LINGRID
Privacy Policy
This policy explains how the LINGRID mobile app ("the app") and its developer, Beydanur Dönmez ("we", "us"), handle information. The app has no account system and no servers of our own. It uses advertising and consent services from Google. On iPhone and iPad it uses Apple's purchase (App Store), iCloud sync and Game Center services; on Android it uses Google Play's purchase (Google Play Billing), Google Play Games and Android backup services, each under the terms described below.
1. Who is responsible
Beydanur Dönmez, the developer and publisher of the app, is responsible for the app and for this policy. You can reach us at lingrid.sandbox@outlook.com.
2. Data stored only on your device
To make the game work, the app stores the following on your device, in the app's own storage: your puzzle progress and best scores, daily puzzle results and streak, your diamond balance and its transaction history, whether you have purchased Remove Ads, which colour themes you have unlocked, the free-puzzle allowance for the day, puzzles you have started, and your sound, music, colour theme and appearance settings. This data does not leave your device through the app, except as described in "Sync and backup" below, and we cannot see it. It is deleted when you delete the app, unless a copy has been kept in your iCloud account through iCloud sync. Your device's own backups (for example iCloud Backup) may also include it under Apple's control. There is one exception: the number of free puzzles and rewarded-ad allowances you have used that day (three numbers and that day's date) is also kept in the device keychain on iOS and in Google Play services' Block Store on Android, so that the daily allowances do not start over when you delete and reinstall the app on the same day. This record does not contain your identity or the puzzles you played and is not sent to us. On iOS it stays on that device and is not synced to iCloud. On Android the app does not add it to your Google cloud backup, but Google Play services may copy it to a new device when you move your data directly from the old one. The record is replaced the next time you open the app on a later day.
3. Game Center (Apple)
If you are signed in to Apple Game Center, the app sends the following to Apple so that leaderboards and achievements work: your daily puzzle score together with that day's puzzle number, your all-time total score, and your achievement progress. Your Game Center nickname and scores can be visible to other players on leaderboards. Game Center is operated by Apple under Apple's Privacy Policy; you can manage or turn it off in your device's Settings. The app uses your Game Center identity only to show whether you are signed in; it does not store it or send it anywhere else.
Google Play Games (Android). On Android, leaderboards and achievements run on Google Play Games services. If you are signed in to Google Play Games on your device, the app sends Google your daily puzzle score (as a number that includes that day's date) with the puzzle number, your all-time total score and the achievements you earn. Your Play Games player name and scores may be visible to other players on the leaderboards. Google processes this data under the Google Privacy Policy. If you do not sign in, the game works the same; only leaderboards and achievements are unavailable.
4. Advertising (Google Mobile Ads)
The app may show a short, full-screen interstitial ad between puzzles — when you leave the results screen of a puzzle you have just finished — but never while you are actively solving one. It also offers optional "rewarded" ads, shown only when you choose to watch them: on the home screen and in the diamond shop in exchange for diamonds, and on a locked level puzzle to open that puzzle. If you buy Remove Ads, the between-puzzle interstitial ads stop; the rewarded ads stay available because you choose to watch them. These ads are served by Google's Mobile Ads SDK. To request, show and measure them, Google and its advertising partners may process: an approximate, coarse location estimated from your IP address; non-user performance data such as app launch time, crash reports and hang rate, which is used for diagnostics and may also be used to help decide which ads to show, including by sharing it with other companies that display ads; a device identifier — your device's advertising identifier where allowed, or another app- or developer-bound identifier — used for third-party advertising, our own advertising and analytics; and information about which ads you have seen and how you use the app, such as app launches. This list is Google's own disclosure of what its SDK can collect, not our choice; see "How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services" and Google's Privacy Policy. Before showing ads to a user in the EEA, the UK or Switzerland, the app shows Google's consent message (the "UMP" form) so you can choose whether to allow personalised advertising.
5. App Tracking Transparency and non-personalised ads
On iOS, before the app first requests an ad it asks for your permission under Apple's App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework, shown in Turkish and in English. If you decline tracking, if you have turned tracking off for the app in your device's Settings, or if UMP consent has not been given, the app does not use your device's advertising identifier for tracking and only requests non-personalised ads — ads chosen without a profile built from your activity in other apps or websites. Non-personalised ads still use the Google Mobile Ads SDK data described above (for example, coarse location and a non-tracking device identifier), because Google's SDK needs that data to request, serve, measure and protect any ad, personalised or not. You can change your ATT choice at any time in your device's Settings > Privacy & Security > Tracking; where the EEA/UK/Switzerland consent message applies, you can change your choice from the link Google provides inside that message.
