Letterless Privacy Policy

What stays on your device

Your progress, coins, stats, settings and the name you play under are saved on your device. If you choose a photo for your profile picture, it's cropped and kept on your device only; it's never uploaded. Uninstalling the game removes all of this (your name and best scores on the leaderboards stay there; see Leaderboards, below).

Google Play Games and Game Center (optional)

On Android you can sign in with Google Play Games; on iPhone and iPad with Game Center. When you do, the game uses your gamer account to:

• show your gamer name in the weekly league and on leaderboards;
• send your scores to the game's leaderboards and unlock its achievements. Each score carries your profile's look in the game (your border, the flag you chose if any, your level and league, your avatar colour and picture style, never a photo), so other players of Letterless see you as you are next to your score;
• show other players' gamer names, scores and looks near yours in the weekly league;
• keep a copy of your progress in your Google Play Games account (Saved Games) or your iCloud account, so a new device can pick up where you left off.

This information is processed by Google or Apple, not by the game's developer, who runs no servers of their own. Google Play Games also collects some diagnostic and usage information to keep its service working. See the Google Privacy Policy and Apple's Privacy Policy. You can play everything without signing in.

Ads (Google AdMob)

The free game shows an ad now and then between games (never during one), and an ad you choose to watch for an extra, such as a second chance in Endless. The ads come from Google AdMob. To show them, measure them and prevent fraud, Google's ads software in the game collects information from your device: your device's advertising identifier (on Android; on iPhone and iPad only if you allow apps to track you, and the game doesn't ask), your IP address (from which an approximate location can be worked out), information about your device and the app (such as the model, system version, language and app version), how you interact with the ads, and diagnostic information. This information is sent to Google, not to the game's developer, and is used under Google's Privacy Policy; see also how Google uses information from apps that use its services.

In the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, Google's consent form asks for your choices before any ad is shown, and Settings > Ad privacy choices lets you change them at any time. Anywhere, you can reset your advertising identifier or opt out of personalised ads in your device's settings. Once you buy Remove ads, the game stops showing ads between games and the extras you'd watch an ad for become free.

Purchases

Remove ads and the Premium pack are sold through Google Play or the App Store, under their terms and privacy policies. The game's developer never receives your payment details. The game keeps a note on your device of what you've bought, and asks the store again to check it (on Android when the game starts; on iPhone and iPad when you tap Restore purchases), so a new device or a reinstall gets your purchases back. Purchases aren't part of the cloud copy of your progress.

Anonymous play stats

To see whether people come back to the game, and how often, Letterless can send one short note a day, when you open it, to TelemetryDeck, a privacy-focused analytics service. The note contains only:

• the week you first played the game (for example "the week of 2 November 2026");
• how many days ago that was;
• how many of the previous seven days you played;
• your device's platform (for example iOS or Android) and the game's version.

It contains no name, account, device identifier, advertising identifier, location, or any ID of its own, so notes from different days can't be linked to each other or to you. Like any connection over the internet, the note reaches TelemetryDeck from your network's IP address. The game doesn't include it in the note, and TelemetryDeck's privacy policy (on its website) explains how it handles connections. You can turn the notes off at any time in Settings > Share anonymous play stats.

The Word Drive (monthly community goal)

Each month everyone playing Letterless works towards one goal together, and the game adds up the words played on every phone, tablet and computer in a shared total kept in Google Firebase (Cloud Firestore, in the United States). For that, when you play:

• Firebase gives your copy of the game a random ID the first time it connects ("anonymous sign-in"). It isn't your name, an account, your device's identifier or its advertising identifier, and nothing links it to them;
• now and then the game sends how many words you've played since it last did, under that ID, for the current month, and Firebase notes when.

That's used only to add up the community's total and to make sure no copy of the game adds more words than it played. Nobody else can see your own count: other players only see the total and how many took part. Like any connection over the internet, it reaches Google from your network's IP address, which the game doesn't store; Google handles these connections under its own privacy policy (Firebase's is at firebase.google.com/support/privacy). Since the counts aren't linked to you, they can't be looked up for a particular person; uninstalling the game stops any more being sent.

