Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 9, 2026

This policy explains what information the Critter Crowns game (“Critter Crowns”, “the game”, “we”, “us”) collects, why we collect it, who we share it with, and the choices you have. It applies to the Critter Crowns apps for iOS and Android and to this website.

Contents

1. Information we collect
2. How we use it
3. What other players can see
4. Advertising
5. Who we share it with
6. How long we keep it
7. Deleting your data
8. Your rights
9. Security
10. Children
11. International transfers
12. Changes to this policy
13. Contact us

1. Information we collect

Your player profile

The first time you open the game, we create a player profile for you automatically. It contains:

• A random player ID. It is stored on your device and works like a password for your profile.
• A username. We generate one for you, and you can change it in the game.
• Your chosen avatar (critter, colour and frame).
• The date your profile was created.
• Whether you play on Android or iOS.

Gameplay information

• Level progress: which levels you started and finished, when, how long they took, how many hints you used and the stars you earned.
• In-game balances: gems, energy and hints.
• Your daily check-in streak, the chests you opened and the items you unlocked.
• Your leaderboard standings and any prizes they earned.
• Friend requests you send or receive, and your friends list.

Sign in with Google or Apple (optional)

You can link your profile to a Google or Apple account so you can get your progress back on another device. Sign-in is handled by Google Firebase Authentication. We never see your Google or Apple password. When you link an account, we store:

• which provider you used (Google or Apple)
• the account identifier that provider gives us
• the email address the provider shares, if it shares one. With Apple you can choose to hide your real email, and then we only receive a private relay address.
• when you linked the account and when you last signed in with it

You can unlink an account at any time from your profile in the game.

Purchases

If you buy gem packs or No Ads, payment is handled entirely by the Apple App Store or Google Play. We never receive your card or bank details. We use RevenueCat to check that a purchase is genuine. RevenueCat knows you only by a separate random purchaser ID, not your player ID. For each purchase, we store the transaction ID and store order number, what you bought, the store, the date, what it gave you and whether it was a test purchase.

Technical information

When the game talks to our servers, our servers automatically record technical details of each request, such as your IP address, the date and time, the request made and basic device or app information sent with the request. We use this to keep the service running, prevent abuse (for example through rate limiting) and fix problems. We remove your player ID from these logs.

Each request also carries a token from Google Firebase App Check, which uses Google Play Integrity on Android and Apple’s App Attest on iOS to confirm that the request comes from the genuine game on a genuine device. When the game starts, it asks Firebase Remote Config whether your version is still supported, so it can ask you to update when it is too old.

Game analytics and crash reports

The game uses Google Analytics for Firebase to count how it is played: which screens you open, when you start and finish a level, the stars, time and hints it took, when you use a hint and what you spend gems on. Firebase also records some things on its own, such as when the game is first opened and how long you play, along with your app version, device model, operating system, language, an app instance identifier, your advertising ID where your device allows it, and your approximate location (such as country and city), worked out from your IP address.

Google Firebase Crashlytics sends us a report when something goes wrong in the game: the error, where in the game’s code it happened, and your device model, operating system, app version and basic device state at the time.

Both are filed under an identifier for your player profile, so a week of play can be read as one player’s and a crash you write to us about can be found. They don’t include your username, email address or linked accounts. We use them only to understand and improve the game and to fix bugs.

Information stored on your device

The game saves some information on your device so it can start quickly and work while you are briefly offline: your player ID, username, progress, balances and settings (for example, whether you have seen the rules). Uninstalling the game removes this information from your device, but not from our servers (see Deleting your data).

Ads

The game shows ads supplied by Google AdMob: a short ad after some levels, one ad in the leaderboard, and rewarded videos you choose to watch for energy when your meter is empty, a hint when a board won’t budge, or a few gems once a day. An ad never interrupts a puzzle. We record each rewarded ad you were paid for, so we can apply the daily limits: which of the three places it was offered in, what it paid you and when. That record contains no advertising identifier.

To serve an ad, Google AdMob collects information from your device directly, such as your advertising ID, IP address, general device information and how you interact with the ad, and may use it to measure and — depending on your choices and where you live — personalise the ads you see. We don’t receive that information. See Advertising for your choices.

What we don’t collect

Apart from the ads and analytics described above, we don’t use tracking tools, and we don’t build a profile of you across other apps or websites. The game doesn’t access your device’s precise location, contacts, photos, camera or microphone.

2. How we use your information

• To run the game: save your progress, balances, unlocks and settings.
• To provide social features: leaderboards, public profiles and friends.
• To restore your progress on a new device when you sign in with Google or Apple.
• To verify purchases and deliver the gems you paid for, exactly once.
• To show ads, which help pay for the game, to pay out rewards for ads you chose to watch, and to apply the daily limits on how many of those rewards you can claim.
• To understand how the game is played, for example which levels are too hard or where players reach for a hint, and to improve it.
• To find and fix crashes and bugs.
• To keep the game secure, check that requests come from the genuine game, and prevent cheating and abuse.
• To ask you to update when your version of the game is too old.
• To answer you when you contact us.
• To comply with legal obligations.

Where the law requires a legal basis (for example under the GDPR), we rely on performance of a contract to provide the game you asked to use; on our legitimate interests for security, abuse prevention, analytics, crash reporting and improving the game; on your consent for personalised ads where the law requires it, which you give or refuse in Google’s consent form; and on legal obligation where we must keep records such as purchase details.

