1. Basic usage counts (always sent)
To know how many people use Extra Cover, every copy sends a small anonymous count. You can’t switch this off, because without it we can’t tell whether 50 or 5,000 people use the app. Most desktop software works this way (compare Windows’ “required diagnostic data”). Each count is one of these four:
| Count | When | What it carries |
|---|---|---|
| Installed | Once, the first time Extra Cover runs | Nothing beyond the details below |
| Opened today | At most once a day | How long Extra Cover has been installed (0, 1, 2–7, 8–14, 15–30, 31–60, 61–90, 91–180 or 180+ days), whether the game has been set up (yes/no), roughly how many mods are in the game (0, 1, 2–5, 6–20, 21+) |
| Active this week | At most once a week | Install age, as above; the month Extra Cover was installed (such as “2026-11”); rough number of mods in your library and in the game |
| Active this month | At most once a month | Install age and install month, as above |
Each count also carries Extra Cover’s version (and the version of the Chromium engine built into it), your Windows version, your language setting (such as en-IN), whether it is a test build, and a random number made fresh for that one count, so counts can’t be linked to each other.
Never sent: your name, Windows user name, Steam account, email, IP address (see section 4), file paths, mod names, or any ID that could link one count to another or to you. The day Extra Cover was installed stays on your PC; only the month and the rough age bucket are sent, which is how we tell whether people who installed in a given month keep using it.
Pack Studio, the tool creators use to build mods, sends the same four counts to its own separate dashboard, with these differences: “Opened today” carries only the install age, and “Active this week” carries the rough number of packs in your workspace and how many have been built, instead of mod counts. Its version details are Pack Studio’s version and its .NET runtime version. It asks its own detailed-usage question, in the same way as below.
2. Detailed usage (only if you say yes)
The first time you use Extra Cover it asks whether to share detailed usage. Nothing in this section is sent unless you click Share detailed usage. You can change your answer at any time in Settings, in the privacy section.
With a yes, Extra Cover also sends:
- events such as “a mod was installed”, “a mod was removed” or “a profile was switched”, with rough numbers (such as “2–5 mods changed”);
- for community mods, the mod’s public GameBanana number and where in the app you found it (such as “Trending now”);
- when an install fails, a fixed reason (such as “the game is running”), never the error text;
- errors and crashes, with names, file paths and quoted text removed before they leave your PC.
3. Reports you choose to send
When something goes wrong, the error message has a Send report button. Clicking it sends that one message, cleaned the same way as above, whatever you answered about usage. Nothing is sent unless you click it. Copy report copies a longer report to your clipboard and uploads nothing.
4. Who receives the data
Usage counts, detailed usage and reports go to Aptabase (aptabase.com), a privacy-focused analytics service hosted in the EU. Aptabase does not store IP addresses or any user identifier. To count unique sessions it combines your IP address and app details into a code using a secret that changes every day and is then deleted, so a count from today can’t be matched to one from tomorrow. We see only totals.
5. Other connections Extra Cover makes
Extra Cover also connects to these services to work. None of them receives your usage data from us:
- GitHub (github.com, githubusercontent.com): app updates, the official mod catalogue, community lists, featured slides and notices.
- GameBanana (gamebanana.com): browsing, searching and downloading community mods.
- Discord (only if you connect it in Settings): talks to the Discord app on your PC to show what you’re playing. Mod names appear only if you turn that option on. Nothing goes to Discord’s servers through us.
Each of these services sees your IP address as part of the request, under its own privacy policy.
6. What stays on your PC
Your settings, mod library, profiles, logs, saved searches, bookmarks and followed creators are kept in Extra Cover’s folder on your PC (%APPDATA%\extra-cover) and are never uploaded. Uninstalling Extra Cover and deleting that folder removes them.
7. Changes
If what Extra Cover sends changes, this page changes first, and the app’s privacy text changes with the same release.
Contact
Questions: ask in the Extra Cover Discord.