheru 28-30, Sector 1, București, https://www.dataprotection.ro.

The short version

• You can play without an account of your own. The app makes a guest account tied to your device. No email, name or password is needed.
• Linking Apple or Google gives us your email and a provider ID, so you can get your account back on another device.
• Your year of birth stays on your phone. We keep only what it means: whether you have a junior account and until when.
• We collect usage data with Firebase (Google), and crash reports. Without your consent the mobile app sends usage events with no device or user identifier.
• The mobile apps show rewarded ads (Google AdMob), only when you choose to watch one.
• Install and campaign measurement (AppsFlyer, TikTok, Meta) runs only with your consent in the EU, the EEA and the UK. It never runs for junior accounts.
• Voice at the table is optional. Audio goes live between the players through our own relay and is never recorded.
• Payments go through Apple or Google. We never see your card.
• Our servers are in the EU (Hetzner, Helsinki, Finland). Pictures and backups are kept in Cloudflare’s EU storage.
• You can download your data or delete your account in the app at any time. Deletion happens at once.

What we collect

What you give us

• Player name and picture, if you set them. Without a name, a generated one is shown. Junior accounts can’t have a picture.
• Home country, if you set it.
• Email and display name from Apple or Google, if you link one of them. With Apple this can be a private relay address.
• Your messages: private and group chats, club chat, the lobby, and the chat at a table.
• Your voice, only while you have joined a table’s voice room and are not muted. It is sent live and never stored.
• Clubs you create or run: name, tag, description, announcement and picture. Also the message on a join request you send.
• Tournaments you create: name, time, settings and the friends you invite.
• Reports and feedback you send us.
• Your year of birth, which stays on your device (see “Children and junior accounts”).
• Language, and the settings you choose in the app.

What we collect automatically

• Account identifiers: a random device ID that the app makes at first launch and keeps in the iOS Keychain or Android’s encrypted storage, and your account ID.
• Push token (Firebase Cloud Messaging), so we can send the notifications you allowed.
• Device and app data: app version, operating system, device model and language.
• IP address: needed to connect to you. How we log it is described under “How long we keep it”.
• Gameplay:
  • the tables you sit at, the cards dealt to you, the moves and the results;
  • the season points you earn, your finishing places and tournament results;
  • your daily streak and the days it counted, and your achievement progress.
• The fair deal: for each game the app sends a random number of its own, which goes into the shuffle together with ours. We publish a commitment to our number before the deal and reveal the number after the game, so the app can check the deal. The check on this website runs in your browser. The proof sits in the part of the link after #, which browsers don’t send to any server.
• Purchases and Pro:
  • what you bought, the store’s transaction or purchase IDs, and the status and dates of a Pro membership: active, in a billing grace period, on hold, expired, refunded or revoked;
  • the notifications Apple and Google send our server about these;
  • a random account token we attach to your Pro purchases, so a store notification reaches the right account.
• Your balances: seeds and jokers, and the history of every change to them.
• Voice technical data:
  • Connection setup: the messages the apps exchange to set up audio, passed through our game server and not kept.
  • Relay connection: the IP address and port your device uses to reach our voice relay.
  • Relay credential: a short-lived credential whose user name is a pseudonym, not your account ID.
  • Free voice time: how many seconds of it you used each day.
• Crash reports (Firebase Crashlytics): the error, the stack trace, the device model, the OS, the app version and a pseudonymous ID.
• Usage events (Firebase Analytics), such as screens opened, games played, purchases and ads watched. Without consent the mobile app sends them with no identifier (see “Ads and consent”). The web app sends none.
• Notification log: which notifications we sent you and whether you opened them, so we don’t send too many.
• Game Center or Google Play Games link on iOS or Android: a stable ID that Firebase derives from that account, without your email or name. We use it to give your account back after you reinstall the app or change phones. It is made automatically once your account has some progress. Logging out stops it on that device.
• Install attribution, only with consent where required (AppsFlyer):
  • Data: your IP address, device and OS characteristics, an AppsFlyer ID, your account ID, the invite link’s parameters, and installs and app opens.
  • Events: finishing registration, your first online games, watching a rewarded ad, and purchases (amount, currency, product and order ID).
  • Not included: no advertising ID.
• Campaign measurement, only with consent where required (TikTok and Meta):
  • Data: your IP address, device and OS characteristics, and on Android the advertising ID (GAID). On iPhone, the advertising ID (IDFA) is included only if you allowed tracking in Apple’s prompt.
  • Events: installs and app opens, games you finish against people, and purchases.
  • Your account ID: TikTok gets it hashed; Meta gets no account ID.