3. What other players can see

Critter Crowns has leaderboards and friends, so parts of your profile are visible to other players:

• your username and avatar (critter, colour and frame)
• when you joined
• your game stats: stars, levels completed, perfect levels and highest level unlocked
• how many critters, colours and frames you have collected
• your rank on the monthly and all-time leaderboards

Other players cannot see your player ID, your email address, which accounts you linked, your purchases, or your gem, energy and hint balances. Please don’t put personal information such as your real name in your username.

4. Advertising

Ads help pay for Critter Crowns. The game shows three kinds:

• After some levels. When you leave a finished level, a full-screen ad may play before you’re back on the trail.
• In the leaderboard. One ad sits among the rows.
• Rewarded videos. Ads you opt into, one at a time, for energy, a hint or gems. If you never press a watch button, you will never see one.

Buying No Ads in the game removes the ads after levels and in the leaderboard. Rewarded videos stay, because you only ever see one when you ask for it.

The ads are served by Google AdMob. When an ad loads or plays, Google receives information from your device directly — typically your advertising ID, IP address, general device and app information, and whether the ad was viewed, tapped and completed. Google acts as an independent controller of that information and uses it under its own policies, which you can read at how Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services.

We don’t send AdMob your player ID, username, email address or game progress, and we don’t receive your advertising ID from Google. From a rewarded video, all we learn is that it finished, so we can pay the reward.

Your choices about ads

• Skip the rewarded videos, or buy No Ads. Everything a rewarded video pays can also be earned by playing or bought with gems.
• Answer Google’s consent form. Where the law requires it — for example in the EEA and the UK — Google’s consent form asks, before any ad is shown, whether ads may be personalised to you. You can change your answer at any time in your profile, under Ads & privacy › Privacy choices. Turning personalisation off doesn’t stop you watching ads or earning rewards; the ads you see are simply less relevant.
• Answer Apple’s tracking prompt. On iPhone and iPad, the game asks whether it may track you. If you choose “Ask App Not to Track”, ads can’t use your device’s advertising identifier. You can change this later under Settings › Privacy & Security › Tracking.
• Reset or delete your advertising ID. On Android, under Settings › Privacy › Ads. This limits how ads can be personalised to you.
• Use Google’s ad settings to control how Google personalises the ads you see.

5. Who we share it with

We don’t sell or rent your personal information. Apart from the ads described above — where Google collects information from your device directly — we share information only with service providers that help us run the game, and only as much as they need:

We may also disclose information if the law requires it, to protect the rights, safety or property of our players or ourselves, or as part of a merger, acquisition or sale of the game. If ownership changes, this policy will continue to apply to your information.

6. How long we keep it

We keep your profile and game data while you use the game, so your progress is there when you come back. If you ask us to delete your data, we do so as described below. Server logs are kept only for a limited time and then deleted. Records of the rewarded ads you were paid for are kept with your profile and are deleted with it. Analytics events are kept for up to 14 months; summary reports built from them that no longer identify you may be kept longer. Crash reports are kept for 90 days. We may keep limited purchase records for as long as tax, accounting or fraud-prevention laws require.

7. Deleting your data

You can ask us to delete your Critter Crowns profile and the data linked to it at any time:

1. Open the game, go to your profile and note your username. If you linked a Google or Apple account, note which one.
2. Email koddev.supp@gmail.com with the subject “Delete my data” and include your username.
3. We may ask for a detail to confirm the profile is yours, such as a screenshot of your in-game profile.

We will delete your profile, progress, friends, linked sign-in accounts, records of ads you watched and in-game balances within 30 days and confirm by email. Analytics events and crash reports already sent to Firebase expire on their own, as described in How long we keep it. Deletion is permanent: your progress, unlocks and unspent gems cannot be restored. Purchase records we are legally required to keep are retained only for that purpose. Uninstalling the game does not delete your data from our servers.

8. Your rights

Depending on where you live (for example in the EU, UK or California), you may have the right to:

• access the personal information we hold about you and receive a copy of it
• correct inaccurate information (you can change your username in the game yourself)
• have your information deleted
• object to or restrict certain processing
• receive your information in a portable format
• withdraw consent, for example by unlinking a Google or Apple account
• complain to your local data protection authority

To use any of these rights, contact us at the address below. We will reply within the time the law requires, and we won’t treat you differently for using your rights.

9. Security

All communication between the game and our servers is encrypted with HTTPS. Sign-in tokens are verified on our servers, and we limit how often requests can be made. We store only the personal information the game needs. No system is perfectly secure, though, so we can’t guarantee absolute security. Your player ID works like a password, so please don’t share it with anyone.

10. Children

Critter Crowns is a general-audience game and is not directed at children under 13 (or the minimum age required in your country). We don’t knowingly collect personal information from children under that age, and the game is not marked as directed to children in the app stores, so ads are not served to it on that basis. If you believe a child has given us personal information, please contact us and we will delete it.

11. International transfers

We and our service providers may process your information in countries other than your own, including the United States. Where the law requires it, we rely on appropriate safeguards such as the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses.

12. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. When we do, we will change the “Last updated” date at the top. If a change is significant, we will also make reasonable efforts to let you know, for example in the game.

13. Contact us

If you have questions about this policy or your information, email us at koddev.supp@gmail.com.