Privacy Policy

In short

Sudoku Holic does not create an account. It never asks for your name, email address or phone number.

Your game records live on your device. There is no server behind this app, so we cannot see them.

Android does have its own device backup, though. If you have it on, your progress and settings are stored encrypted in your own Google account and restored when you install the app on a new phone. That is a Google feature, and we have no access to that copy.

The only information that goes out is advertising-related, and Google handles that.

1. What is collected and stored

Game records (on your device only)

These records live in the app's private storage on your device (a database and a settings file). There is no live sync — two phones will not keep each other up to date, and nothing goes to a developer server.

Android's device backup is the exception. If you have backup switched on in system settings, your progress (sudokuholic.db) and settings are uploaded encrypted to your own Google account and restored on a new phone. That is Android doing it, not the app, and you can turn it off any time under Settings → Google → Backup. The half-finished board and the device identifier are excluded from the backup.

Other things kept on the device

• Device identifier — a random value created the first time the app runs. It is used only to tell which hint-ledger entries this device wrote, so old entries can be folded together. It does not identify a person, has nothing to do with the advertising ID, and is never transmitted.
• Settings — whether music, sound and vibration are on, and whether you have seen the how-to-play guide.

Advertising information (Google)

The app shows rewarded ads (to refill hints and hearts, reset a puzzle, or keep a streak) through Google AdMob. To serve those ads and prevent abuse, Google may collect and process:

• Advertising ID
• Device model, operating system version, language setting
• Approximate location (city level) inferred from the IP address
• Records of ads shown or tapped

The developer receives aggregate reports only (impressions, revenue and the like). No personally identifiable information is passed on.

What Google does with it: Google Privacy Policy · How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services

When you write to us

If you send mail from More → Contact us, the app fills the body with what is needed to reproduce a problem — app version, device manufacturer and model, Android version, and locale. We also learn the address you wrote from. If you do not write, we learn nothing, and you can delete the pre-filled text before sending.

2. What is not collected

• Name, date of birth, phone number
• Email address (except when you write to us yourself)
• Precise location
• Contacts, photos, camera, microphone, health data
• What you do in other apps

The app declares only four permissions, all granted at install time, so no permission prompt ever appears.

3. Why the information is used

• To keep your solved puzzles and records on the device
• To show scores, statistics, streaks and attendance
• To show ads and grant their rewards
• To answer your questions

None of this is used for profiling beyond advertising, and nothing is sold.

4. Third parties

Nothing goes anywhere else. No analytics or tracking tools are used. All the developer ever receives is aggregate ad reporting.

5. Retention and deletion

Records stay on your device until you delete them. There are three ways:

1. In the app — More → Erase all records
2. Uninstall the app — records and settings go with it
3. In Android settings — Settings → Apps → Sudoku Holic → Storage → Clear data

The developer holds no copy, so deleting them is the end of it. There is nothing to ask us to erase.

If you have Android backup switched on, a copy remains in your Google account. To remove that too, go to Settings → Google → Backup → Manage backup and delete this app's backup.

Retention of advertising information follows Google's policies.

6. Your rights

• Access, correct, delete — every record is visible and erasable inside the app.
• Withdraw ad consent — More → Ad settings (where the consent form applies)
• Reset or opt out of the advertising ID — Android Settings → Privacy → Ads (the exact place varies by manufacturer)
• Contact — write to the address below at any time.

Residents of the EEA and the UK have rights of access, rectification, erasure, portability, restriction and objection under the GDPR; residents of California have rights under the CCPA/CPRA. Note that the developer does not hold your game records, so reading or deleting them is faster done on the device itself. Requests about advertising may also need to go to Google.

7. Children

The app is listed on Google Play for ages 13 and up and is not directed at any particular age group. It does not knowingly collect personal information from children under 14 (under 16 in the EEA, under 13 in the United States). If we learn that such information has been collected, we delete it at once.

8. Security

The app runs no server of its own. Game records sit in the private storage Android gives each app, where other apps cannot read them. The only network traffic is the advertising SDK's, encrypted over HTTPS.

9. Changes

If this policy changes, the effective date is updated and the new text is posted here. Significant changes are also announced inside the app.

10. Contact

We reply within 7 business days.