Legal
The short version
Publisher
Patient Thread Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 17167409. Registered office: Aston Park Farm, Stringers Lane, Aston, Stevenage, Hertfordshire SG2 7EF. Registered with the Information Commissioner's Office, reference ZC223090.
Privacy contact: chris@patientthread.com
Patient Thread Ltd publishes Slewcraft: Crane Simulator and operates patientthread.com. Where this policy says "we", it means Patient Thread Ltd. Apple Inc. and Apple Distribution International Ltd operate the App Store and process in-app purchases under their own terms and privacy policy, which this policy does not replace.
Slewcraft saves your game in the app's private storage on your iPhone or iPad so that you can carry on where you left off. The save contains:
None of this is personal information about you unless you choose to combine it with your identity, for example by emailing us a save file. The save is kept in a folder that iOS excludes from device backups, which is why the app offers a manual export (section 5).
Some small settings, such as whether sound or the voice radio is switched on, are kept in the app's standard preferences on the device. The app's privacy manifest declares the file-timestamp and user-defaults APIs it uses for these ordinary purposes.
If you switch on the voice radio, signaller messages are spoken using your device's built-in speech synthesis. Depending on the voice installed, iOS may generate speech on the device or through Apple's services under Apple's privacy policy. The app does not record audio.
Career Pack is a one-time, non-consumable in-app purchase that unlocks the 12-contract career. There is no subscription, and LiftCoins are never sold.
Purchase ownership belongs to the Apple Account that bought it. It is separate from your game save, so importing a save never unlocks Career Pack and restoring a purchase never changes your progress. The app does not show a price of its own; it displays whatever price the App Store returns for your storefront.
From the wallet you can export a save file (JSON) or a CSV of your ledger. These exports happen only when you tap the button. iOS then shows the share sheet, and you decide where the file goes: Files, iCloud Drive, AirDrop, an email, or any other app. The file contains your game progress as described in section 2. Whoever or whatever receives it handles it under their own terms, and deleting the app does not delete copies you have exported.
Choosing a save file to restore reads that one file through the standard iOS file picker. The app checks it is a genuine Slewcraft save and otherwise leaves your progress unchanged. The app does not browse your files.
The in-app field guide and swing guidance link to independent reference websites (for example the Health and Safety Executive, NOCN CPCS, the Construction Plant-hire Association, OSHA and academic publishers). These open in your browser and are governed by those sites' own privacy practices. We do not control them and they are not connected with Slewcraft.
Export a backup first
If you want to keep your progress, export a save file from the wallet before deleting the app. The save is not included in device backups.
Slewcraft does not ask for personal information, has no profiles, chat, messaging, social feeds or public user-generated content, and shows no advertising. Information leaves the device only when a player chooses to export or share a file. Apple's App Store age rating and Family Sharing controls, including Ask to Buy, apply to the Career Pack purchase. Parents who are concerned about any aspect of the app can contact us at the address in section 1.
The app itself is described above. The web pages at patientthread.com/slewcraft, /slewcraft/support and /slewcraft/privacy are ordinary web pages and involve a small amount of ordinary data processing, which is different from the app's practices:
| What | Details |
|---|---|
| Hosting | patientthread.com is hosted by Netlify, Inc. As with any website, Netlify's servers receive your IP address, browser type and the pages you request in order to deliver them, and may record standard access logs under Netlify's own privacy policy. We do not use these logs to analyse visitors. |
| Cookies | The Slewcraft pages and the rest of the patientthread.com marketing site do not set cookies. There is no cookie banner because there is nothing to consent to. |
| Analytics and advertising | None. We do not run analytics, advertising or tracking scripts on these pages. |
| Fonts | The pages load the Inter typeface from Google Fonts. Your browser requests the font files from Google's servers, which means Google receives your IP address and the usual request details under Google's privacy policy. |
| Links to Apple | Links to the App Store and to Apple Support pages take you to Apple's sites, governed by Apple's policies. |
Our wider website privacy notice at patientthread.com/privacy covers the Patient Thread clinical software and other services, which do process personal data. It does not apply to the Slewcraft app.
If you email us for support, to report a bug, or with a privacy question, we will receive your email address, anything you write, and any attachments you include. We use this only to answer you and to fix problems you report, on the basis of our legitimate interest in supporting the game. Our email is hosted by Microsoft (Exchange Online) and support correspondence is handled by Patient Thread Ltd staff in the United Kingdom. We keep support correspondence for as long as it is needed to resolve the matter and to keep a record of what was agreed, and we do not add you to any marketing list.
Please do not send us your Apple Account password, verification codes or payment-card details, and only send a save file if we ask for it.
Because the app does not collect personal data, there is normally nothing for us to access, correct or erase on the app side; your progress is under your own control on your device. For personal data we do hold, such as support emails, you have the usual rights under UK data protection law: to ask what we hold, to have it corrected or erased, to object to or restrict its use, and to receive a copy. Email chris@patientthread.com and we will respond within one month. There is no charge.
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your data, please contact us first. You also have the right to complain to the UK regulator.
ico.org.uk · 0303 123 1113 · Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF
This policy describes version 0.5.4 of the app. If a future version changes how information is handled, for example by adding a cloud save or any analytics, we will update this page with a new version number and effective date before that version is released, and the app's in-app privacy screen will say the same. Previous versions are available on request.