Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

This page informs players and visitors about our practices regarding the data we collect and how we use it. My name is Aart Hakkens, and I am the developer of the mobile game Creepy Crawlies. The game is fully playable for free and contains no in-app purchases or microtransactions. Any revenue is generated through advertisements, which is described in more detail below.

Although we do not exclusively target a specific age group, we believe this game is suitable for players of all ages, including children. Because younger players may download and play Creepy Crawlies, we provide additional information on how we handle the data of children under 13 in section 10. We are committed to protecting the privacy of all our players, especially minors.

We have also added a dedicated button in the app's Settings menu that links directly to this Privacy Policy, so players and parents or guardians can review our practices at any time.

2. What Data We Collect

We collect the following information to operate and improve the game:

• Display Name: The nickname a player chooses when first starting the game. This name is chosen freely by the player and is not required to be a real name. We ask players not to enter their real name, and we recommend that parents help their children choose a nickname that does not identify them.
• Player ID: A random identifier that we generate on your device the first time you play. It is not linked to your identity, your account, or any advertising identifier.
• Device Details: The device type, device model, operating system, and the device name reported by your device. Please note that a device name is set by the owner of the device and may contain a personal name (for example "Alex's phone"). We do not use it to identify anyone, and you can change your device name in your device settings.
• Ad Metrics: Impressions, clicks, ad revenue and currency code, and whether ads were opened, closed, or failed to load.
• In-Game Progression: Your game progress, including gold, experience points, abilities unlocked, levels won and lost, last level played, critical hit rate, and any stat point upgrades.

Our advertising and analytics providers (Google AdMob and Firebase) additionally process technical data on their own, such as IP address, advertising identifiers, app instance identifiers, and an approximate (country or region level) location derived from the IP address. This is described in section 7.

3. How We Collect and Store Data

We collect data from you and your device in the following ways:

1. Direct Input: When you (or your child) interact with the game, such as choosing a display name at first launch, or playing through levels.
2. Automatic Collection: Through integrated services (Google Firebase and Google AdMob) that automatically gather app usage and technical data such as device type, operating system, and in-game behaviour analytics.

Where the data is stored:

• On your device: Your progress is saved in a local save file on the device itself.
• On our servers: A copy of your save data (display name, player ID, progression, device details, and ad metrics as listed in section 2) is stored in a Firebase Realtime Database operated by Google on our behalf. This lets us diagnose problems and understand how the game is being played.

For child players, we avoid asking for personal information wherever possible. We only collect what is necessary to run and improve the game or to meet legal requirements. For more information about advertising to children, see AdMob's policy on child-directed apps.

4. Why We Collect Data

We collect data for the following purposes:

1. Saving Your Progress: To store and restore your game progress so you can continue where you left off, and to help recover progress if something goes wrong.
2. App Functionality and Improvement: To analyse gameplay and performance trends, diagnose technical issues, and improve the player experience.
3. Analytics: We use Firebase to understand how players interact with the game, so we can improve features and fix bugs.
4. Advertising: We use AdMob to display banner, interstitial, and rewarded ads. This involves processing device and advertising information in order to serve ads, measure their performance, and limit how often they are shown. Rewarded ads are always optional, so you choose whether to watch one.

We do not use your data for profiling, credit or eligibility decisions, or any automated decision-making that produces legal effects.

5. Legal Bases for Processing (EEA/UK)

If you are in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, we rely on the following legal bases:

• Contract or provision of the service: Saving and restoring your game progress and running core game features.
• Legitimate interests: Basic analytics and crash or performance diagnostics to keep the game working and improve it, and non-personalised advertising to fund a free game.
• Consent: Personalised advertising and any related tracking, where consent is required. Where consent applies, it is requested through Google's consent mechanism before such ads are served, and you can change or withdraw it at any time (see section 11).
• Legal obligation: Where we must retain or disclose data to comply with the law.

6. Data Sharing and Disclosure

We do not sell your data, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising as those terms are defined under US state privacy laws. We share data with third parties only as described below:

1. Service Providers: We use Firebase and AdMob, both provided by Google, to operate, analyse, and monetise the game. These providers process data on our behalf and under their own privacy terms. See Google's Privacy Policy and how Google uses data from apps that use its services.
2. Legal Compliance: We may disclose information if required by law or valid legal process (for example a court order), or where necessary to protect our rights, our players, or the safety of others.
3. Child Data Restrictions: We do not sell children's data and do not share it with unrelated third parties for marketing purposes. Any sharing is strictly for operational needs.
4. Business Transfers: If the game were ever transferred to another developer or owner, player data could be transferred as part of that change. We would update this policy and notify players in the app beforehand.

