Ants Haul (“the App”) is developed by NextAd (“we”, “us”, “our”). This Privacy Policy explains what information the App collects, how it is used, and the choices you have. By using the App, you agree to this policy.
The App does not require an account and does not ask for personal information such as your email address, phone number, contacts, photos, calendar, or precise location.
The one thing you can type into the App is a display name for the leaderboard, and the App fills in a default one for you even if you never type anything. That name, and the count of levels you have cleared, are uploaded to our database and shown to other players. This is described in full under “Leaderboard and player profile” below.
Usage and gameplay analytics. We use Google Firebase Analytics (Google Analytics for Firebase) to understand how the App is played so we can balance the puzzles and improve the game. The App reports events such as:
These events describe how the game is played. They do not contain messages, contacts, files, or any content you create.
Information collected automatically by Firebase Analytics. The Firebase SDK also collects standard app-analytics information on our behalf, including:
Your IP address is transmitted with any internet request the App makes. Google uses it to derive the approximate location above, and Adjust receives it in order to attribute the install and to derive an approximate location of its own. We do not store IP addresses ourselves.
Attribution and marketing measurement. When we promote the App through advertising, we use Adjust (a mobile measurement service) to understand which campaigns lead to installs and how those installs perform. The Adjust SDK is built into the App and sends Adjust the install, app sessions, and a small set of gameplay milestone events (for example, starting to play, completing a level, and reaching a new best level), together with device information, your IP address, and your device’s advertising identifier — on Android the Google Advertising ID; on iOS, Apple’s privacy-preserving SKAdNetwork together with an identifier scoped to us as the vendor. This data is used for attribution and aggregate measurement, not to identify you personally.
No ad tracking on iOS. The App does not use Apple’s Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) and does not present the App Tracking Transparency prompt. On iOS, advertising measurement relies only on Apple’s SKAdNetwork, which reports campaign results to us in aggregate. If that ever changes, we will update this policy and ask for your permission first.
Level content downloads. When the App starts, it may download the current puzzle set from Google Cloud Firestore. That particular request only reads game content; it does not send us your progress. The App does write to the same database for the leaderboard, which is a separate request described next. If the download fails, the App falls back to the levels built into it and remains fully playable offline.
Leaderboard and player profile. The App has a leaderboard that ranks players by how many levels they have cleared, and a profile screen that shows your own entry. Taking part means the App writes a row about you into Google Cloud Firestore. Here is exactly what that row is:
That row is written when you open the profile screen, when you open the leaderboard, and when you change your display name. There is no consent prompt and no setting to turn it off. If you never open either of those two screens, no player ID is generated and no row is created.
The leaderboard is readable by anyone running the App, with no sign-in, so the display names and cleared-level counts on it are effectively public. Nothing else about you is readable there — the App has no friends list, no messaging, and no way for another player to open your profile.
Reporting a name. Because display names are written by other players, tapping someone’s row on the leaderboard lets you hide that name from your own copy of the App. The list of players you have hidden is kept on your device only and is never uploaded. That same screen also gives you our email address and that player’s ID, so you can ask us to take the name down for everyone; we review those by hand.
Deleting your leaderboard row. The App cannot delete it and uninstalling the App does not delete it — uninstalling only loses your link to it. To have the row deleted, email us at dev@nextad.ai with the player ID shown on your profile screen and we will delete it by hand.
On-device data. Your progress — the level you have reached, your best level, settings, chosen language, and the bookkeeping used to schedule reminders — is stored on your device. The save file itself is never uploaded anywhere; the ways progress information (such as a level number) reaches us are the analytics and attribution events described above and, once you have opened the profile screen or the leaderboard, the leaderboard row described above.
Notifications. Reminder notifications are scheduled locally on your device. There is no push server: we cannot send you a message, and no notification content leaves or enters your device.
We use analytics information to operate and improve the App: to see which levels are too hard or too easy, to understand where players stop playing, to measure engagement and retention, and to diagnose problems.
We use the leaderboard row for one thing only: to build the leaderboard and to show you your own standing on it. We do not use it to profile you, and we do not combine it with the analytics or attribution data described above.
We use attribution information to measure the performance of our own advertising — which campaign an install came from, and how players who arrived that way go on to play. We do not use any of this information to identify you personally, we do not build advertising profiles about you, and we do not show ads inside the App.
The App uses the following third-party services, each of which processes data under its own privacy policy:
These are the only third-party SDKs in the App. It contains no in-app advertising SDK, no crash- or session-recording SDK, and no social-network or login SDK.
We do not sell your information. Analytics data is processed by Google acting as our service provider, level content and leaderboard rows are stored by Google on our behalf, and attribution data is processed by Adjust acting as our service provider.
The leaderboard is public within the App. Your display name and your cleared-level counts are shown to every other player who opens the leaderboard. This is the only information about you that other people can see, and it is shown because that is what a leaderboard is — but it is worth stating plainly: if you type your real name into the name field, other players will see your real name.
When you install the App after interacting with one of our advertisements, Adjust shares limited attribution information — such as which advertising campaign led to the install — with the advertising network that served the ad, so that the campaign’s performance can be measured. On iOS, this reporting goes through Apple’s SKAdNetwork and reaches the advertising network in aggregate form.
We may disclose information if required to do so by law.
The App is intended for a general audience and is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us at the address below and we will take appropriate steps to delete it.
Event-level analytics data is retained by Google for up to 14 months from collection, after which it is deleted automatically; aggregated reporting data that cannot identify a device may be kept longer. Attribution data is retained by Adjust under Adjust’s own retention policy and the retention settings of our Adjust account. Data stored on your device remains until you clear it or uninstall the App. Your leaderboard row has no automatic expiry: it stays in the database until you ask us to delete it, as described in section 6.
We take reasonable measures to protect information. However, no method of electronic storage or transmission is completely secure.
Analytics, leaderboard, and attribution information may be processed on servers operated by Google and by Adjust in the United States and other countries.
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Changes will be posted on this page with a revised “Last updated” date.
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, contact us at dev@nextad.ai.