The short version
WordHunt is a word search game. It has no account, no login and no server of its own. Everything you do in the game — levels, stars, coins, streaks, achievements, settings and puzzles you create — is stored only on your device.
Two things do leave your device, both to Google and nothing else. Ads fund the game, served by Google AdMob. Analytics and crash reports tell us which parts of the game get played and where it breaks. Where the law requires it you are asked before any of that starts, and declining switches all three off.
There are no purchases, subscriptions or payments of any kind.
Who this policy is from
This policy covers the Android app WordHunt: Search & Challenge, published on Google Play by Little Lotus Studio. It also covers this website. It describes what the app does today; if what the app collects changes, this policy changes with it.
1. What the app stores on your device
The game saves the following locally, using your device’s standard app storage:
- Level progress, stars and best scores
- Coins, daily streaks and daily-puzzle history
- Achievements
- Puzzles you create, and challenge codes you enter
- Your settings — sound, vibration, high contrast, text size, reduced motion
This information never leaves your device. We cannot see it, and it is not backed up to us or to anyone else.
It is deleted when you uninstall the app, or use Settings → Reset progress inside the game.
2. What we do not collect
We do not collect, store or transmit:
- Your name, email address, phone number or postal address
- Your contacts, photos, files, camera or microphone
- Your precise location
- Any account or login information — there are no accounts
The app requests only three device permissions: internet access and network state (to load ads), and vibration (for in-game haptic feedback).
3. Advertising
Ads are provided by Google AdMob. Google is an independent data controller for the data it collects through its ad serving, and its handling of that data is governed by Google’s own policies:
What Google may collect
To select and measure ads, Google may collect and process:
- Your device’s advertising identifier (Google Advertising ID)
- Device and app information — device model, operating system version, app version, language and general region
- Coarse location inferred from your IP address
- Ad interaction data — which ads were shown, and whether they were tapped
The app declares the com.google.android.gms.permission.AD_ID permission because AdMob uses the advertising identifier.
Where ads appear
- Banner ads on menu, category, level-select and profile screens
- A full-screen ad after roughly every 3 completed levels, and never less than 90 seconds after the previous one
- Rewarded ads that you choose to watch in exchange for a bonus — these are always optional, and declining costs you nothing
Ads are never shown during a puzzle, never over the board, never immediately after opening the app, and never after your first level.
Your choices about ads
Where the law requires it (including the EEA, the UK and Switzerland), you are asked for consent before personalised ads are shown, using Google’s consent management platform. The same answer also controls analytics and crash reporting — decline, and all three stop. You can change that choice at any time in Settings → Privacy & ads → Change ad preferences.
If you decline personalised ads, you will still see ads, but they will be non-personalised — selected using general context rather than a profile built from your activity.
You can also reset or delete your advertising identifier at any time in your device settings, under Settings → Google → Ads on Android.
4. Analytics and crash reporting
The app uses two Google Firebase services. Both are switched off until you have been asked for consent, and both are switched off entirely if you decline.
Firebase Analytics records which screens you open and which game modes you use, so we can see which parts of the game people actually play. It collects app usage, a device identifier, device model and operating system version, and an approximate location derived from your IP address. It does not record anything you type, the puzzles you create, or the words you find.
Firebase Crashlytics records diagnostic information when the app crashes or hits an error — the error message, a stack trace, the screen you were on, and your device model and OS version. It is how a bug that only happens on some phones gets found and fixed. No personal data and nothing you have typed is attached to a crash report.
Neither service is used to build an advertising profile, and neither is shared with anyone other than Google. Firebase data is governed by Google’s privacy policy, linked above.
There are no other analytics, attribution or social-media SDKs in the app.
5. Children
WordHunt is a general-audience word game and is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided personal information through the app, contact us at the address below and we will act on it.
If ads are shown to a user identified as a child under applicable law, Google’s ad serving is configured accordingly and personalised advertising is not used.
6. Data retention
Your game progress lives only on your device, so there is nothing for us to retain. Deleting the app deletes it.
Data collected by Google through advertising, analytics and crash reporting is retained according to Google’s own retention policies, described in the Google Privacy Policy linked above. Firebase Analytics data is retained for a limited period and then deleted or aggregated.
7. Your rights
Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, delete or restrict the processing of personal data held about you, or to object to it.
Since we hold no personal data ourselves, requests about advertising data should be directed to Google. For anything relating to this app, contact us at the address below and we will respond.
8. Security
Game data is stored in the app’s private storage area, which the operating system isolates from other apps. No data is transmitted to any server operated by us, because there is no such server.
9. This website
This site sets no advertising or analytics cookies, runs no third-party trackers, and has no sign-up form. Links to Google Play carry campaign tags in the URL so we can see which page led to an install; those tags describe the page, not you.
10. Changes to this policy
If the app starts collecting or sharing anything not described here, this policy will be updated and the “Last updated” date changed before the new version is released. Continued use after an update means you accept the revised policy.
11. Contact
Questions about this policy or the app’s handling of data: