Jolt: Privacy Policy
Jolt is a tic-tac-toe game for iPhone and iPad. This policy explains what information the app can access, how it is used, and what happens to it. The short version:
You never make an account, and almost nothing ever leaves your phone. Your player profiles, your win and loss record and your theme are stored on your device only. The one exception is an online match, where your chosen display name, your colour and that game's moves go to our game server and are deleted once the match is over (section 6 has the exact timings). No analytics, no advertising, no third-party trackers, and no device permissions at all: no camera, no microphone, no location, no photos, no contacts, no notifications.
1. Data stored only on your device
Jolt keeps the following in the app's private storage on your device. It is never uploaded to us:
- Player profiles you create: a name (or nickname) and a colour.
- Statistics: wins, losses and draws per player, head to head records between your players, and your wins against the computer.
- Preferences: your light or dark theme choice.
Deleting a player removes their record. Deleting the app removes all of it. If you use encrypted device backups or iCloud device backup, a copy travels with that backup under Apple's terms; we cannot read it.
2. Playing solo or on one device
Single player (versus the computer) and pass and play games are entirely offline. The computer opponent runs on your device. Nothing is sent anywhere for these modes.
3. Data sent when you play online
Online play uses Google Firebase (Anonymous Authentication and Realtime Database) as the game server. Only when you create a room, join a room by code, or use Quick Match, the following is written to that server:
- An anonymous player ID. Firebase issues your device a random anonymous ID. It is not an account: no email address, no password, no username and no sign in step, and it is not linked to your Apple ID or to any profile you hold elsewhere.
- Your display name, taken from the player profile you picked before going online.
- Your colour choice (one of eight presets).
- The game itself: the six character room code, whose turn it is, the nine board squares, the move history (which square, by which player ID, and when), the result, and timestamps for the last move and for when the room closed.
- A matchmaking entry while you wait for a Quick Match: your display name, your colour, the word "iOS" and a timestamp. It is deleted the moment you are matched or leave the queue.
Please read this about your display name
Your display name is chosen by you and can be anything, including your real name. It is shown to the person you are matched with, and it is stored on our server while the match runs. Jolt does not ask for your real name and does not need it. The app ships with example profiles that use family words such as "Father" and "Daughter", and you can rename or delete them at any time in the player screen.
If you would rather not show a real name to strangers, create or edit a profile with a nickname before playing online. This is the only field where you can accidentally reveal something about yourself, so we would rather point at it than bury it.
4. What we do not collect
- No analytics. Firebase Analytics is not included in the app, and analytics is disabled in the app's Firebase configuration.
- No advertising and no ad SDKs. Advertising is disabled in the app's Firebase configuration and no advertising framework is linked.
- No third-party tracking SDKs. The only third-party code in Jolt is the Firebase SDK, limited to Firebase Core, Firebase Authentication and Firebase Realtime Database.
- No tracking across apps or websites. Jolt does not use the advertising identifier (IDFA) and never shows an App Tracking Transparency prompt, because it has nothing to ask for.
- No crash or performance reporting of our own. If you have opted in to sharing crash and usage data with developers in iOS Settings, Apple may pass us anonymised reports; that is Apple's system, not ours.
- No email address, phone number, contacts, location, photos, health data or payment details.
5. Technical data our service provider necessarily sees
Because online play is a network service, Google's Firebase servers process the standard connection information any internet request carries, including your device's IP address and connection timestamps, in order to route your game and protect the service from abuse. We do not use this for analytics, profiling or advertising, and we do not build user profiles from it. Google's handling of that data is governed by the Firebase Privacy and Security policy and Google's Privacy Policy.
6. How long online data is kept
- A finished game room is deleted from the server as soon as the last player leaves it. If you leave a game in progress, the room is closed and stamped, then deleted when the other player leaves.
- Abandoned rooms (both players lost connection or force quit, so neither could close the room cleanly) are removed by an automatic sweep that deletes any room closed more than 24 hours ago.
- Matchmaking entries are removed the moment you are matched, leave the queue, or disconnect.
- Anonymous player IDs are removed by Firebase's automatic clean up of anonymous accounts older than 30 days.
- On-device data (profiles, stats, theme) stays until you delete it or delete the app.
7. Purchases (Jolt Pro)
Online play requires Jolt Pro, an auto-renewing subscription.
- Payment is handled entirely by Apple. We never see or store your card number, billing address or Apple ID.
- Jolt reads only whether an active Jolt Pro subscription exists on your Apple ID, using Apple's StoreKit. That check happens between your device and Apple; the answer is a yes or no and it is not sent to our server or attached to your anonymous player ID.
- Because the entitlement lives with your Apple ID and not with us, it survives reinstalling the app, works on your other devices, and is unaffected by the 30 day deletion of anonymous IDs described above.
- Manage or cancel in Settings, your Apple Account name, Subscriptions on your device. Apple's terms and Apple's privacy policy govern the transaction.
8. Data sharing and selling
We do not sell your data. We do not share it with advertisers, data brokers or analytics companies. The only third party that receives anything is Google Firebase, acting as our service provider to run online matches, as described in sections 3 and 5.
The one deliberate disclosure is player to player: in an online match, your display name and colour are shown to your opponent. That is the whole point of a name in a two player game.
9. Children
Jolt is a simple game with no chat, no messaging, no friend lists, no user photos, no profile pages and no way for one player to contact another. The only thing one player sees about the other is the display name and colour they chose for that match.
Jolt is not directed at children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If a child has entered a real name as a display name and you would like it removed, delete the app (which removes it locally) and contact us; any server copy is deleted with the room at the end of the match, or by the 24 hour sweep if that match was abandoned.
10. Your rights (GDPR, UK GDPR, CCPA and similar)
Because we hold no account for you:
- Access and portability: everything durable about you is on your device and visible in the app's player and stats screens.
- Erasure: deleting a player removes their local record; deleting the app removes all local data. Server side, your game rooms are deleted at the end of each match (within 24 hours if a match was abandoned) and your anonymous ID is deleted automatically within 30 days.
- Objection and restriction: stop playing online, and nothing of yours is sent to any server at all. Solo and pass and play remain fully functional offline.
- We do not sell or "share" personal information as those terms are defined under the CCPA/CPRA, so there is nothing to opt out of.
If you have a request or a question, contact us at the address below and we will answer.
11. Changes to this policy
If this policy changes, the updated version will be posted at this URL with a new effective date. Material changes will be called out in the app's release notes.
12. Contact
If you have any questions about this policy, contact us at engr.kamalnasir@gmail.com.