What we create about you

• Statistics, season points and places, achievements, badges and your daily streak.
• Friends, friend requests and your block list.
• Clubs: your role (owner, officer or member), when you joined, join requests and invitations, club bans, the points you add to the club’s weekly score, and the jokers you gave or received as club gifts (who, and which week).
• Tournaments: your seat in the bracket, your place, and prizes, whether collected or not.
• Moderation records: reports filed by you or about you, warnings and bans, each with its reason.
• Invites: if you used one, who invited you, when, on which platform, whether you used the link or typed the code, and what the programme promised then. If someone used your invite, who used it and whether you have been rewarded.
• Pro: an audit trail of purchases checked, store notifications, renewals, restores, and any free Pro we gave you.

What we don’t collect

• We don’t ask for your real name, address or phone number. Your year of birth never leaves your phone.
• We don’t collect precise location, your contacts, your photos (beyond a picture you choose) or your files.
• We use the microphone only while you are in a table’s voice room and unmuted, and only after you allow it on your device. We don’t record anything.
• We don’t sell personal data.
• Macau is not gambling: seeds, jokers and Pro can’t be cashed out.

Why we use it, and on what legal basis

• Running your account, the tables, matchmaking, bots, friends, chat, clubs, tournaments, seasons and the fair deal.
  • Basis: contract (Art. 6(1)(b)), our Terms.
• Voice at the table.
  • Basis: contract (Art. 6(1)(b)).
  • Settings: Settings › Privacy › “Allow voice at the table” turns voice off. With “Voice with other players” off, you are linked only to friends at the table. Two players are linked only when both accept each other and neither has blocked the other.
• Daily free voice time (unlimited for Pro, and for everyone at a table with a Pro).
  • Basis: contract (Art. 6(1)(b)).
• Purchases and Pro: checking purchases with Apple and Google, handling renewals, billing problems, expiry and refunds, restoring purchases, and preventing fraud.
  • Basis: contract (Art. 6(1)(b)). Legal obligation (Art. 6(1)(c)) for accounting and tax records.
• Getting your account back through Game Center or Google Play Games.
  • Basis: legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f)), so you keep your progress without making a login. Contract when you link it yourself.
• Notifications (table invites, players waiting, tournaments, chat, reminders).
  • Basis: consent (Art. 6(1)(a)), given in your device settings and adjustable per category in Settings › Notifications.
• The notification log.
  • Basis: legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f)): not sending you too many notifications.
• Crash reports, security logs and abuse prevention.
  • Basis: legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f)): keeping the Service working and safe.
• Product analytics linked to an identifier.
  • Basis: consent (Art. 6(1)(a)) in the EU, the EEA and the UK. Legitimate interest elsewhere.
• Identifier-free usage events the mobile app sends without consent.
  • Basis: legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f)): counting, in aggregate, how the app is used and which of our campaigns work.
• Ads: rewarded ads (AdMob), personalised or not.
  • Basis: consent (Art. 6(1)(a)) for personalised ads in the EU, the EEA and the UK. Legitimate interest elsewhere.
• Install attribution and invite crediting (AppsFlyer), and campaign measurement (TikTok, Meta).
  • Basis in the EU, the EEA and the UK: consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR, and Art. 5(3) ePrivacy for reading from your device). If you don’t give it, these tools don’t start.
  • Basis elsewhere: legitimate interest.
• Showing your name and picture to the player whose invite you used.
  • Basis: contract: the invite programme you joined.
• Moderation: handling reports, and warnings and bans for breaking the Terms.
  • Basis: legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f)): a safe community.
• Answering your requests about your data.
  • Basis: legal obligation (Art. 6(1)(c)).
• Defending legal claims.
  • Basis: legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f)).

You can object to any processing based on legitimate interest (see “Your rights”).

Who else receives it

We don’t sell your data. We share it only with the companies below, each under a data-processing agreement, with standard contractual clauses where data leaves the EU.

