Privacy policy

What Empo collects and what leaves your device.

Empo runs on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac. There is no Empo account. The one Empo server, api.empo.mateo.sh, takes part only when you sign in with Patreon for Empo Plus.

Last update: 10 November 2026.

What Empo collects

Only error reports. Empo has no analytics and no advertising.

When a game shows an error or crashes, Empo sends an error report to Sentry, the service that collects these reports for me. A report holds:

• The error message, or the fact that the game crashed.
• The name of the game, and the end of the game’s log for that play session, when Debug logs is on. The log holds what the game engine wrote, such as the names of the game’s files that it opened and the error details.
• The version of Empo, and details of the device: its model, its iOS or macOS version, its language and time zone, its screen size, its memory, its battery level, its temperature state, its network type, and whether it is jailbroken.

A report holds no save files, no name, and no account. Sentry sees the IP address that a report comes from, and Empo does not ask Sentry to store it.

To stop the reports, turn off Send error reports in Settings > Advanced.

Your games, your save files, and your settings stay in the app container on the device. On an iPhone or iPad, iOS backs that container up to your own iCloud backup if you turn iCloud backup on. That is an Apple feature, and Empo does not control it.

What leaves the device

Empo makes the network requests below. Each one goes only where this section says.

The version of Empo from GitHub checks for updates. It reads the latest release of the Empo repository from api.github.com. GitHub sees the request and the IP address it came from. The App Store version does not make this request.

A certificate refresh reads cacert.pem from curl.se. Games need it for HTTPS. The curl project sees the request and the IP address it came from.

Backups go to the locations that you add on the Backups screen: iCloud Drive, Dropbox, Google Drive, S3 storage, or a WebDAV server. Empo sends your save files and settings straight from the device to that location. You sign in to Dropbox and Google Drive on their own pages, and Empo keeps the sign-in in the Keychain of the device.

Empo Plus and Patreon

When you sign in with Patreon for Empo Plus, Patreon sends Empo’s server a code. The server uses the code to read two facts from Patreon: your Patreon user ID, and whether you have a paid membership of Empo on Patreon. It does not read your name, your email address, or your payment details.

The server sends back a signed note of these two facts and a random key. The device keeps both in its Keychain. The server keeps the Patreon sign-in, locked with that key, so that it can ask Patreon again later. The server does not keep the key, so it cannot open the sign-in on its own. Every few days, the device sends the key to get a new note. Cloudflare runs the server, and it sees each request and the IP address it came from. When the server fails, it sends an error report to Sentry. The report holds the error and the address of the request without its codes, and no IP address.

Empo Plus works on up to 3 devices for each Patreon account. Each device makes its own signing key, in the Secure Enclave when the device has one. The private part never leaves the device. The server keeps the public part with the locked sign-in, and it accepts a request only when the device signs it. For each Patreon user ID, the server keeps a list of the devices that are signed in. The list holds a number made from each public key, and no other device details.

Sign out of Patreon in Settings > Empo Plus to delete the note and the key from the device, and the locked sign-in from the server. The server also deletes a locked sign-in that no device used for 90 days, and a device list with no signed-in devices.

Games that go online

A game that you import can connect to the internet, for example to check for its own updates or for online features. That traffic goes from the game to the servers that its makers chose. Empo does not read it or keep it. To stop an RPG Maker XP, VX, or VX Ace game from going online, turn off Network access in the settings of that game.

Device permissions

Empo asks for the camera only when you take a photo for custom game artwork. The photo stays on the device. When you pick an image from the photo library instead, iOS gives Empo only that one image.

Empo links the CoreBluetooth framework because SDL2 uses it to find game controllers. Empo reads no Bluetooth data.

Some games have local multiplayer. iOS asks for local network permission before such a game can find other players. Empo also uses the local network when you add a backup location that is on your own network, such as a WebDAV server at home.

Children

Empo is not directed at children under 13. Empo’s server reads only the Patreon facts above. It keeps only the locked Patreon sign-in, the public part of each device key, the time of the last request from each device, and the list of signed-in devices.

Changes

A change to this policy shows here with a new date at the top.

Contact

Send an email to [email protected], open an issue at github.com/mateo-m/empo-app, or ask on the Discord server.