Android has no App Tracking Transparency. On Android you can reset or delete your advertising ID in Settings > Privacy > Ads (or Google > Ads); if the advertising ID is deleted or UMP consent is not given, only non-personalised ads are requested.
6. In-app purchases
The app offers in-app purchases — a one-time Remove Ads purchase and consumable diamond packs. All purchases are handled entirely by Apple through the App Store (StoreKit); we do not run our own store and we never receive your payment details, card number or billing address — Apple processes those under Apple's Privacy Policy. The app only receives confirmation of which product you bought and that the purchase succeeded, and finishes each transaction on your device. See our Terms of Use for what each purchase gives you and how Restore Purchases works.
On Android, all purchases are handled entirely by Google through Google Play Billing; we never receive your payment details, card number or billing address — Google processes them under its own Privacy Policy. The app stores on your device only which product you bought and the purchase key (purchase token) Google Play provides, which prevents the same purchase from being delivered twice. To restore Remove Ads, the app asks Google Play for the valid purchases of your account.
7. Sync and backup
When iCloud is turned on for the app on your device, the app uses Apple's iCloud key-value storage, part of your own iCloud account, to keep the following in sync across your devices and through a reinstall on the same iCloud account: your puzzle progress (the puzzles you have solved, your best scores and your daily puzzle results), your diamond balance and its transaction history, whether you have purchased Remove Ads, which colour themes you have unlocked, and your daily streak. This storage is operated by Apple under Apple's Privacy Policy; we have no server of our own and cannot see this data. If iCloud is off, or you are signed out of iCloud, this data stays only on your device as described in "Data stored only on your device" above, and is lost if you delete the app. To stop this syncing, open your device's Settings app, tap your name, then iCloud, and turn iCloud off for the app (or turn off iCloud Drive generally).
On Android the app uses Android's own backup (Auto Backup). If backup with your Google account is on, Android copies two of the app's files to your Google account backup about once a day while the device is idle: the local database with your game data (progress, scores, diamond balance and transaction history, Remove Ads, unlocked themes, streak, settings) and a sync copy of them. Android restores these files when you reinstall the app with the same Google account or move to a new phone. Android, not we, makes the backup; we have no access to it. Changes after the last backup may not be restored. You can manage or delete the backup in Settings > Google > Backup.
8. Permissions
The app does not ask for access to your camera, microphone, photos, precise location or contacts. It asks for permission to send notifications only if you choose daily reminders (below). It asks for permission to use your device's advertising identifier under Apple's App Tracking Transparency, only to support the advertising described above; you can decline this at any time (see "App Tracking Transparency and non-personalised ads").
Daily reminders (optional). The app never asks for notification permission when you first open it. After you finish your first daily puzzle, it asks in its own words whether you would like a reminder; only if you agree does it show Apple's notification permission prompt. Reminders are local notifications: the app schedules them on your device, at most two a day (one at the time you choose and, if you have a streak of two days or more, one later that evening), only for days whose daily puzzle you have not solved yet. No server is involved, no push token is created, and nothing about your reminders or your play is sent to us or to anyone else. You can turn reminders off or change their time in Settings (Ayarlar) at any time, and you can withdraw the permission in iOS Settings.
On Android, the app's release build declares 13 permissions. Six are tied to features: internet access; vibration (haptic feedback); Google Play Billing; the advertising ID permission (AD_ID) used by the Google Mobile Ads SDK; on Android 13 and later, the notification permission (POST_NOTIFICATIONS), asked only if you choose daily reminders; and run-at-startup (RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED) so scheduled reminders survive a restart. The reminder permission is asked after the app's own explanation screen; no exact-alarm permission is requested, so a reminder may arrive a few minutes late. The other seven are technical permissions added by the Google Mobile Ads SDK and Android libraries that show you no prompt: network state, wake lock, foreground service, Android's ad services (ADSERVICES: advertising ID, topics and attribution; three permissions) and one permission Android uses to keep the app's own internal messages private. There is no camera, microphone, location, contacts, photos or storage permission.
9. Network
All puzzles, sounds and images are included in the app. The app connects to the internet for: Apple Game Center, as described above; Google's advertising and consent services, to request and show ads and to gather advertising consent; and Apple's App Store/StoreKit and iCloud services, for purchases and sync. On Android the app also connects to Google Play for purchases and to Google Play Games for leaderboards; backup is performed by Android. The app shows these legal texts without a connection. When you open their web version, your browser loads it from GitHub Pages, a service of GitHub, Inc., which processes technical request data such as your IP address to deliver the page. This website uses no cookies and no analytics.
10. Children
LINGRID is a general-audience word-learning game; we do not direct its marketing at children under 13 and do not knowingly collect personal information from children. A user who has not given tracking consent, of any age, is only ever shown non-personalised ads, as described above. If you believe a child has given us personal information, contact us and we will take appropriate action.
11. Your rights
We hold no personal data of our own beyond what is described above, so there is little for us to access, correct or delete directly. You can delete the data stored on your device by deleting the app; this does not delete a copy kept in your iCloud account, which you control from your device's Settings app under your name, then iCloud. For your Apple ID, Game Center or purchase data, contact Apple. For the advertising data Google's SDK has processed about you, use Google's own controls at myadcenter.google.com, or the choices described in "App Tracking Transparency and non-personalised ads" above. On Android you can delete the backup copy in your Google account in Settings > Google > Backup, and manage your Play Games data in the Google Play Games app or your Google account. You can still write to us with any privacy question.
12. Additional information for users in Türkiye under the Personal Data Protection Law (KVKK)
Under Law No. 6698 on the Protection of Personal Data (Kişisel Verilerin Korunması Kanunu, "KVKK"), the data controller (veri sorumlusu) responsible for the personal data described in this policy is Beydanur Dönmez, the app's developer. For any KVKK-related request, write to lingrid.sandbox@outlook.com.
Under KVKK article 5, each purpose above rests on one legal basis. Storing your puzzle progress, wallet, daily free-puzzle allowance and settings on your device, handling in-app purchases through Apple or Google Play, sending your score and achievements to Game Center or Google Play Games when you are signed in, and syncing or backing up your data through iCloud or Android backup when you turn it on, are all necessary for the establishment or performance of the contract under which you use the app and the features you choose (article 5/2(c)) — no separate consent is needed for these. Showing personalised advertising and using your device's advertising identifier for tracking rest on your explicit consent (article 5/1), given or withdrawn through the ATT and UMP consent screens described above. The data Google's Mobile Ads SDK needs to request, serve, measure and protect any ad even when you have not consented to tracking (for example coarse location, a non-tracking device identifier, and diagnostic, performance and crash data) rests on our and Google's legitimate interest in operating and securing the free, ad-supported version of the app, without prejudice to your fundamental rights and freedoms (article 5/2(f)).
Yurt dışına aktarım / transfer abroad: Google (Mobile Ads SDK and UMP; on Android also Google Play Billing, Google Play Games and Android backup) and Apple (App Store/StoreKit, Game Center, iCloud) may process the data described above on servers located outside Türkiye, including in the United States. This transfer takes place under KVKK article 9, as amended by Law No. 7499 with effect from 1 June 2024: for personalised advertising and tracking, the transfer rests on your explicit consent; for purchases, Game Center and iCloud sync, it rests on the transfer being directly related to the establishment or performance of the very service you asked for, one of the exceptional grounds listed in article 9(6). Providing the appropriate safeguards KVKK requires for these transfers (such as their own standard contractual clauses) is Google's and Apple's own responsibility as global processors; we do not operate a server of our own that receives this data.
Under KVKK article 11, you have the right to: (a) learn whether your personal data is being processed; (b) request information about it if it has been processed; (c) learn the purpose of the processing and whether it is used in accordance with that purpose; (ç) know the third parties, in Türkiye or abroad, to whom your data is transferred; (d) request correction if it has been processed incompletely or incorrectly; (e) request its deletion or destruction, within the conditions set out in the law; (f) request that any correction, deletion or destruction be notified to the third parties to whom your data was transferred; (g) object to a result against you that arises solely from the automated analysis of your data; and (ğ) claim compensation for damage you suffer because of unlawful processing.
To exercise these rights, write to us at lingrid.sandbox@outlook.com; under KVKK article 13 we handle your request free of charge, as quickly as possible and within 30 days at the latest (a fee may apply only for a request that itself requires an additional cost, at the tariff the Personal Data Protection Board sets). If we reject your request, you find our answer insufficient, or we do not answer in time, KVKK article 14 lets you complain to the Personal Data Protection Board (Kişisel Verileri Koruma Kurulu, kvkk.gov.tr) within 30 days of learning our answer and, in any case, within 60 days of your original request.
13. Changes
If the app starts handling data differently, we will update this policy before that version is released and change the date above.
14. Contact
Beydanur Dönmez · lingrid.sandbox@outlook.com