Word Links Journey Privacy Policy

This policy explains what information the Word Links Journey mobile game ("Word Links Journey" or "the Game") collects, why, who it is shared with, and the choices you have. The Game is published by Eight Fifteen Labs LLC ("we", "us"). Questions and requests go to privacy@eightfifteenlabs.com.

The short version

• We don't ask for your name, email address, phone number, contacts, photos or location, and there are no accounts: you don't sign up or sign in to play.
• Your progress, coins, hints, reveals, settings and purchases are saved on your device.
• The Game shows ads through Google AdMob. Where the law requires it (for example in the EEA, UK and Switzerland) we ask for your consent first. Wherever you have a choice to make, you can change it at any time in Settings → Privacy options.
• On iPhone and iPad we do not track you across other companies' apps and websites unless you allow it in Apple's "Allow tracking" prompt.
• We measure how the Game is played with GameAnalytics and Google Firebase Analytics, and we find crashes with Google Firebase Crashlytics. Where the law requires consent, analytics only start after you agree.
• In-app purchases are handled by Apple or Google. We never see your card or payment details.
• Deleting the Game from your device deletes everything it stored there, and the analytics data collected before can no longer be linked to you. See Delete your data.
• We do not sell your personal information for money.

Who this policy covers

The Game is intended for players aged 13 and over. It is a general-audience game: it is not directed at children under 13, it is not in Apple's Kids Category or Google Play's Families program, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has provided us with personal information, email privacy@eightfifteenlabs.com and we will delete it. In the EEA and UK, if you are younger than your country's age of digital consent (between 13 and 16, depending on the country), please ask a parent or guardian before agreeing to personalized ads.

You don't have to provide any personal information to play, and agreeing to personalized ads or analytics is optional: if you decline, the Game still works and shows non-personalized ads. We do not make decisions about you based solely on automated processing that have legal or similarly significant effects.

What we collect and why

Stored only on your device

Your board progress, coins, hints and reveals, streak, daily mission and daily bonus progress, settings (sound, music, appearance and language), consent choices and which purchases you own are saved in the Game's local storage on your device, and in your device's own backups (iCloud or Android backup) if you use them. We do not receive this data, and the Game has no cloud save of its own. Deleting the Game removes it from the device; restoring a device backup can bring it back.

Collected automatically when you play

When the Game shows a suggestion for another Eight Fifteen Labs game, it downloads that game's picture from eightfifteenlabs.com, which, like any web request, sends your device's IP address; nothing else about you is sent and nothing is stored about it.

Information you give us

If you email us, we receive your email address and whatever you include in the message. We use it only to answer you and keep a record of the request.

Legal bases (EEA, UK and Switzerland)

• Performance of a contract: running the Game and giving you what you buy.
• Consent: personalized advertising, gameplay analytics (GameAnalytics) and usage statistics (Firebase Analytics), and storing or reading information on your device for those purposes. You can withdraw consent at any time in Settings → Privacy options.
• Legitimate interests: non-personalized ads that keep the Game free, fraud prevention, security, and crash reporting (Firebase Crashlytics) so the Game keeps working. Crash reporting runs from the moment the Game starts, before you make any consent choice, because a crash on the first screen is the one we most need to see.
• Legal obligation: keeping transaction records.

Who we share information with

We share information only with the service providers listed above, who process it to provide their services to us, and when required by law. Their own policies describe how they handle data:

• Google (AdMob and the User Messaging Platform): https://policies.google.com/privacy and https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites
• GameAnalytics: https://gameanalytics.com/privacy
• Google Firebase (Crashlytics and Analytics): https://firebase.google.com/support/privacy
• Unity Technologies (In-App Purchasing): https://unity.com/legal/game-player-and-app-user-privacy-policy
• Apple: https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/
• Google Play: https://policies.google.com/privacy

If Eight Fifteen Labs LLC is ever involved in a merger, acquisition or sale of assets, information may be transferred as part of that transaction, and this policy will continue to apply to it.

Advertising, analytics and your choices

• Consent (EEA, UK, Switzerland): you are asked the first time it is needed, before any ad is requested or any analytics are sent. To change your choice, open Settings → Privacy options, which shows Google's privacy options. The row appears wherever a consent choice applies.
• US state privacy rights: showing personalized ads can count as "sharing" personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising under California law and similar state laws. Where your state gives you that right, you can opt out in Settings → Privacy options, or by emailing privacy@eightfifteenlabs.com.
• iPhone and iPad: the Game asks before accessing your IDFA. You can change this later in iOS Settings → Privacy & Security → Tracking.
• Android: you can reset or delete your advertising ID in Settings → Google → Ads (the exact path varies by device).
• VIP Pack: the VIP Pack turns off the ads shown between boards. Rewarded ads you choose to watch remain available.

How long we keep information

• On-device data: until you delete the Game or clear its data (copies in your device backups follow your backup settings).
• The installation ID: on your device until you delete the Game. Unity's in-app purchase service keeps it in its service logs for 90 days.
• Crash reports (Firebase Crashlytics): 90 days.
• Usage statistics (Firebase Analytics): up to 2 months, then deleted.
• Gameplay analytics (GameAnalytics): up to 12 months on a rolling basis, then anonymized or deleted.
• Purchase records: as long as tax and accounting law requires.
• Emails with us: up to two years after your last message, unless a longer period is required by law.

Advertising data held by Google is kept under Google's own retention policies.

Your rights

Depending on where you live (including the EEA, UK, Switzerland, California and other US states with privacy laws) you may have the right to:

• know what personal information we hold about you and get a copy;
• correct it;
• delete it;
• receive it in a portable format;
• object to or restrict certain processing, and withdraw consent;
• opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information and of targeted advertising;
• not be treated differently for exercising these rights.

The analytics and crash data described above is linked only to random identifiers that the Game and its analytics, crash-reporting and purchase services create on your device. We don't collect your name or email, so we can't look you up by them. The simplest way to delete your data is to delete the Game from your device: that erases everything it stored, including those identifiers, and the data collected before can then no longer be connected to you by us or by anyone else. (The one exception is Apple's IDFV on iPhone and iPad, which is shared by every app of ours on the device and resets once none of them is installed.) It is deleted on the schedule above. The steps are on our data deletion page.

For any other request (access, correction, portability, or deleting an email you sent us), write to privacy@eightfifteenlabs.com; for a purchase, include your store receipt. When we act on a deletion request about a purchase, we ask Unity to delete the in-app purchase records it keeps for it. Advertising data is held by Google as an independent controller; you can reset or delete your advertising ID (see above) and manage it at https://myadcenter.google.com. Purchase records are held by Apple or Google and are subject to legal retention requirements. We will respond within the time the law requires (usually 30 days in the EEA and UK, 45 days in California). You may use an authorized agent, and we may ask for proof of that authority.

If you are in the EEA, UK or Switzerland you can also complain to your local data protection authority.

International transfers

We are based in the United States, and our service providers may process information in the United States and other countries. Where information from the EEA, UK or Switzerland is transferred, it is protected by the safeguards our providers use, such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses or the EU-US Data Privacy Framework.

Security

We use service providers with industry-standard security and limit the information the Game collects in the first place. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy we will update the effective date above. If the changes are significant we will also tell you in the Game.

Contact