Service providers acting for us

• Hetzner Online GmbH, Germany: our servers and database, in Helsinki, Finland. This includes the game server and the voice relay. Voice audio passes through the relay live and is not stored.
• Cloudflare, Inc.:
  • It carries all traffic to our addresses and hosts the web app and this website.
  • It stores profile, club and product pictures and our encrypted database backups, in storage limited to the EU.
  • It forwards mail sent to our addresses.
  • It is a US company; transfers are covered by its data-processing agreement and the EU’s standard contractual clauses.
• Google Ireland Ltd. (Firebase):
  • Authentication: checks Apple, Google, Game Center and Play Games sign-ins.
  • Cloud Messaging: delivers notifications.
  • Analytics: with Consent Mode, see “Ads and consent”.
  • Crashlytics: crash reports.
  • Remote Config: feature switches.
• Google Ireland Ltd. (AdMob): rewarded ads. It receives the advertising ID only with your consent.
• Apple Distribution International Ltd.: iPhone purchases and Pro, Sign in with Apple, Game Center.
• Google Ireland Ltd. (Google Play): Android purchases and Pro, Google sign-in, Google Play Games.
• AppsFlyer Ltd., Israel, with consent where required: install attribution and invite crediting.
  • We exclude all of its partners from receiving the data and send it no advertising ID.
  • Israel has an EU adequacy decision (Decision 2011/61/EU, reconfirmed in January 2024).

Other recipients

• Other players:
  • Your player name, picture, country, Pro badge, friend code, online status, achievements, statistics, season points and places can be seen by other players.
  • So can your games with them, and what you write in chats they are part of.
  • At a table, the other players see your cards when the game ends.
• People at your table’s voice room hear you live while you are unmuted. They never receive your IP address, because audio always goes through our relay. We can’t stop someone recording with another device; our Terms forbid recording without consent.
• Clubs:
  • Any signed-in player can open a club’s page: its name, tag, description, picture and weekly place, and its members with their name, picture, country, role, weekly points and Pro badge.
  • Club chat is read by all members, including people who join later.
  • The owner and officers see join requests and can delete messages.
• Tournaments: the players of a tournament see its bracket, with names, results and places.
• The player whose invite you used: they see your name, picture and whether the invite has paid out. This happens even if you don’t know them, because links can be forwarded. They see nothing else about you.
• TikTok and Meta, with consent where required. The data is described under “What we collect automatically”.
  • TikTok: TikTok Technology Limited (Ireland) and TikTok Information Technologies UK Limited.
  • Meta: Meta Platforms Ireland Ltd.
  • For collecting and sending this data and measuring our campaigns, each of them is a joint controller with us (Art. 26 GDPR), under their business terms. They then use the data as independent controllers, as their privacy policies describe. You can use your rights with us or with them.
• Authorities, only when the law requires it.
• A buyer of the Service, if it is ever sold, under this same policy.

Transfers outside the EU

Our own processing happens in the EU. Google, Cloudflare, Apple and Meta belong to US groups and may process data outside the EEA. For them we rely on the EU’s standard contractual clauses (Decision 2021/914) and, where they are certified, the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. AppsFlyer relies on Israel’s adequacy decision. TikTok relies on the safeguards in its terms. Write to us for a copy of these safeguards.

