Privacy policy - Shikaku Kingdom

Effective date: 2026-09-29

Published at: https://shikaku.benbasha.com/privacy

This policy covers the Shikaku Kingdom mobile app for iPhone, iPad and Android (bundle and package id com.benbasha.shikaku) and the website shikaku.benbasha.com. The app is made by Ben Basha ("we", "us"). Contact: shikaku@benbasha.com.

The short version

• There is no account. The app never asks for your name, email address, phone number or contacts, and it has no server of its own.
• Your game (levels, stars, coins, streak, settings) is saved on your device only.
• The free game shows ads served by Google AdMob, which can also route an ad request to Meta Audience Network, Liftoff (Vungle) and AppLovin. Ad networks receive device and ad-interaction data, and, only if you allow it, your advertising identifier.
• With "Share usage data" on, the app sends anonymous product analytics to Mixpanel and crash reports to Google Firebase Crashlytics. It starts off if your device's region is in the European Economic Area, the UK or Switzerland (or cannot be determined), and on elsewhere. You can turn it on or off at any time in Settings > Privacy.
• Purchases are handled by the App Store or Google Play. Game Center scores (iPhone and iPad) go to Apple.
• We do not sell your data for money. Ad networks may receive your device's advertising identifier to personalise ads, which some US state laws call "sharing" (see "Selling and sharing" below for how to opt out).

What stays on your device

The app keeps everything it needs on the device, in its own private storage:

• Level progress, stars, best times and the board you are in the middle of
• Coins, hint tokens, the Daily Dispatch streak and streak freezes
• Settings (theme, colours, timer, sounds, reminder time, "Share usage data")
• Counters the app uses to space out ads (for example how many ads were shown today and when the last one was shown)
• Whether you own Remove Ads, and which coin purchases were already credited
• If you use Game Center: the scores and achievements waiting to be sent, and your Game Center player id (to notice when a different player signs in)

None of this is uploaded by the app. Deleting the app deletes all of it. On Android the app turns off Android backup and device-to-device transfer, so this data is not copied to Google Drive or to a new phone. On iPhone and iPad the data may be included in the device backups you make yourself (iCloud Backup or a computer), under your Apple settings.

There is no "sign in to sync", so we cannot restore your progress or coins for you.

Advertising

The game is free and supported by ads:

• Ads between levels (interstitials). Never during a puzzle. They start only after you have completed 15 levels and are on your third session or later, then at most one every 3 completed levels, at least 3 minutes apart, and at most 8 a day. Never after a boss level, a daily puzzle, the tutorial or a replay. There are no banner ads.
• Optional videos (rewarded ads). Only when you tap "Watch a short video" (for coins, a hint when you are short of coins, doubling a chest's coins, a streak freeze, or to skip a level). You choose every one.

Ads are served by Google AdMob. Through AdMob mediation, Meta Audience Network, Liftoff (Vungle) and AppLovin may also bid to fill an ad request, so they may receive the same kind of request data. No ad SDK starts, and no ad is requested, until you have finished the short first-run introduction and the consent steps below.

To serve, measure and protect ads against fraud, these networks may collect:

• Your device's advertising identifier (Apple IDFA on iPhone and iPad, the Google Advertising ID on Android), only where your device and your choices allow it (below)
• Your IP address, from which an approximate location (country or region) can be derived
• Device and app information: device model, operating system version, language, app version and similar technical details
• Ad interactions: which ads were requested, shown, watched or tapped
• Diagnostics about how the ad SDK performs (for example load times and SDK errors)

Your choices:

• iPhone and iPad (App Tracking Transparency). After the introduction, iOS asks whether the app may track you. If you choose "Ask App Not to Track", the advertising identifier is not available to the app or to any ad network. You can change this any time in iOS Settings > Privacy & Security > Tracking.
• European Economic Area, UK, Switzerland and other regions where it applies (Google consent form). The app uses Google's User Messaging Platform. Where the law requires it, a consent form appears before any ad is requested, and it decides whether ads may be personalized. You can review or change your choice any time in the app: Settings > Privacy > Privacy choices (this row appears when your region requires it). If consent cannot be checked, the app requests no ads in that session; the game stays fully playable.
• Android. You can reset or delete your Advertising ID, or opt out of ad personalization, in your device's Google settings (Settings > Google > Ads, or Settings > Privacy > Ads, depending on the device).
• Remove Ads (a one-time purchase) turns off the ads between levels. Optional videos stay available, so the ad SDK still starts when you have Remove Ads and keeps one optional video ready, but a video is only shown when you choose to watch it.

