Privacy policy

Crown Maker (the iPhone, iPad and Android app, and this website) is made by Beckie Brown, an independent developer based in the United Kingdom. For data protection law, Beckie Brown is the “controller” of any personal data described here that we are responsible for.

Questions about privacy? Email privacy@beckiebrown.com.

Nothing that identifies you. The app doesn’t ask you to sign in and doesn’t send your puzzles, moves, scores or settings to us.

The app stores a small amount of information on your device only:

• A count of puzzles you’ve finished. We use this to keep your first five puzzles ad-free and to space out ads after that. It never leaves your device.
• Your ad consent choice, if you were asked for one. This is stored by Google’s consent tool so it doesn’t ask you every time you open the app.

Deleting the app removes all of this.

When you share a puzzle, the app creates a short code and link describing the board’s size and colours. It contains no personal information. It’s sent using your phone’s own share menu, to whoever you choose, through whichever app you choose. We don’t see it and don’t store it.

Crown Maker is free and supported by ads from Google AdMob, a service of Google. Ads appear between puzzles only. When ads load, Google’s software in the app may collect and process:

• your device’s IP address and an approximate location derived from it
• on Android, your device’s advertising ID (which you can reset or delete in your Android settings)
• device and app information, such as model, operating system and app version
• how you interact with ads, such as views and taps, and diagnostic data

Google uses this to deliver ads, limit how often you see the same ad, measure performance and prevent fraud. With your consent, Google may also use it to show ads personalised to your interests.

iPhone and iPad: Crown Maker doesn’t ask for permission to track you across other companies’ apps and websites, so Apple’s advertising identifier is not made available to Google by the app.

Your choices: if you’re in the UK, the EEA or Switzerland, the app shows Google’s consent form before any ads load, where you can accept or decline personalised ads. You can change your choice any time using the Privacy options button on the app’s home screen. If you decline, you may still see non-personalised ads, which are based on things like the app you’re using and your general location rather than your interests.

Google handles this data under its own policies. Read how Google uses information from apps that use its services and the Google Privacy Policy.

Under UK and EU data protection law, personalised advertising relies on your consent, which you can withdraw at any time through Privacy options. Showing non-personalised ads, limiting their frequency and preventing ad fraud rely on our legitimate interest in keeping the app free, and Google’s consent tool still asks before storing or reading information on your device where the law requires it.

Google may process ad data outside the UK and EEA, including in the United States. Google relies on approved safeguards for these transfers, such as the UK–US data bridge, the EU–US Data Privacy Framework and standard contractual clauses.

This website doesn’t use cookies, analytics or tracking. Fonts are bundled with the site, so your browser doesn’t contact Google Fonts. The site is hosted on Cloudflare, which processes technical information such as your IP address to deliver pages and protect against attacks. See Cloudflare’s privacy policy.

If you email us, we’ll use your email address and message only to reply to you.

Crown Maker is a general-audience puzzle game and isn’t directed at children under 13. We don’t knowingly collect personal data from children. If you think a child’s data has been collected through the app’s ads, contact us at privacy@beckiebrown.com and we’ll help.

Information stored on your device stays there until you delete the app. Emails you send us are kept only as long as needed to answer them, and no longer than two years. Google keeps ad data according to its own retention policies.

You have the right to access, correct or delete personal data held about you, to object to or restrict how it’s used, to data portability, and to withdraw consent at any time. Because we don’t hold personal data about players, most requests about ad data are best made to Google, but we’re happy to point you in the right direction. Email privacy@beckiebrown.com.

You can also complain to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk, or your local data protection authority.

If Crown Maker starts using data in a new way, for example if we add in-app purchases, we’ll update this page before that version is released and change the date at the top.