7. Cookies and Similar Technologies

The game does not use browser cookies, but our providers use similar technologies (local storage, device identifiers, advertising identifiers):

• Firebase: May store an app instance identifier and process technical data, including IP address, to provide analytics.
• AdMob: May access advertising identifiers (the Android Advertising ID or Apple's Identifier for Advertisers) and IP address to serve and measure ads and to limit repeated ads.
• Child-Specific Handling: We do not use tracking that personally identifies a child. Where a player is known or treated as a child, ad requests are handled in a manner consistent with child privacy rules, which means non-personalised advertising and no use of advertising identifiers for personalised ads.

You can limit ad tracking on your device at any time: on Android via Settings → Privacy → Ads, and on iOS via Settings → Privacy & Security → Tracking. Restricting data collection may make ads less relevant but will not stop you from playing.

8. Data Retention

We retain data only as long as necessary for the purposes described in this policy or to comply with legal obligations:

• Local Save Data: Stays on your device until you delete it. Uninstalling the game removes the local save file, and doing so permanently deletes your local progress.
• Save Data on Our Servers: Kept for as long as the game is operated, so that progress and gameplay statistics remain available and usable for improving the game. It is deleted on request (see sections 10 and 11), and we delete data that is no longer needed when we review our database.
• Firebase and AdMob Data: Governed largely by Google's retention policies and settings, in addition to the requests we honour ourselves.

9. International Data Transfers

Our service providers (Google Firebase and AdMob) operate globally, and data may be stored or processed in countries other than your own, including the United States.

• Applicable Laws: Your data may be transferred to and processed in jurisdictions with different data protection rules than your country.
• Safeguards: Where data is transferred out of the EEA or the UK, Google relies on approved transfer mechanisms such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses.
• Child-Centric Safeguards: We apply the same level of protection to children's data regardless of location, in line with regulations such as COPPA (US) and the GDPR (EU/UK).

10. Children's Privacy and Parental Rights

Creepy Crawlies is a general-audience game that we believe is also suitable for children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 (or the equivalent minimum age in your country) beyond the limited data described in section 2, and we never ask children for identifying details.

Parents and guardians have the following rights:

1. Access and Review: You can request to see what information we hold about your child, if any.
2. Deletion: You can request that we delete any data we have collected from your child.
3. Consent Withdrawal: If consent was given for data collection or personalised ads, you may withdraw it at any time. You can also stop all further collection by uninstalling the game.
4. Contact Us: For any of these requests, use the contact details in section 15. Because the game has no accounts, please include your child's display name in the request so that we can find the right data. We will respond as quickly as possible, and in any event within 30 days.

11. Your Rights

These rights apply to all players, not only parents:

• Access, correction, and deletion of the data we hold about you.
• Objection to, or restriction of, processing based on our legitimate interests.
• Data portability, where applicable.
• Withdrawal of consent at any time, without affecting processing that already took place.
• Non-discrimination: Exercising these rights will never restrict your access to the game.
• Complaint: If you are in the EEA or the UK, you may lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us using the details in section 15 and include your display name so we can locate your data. Since we do not collect identifying information, we may be unable to link a request to a specific person, and in that case we will tell you what we can and cannot do.

12. Security Measures

We take the privacy and security of all players, especially children, seriously:

• Technical Safeguards: Data sent to Firebase and AdMob is transmitted over encrypted connections (HTTPS/TLS) and stored on Google's infrastructure. Access to our database is restricted by database security rules and account access controls.
• Monitoring and Reviews: We periodically review our data practices and third-party integrations (including Firebase and AdMob) to check they remain in line with child privacy and security standards.

No system is entirely infallible. If we become aware of a data breach affecting personal data, we will notify affected players and parents, and the relevant authorities where required, without undue delay.

13. Third-Party Links or Services

• External Links: The game links to this Privacy Policy. If we link to any other external website or app, we are not responsible for its privacy practices, and we encourage parents to review the policies of any external sites their children visit.
• Third-Party SDKs: We currently use Firebase and AdMob (both from Google). If we add other third-party tools in the future, we will assess them against child privacy requirements and update this policy.

14. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect legal requirements or new features in the game:

• Revision Notices: If we make significant changes, we will notify players by updating this policy and, where appropriate, through an in-app notice.
• Date of Last Update: The "Last updated" date at the top of this page indicates when it was most recently changed.

We encourage parents and guardians to review this policy periodically.

15. Contact Information