Glass Colony · Last updated: October 4, 2026 · Version 1.0
Glass Colony, shown as "Formicarium" on your Home Screen (hereinafter, "Glass Colony" or "the App"), is developed and operated by Ingeniería.dev, led by Christian Irack (hereinafter, "we", "the Developer").
The App is designed to work without knowing who you are. It:
What the App does collect is limited to usage and diagnostics data that is not linked to your identity, through our own first-party analytics. Section 4 lists exactly what that includes and why.
The App stores locally only what it needs to keep your colony alive where you left it:
| Data | Purpose | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Your colony: its name, species and substrate, the state of the simulation (tunnels, chambers, ants, brood, food stores and scent trails, saved compressed), the colony day, population, tunnel length, and when it was started and last saved | Reopen the colony exactly as it was, keep it going while the App is closed, and show the "While you were away" card | Device (SwiftData) |
| The colony journal: the day and type of each milestone (for example, the first worker born or a new chamber dug) | Show the colony's history in the Journal tab | Device (SwiftData) |
| Settings: red light mode and schedule, simulation speed and haptic feedback | Remember how you like to watch the colony | Device (UserDefaults) |
| App preferences: the language you chose and whether you completed the welcome screens | Remember your settings across sessions | Device (UserDefaults) |
| A cached "Complete Collection purchased" flag | Show the premium species and substrates instantly at launch. It is only a hint: Apple's record of your purchase is always the source of truth | Device (UserDefaults) |
| Random installation identifier and pending analytics events | Group usage events by installation (see Section 4) and send them in batches. The identifier is excluded from device backups | Device (app sandbox) |
The species, substrates and "Did you know?" cards are part of the App itself, not your data: they ship inside the App and are the same for everyone. Your colony, its journal and your settings are never sent to us, and the App does not use iCloud. They live inside the App's sandbox on your iPhone. Starting a new colony or using Reset colony in Settings replaces the current colony and its journal, and deleting the App removes all of them permanently and irreversibly.
We use our own first-party analytics to understand how Glass Colony is used: screens visited, interactions, performance and technical errors, plus technical device data, language and approximate city-level location (we do not store your IP address). The App has no sign-in, so this information is never linked to an account or to your identity. We do not sell or share this data with third parties or use it for advertising. Data is kept for up to 13 months. You can request deletion by emailing [email protected].
It never includes your name, email, phone number, contacts, photos, location coordinates, payment details, your colony's name, or the image you share.
The analytics service runs at analytics.ingenieria.dev, on a server operated by the Developer. No third-party analytics company receives this data. We use it only to improve the App — for example, to learn which foods and species people try, whether the magnifier and the facts are useful, and to find and fix crashes. For users in the European Union, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, the legal basis is our legitimate interest in keeping the App working and improving it; you can object at any time by emailing us.
The pages at legal.ingenieria.dev/formicarium/ use the same first-party analytics to count visits and clicks on the download button. They set no cookies; a random identifier is kept in your browser's local storage, which you can clear at any time from your browser settings.
Glass Colony offers one optional In-App Purchase, Complete Collection. It is processed exclusively by Apple through your Apple ID using StoreKit. Apple acts as the payment processor: we never receive your name, email, payment card, billing address, or any other payment data. The App only asks Apple whether this purchase is active on your Apple ID, in order to unlock the premium species and substrates. Apple's handling of your data is governed by Apple's Privacy Policy.
The colony is a simulation computed entirely on your device. It needs no server and no internet connection to dig, forage or grow, and the time it catches up after you close the App is measured with your iPhone's clock. Nothing about your colony — its tunnels, its ants, its name or its journal — is uploaded, and nothing you do in the App is used to train any artificial intelligence model.
Apart from Apple's App Store services (Section 5), the only data the App sends out is the analytics described in Section 4. There is no other server behind the App, and the colony runs without an internet connection; analytics events wait on the device and are sent when a connection is available.
Some buttons hand off to another app or website. These are always initiated by you and are governed by that provider's own privacy policy — not ours:
The App requests no system permissions. It sends no notifications, has no push notification service, and does not access location, camera, microphone, contacts, calendar, reminders, photos, media library, Bluetooth, motion, health, or biometric data. Keeping the screen awake while the App is open and haptic feedback are standard features that need no permission; the screen goes back to normal as soon as you leave the App.
The App displays no ads. We do not use data for remarketing, profiling, or advertising. We do not participate in ad networks, and we do not sell, rent, or share information with third parties.
The App is a general-audience educational app about ants and is not directed at children under 13. It requires no registration, shows no ads, has no chat or social features, and collects no personal information that identifies a person, which keeps it consistent with COPPA (United States), LGPD (Brazil) and GDPR (European Union) requirements for minors. In-App Purchases follow Apple's parental controls, including Ask to Buy for Family Sharing groups.
You have the right to access, rectify, delete, and object to the processing of your data. Here is how each one works in this App:
For any question about your rights, email [email protected]. We reply within 30 days.
Local data is stored inside the iOS sandbox, protected by the operating system and by device-level disk encryption (Apple's Data Protection API). No other app can read it. Analytics events travel to our server over HTTPS, and purchases are handled end to end by Apple.
The analytics service is operated by the Developer and hosted in the United States, and its traffic passes through Cloudflare's network. Analytics data is therefore processed in the United States. It is not linked to your identity, it is protected in transit with HTTPS, and it is never shared with third parties.
We may update this Privacy Policy to reflect changes to the App or to applicable law. The current version will always be published at this URL along with the date of the last update. Material changes will also be announced inside the App.
This Policy is governed by the laws of the United Mexican States, in particular the Federal Law on Protection of Personal Data Held by Private Parties (LFPDPPP), without prejudice to the mandatory rights you have under the data protection laws of your country of residence. Any dispute will be submitted to the competent courts of Mexico City.
Privacy Officer: Christian Irack
Email: [email protected]
Postal address: Av. Javier Barros Sierra 495, Santa Fe Lomas de Santa Fe Zedec Santa Fé, Álvaro Obregón 01219, Mexico City, CDMX, Mexico