Leaderboards and the weekly league

Letterless has leaderboards shared by everyone who plays, on iPhone, Android and PC: each day's Daily Challenge, Endless and Journey stars, and the weekly league, where people playing anywhere join your league group. They're kept in Google Firebase (Cloud Firestore, in the United States). For that:

• Firebase gives you a random ID ("anonymous sign-in"). It isn't your name, an account, your device's identifier or its advertising identifier. It's kept with your progress, so it comes along to a new phone with your Google Play Games or Game Center cloud save;
• when you beat your best, the game sends that score (and your league points for the week) under that ID, with the name you play under and your look in the game (border, flag, level, picture and colour), and Firebase notes when;
• the game reads the leaderboards to show them to you.

Other players see your name, look and scores on the leaderboards and in their league table. If you haven't chosen a name, or yours has a word in it that the game filters out, they see a made-up name instead. Don't use your real full name if you'd rather not have it shown.

Any player can hide another one from their own leaderboards and league, and report a name they find offensive. A report sends the reported player's ID, the name and the board to Firebase, with the ID of the player who reported it, so the developer can remove the name; reports are read only by the developer. The game's leaderboards are filled out with the league's simulated rivals when few people have played.

Settings > Reset progress takes your entries off the leaderboards. Like any connection over the internet, the game reaches Google from your network's IP address, which the game doesn't store; Google handles these connections under its own privacy policy (firebase.google.com/support/privacy).

Friends and who's playing now

So your friends and the people in your league can see who's playing, the game keeps a player card for you in the same Firebase project, under the same random ID: the name and look you play under, a friend code (six letters and numbers, made at random), when the game last said you were in it, whether you've left, this week's league points and today's, your Endless best and your Journey stars. The game updates it when it opens, every few minutes while it's open and when you leave it. Anyone playing Letterless can see a player card; someone counts as "playing now" for about ten minutes after the game last said so.

You add friends with their friend code, or from a leaderboard or your league. Your list of friends is kept with your progress (in your cloud save, not on the server). When you add someone, the game leaves them a note with your ID and name so they can add you back; only they can see it, and removing them takes it back. Reset progress deletes your player card, your friend code and the notes you left.

Quick matches and friends (iPhone and iPad)

A quick match, or a match with a friend you invite, goes through Apple's Game Center: Apple connects you with the other player, and your two devices exchange the name you play under, your profile picture's style (your initials, colour or icon, never a photo), your flag, level and league, and the moves of the game. Afterwards the game keeps your record against that player (wins, losses, ties and the last match's score) together with their Game Center player ID, name and the look they played in, on your device and in your own cloud save, so their profile can show it. Nobody else can see it. If you open Play a friend, the game asks Apple for your Game Center friends' names and, when you open a friend's profile, their Game Center picture and their scores on the game's leaderboards; these are only shown to you, kept no longer than the game is open, and not sent anywhere. Invites and friend requests are sent by Game Center, under Apple's Privacy Policy.

Head to head on Wi-Fi

When you host or join a head-to-head game, your device and the other player's exchange the name you play under and the moves of the game directly over your local Wi-Fi network. Nothing is sent over the internet, and nothing is kept after the game.

Reminders

If you turn reminders on, they're set up on your device by your phone's own notification system. No information is sent anywhere to do this. You can turn them off in the game's Settings or your phone's settings at any time.

Sharing

When you tap Share after a Daily Challenge, the game opens your device's share sheet with a short text about your result (it doesn't give away the words). You choose whether and where to send it.

Children

Letterless isn't directed at children under 13, and its developer doesn't knowingly collect personal information from anyone. The anonymous play stats and the Word Drive's word counts contain no personal information. The leaderboards show only the name a player chooses in the game (or a made-up one), filtered for offensive words.

Deleting your data

Step by step, with what's deleted and what's kept: Delete your Letterless data.

Settings > Reset progress erases your progress on your device, and the copy kept with your Google Play Games or Game Center account if you're signed in. Data held by Google Play Games can also be deleted from your Play Games profile, and Game Center data from your Apple account settings. Information Google collected for ads is tied to your device's advertising identifier, which you can reset or delete in your device's settings. The Word Drive's counts are kept under a random ID that isn't linked to you (see above); uninstalling the game stops any more being sent. Reset progress also takes your entries off the leaderboards; to have them removed without resetting, email the developer (below) the name you play under.

Changes

If a future version handles information differently, this policy will be updated before that version is released, with a new date at the top.

Contact

Questions about this policy: cosmeon2323@gmail.com