Privacy Policy

1. Who We Are (Data Controller)

The data controller responsible for the personal information described in this policy is:

We trade as Brainy Bunch Games (the "studio", "we", "us"). This policy explains how we handle personal information across our website (brainybunchgames.co.uk) and the games we publish, including Wordy Bunch™ (UK trademark application UK00004382983, classes 9 and 41).

Each of our games may have its own product-specific privacy notice with additional detail about that game. Where a product notice exists, it controls; this studio-wide policy fills the gaps and describes our overall approach.

2. What We Collect

From our website

Our website is largely static. We do not set advertising cookies and we do not run third-party analytics. Standard server logs (IP address, browser user-agent, time of request) are retained briefly by our hosting provider for security and abuse-prevention purposes.

From our games

Our games are anonymous by default. To make a multiplayer game work, we store a small amount of data tied to an anonymous identifier generated automatically when you first open the app — not your real name. An email address only reaches us if you opt in to a sign-in method (see the first bullet). The exact set varies by game, but typically includes:

• Email address (optional) — only if you choose to Sign in with Apple, Sign in with Google, or link an email address from a game's Settings. Where supported, this stores the email returned by your identity provider against your anonymous identifier so your profile is restored when you reinstall the app or sign in on another device. Used only for account recovery and cross-device sign-in — never for marketing, drip emails, or sharing with third parties. You can skip sign-in entirely and keep playing fully anonymously.
• Display name and avatar (emoji + colour, or a chosen sprite) you pick in the game
• Region (e.g. UK / US) for matchmaking, leaderboards, and the daily challenge seed
• Game stats — scores, words found, ranked rating, daily streak, achievements, campaign progress
• Friend code (a short in-app code you share with friends) and friends list (IDs of accepted connections)
• Presence — when you last opened the app and a coarse activity tag (e.g. "in a multiplayer game") so your friends can see if you're online. You can hide this from inside the game.
• Match data — during an active multiplayer round, the room state, words found, and any in-game quick-chat messages. This is transient and is cleaned up automatically after the round ends.
• Game invites — if you invite a friend (or are invited by one) to a multiplayer lobby, we record who invited whom and the room code so the invite can be delivered and opened. Invite records expire automatically and are swept within a day.
• Word reports and suggestions — if you report an offensive word or suggest a missing one from inside a game, the word string is saved with your anonymous identifier so we can review the list periodically. Reports never include any other context about you.
• Notification (push) token — only if you opt in to notifications, the game registers your device's push token with our backend so we can deliver the notifications you've asked for (for example, a friend inviting you to a game). The token is a delivery address, not an advertising identifier; it is removed when you turn notifications off or delete your in-game profile.
• Anonymous gameplay event counts (e.g. "demo started", "tutorial finished") used to improve the game. Each count is a single row in our database with the event name and a timestamp — no identifier, no IP address, no device information. We cannot tell who took an action, only that one happened.

Some game preferences are stored only on your device and never sent to us — for example, sound and music settings, haptics/theme/motion preferences, achievement progress cache, dictionary lookups, tutorial flags, and (if you opt in) the time-of-day for an on-device daily-challenge reminder. That daily reminder is scheduled by your phone's operating system, with nothing sent over the network.

Notifications are opt-in. They are off until you turn them on, and can be switched off again at any time in the game's settings or your device settings. Turning them off (or deleting your in-game profile) also removes any push token we hold for you.

We do not require you to give us an email address, phone number, or social-network login to play. Sign-in is offered in some games as an optional convenience for cross-device profile restore (see the first bullet); skip it and you can keep playing fully anonymously. If a feature ever requires extra information, the in-game prompt will explain what's collected and why.

Aggregate gameplay analytics (in-house only)

To understand how our games are being used and to guide design decisions (e.g. whether a feature is reached, whether multiplayer rounds complete, whether the campaign is too hard), we aggregate gameplay data we already store — words found per round, scores, daily-challenge completion, multiplayer-match outcomes, purchase history — into anonymised summary tables inside our own backend. These summaries are linked to your anonymous identifier so we can compute things like "what percentage of players reach campaign level 10". They are never shared with third-party analytics services, advertising networks, or data brokers, and they are not used to profile you individually or to personalise the experience.

What we do not collect

• Phone number, real name, postal address, or government ID
• Location data (GPS, IP-based, or otherwise)
• Device advertising identifiers (IDFA / GAID)
• Contacts, calendar, photos, microphone, or camera
• Third-party behavioural-analytics SDK data — we have not integrated Firebase Analytics, Amplitude, Mixpanel, AppsFlyer, or any third-party analytics service. We use Sentry for crash and performance diagnostics only (see Section 4). We use Firebase Cloud Messaging solely to deliver notifications on Android; Google Analytics for Firebase is disabled. Aggregate gameplay metrics are computed inside our own backend; nothing is forwarded to third-party trackers.
• Payment card numbers or billing addresses — in-app purchases are processed by Apple App Store or Google Play directly

In-app purchases

Our games are free to download and play. Where a game offers optional in-app purchases, those purchases are cosmetic only (avatars, themes, card backgrounds, visual finishes) and do not affect gameplay — every game mode, leaderboard, daily challenge, and level is fully accessible without paying. Purchases are processed by Apple or Google directly; we never see your card number, billing address, or any payment credential. We use RevenueCat to validate purchase receipts and restore your entitlements when you re-install the app; RevenueCat receives an anonymous customer identifier (linked to your in-game ID — no personal data) plus the receipt from the App Store or Play Store. It does not receive your name, email, payment details, or device advertising identifier.

