Factitious — News Literacy Game
Plain-language summary: Factitious collects anonymous demographic and gameplay information solely for academic media literacy research. We do not collect your name, email, or precise location. You may optionally provide a self-reported region or country for research segmentation. We do not sell data or use it for advertising. All data collection is for scholarly purposes under the auspices of the University of Miami's Knight Chair in Interactive Media.
This Privacy Policy describes how the Factitious mobile application ("the App") and its supporting website (collectively, "Factitious") collect, use, and protect information. Factitious is an open-source media literacy research project developed at the University of Miami under the Knight Chair in Interactive Media, with historical contributions made through the American University Game Center's Jolt initiative and support from the Knight Foundation.
By using the App you agree to the practices described in this Policy. If you do not agree, please discontinue use.
Factitious is a non-commercial, academic research project. The data controller responsible for information collected through the App is:
Lindsay Grace, PhD
Knight Chair in Interactive Media
School of Communication, University of Miami
Coral Gables, FL 33146, USA
When you create a player profile you may voluntarily provide:
All demographic fields are optional. You may skip any or all of them and still play the game.
The App automatically records:
A randomly generated unique identifier (UUID) is created and stored locally on your device when you first open the App. This ID is used to associate your gameplay sessions and profile across multiple uses of the App. It is not linked to your name, email address, or any other personally identifying information.
We record your device platform (iOS or Android/web) for research segmentation purposes. We do not collect your IP address, device model, operating system version, advertising identifier (IDFA/GAID), or any other device-level data.
The App includes an optional teacher-verification feature. If you choose to share your verification link (found on the Profile screen), anyone with that link can view a public summary containing your nickname, total score, accuracy statistics, number of games played, self-reported location, classroom assignment status, and approximate last-active date. You control when and with whom this link is shared. You are not required to share it. The underlying data remains keyed to your anonymous Player ID and does not include your name or contact information.
All data collected by Factitious is used exclusively for the following academic purposes:
We do not use your data for advertising, marketing, profiling for commercial purposes, or any purpose outside academic research.
We process personal data on the basis of legitimate interests (academic research in the public interest) and, where required by applicable law, with your consent given by choosing to create a profile and play the game. Demographic data is provided voluntarily and may be withdrawn at any time by requesting data deletion (see Section 9).
We do not sell, rent, or trade your data. Data may be shared only in the following limited circumstances:
News articles displayed in the game are sourced from publicly available RSS feeds from organisations including the BBC, The Guardian, NPR, Reuters, the Associated Press, and others. No personal data is shared with these organisations.
Your profile and gameplay data are stored in a PostgreSQL database hosted on Replit's infrastructure. Your anonymous player ID and local article cache are stored on your device using AsyncStorage (on iOS, this is backed by the iOS file system, not iCloud or third-party services).
We implement reasonable technical safeguards including access control, encrypted connections (HTTPS/TLS), and admin authentication for the research dashboard. No data transmission over the internet is 100% secure; however, because we do not collect identifying information, a breach would not expose your identity.
We retain gameplay and profile data for the duration of the research project and for a reasonable period thereafter to allow for replication and peer review of findings, typically not exceeding five years from the date of collection. You may request early deletion at any time (see Section 9).
Depending on your jurisdiction, you may have the following rights:
To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the information in Section 11. We will respond within 30 days. Because data is keyed to an anonymous ID rather than your identity, you will need to provide your Player ID (visible in the App) to locate your records.
Factitious is intended as an educational tool suitable for players of all ages, including those under 18. We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children. The demographic data we collect is anonymous and does not include names, contact details, or precise age. The "Under 18" age range option is provided for research segmentation only.
If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has provided personally identifiable information, please contact us and we will promptly delete it. For users in the United States, we comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
For privacy questions, data requests, or concerns, please contact:
Lindsay Grace, PhD
Knight Chair in Interactive Media
School of Communication, University of Miami
Coral Gables, FL 33146, USA
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Material changes will be reflected in the "Effective date" at the top of this page. Continued use of the App after changes are posted constitutes acceptance of the updated Policy. We encourage you to review this page periodically.