Privacy policy

The short version

Trellis has no accounts and no sign-in. We never ask for your name, email address, phone number or location, and we do not operate a server that your game talks to. Everything about how you play (your levels, stars, coins and streak) is stored on your own device and stays there.

The app does show ads, and those are supplied by Google. Google collects data through them. That is the only data collection connected to this app, and the rest of this policy explains it.

1. What we collect

Nothing. We do not collect, receive, store or transmit any personal data about you. There is no account to create, no server to sync to, and no analytics or crash-reporting service in the app.

2. What stays on your device

The app saves your progress locally, in the app’s private storage, so the game remembers where you were. We never receive it and cannot see it:

• coins, and which past Dailies you have unlocked
• level progress and stars earned
• Daily puzzle results, your current streak, and the last Daily you solved
• your Rush best score
• any puzzle you are part-way through, so it can be resumed
• your sound on/off preference
• a count of how many puzzles you have finished

If your device backs up app data (on Android, the system’s backup to your Google account), this progress is included, so it can be restored on a new phone. That backup is made and held by your device’s operating system under your own account and its settings; it does not pass through us.

You can erase all of it at any time: Settings → Start over. Uninstalling the app also deletes it from the device. Neither action can be undone.

3. Advertising

The app shows ads supplied by Google AdMob: full-screen ads between puzzles, and optional rewarded videos you choose to watch in exchange for coins, extra time in Rush, or keeping a streak alive.

To serve and measure those ads, Google collects data directly from your device. Depending on your settings and region this can include your device’s advertising identifier, IP address (from which approximate location may be derived), device and app information, and how you interacted with an ad. We do not receive any of it.

How Google uses this data is described here:

• Google Privacy Policy
• How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services

On Android, the app declares the com.google.android.gms.permission.AD_ID permission, which is required for AdMob to access the advertising identifier.

The app requests only general-audience ad content (Google’s “G” rating). It is not directed to children and is not tagged for child-directed treatment.

Your choices about ads

• In the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, a Google-provided consent form is shown before any ad is requested. If you do not consent, ads are not requested. You can reopen that form and change your answer at any time: Settings → Privacy settings.
• Anywhere, you can limit ad personalisation or reset your advertising ID in your device settings (Android: Settings → Privacy → Ads. iOS: Settings → Privacy & Security → Tracking).

4. Purchases

There are none. The app sells nothing, contains no in-app purchases, and never asks you for payment details or handles a payment.

5. Analytics

The app contains no analytics SDK and no crash-reporting SDK. No usage data is sent anywhere. If that ever changes, this policy will be updated and published before the version that changes it is released.

6. Sharing your result

When you tap Share, the app hands a short line of text (a score and a grid of coloured squares, never the puzzle’s words) to your device’s share sheet. What happens next is governed by whichever app you choose to send it to. Nothing is shared unless you tap Share.

7. Permissions

The app never asks you to grant a permission. On Android it declares only permissions that are granted at install without a prompt:

• Internet and network state: used by the ads SDK to request ads.
• Advertising ID (com.google.android.gms.permission.AD_ID), and the related Android Privacy Sandbox advertising permissions added by Google’s ads SDK. See section 3.
• Audio settings, vibrate and wake lock: standard platform permissions used by the app’s sound effects and by ad video playback.

The app does not request access to your location, camera, microphone, contacts, files, or health data.

8. Children

Trellis is a general-audience word game. It is not directed to children, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone, of any age. If you believe a child has provided personal data to one of the third parties named above, contact that provider directly, or contact us at the address at the top of this policy and we will help where we can.

9. Your rights

Because we hold no personal data about you, there is nothing for us to look up, export or erase on request. The data the app keeps is already in your hands, on your device, and section 2 explains how to delete it.

Where data protection law gives you rights over data collected by Google through the ads in this app (including access, correction, erasure, objection, and withdrawal of consent under the GDPR and UK GDPR, or the rights to know, delete, and opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information under California law), those rights are exercised against Google. Use the Google links in section 3, and, in the regions where the consent form is shown, the in-app Settings → Privacy settings control to withdraw or change your advertising consent.

Note that personalised advertising may constitute “sharing” of personal information under the California Privacy Rights Act. Declining consent, or limiting ad tracking in your device settings, is how you opt out.

You may also contact us at any time with a question or complaint, and you have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.

10. Data retention and security

We retain nothing, because we receive nothing. Data saved by the app lives in the operating system’s private storage area for the app, which other apps cannot read, and is removed when you erase your progress or uninstall.

Retention of data collected by Google through the ads described above is governed by Google’s own policies.

11. International transfers

We transfer no data. Any transfer arising from the advertising services described above is carried out by Google under its own policies and safeguards.

12. Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the new version will be published at this address and the effective date at the top will be updated. Material changes will accompany an app update, so you can see what changed before installing it.

13. Contact