Introduction
This Privacy Policy explains what information Cross Word: Bible Crossword
(“the app”) collects, how it is used, and what choices you have. It
applies to the Android application published by PiousPithGames under the package
name com.piouspithgames.crosswordgame.
The app stores some information on your device and sends some information to services operated by us and by third parties. Both are described below.
Information Stored On Your Device
The following is kept locally, in Unity PlayerPrefs and in SQLite databases inside the app's private storage:
- Game progress — puzzles completed, stars earned, current grid state, unlocked content, daily-reward streak
- Preferences — sound and music volume, display and difficulty settings
- Currency balances — gems and Sacred Hearts
- Downloaded content — puzzle packs, devotional and scripture content cached for offline play
- Gameplay analytics — session times and feature-usage counters, held in a local database
Information Sent To Services We Operate
Account and saved progress (Unity Gaming Services)
The app signs you in through Unity Authentication and receives a player identifier — a random string that is not your name or email. Your saved progress, currency balances, your Bible notes and studies, and your invite code are synchronised to Unity Cloud Save so they survive reinstalling the app or moving to a new device.
This means your game data does leave your device. It is transmitted over an encrypted connection and stored by Unity on our behalf.
Invites (Google Play Install Referrer)
Each player gets a random invite code (it is not your player identifier). When you share an invite link and a friend installs the app from it, the friend’s app reads the code from Google Play’s install information and saves, in the friend’s own Cloud Save, which code invited them and when the install began. Nothing is recorded for installs that did not come from an invite link. No names or contacts are read or shared.
Game content delivery (Google Firebase)
The app downloads puzzle packs and devotional content from Google Firestore. These are read-only downloads. No personal information is sent as part of them.
Purchases and currency (PiousPithGames currency service)
When you make an in-app purchase, or when your gem and Sacred Heart balances change, the app may send the following to a service we operate on Google Cloud:
- Your Unity player identifier
- An identifier for your device, so balances from more than one phone are applied correctly
- The Google Play purchase token and product identifier for a purchase
- Currency balance changes, and identifiers used to make sure a purchase or a spend is applied exactly once
We use this to confirm with Google that a purchase was genuine, to deliver what you paid for, and to make sure it is delivered only once. We keep a record of purchases and balance changes so that a failed or interrupted purchase can be investigated and put right.
To verify a purchase, we ask Google Play whether the purchase token is valid. We do not receive your payment-card details at any point — Google Play handles payment, and we never see it.
Information Collected By Third Parties
Advertising
The app includes advertising through Unity LevelPlay and Unity Ads (no other ad networks are used). The app asks these services to show non-personalised ads only: it tells them you have not consented to personalised advertising and that your information must not be sold. When advertising is active, they may still collect and process:
- Your device's Google Advertising ID
- Device and network information such as device model, operating system version, language and coarse location derived from IP address
- Interactions with ads shown to you
- Diagnostics about how ads load and display, and purchase history as described in Unity’s own disclosures
This is the most significant collection of information in the app, and it is performed by the advertising providers rather than by us. Their handling of that data is governed by their own privacy policies:
You can reset or delete your Advertising ID, or opt out of personalised advertising, in your device's Settings under Google › Ads.
Purchasing the “Remove Ads” item stops advertisements being shown.
Google Play Games Services
If you sign in with Google Play Games, Google provides the app with your Play Games player identifier and display name. This is governed by Google's privacy policy.
Google Play Billing
All purchases are processed by Google Play. We receive confirmation that a purchase occurred and an order identifier. We do not receive or store your payment details.
What We Do Not Collect
We do not ask for, collect, or store:
- Your name, email address, postal address or telephone number
- Photographs, contacts, calendar entries, files or microphone input
- Precise location
- Payment-card or bank details
We do not sell your information, and we do not share it with third parties except as described in this policy.
Age of Users
Cross Word is intended for users aged 13 and over. It is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect information from them. If you believe a child under 13 has provided information to us, please contact us and we will delete it.
Data Retention and Deletion
Progress, notes and currency data are kept while your account exists, so that you can restore your game.
You can:
- Delete your account yourself in the app: Settings › Account › Delete Account. Without the app, sign in with the Google account you played with through the link on our Delete Account page. Details, including exactly what is deleted, are on our Delete Account page.
- Delete local data only by uninstalling the app or clearing its storage in Android Settings
After an account is deleted we keep only: purchase records (Google’s order number, the purchase token, the item, the date, what it gave and any refund record) so a purchase is never credited twice and for accounting; a deletion record (the former player identifier and the date) so a deleted account can never be written to again; and, only if our support team ever adjusted your balance, the support adjustment record. These are no longer attached to a playable account, but they are not anonymous. Each is deleted automatically 7 years after the deletion (or after the adjustment).
Data Security
Information travelling between the app and our services is encrypted in transit using HTTPS. Data held in our currency service is stored in Google Cloud with access restricted to the service itself; it is not readable by the app or by other players.
International Users
Our services are operated in the United States. If you use the app from elsewhere, information described in this policy is transferred to and processed in the United States.
Changes to This Policy
If we change this policy we will update the “Last Updated” date above. Material changes affecting how we handle your information will also be noted in the app.
Contact Us
Questions about this policy, or requests relating to your data, can be sent to:
PiousPithGames
PiousPithGames@gmail.com