The ad networks' own policies describe how they use this data:

• Google: https://policies.google.com/privacy and https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites
• Meta Audience Network: https://www.facebook.com/privacy/policy/
• Liftoff (Vungle): https://liftoff.io/privacy-policy/
• AppLovin: https://www.applovin.com/privacy/

Analytics and crash reports ("Share usage data")

"Share usage data" is in Settings > Privacy. Until you change it, it follows your device's region setting: it starts off if the region is in the European Economic Area, the UK or Switzerland, or if the app cannot tell the region, and on everywhere else. Once you flip the switch, your choice is kept and the region no longer matters. Nothing is sent before the app has made this decision at launch. While it is on, the app sends:

• Anonymous product analytics to Mixpanel. Events such as a level started or completed (level number, board size, time, stars, hints and checks used), a daily puzzle completed, a hint used, an ad shown or a video reward earned, a screen opened, a store or Remove Ads screen opened, a purchase started, completed or not completed (which product and the outcome, never a price), the introduction steps, and whether you allowed reminders. Every event also carries your highest completed level, your streak, and whether you own Remove Ads. Mixpanel's SDK adds technical details (operating system and version, device model, app version, screen size, network type).
• Crash reports to Google Firebase Crashlytics. When the app crashes, or hits an error it recovers from (for example a failed save), Crashlytics records a stack trace, the app version and device state (model, OS version, free memory and disk). Crashlytics' automatic sending is always off: a report stays on your device, and the app sends it at a later launch only if "Share usage data" was on for the whole time the app was open when it was recorded, and is on at that launch. A report recorded while "Share usage data" was off at any point is deleted from your device at a later launch (the app keeps deleting until it has confirmed none is left) and never sent, even if you turn sharing back on. To be safe, reports recorded right after such a period may be deleted too.

What these do not contain: no name, email, phone number, contacts or precise location, no text you type (the app has no field for typing text), no advertising identifier, and no price or payment detail. Events are grouped by a random identifier that the Mixpanel SDK creates when the app is first installed; Crashlytics uses its own random installation identifier. Neither is tied to you, and both change if you reinstall. The app tells Mixpanel not to use the IP address of a request to look up a location, and it does not include Google Analytics for Firebase.

Turning "Share usage data" off stops both: Mixpanel is opted out at once, and crash reports recorded from then on are not sent (a later launch deletes them). In a rare case, if your device storage is completely full at the moment you turn it off and the app closes before it can record that choice, a crash report from that session could still be sent later. Reports from earlier sessions that ran with sharing on, which the app may already have started uploading when it opened, can still finish sending. Your answer to the iOS tracking prompt does not change analytics, and analytics never uses your advertising identifier.

Providers' policies: Mixpanel (https://mixpanel.com/legal/privacy-policy, data stored in the United States) and Firebase (https://firebase.google.com/support/privacy).

Purchases

The app sells Remove Ads (a one-time purchase) and these consumables: four coin packs, a one-time starter pack (coins, hint tokens and Time Freezes) and the Treasury (exactly 1,500 coins, when it is full). Payment happens entirely in the App Store or Google Play. The app only receives the store's confirmation that a product was bought, and it never sees your payment details. Apple's and Google's privacy policies cover the transaction: https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/ and https://policies.google.com/privacy.

Game Center (iPhone and iPad)

If you are signed in to Game Center, the app sends your scores (highest level reached, and your time on the Daily Dispatch leaderboard) and achievements to Apple, and other Game Center players can see them on leaderboards according to your Game Center settings. This data goes to Apple, not to us, and is covered by Apple's Game Center privacy notice: https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/data/en/game-center/. You can sign out in iOS Settings > Game Center. There is no Game Center or Google Play Games feature on Android.

Notifications

The optional daily reminder ("Today's Dispatch has arrived") is a local notification scheduled on your device. There is no push server; nothing about reminders leaves the device. You can turn it off in Settings > Daily Dispatch, or in your device settings.

