Privacy Policy

The Defense I Made to Play with Friends (Chinmandi; formerly Merge Heroes) · Effective October 18, 2026

This game is a small service run by Ildan Mandeum, a sole proprietorship in the Republic of Korea. We use no ad networks. The only analytics tool is the one described below for the iPhone app, and we handle only the information needed to run the game, as described here.

1. Information we collect

Item	When	Used for
Nickname, password	When you sign up	Logging in. Passwords are stored encrypted (hashed); we do not store the original password
Google / Apple / Kakao account ID	When you sign up, log in, or link an account with Google, Apple, or Kakao	Used only to log you in with that account. We do not receive your name, email, profile photo, or other details
Game records	Automatically as you play	Match results (map, wave, kills, heroes used), progress such as Gold, heroes, and upgrades, quest and pass progress, profile and portraits, rankings
Purchase records	When you buy in the app	Store order ID, product, and purchase time. Used to verify purchases, grant Diamonds, and take them back on refunds. Card numbers and other payment details are handled by Apple and Google; we do not receive them
Friends, co-op chat	When you add friends or chat during co-op	Friend list, co-op invitations, handling reports
Board posts and comments	When you post, comment, upvote, or report on the Board	Title and text, any attached deck or record (map, difficulty, wave), the language you wrote in, upvotes, and the time posted. Shown to other players together with your nickname and account level, and used for handling reports and translation
Inquiries	When you use Contact Us	Our team reads and replies to them
Connection records	Automatically when you connect	Last-seen time (to show online status to friends) and IP address (server operation records used for rate limiting, troubleshooting, and detecting abuse)
Device identifier	Automatically when you connect	A random number created on your device the first time the game runs. It is used only to detect abuse, such as one person creating many accounts to collect rewards. We do not read your device model, phone number, or advertising ID. Clearing app or browser data creates a new number
App usage statistics (iPhone app only)	Automatically when you first open the iPhone app after installing it, and while you use it	For measuring ad performance, that is, how many people installed the app after seeing an ad. Google Analytics for Firebase sends Google usage records such as app installs and launches, a random per-app ID, device type, OS version, and approximate location (country and city level). It is not linked to your game account or nickname. We do not collect the advertising ID (IDFA) and do not use this data for personalized ads

We do not collect your real name. If you entered a name when signing up before October 7, 2026, only our team can see it, and we delete it on request.

2. How we use it

• Logging in and identifying your account
• Running the game, saving records, rankings, and progress, and friend and co-op play
• Running the Board (showing posts and comments, translation, handling reports, and rewarding adopted ideas)
• Verifying purchases and granting Diamonds and passes
• Preventing abuse and troubleshooting
• Measuring ad performance (the number of installs that came from ads)

3. Retention and deletion

• When you delete your account, your nickname, password, Google/Apple/Kakao links, game records, Gold, heroes, mail, friends, profile, quests, passes, device identifier, and Board posts, comments, and upvotes are all deleted immediately. Your nickname in co-op team records is changed to "Withdrawn user".
• You can delete your own Board posts and comments at any time without deleting your account. The content of reported posts and comments is kept as part of the report handling record.
• For refunds and fraud handling, we keep only the order ID and product of purchase records even after the account is deleted (payment and supply records are kept for 5 years under Korean e-commerce law).
• Server data is backed up daily and only the latest 14 days of backups are kept, so deleted information also disappears from backups within 14 days.
• Server logs containing IP addresses are used only for troubleshooting and are deleted periodically.

4. Sharing

• We do not sell personal information, and we do not share it with other people or companies for their own purposes. Apart from Google Analytics for Firebase (iPhone app) described below, we use no advertising or analytics tools.
• Hosting: Our servers run on Amazon Web Services (Seoul region), where your game data is stored.
• Payments: In-app purchases are processed by Apple (App Store) and Google (Google Play).
• If you use Google login, Google processes the login and gives us an account ID. You can disconnect it yourself under Google Account → Security → Third-party apps with account access.
• If you use Apple login (iPhone app), Apple processes the login and gives us an account ID. We do not receive your name or email. When you delete your account or unlink, we also ask Apple to remove the connection.
• If you use Kakao login (offered only in the Korean version), Kakao Corp. processes the login and gives us an ID.
• Ad performance measurement: The iPhone app uses Google Analytics for Firebase (Google LLC, USA) to send app install and launch records to Google, and we see the results (the number of installs after ads) in Google Ads. The information sent is the "App usage statistics" in section 1. It is sent to Google servers (in the U.S. and elsewhere) when the app is installed and opened, and Google keeps it for the period Google sets (up to 14 months). If you prefer, you can use the web version in a browser instead of the iPhone app, and nothing is sent.
• Board translation: When you tap Translate on the Board, only the title and text of that post or comment are sent to Google Cloud Translation (Google LLC, USA) to be translated. No other information, such as nicknames, is sent. The translation is stored on our game server so the same post isn't translated again, and it is deleted when the original post is deleted.
• The game loads its fonts from Google Fonts, so when a page opens your browser sends a request to Google servers (which includes your IP address). We use no other outside services beyond those listed here.
• Other players see only your nickname, profile (level, portrait, records, deck), online status, and the posts and comments you write on the Board (with your nickname and account level).

5. Where data is stored and international transfers

Your data is stored on servers in the Amazon Web Services Seoul region (Republic of Korea), which we manage ourselves. If you use the game from the United States or any other country outside Korea, your information is transferred to and processed in the Republic of Korea. We expose only permitted files to the outside and encrypt communication with HTTPS. Only the iPhone app's usage statistics (ad performance measurement in section 4) are stored on Google servers (in the U.S. and elsewhere), and Board posts you choose to translate are sent to Google servers while they are being translated.

6. Children's privacy (COPPA)

• The service is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. You must be 13 or older to create an account.
• The English sign-up screen asks for your birth year and blocks sign-ups by anyone under 13. The birth year is checked on the device and our server only to decide eligibility, and it is not stored.
• If we learn that an account belongs to a child under 13, we delete the account and its data. Parents or guardians who believe their child has signed up can contact us at the support email on the support page, and we will delete it.
• Users under 18 need a parent's or guardian's permission to use the game, especially for purchases.

7. Your rights, including U.S. state privacy rights

• We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral (targeted) advertising. The iPhone app's analytics, described in section 4, is used only to measure how many installs came from ads, is not linked to your account, and is not used for personalized ads.
• Depending on where you live (for example, California and other U.S. states), you may have the right to know what personal information we hold about you, to access, correct, or delete it, and not to be treated differently for exercising these rights. We honor these requests for all users.
• You can delete your account yourself at any time under My Info → Delete Account in the game. See Account deletion for details.
• To ask to access, correct, or delete your information, or for any other question, use My Info → Contact Us in the game and our team will reply by in-game mail. If you cannot log in, contact us at the email address on the support page.
• Inquiries are kept as operating records. When you delete your account, your nickname and account link are removed from them.

8. Changes

If this policy changes, we will post it on this page with a new effective date.