How long we keep it

• Your account: while it exists.
• Guest accounts that never played: deleted after 30 days without being opened.
• Accounts without activity for 24 months, guest accounts included: anonymised, the same as a deletion.
• Chat messages (private, group, club and lobby): deleted 12 months after they were sent.
• Games:
  • After 12 months, the record of a game loses everyone’s account, ID and name, and its event log is deleted. The event log holds the moves, the dealt hands and the table chat.
  • The copy of a running game, which holds the hands, the deck and our shuffle number, is cleared 2 days after the game started.
  • Aggregate statistics without anyone attached may be kept.
• Voice audio: never stored.
• Daily free voice time used: while your account exists.
• Clubs: while the club exists. Your membership, requests and invitations go when you leave or delete your account. A club gift record holds only the two account numbers and the week. It stays after either account is deleted, as part of the other player’s history, but a deleted account no longer leads to anyone.
• Tournaments: brackets, places and prizes are kept as the tournament’s history. A deleted account shows as “Deleted User”.
• Moderation records: a ban is kept while it is in force, and deleted 3 years after it was issued once it has ended. Reports are kept as evidence, with the names removed from your account’s side when you delete it.
• Purchases, Pro and the Pro audit trail: while your account exists, then deleted with it. Apple and Google keep their own records.
• Joker history: 2 years. Seeds history: while your account exists.
• Push tokens: deleted when you log out or delete your account, or after 90 days without the device renewing them.
• Notification log: 12 months. Logs of “players waiting” notifications sent out: 90 days.
• Sign-in sessions: deleted when they expire (30 days) or when you log out.
• Server logs:
  • Request logs (failed and slow requests: account ID and error, no IP): 30 days.
  • Game server logs hold only the network part of an IP address, with the last part removed (for example 203.0.113.0). They and the other application logs are overwritten automatically once they reach a size limit, usually within weeks.
  • Web server logs hold Cloudflare’s addresses, not yours, and are kept 14 days.
  • The voice relay’s logs hold the full IP address and port of each relay connection, and are overwritten once they reach a size limit.
• Backups: daily copies 30 days, weekly copies 90 days, monthly copies 12 months.
• Crash reports: 90 days.
• Analytics events: as set in our Google Analytics settings, at most 14 months.
• Invite records: while the accounts exist. Yours is deleted with your account if you used an invite; if you sent it, it stays for the other player, with your account shown as deleted.
• AppsFlyer, TikTok and Meta: as set in our AppsFlyer account and under TikTok’s and Meta’s terms. We see only aggregated reports.
• Your age answer: on your device. On our servers, only when you answered and, for a junior account, the date it ends.

Deleting your account

Settings › Account › Delete account deletes your account at once:

• Your private data is deleted: statistics, balances, purchases and Pro records, friends, blocks, notification tokens, streak, achievements, season rows and the rest.
• What other players still need is anonymised: games, chat messages they received, tournament brackets and club history. Your table chat lines keep their text for the other players but lose your name and picture.
• Your picture is removed from storage.
• On iPhone and Mac, if your account uses Sign in with Apple, Apple asks you to confirm once more, and we revoke the app’s access to your Apple ID.
• Copies in our backups disappear as the backups expire, at most 12 months later.

Deleting your account does not cancel a Pro subscription. Cancel it in your App Store or Google Play subscriptions, or Apple or Google keep charging.

If you own a club, it passes to its longest-serving officer who is not a junior, then to its longest-serving member who is not a junior, and only then to a junior. A club with no one else in it is closed. A tournament you joined that hasn’t started yet is left for you.

Children and junior accounts

Macau is not for children under 13. The first time you open the app it asks for your year of birth. Under 13, the app stops there: nothing is sent to us, and the answer stays on the device, so the app stays closed until you are old enough.

Players aged 13 to 15 get a junior account. In Romania you can consent to data processing yourself only from 16 (Art. 8 GDPR and Law 190/2018 art. 7). So for a junior account we process nothing that needs consent, and leave out the features where you could meet strangers or spend money:

• no chat of any kind, and no voice;
• no profile picture, and other players’ pictures are not shown;
• friend requests only by friend code;
• no shop, no Pro and no ads;
• no advertising or analytics identifiers, and analytics collection is off;
• no install attribution or campaign measurement (AppsFlyer, TikTok, Meta);
• no consent form and no iPhone tracking prompt;
• no notifications between 22:00 and 07:00 on your phone’s clock.

Junior accounts play every table and tournament, have friends and join clubs. Other players are not told an account is a junior account.

We don’t keep your year of birth on our servers. We keep only when you answered and the day your junior account ends: 1 January of the year you are certainly 16. On that day the account becomes a full account by itself. Your phone keeps the year, so a new account on the same phone starts the same way.

If you are a parent or guardian and think an account is set up wrongly, or that a child under 13 gave us personal data, write to privacy@macao-online.ro and we will correct or delete it.

Your rights

Under the GDPR you have the right to:

• access your data (Art. 15);
• have it corrected (Art. 16);
• have it erased (Art. 17);
• restrict its processing (Art. 18);
• receive it in a machine-readable form (Art. 20);
• object to processing based on legitimate interest (Art. 21);
• withdraw consent at any time (Art. 7(3)), which doesn’t affect what was done before;
• not be subject to decisions made only by automated means with legal or similarly significant effects (Art. 22). We make none;
• complain to a data-protection authority (in Romania, the ANSPDCP).