Sharing and links

• Share opens your device's share sheet with a short text you can see before sending (for example the level or Dispatch number, the board size, your time, hints and streak, and a link such as shikaku.benbasha.com/l/12). The app does not know who you send it to.
• Links to shikaku.benbasha.com (/l/<level> and /d/<dispatch>) open the app when it is installed, or a simple web page that points to the stores.
• The website sets no cookies and runs no analytics or ads. It loads its fonts from Google Fonts (https://policies.google.com/privacy), so Google receives your IP address and browser details when a page loads. The site is hosted on Amazon Web Services, which processes the technical data needed to deliver a web page.

What the app does not do

• No account, sign-in, name, email or phone number
• No access to your contacts, photos, camera, microphone or precise location
• No selling of data for money (ad networks may still receive device identifiers; see "Selling and sharing")
• No text entry, chat or user-to-user messaging
• The app's only network traffic is: the ad SDK and its mediation partners, Mixpanel and Crashlytics (while "Share usage data" is on), the App Store or Google Play for purchases, Game Center (iPhone and iPad), and links you choose to open

Selling and sharing (US state privacy laws)

We do not sell your data for money. But the ad networks listed above may receive your device's advertising identifier and ad-interaction data to show personalized ads, and some US state laws (for example California's CPRA) treat that as "selling" or "sharing" for targeted advertising. To opt out:

• iPhone and iPad: choose "Ask App Not to Track" when iOS asks, or turn tracking off for the app in iOS Settings > Privacy & Security > Tracking. The advertising identifier is then not available to the app or to any ad network.
• Android: delete or reset your Advertising ID, or opt out of ad personalization, in your device's Google settings (Settings > Google > Ads, or Settings > Privacy > Ads).
• In the app: Settings > Privacy > Privacy choices, when that row is shown for your region.

Why we use your data (legal bases)

If you are in the EEA, the UK or Switzerland, these are the legal bases for each use:

• Ads. Personalized ads, and storing or reading information on your device for ads, rely on your consent, collected through Google's consent form (User Messaging Platform). Where that form offers it, some ad processing (for example non-personalized ads, fraud prevention and ad measurement) relies on the ad partners' legitimate interest, which you can object to in the same form.
• Analytics and crash reports. In the EEA, the UK and Switzerland "Share usage data" starts off, so these run only if you turn it on in Settings > Privacy: they rely on your consent. Turning it off withdraws that consent and stops both immediately.
• Purchases. Handling Remove Ads and coin purchases is needed to give you what you bought (contract).

How long data is kept

• On your device: until you delete the app.
• Mixpanel analytics: kept under Mixpanel's default data retention for as long as the Mixpanel project exists, and deleted when the project is deleted.
• Crashlytics crash reports: kept by Firebase for 90 days.
• Ad networks: kept according to each network's own policy (links in the Advertising section).

International transfers

Google (AdMob and Firebase Crashlytics), Mixpanel, Meta, AppLovin and Liftoff are based in, or process data in, the United States. For data from the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, these transfers rely on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework (and its UK and Swiss extensions) where the provider is certified, and otherwise on the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses in the provider's terms.

Your rights and deleting data

• On your device: delete the app to delete everything it stored.
• Analytics and crash reports: turn off "Share usage data" to stop sending them. Because they are tied only to a random identifier and not to you, we cannot look up the data of a particular person, but you can still write to shikaku@benbasha.com and we will help as far as we can.
• Ads: use the choices in the Advertising section, and the ad networks' policies above for requests about the data they hold.
• If you are in the EEA, the UK, Switzerland or another region with data protection laws, you may have the right to access, correct or delete your data, to restrict or object to its processing, to data portability, and to withdraw consent at any time (Settings > Privacy > Privacy choices for ads, "Share usage data" for analytics). To use any of these rights, write to shikaku@benbasha.com.
• You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority, in particular in the country where you live or work.

Children

Shikaku Kingdom is a general-audience logic puzzle for teenagers and adults. It is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has used the app in a way that concerns you, contact shikaku@benbasha.com.

Changes

If this policy changes, the new version will be posted at https://shikaku.benbasha.com/privacy with a new effective date.

Contact

Ben Basha, shikaku@benbasha.com

The game is available in 15 languages. This page is published in English, which is the governing version.