Your account.
Your game data.

Accounts and progress

Nickname-and-password accounts store a nickname and a salted password hash, not your plaintext password. We retain your game progress, virtual rover position, upgrades, territories, tickets and catch totals. Your nickname and score can appear on public game leaderboards.

If Google sign-in is enabled and you choose it, Google provides a verified identity. We store its stable account identifier to sign you in or link your existing account. Google access tokens are used only during sign-in and are not saved to your player record. A new Google account receives a game nickname rather than publishing your real name. Existing accounts are linked only after you sign in to them.

Cookies and browser storage

A secure, HttpOnly session cookie keeps you signed in for up to 30 days. Google sign-in temporarily uses an additional secure cookie for request verification, lasting up to ten minutes. Browser storage remembers settings such as sound, the current live run and local personal-best scores. These essential functions remain available with “Essential only”. No analytics or advertising services are installed. The optional external-media choice is kept in lc-privacy-v1 for up to 180 days. YouTube road radio is blocked before you opt in; withdrawing permission stops the player. Use Cookie settings in the map, your account or this page to change your choice. Third-party cookies already set by YouTube can be removed through your browser settings. Signing out ends your server session; clearing browser storage also clears local settings and personal bests.

Installed app and offline screen

You can install Lightning Club as a web app. Its service worker saves only a public reconnect screen and app icons on your device. It does not cache account pages, sign-in requests, live lightning, map tiles or game responses. Live play still needs an internet connection; offline actions are not queued. You can remove the app and clear this website’s data in your browser settings.

Location, observations and gifts

Sharing device location is optional and requires your browser’s permission. You can instead choose a city or virtual map point. The expedition starting point and subsequent game positions are stored as part of your progress; the game does not require physical travel.

Raw lightning observations are kept in a rolling window of at most one hour. Player scores and progress last longer. Gift links contain a private token: anyone who receives the link can access that gift. New email gifts are created by a signed-in player who chooses a virtual spot and supplies a recipient address, name and optional message. A new detection within 20 km, after creation and before the three-calendar-month deadline, triggers one transactional email through Resend. No detection means no email. The gift address is removed after the send is accepted, after a permanent sending failure or when the waiting period expires; selected coordinates are removed after the match or expiry. A private receipt is retained for seven days after completion. Temporary retry data may be retained for at most seven days after a match. Old link-only gifts retain their original seven-day deadline. Recipients can delete their gift or block further gifts from its private page; blocking retains only a one-way address hash in the private suppression list, not the address itself. Emails already sent cannot be recalled. Unverified email delivery is explicitly shown as unavailable; addresses are not saved while sending is disabled.

Service providers and access

Map tiles, lightning observations, Google sign-in when selected and YouTube road-radio embeds involve third-party services. Their own privacy terms apply to requests sent to them. Network addresses are processed for connections and request limits. Authorized administrators can see account nicknames, sign-in methods and game statistics.

Gift email delivery is available only when the sending domain is verified and enabled. It does not subscribe recipients to marketing. Email-based password recovery is not available in this version. Do not rely on email recovery; keep your password safe. No self-service account deletion is provided yet. This page will be updated as account controls become available.