How to use them

• In the app:
  • Settings › Account: delete your account, link Apple or Google, and log out. Logging out also stops the automatic Game Center or Play Games sign-in on that device.
  • Profile: change your name, picture and country.
  • Settings › Notifications: each kind of notification.
  • Settings › Privacy: voice, ad consent and blocked players.
• Download my data (Settings › Privacy, once every 30 days, in the apps and on the web): a machine-readable file with your profile, linked logins, notification settings, friends, the messages you sent (table chat included), blocks and reports, games, seasons, tournaments, purchases and Pro, balances and their history, bans, feedback, clubs and club gifts, achievements, your daily streak and the days it counted, and your invites. For anything not in it, write to us.
• By email: write to privacy@macao-online.ro from the email linked to your account, or include your friend code so we can find you. We answer within one month, which the GDPR lets us extend by two more months for complex requests. It is free, unless a request is clearly unfounded or excessive.

Security

• Connections: encrypted with TLS everywhere.
• Our servers: the database accepts connections only from the server itself, behind a firewall. Keys and passwords are kept in files only the system can read.
• Your device: your sign-in keys are kept in the iOS Keychain or Android’s encrypted storage.
• Voice: encrypted end to end between devices (WebRTC, DTLS-SRTP). Our relay forwards the encrypted audio without being able to listen to it or record it. Relay credentials are short-lived and pseudonymous.
• Logs: the game server logs only the network part of IP addresses.
• Storage and backups: pictures and daily backups are kept in Cloudflare storage limited to the EU and encrypted at rest. Each has its own access key, and backups expire on the schedule above.
• Maintenance: our dependencies are updated and our code is reviewed.

No system is completely secure. If a breach puts your rights at risk, we tell the supervisory authority within 72 hours (Art. 33 GDPR). If the risk is high, we also tell you (Art. 34).

Cookies and storage on your device

• This website (macao-online.ro) sets no cookies and runs no analytics or trackers.
• The web app (play.macao-online.ro) uses only what it needs to work, which is exempt from consent under Art. 5(3) of the ePrivacy Directive:
  • an auth cookie that keeps you signed in, unreadable by scripts, kept 30 days;
  • a csrf_token cookie that protects sign-in requests;
  • browser storage for your device ID, language and app settings.
• The web app shows no ads, sends no analytics and runs no install attribution.
• The mobile apps use no cookies. They keep your device ID, sign-in keys and settings on the device.

Ads and consent

The iOS and Android apps show rewarded ads: you choose to watch one, for example for the free daily jokers. There are no ads on the web, and none for junior accounts.

• The consent form: in the EU, the EEA and the UK we ask for consent with Google’s consent form (UMP) after the age question. Without consent you get non-personalised ads, or none.
• Apple’s tracking prompt: on iPhone, nothing reads the IDFA unless you allow tracking when Apple asks.
• Google Consent Mode: the same form sets the four Google Consent Mode signals for Firebase Analytics (analytics storage, ad storage, ad user data, ad personalisation). Until you answer, all four are denied.
  • While analytics storage is denied, the mobile app still sends usage events, such as app opens, games played and purchases, but with no device or user identifier. Google uses them only for totals and statistical modelling.
  • While ad storage and ad user data are denied, no advertising ID is collected and nothing is used for advertising.
• AppsFlyer, TikTok and Meta: the same form decides whether they run. Where consent is required, none of them starts until you allow ads.
  • Without AppsFlyer, an invite link you tapped isn’t recognised, but you can type the invite code instead.
  • On iPhone, TikTok and Meta get the IDFA only if you also allowed tracking in Apple’s prompt.
• Changing your mind: use Settings › Privacy › ad consent at any time. A withdrawal stops these tools from that moment.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy. The date at the top shows the latest version. If a change matters, we tell you in the app before it takes effect.

Contact

• Privacy: privacy@macao-online.ro
• Support: support@macao-online.ro
• Post: TAGONSOFT SRL, Str. Clopotari 6, 700706 Iași, Romania