App privacy policy

In short: Our games store progress and settings on your device. You don't need an account. Our apps are funded by ads and the optional "Plus" (subscription or one-time purchase). For the ads, usage statistics and crash reports we share data such as an advertising identifier, device information and the IP address with service providers and ad networks – in the EU, the EEA, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, for personalized ads and statistics only with your consent. You can change your choice at any time in the app's settings. With "Plus" you see no ads.

1. Scope

This privacy policy applies to all games and apps published by mauigo GmbH under its own developer account on the Apple App Store and Google Play, in particular "Balcation" (German "Balkonien").

2. Controller

3. Downloads, purchases and "Plus"

You download our apps from the Apple App Store or Google Play. Apple and Google process the data needed for the download and payment – including the purchase of "Plus" – as independent controllers. We do not receive your name, email address or payment details.

The app asks the store whether you own "Plus" and remembers this on your device, so that "Plus" also works offline. We do not store any receipt. You manage and cancel subscriptions in your store account settings. See the privacy information of Apple and Google.

4. Data on your device

Our apps store game progress, statistics and settings locally on your device; this data is not transmitted to us. Deleting the app also deletes this data. Depending on your device settings, it may be included in your personal device backup (for example with iCloud or Google), for which the respective provider is responsible.

5. Usage statistics and crash reports (Google Firebase)

Usage statistics: In the EU, the EEA, the United Kingdom and Switzerland our apps only send usage statistics if you agree in the consent dialog on first launch (see section 6). In all other countries they are on from the start. Everywhere you can switch them off in the app's settings.

Crash reports: They are on from the start so that we can find and fix errors quickly, and you can switch them off in the settings at any time.

The games work the same either way.

Why: We want to understand which games people enjoy, where they get stuck and which errors occur, so we can improve the games.

What is sent:

• Usage statistics (Google Analytics for Firebase): which games and levels you play, the start and end of a round with its result and duration, help you use such as "Hint" or "Undo", your in-app settings (such as text size or appearance), which ads were shown (ad network, format, placement, estimated revenue), whether a "Plus" purchase was completed or cancelled (for a purchase Firebase also records product, price and currency), and the app version, device model, operating system and language. Google derives your approximate country, region and city from the IP address; Google Analytics does not store the IP address itself.
• Crash reports (Firebase Crashlytics): when the app crashes, the technical sequence in the app (stack trace), its state and device data such as model, operating system, free memory and time.
• Random installation identifiers (Firebase installation ID, app instance ID, Crashlytics installation ID), so that related events can be counted. Firebase does not read your device's advertising ID.
• Remote settings (Firebase Remote Config): on launch the app asks Google for current settings, for example how often ad breaks come or whether a newer version is needed. This sends the Firebase installation ID, app version, operating system, language and the IP address. It only happens when statistics or crash reports are switched on; otherwise the values built into the app apply.

Provider: Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland, and Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA. Google processes the data on our behalf (Art. 28 GDPR). Data may be transferred to the USA; Google LLC is certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, and the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses apply in addition. More: Privacy and Security in Firebase.

Legal basis: for usage statistics in the EU, the EEA, the United Kingdom and Switzerland your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR, § 25(1) TDDDG), otherwise our legitimate interest in improving the games (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). For crash reports and remote settings our legitimate interest in a stable, error-free app that we can adjust quickly when problems occur (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR); you can object to crash reports by switching them off in the settings.

Retention: usage statistics are deleted after 14 months at the latest, crash reports after 90 days.

Withdrawal and switching off: You can switch statistics and crash reports off separately at any time in the app under Settings → Privacy. From then on no new data is sent; data already sent is deleted after the periods above.

6. Advertising

Our apps are free and funded by ads: a short ad break after a round has ended (never during play, not in your first session) and optional video clips, for example for a second chance. With "Plus" you see no ads.

How the ads get into the app: We use AppLovin MAX. For every ad, AppLovin collects bids from several ad networks and shows the ad with the highest bid. For this, AppLovin and the ad networks receive data from your device.

Which data: your device's advertising identifier (Google advertising ID or Apple's IDFA, the latter only with your permission), device information (model, operating system, language, screen, network connection), the IP address and your approximate location derived from it (country, region), information about the app (name, version) and about the ads (which ad was shown, viewed or tapped). We do not collect your name, email address, contacts, photos or precise location.

Why: to deliver and bill ads, limit how often you see them, detect fraud, measure how ads perform and – only with your consent or permission – choose ads based on your interests.