Launch-notification email lists

Some of our individual game marketing sites (for example, wordybunch.co.uk) include an optional "be the first to know" form. If you submit your email address there, we store the email and the date on our own backend — nothing else, no name, no IP, no marketing tracking pixels. The lawful basis is your consent (UK GDPR Article 6(1)(a)), and we will email you once, when that game launches on the App Store and Google Play. You can unsubscribe at any time by emailing the contact address on that game's site, and if a launch is cancelled or postponed indefinitely we will delete the list without sending anything. The form is purely optional; our apps themselves do not include it.

For game-specific detail (which exact event names we count, which exact preferences are local-only, etc.) see each game's own privacy notice — for Wordy Bunch™ that's wordybunch.co.uk/privacy.html.

3. How We Use It

We use the information above only to:

• Run multiplayer matches, leaderboards, friends lists, and daily challenges
• Track your own progress, stats, and achievements within the game
• Detect cheating, abuse, and bugs
• Improve the game using anonymous, aggregate data

We do not use your data for advertising or for profiling you across other apps and websites.

4. Who We Share It With

We share data with a small number of infrastructure providers that help us run the service. These providers process data on our behalf under their own privacy and security commitments.

• Supabase — hosts our database, authentication, and realtime channels. Anonymous auth means no personal credentials are passed.
• Apple App Store and Google Play — distribute our apps and process any in-app purchases. Apple/Google handle payment directly; we never see your card or billing details.
• RevenueCat — validates in-app purchase receipts and restores entitlements when you re-install. Receives an anonymous customer identifier plus the purchase receipt only.
• Sentry — crash and performance diagnostics. If a game crashes, hangs, or runs into an unexpected error, Sentry records the technical context (stack trace, breadcrumbs of recent in-app actions, device model, OS version, app version) tagged with your anonymous identifier so we can match a crash to a single user without identifying you personally. Sentry does not receive your email, display name, game content, or any advertising identifier. We use it strictly to fix bugs and improve stability.
• Notification delivery — if you enable notifications in a game, Expo's push service (plus Apple Push Notification service on iOS or Firebase Cloud Messaging on Android, used solely as a delivery pipe — Google Analytics for Firebase is disabled) relays the notifications you've asked for to your device.
• Word definition lookups — if a game offers in-app dictionary lookups, the app sends only the word string itself to one of dictionaryapi.dev, Datamuse, or Wikimedia REST. No user identifier or device information is included.

We do not embed advertising SDKs, tracking pixels, or third-party analytics. We do not sell, rent, or trade personal data with anyone.

5. Children

Our games are designed to be safe for general audiences and are rated 4+. We do not knowingly collect more information than is required to play, and we have no advertising or behavioural-tracking SDKs that target children. If you believe a child has shared personal information with us, please contact us and we will remove it promptly.

6. Your Rights

Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018 (and similar laws elsewhere), you have the right to:

• Access the personal data we hold about you
• Have inaccurate data corrected
• Have your data erased ("right to be forgotten")
• Object to, or restrict, certain processing
• Receive a copy of your data in a portable format
• Withdraw any consent you've given

Because our games use an anonymous identifier, the simplest way to exercise these rights is from inside the game itself — most games include a "Delete my data" option in Settings. You can also email [email protected] and we'll handle it manually within one month, in line with UK GDPR.

Right to complain. If you're not happy with how we've handled your information, you have the right to complain to the UK supervisory authority: the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF — ico.org.uk. We'd appreciate the chance to address your concern first, but you're entitled to go to the ICO at any time.

7. Data Retention

We keep gameplay data for as long as your in-game account remains active. If you delete your in-game profile, we delete your personal data from our active systems and from backups within a reasonable rotation period. Aggregate, anonymised statistics that cannot be linked back to you may be kept for analytical purposes.

• Server-side anonymous profile — persists indefinitely so your stats, friends, and ranked rating survive app reinstalls. Deleted on request.
• Inactive multiplayer rooms — swept automatically once they go stale, including any chat or word data that was tied to them.
• Notification tokens and game invites — push tokens are kept while notifications are enabled and removed when you turn them off or delete your profile; game-invite records expire within minutes and are swept within a day.
• Word reports and suggestions — retained for moderation review, processed in batches and removed once acted on.
• Launch-notification email signups — kept until launch is sent (or unsubscribed/deleted on request), then removed.
• On-device data — kept on your device until you uninstall the app or clear its storage.

8. Security

We use industry-standard infrastructure (encrypted connections, row-level security on our database, server-side validation of competitive actions) to protect your data. No system is perfect — if we ever suffer a breach that affects you, we will notify you and the relevant supervisory authority as required by law.

9. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The "Last updated" date at the top reflects the most recent change. For material changes affecting how we use personal data, we'll surface a notice in the game or on this page before the change takes effect.

10. Contact

Questions, concerns, or data-rights requests:

For the Wordy Bunch–specific privacy notice, see wordybunch.co.uk/privacy.html.