Privacy Policy

In short

Sudoku Unbound does not collect personal data. There is no account, no analytics, no advertising, no tracking and no third-party software development kit in the app. Your games, statistics and settings stay on your device and, if you leave iCloud sync on, in your own iCloud account. We have no access to them. Game Center, if you use it, is run by Apple; we receive nothing from it.

Who is responsible

Sudoku Unbound is published by IFG eCommerce, the business of Francesco Guiducci, based in Rome, Italy. For any question about this policy or your data, write to info@ifgecommerce.com.

Francesco Guiducci, IFG eCommerce, Via Giacinto Pullino 72, 00154 Rome, Italy; VAT number 16879681001.

What the app stores on your device

To let you continue where you left off, the app saves these items in its private storage on your iPhone or iPad:

• your game in progress and your Daily Challenge in progress;
• statistics: games started and solved, best and average times, hints used, Daily Challenge results;
• which puzzles you have already played, so they are not repeated too soon;
• your settings, such as appearance, timer, highlights, sounds, haptics and mistake display;
• when the app last checked for updates, and which update notice you closed.
• a random token kept in the device keychain with the “this device only” setting, and today's Daily Challenge status for the widget (both described below).

This data is not sent to us. The only copy outside your device is the optional one in your own iCloud account, described below. The app does not ask for your name, email address, location or any other identifying information.

iCloud sync and new devices

There is no account: the app relies on the Apple Account you already use. If you are signed in to iCloud and leave Sync with iCloud on (it is on at start), the app keeps these items in your own iCloud account, so they stay the same on your iPhone and iPad and come back on a new device signed in with the same Apple Account:

• your settings;
• your statistics, in one entry per device;
• your Daily Challenge history;
• which puzzles you have already played, so a new device does not repeat them;
• your game in progress and your Daily Challenge in progress, as a shortened copy (with up to the last 100 moves you can undo).

The app uses iCloud Key-Value Storage, an Apple service: the data is stored in your own iCloud account, under Apple's terms and privacy policy, and travels only between your devices and Apple. There is no IFG server, and we have no access to it. Your Pro purchase is not part of it: it comes back from the App Store.

Each device's statistics entry is named after a random code that the app creates; the code says nothing about you or your device. The app also creates a random token on each device and keeps it in the device keychain with the “this device only” setting: iOS never restores it onto another device, and the app never sends it to iCloud Key-Value Storage or to us. The app's local data records which token it was created with, so when a copy of that data reaches another device through a backup restore or a device transfer, the app recognises it and does not count your statistics twice. Neither code is linked to your identity, and neither is used for advertising or tracking.

You can turn sync off at any time with Sync with iCloud in the app's settings; from then on this device stops sending data to iCloud. What is already in iCloud stays there until you delete it (see Deleting your data). If you are not signed in to iCloud, everything stays only on your device.

To keep the Daily Challenge widget up to date, the app writes today's Daily Challenge status (date, number, state and time) to a storage area on your device shared only with its own widget. The widget and the Siri and Shortcuts actions make no internet connection and send nothing.

Game Center (optional)

The app can use Game Center, Apple's game service, for leaderboards and achievements. It is optional: the Game Center switch in the app's settings is on at start, and turning it off stops the app from using Game Center. Apple handles sign-in; the app never sees your password. When you are signed in and finish a game, the app sends Apple the result of that game: your time for a leaderboard, the number of puzzles you have solved and the progress of your achievements. The app also sends the number of puzzles solved and the progress of your achievements right after you sign in. Apple stores and shows them under its own terms and privacy policy, for example to other players on a leaderboard with the name of your Game Center profile. Only a grid solved without any help, with no hint, no revealed cell, no notes check and no live mistake marking, reaches a time leaderboard.

We receive nothing: no scores, no name, no identifier, and the app does not show or store your Game Center player ID. If you do not sign in to Game Center, or the switch is off, nothing is sent. You manage or delete your Game Center data with Apple.

Internet connection and purchases

You can play without an internet connection. Apart from iCloud sync and Game Center, which iOS handles, the app goes online only to reach Apple's App Store: for the optional Pro purchase (to show the price, to make or restore the purchase and to check whether Pro is active on your Apple Account) and for the update check described below.