Consent in the EU, the EEA, the United Kingdom and Switzerland: On first launch the app uses Google's consent dialog (certified under the IAB Transparency and Consent Framework) to ask whether data may be stored on and read from your device and used for personalized ads and measurement. You can accept everything, reject everything or choose individually. Your answer also applies to the usage statistics in section 5. If you decline, you still see ads, but not personalized ones; only the data technically needed to deliver them is processed. You can change your choice at any time in the app under Settings → Privacy → "Ads and statistics", which opens the same dialog again.

Tracking request on iPhone: On iPhone and iPad the app uses Apple's request ("App Tracking Transparency") to ask whether it may track your activity across other companies' apps and websites. Only if you allow it do the ad networks receive Apple's advertising identifier (IDFA). You can change this at any time in the iPhone settings under Privacy & Security → Tracking.

On Android devices you can reset or delete the advertising ID at any time in the device settings (Google → Ads).

Outside the EU, the EEA, the United Kingdom and Switzerland we show personalized ads without asking first; you can opt out of the use of the advertising identifier in your device settings.

Providers and their privacy policies:

• AppLovin Corporation, USA (mediation and its own ads): privacy policy
• Google Ireland Limited / Google LLC (AdMob): privacy policy, how Google uses data from partner apps
• Meta Platforms Ireland Limited (Meta Audience Network): privacy policy
• Unity Technologies (Unity Ads): privacy policy
• Mintegral: privacy policy
• Liftoff Mobile, Inc. (Liftoff Monetize, formerly Vungle): privacy policy
• Digital Turbine, Inc. (DT Exchange): privacy policy
• Moloco, Inc.: privacy policy

Responsibility: We are jointly responsible with each provider for embedding the ads and transmitting the data to the provider; the provider alone is responsible for any further processing, such as selecting personalized ads.

Third countries: Several providers process data outside the EU, for example in the USA or in Asia. This is based, where available, on an adequacy decision of the European Commission (for certified companies in the USA the EU-US Data Privacy Framework), otherwise on the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses.

Legal basis: In the EU, the EEA, the United Kingdom and Switzerland your consent for storing and reading data on your device and for personalized ads (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR, § 25(1) TDDDG); for non-personalized ads and fraud detection our legitimate interest in offering the app for free and preventing abuse (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). Outside these regions our legitimate interest in funding the app.

Retention: How long the providers keep data is set out in their privacy policies linked above.

7. Contact and support

If you email us, for example via our support page, we process your email address and the content of your message in order to reply (Art. 6(1)(b) or (f) GDPR). We delete the data once your enquiry has been fully dealt with, unless statutory retention obligations apply.

"Write to us" in the settings opens your email app with our address feedback@mauigo.com. Below your message the app adds the app version, device model and operating system, so we can trace an error. You see everything before sending and can change it; the app itself sends nothing.

8. Children

Our apps are intended for a general adult audience and are not directed at children under 16. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children.

9. Deleting your data

Our apps have no user accounts. You delete locally stored data by uninstalling the app. Usage statistics, crash reports and ad data are only linked to random identifiers or your device's advertising identifier; we cannot attribute them to a person and therefore cannot look them up for you specifically (Art. 11 GDPR). They are deleted after the periods given above or under the providers' rules. If you reset the advertising identifier in your device settings, the providers can no longer link earlier data to your device.

10. Your rights

You have the right at any time to

• access the data we hold about you (Art. 15 GDPR),
• have incorrect data rectified (Art. 16 GDPR),
• have your data erased (Art. 17 GDPR),
• restrict processing (Art. 18 GDPR),
• data portability (Art. 20 GDPR) and
• withdraw any consent you have given, with effect for the future (Art. 7(3) GDPR) – in the app under Settings → Privacy.

Right to object (Art. 21 GDPR): Where we process data on the basis of Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR, you may object at any time on grounds relating to your particular situation.

Just send a short email to contact@mauigo.com.

California and other US states: We do not sell your personal information for money. Sharing data with ad networks for personalized ads may count as "sharing" or "targeted advertising" under the laws of some US states. You can opt out by limiting ad tracking or deleting the advertising ID in your device settings, or by emailing contact@mauigo.com.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority (Art. 77 GDPR). The authority responsible for us is the Bavarian Data Protection Authority (Bayerisches Landesamt für Datenschutzaufsicht, BayLDA), Promenade 18, 91522 Ansbach, Germany, www.lda.bayern.de.

11. Changes

We update this privacy policy when our apps or the legal situation change. The version published here applies.