The app also checks whether a newer version is available on the App Store. No more than about once a day, when you open the app, it sends one request to Apple's public App Store lookup service. The request contains only the app's identifier and the country or region set on your device; like any internet request, it also shows your device's IP address to Apple, under Apple's privacy policy. It contains no identifier of you or your device and no game data, and we receive nothing from it. If a newer version exists, the Home screen shows a notice you can close; the game is never blocked. You can turn this check off with the Tell me about updates setting.

Apple handles the payment completely. The app never sees your card or payment details, or your Apple Account password. Apple processes this information under its own privacy policy.

As the developer, we receive from Apple the sales and financial reports Apple provides to all developers. If you have chosen in your device settings to share analytics and crash data with app developers, Apple may also pass us crash reports and aggregated usage statistics. Apple decides the content of these reports; we do not use them to identify you.

The Support and Privacy links in the app's settings open these web pages in your browser.

Permissions, tracking and advertising

• The app asks for no permissions: no camera, photos, location, contacts, microphone or notifications.
• No tracking: the app does not follow you across other companies' apps or websites and does not use the advertising identifier.
• No advertising, ever, in the free version or with Pro.
• We do not sell or share data, because the app does not collect any.

Backups and new devices

If iCloud Backup or a backup to your computer is turned on, iOS and iPadOS may include the app's local data in that backup, as for most apps. This follows your own device settings and is handled by Apple or by your computer, not by us. The keychain token described above is not restored onto a different device, which is how the app recognises restored data.

With Sync with iCloud on, a new iPhone or iPad signed in with the same Apple Account gets your progress from your iCloud, even without a backup. If another of your devices has a different game in progress, the Home screen offers it; it replaces the game saved on this device only if you tap Continue here.

Children

Sudoku Unbound is a logic game for a general audience. It collects no personal data from anyone, children included. Purchases on a child's device follow Apple's parental controls, such as Ask to Buy in Family Sharing.

Emails to support

If you write to us, we receive your email address and whatever you include in the message. We use it only to answer you and to handle your request, and we keep it only as long as needed for that. Our email provider stores messages on our behalf. Please do not send payment details or passwords.

The legal basis is handling your app-related support request (GDPR Article 6(1)(b)); security and protecting rights rely on our legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)), and legal obligations on Article 6(1)(c). Retention depends on closing the request, the need to document its handling, and any legal obligations or disputes; messages no longer needed should be deleted. Email is hosted on Google infrastructure: messages may also be processed outside the European Economic Area. Google describes its roles, subprocessors and transfer safeguards in its Cloud Data Processing Addendum.

This website

These pages are hosted on GitHub Pages, a service of GitHub, Inc. GitHub may record technical data such as your IP address when you visit, for security and operation of the service, as described in the GitHub Privacy Statement. The pages themselves set no cookies and contain no analytics or tracking scripts.

Deleting your data

You control your game data; we keep no copies. Emails sent to support are handled as described above.

• In your iCloud: in the app's settings, section iCloud and new devices, tap Delete my data from iCloud and confirm. This removes the settings, statistics, Daily Challenge history, played-puzzle memory and games in progress that the app keeps in your iCloud, for all your devices; what is on the device stays. Turn off Sync with iCloud as well, on each device, if you do not want the app to save to iCloud again. Turning sync off on its own does not delete what is already in iCloud.
• In Game Center: Delete my data from iCloud does not touch Game Center. Scores and achievements are kept by Apple and are managed with Apple.
• On the device: deleting the app removes its games, statistics, settings and widget data from the device. Copies inside existing device backups remain until those backups are replaced or deleted. iOS may keep the app's keychain token on the device after the app is deleted; it identifies nothing outside the app.

Your Pro purchase stays linked to your Apple Account and can be restored after reinstalling.

Your rights

If the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) applies to you, you have the right to access, correct and delete your personal data, to restrict or object to its processing and to data portability, where these rights apply. For the data described above, which stays on your device, you can exercise most of them yourself in the app or by deleting it. For anything we hold, such as a support email, write to info@ifgecommerce.com. You can also lodge a complaint with a data protection authority; in Italy this is the Garante per la protezione dei dati personali.

Changes to this policy

If a future version of the app changes how data is handled, for example by adding a new service, we will update this page before that version is released and change the date at the top.