Privacy

What stays on your device and in your iCloud

No version needs an account. Your progress and settings are saved in the app’s own storage on your device; the game never sends the save to us; from version 2.0 a copy of it is kept in your own iCloud (see below). Version 2.0 also keeps there, for its own use: your answer to the usage-data question, how many sessions you have played and how often you have tried each level, the time and place of the last ad and the day’s ad counts, the random “bucket” number (see “The launch request”), the last answer about which features are switched on and, if you said yes, the install number and the events waiting to be sent. The game does not use your location, contacts, photos or microphone and has no sync on a server of ours. Deleting the app with its data removes all of this from the device; removing its Home Screen icon or offloading the app does not. Version 2.0 and later also has an iCloud save: if you are signed in to iCloud and iCloud is on for this game, a copy of the save file is kept in Apple’s iCloud key-value storage, in your own account, so that devices signed in with the same Apple Account show the same progress. The copy holds what the save file holds: your stars, repairs, upgrades and tokens; your lives; the continues, cards and refills you hold; Apple’s numbers of the purchases already delivered and marks of one-time offers (so that a purchase is delivered once only); the time and place of the last ad, the day’s ad counts and a few marks about ads; and a random mark made for each installation (it is not the install number of the usage data). Your other devices take the progress and what you hold from it; lives and ad counts stay each device’s own. That copy lives in your iCloud space and follows Apple’s terms; we cannot reach it, and nothing comes to a server of ours. Deleting the app does not delete the iCloud copy: when you install the game again, your progress comes back. If you turn iCloud off for this game in your iCloud settings, the game saves on the device only. Depending on your settings, iCloud or computer backups may include the app’s data, and restoring an old backup may bring it back. Apple’s optional diagnostics and backup services follow Apple’s own terms.

Ads (2.0 and later)

From version 2.0 the game shows Google AdMob ads through Google’s Mobile Ads SDK: a reward ad only when you choose one (to double a level’s tokens or to get a life) and, at times, an ad between levels. We switch the ads on for some or all players; until they are on for you, Google’s SDK stays idle and the game asks Google for nothing. TestFlight builds show only Google’s test ads. The game never asks for tracking permission (App Tracking Transparency), so neither the game nor Google gets the device’s advertising identifier (IDFA). The game’s privacy declaration to Apple says that the app does not track (NSPrivacyTracking: false), and every ad request asks Google for ads without personalisation. Google says that it then uses no profile of you to choose the ad and does not update one; other companies may still take part in serving and measuring the ads. To show and measure ads, for analytics, and to find and fix faults in its SDK, Google’s SDK collects your IP address (from which Google can estimate your approximate location), identifiers that Google limits to this app or this developer, the ads you see, how you interact with them and with the app, and crash and performance data. This goes to Google, not to us: we see only Google’s totals, such as how many ads were shown and what they earned. The legal basis for showing ads: in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, the consent you give in Google’s consent message (GDPR article 6(1)(a)); elsewhere, Turkey included, our legitimate interest in offering the game free with ads (KVKK article 5(2)(f)). Google may also process your data in the United States; Google LLC says it participates in the EU–US Data Privacy Framework, and the European Commission’s adequacy decision for that framework allows transfers from the EU to companies in it.

Google Privacy Policy ↗How Google uses information from apps that use its services ↗What Google’s Mobile Ads SDK collects ↗Google on ads without personalisation ↗Google’s data transfer frameworks ↗

Consent and reporting for ads

Once ads are on for you, the game asks Google’s consent tool (User Messaging Platform) at every launch whether you need to make a choice where you are; the tool decides this from your approximate location, which it works out from your IP address. In the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, the game shows Google’s consent message when the tool says it is due, but never in your first session and never in the middle of a level. The game requests ads only when the tool allows it. You can change your choice at any time with “Privacy options” in the game’s Settings; the row appears wherever Google’s rules call for it. The game shows only Google’s ads; we use no other ad network and no mediation service. Google lists on its own page the ad technology providers (bidders and sellers) that can take part in its programmatic demand; the partners that may take part in the ads are among those on that page. Each provider gives a link to its own data use; you can reach the list below. If an ad seems wrong for the game or for your age, open Settings: under “Report an ad” the game shows the time and place of the last ad, which it keeps only on your device. “Copy” puts that line, with the time in UTC, on the clipboard; “Open the support page” opens our support page in your browser. The game sends nothing by itself. If you write to us, you choose what to include (for example the copied line or a screenshot), and we use it to find the ad in the ad network’s records.

Google’s list of ad partners ↗

Usage data (2.0 and later)

Usage data is off until you say yes. Once, after you have earned your first stars, the game asks “Will you help us improve the game?”; the buttons “Share” and “Don’t share” are the same size and neither is chosen in advance. You can change your answer at any time with the “Share usage data” switch in Settings. With your yes, the game sends the events listed in the next section to PostHog, a product analytics service, on its server in the EU (eu.posthog.com), which is outside Turkey. We use them to improve the game: to see which levels are too hard or too easy, where players stop, and how the shop and the ads work. We do this on the basis of your explicit consent (KVKK article 5(1); GDPR article 6(1)(a)); you can withdraw it at any time with the switch in Settings, and withdrawing works from then on. PostHog’s EU servers are in Germany (Amazon Web Services, Frankfurt); PostHog’s subprocessors also include Cloudflare, which runs edge servers in many places around the world (list below). PostHog keeps events for as long as its plan allows, which is one year in our plan; older events can no longer be queried. We do not export events to keep them longer. Every event goes under a random install number made on your device for this installation; it is not Apple’s device or advertising identifier and is made from nothing else. Events never carry your name, email address or other contact details, Apple’s advertising identifier (IDFA) or vendor identifier (IDFV), your location, which ad or advertiser you saw (the game does not know), a price, a currency, a transaction number or any free text. Each event tells PostHog not to create a profile of you and not to work out a location from your IP address. Events are sent in groups: once 20 are waiting, after 30 seconds, or when you leave the game; without a connection, up to 500 wait on the device. Development builds send nothing; TestFlight builds mark their events as TestFlight.

PostHog’s subprocessors ↗PostHog on how long events are kept ↗

The usage-data events

With your yes, the game sends an event when: you open it (which session this is); you say yes; you finish a tutorial step (on which level, which step); a level starts (the level and district, which attempt, how many lives you have, whether lives are unlimited) and when it ends (the same, plus whether you passed, stars, customers who came, were served or were missed, the goal, burnt and wasted pieces, tokens, time, how the level ended, whether you used a continue); your lives run out (on which level); you use a continue (on which level, one you had or one bought then) or start an Unlimited Lives Card; you buy an upgrade (which one and its new level) or make a repair (which one, in which district, how many stars you have left); you open the shop (from where); a purchase is delivered (only which product); a reward ad is offered, starts, gives its reward or cannot be shown (where); an ad between levels is shown, closes or cannot be shown (after which level, in which session, how many seconds since the last full-screen ad); the “Remove Ads” card is shown; and “Remove Ads” is bought. Every event also carries its time, the game’s version and build number, whether the game came from the App Store or TestFlight, the system’s major version, whether the device is a phone or a tablet (not the model), the language the game shows, and how many days have passed since you said yes.

The launch request (2.0 and later)

Whatever you answer, version 2.0 asks PostHog’s server in the EU at launch which features are switched on, and asks again when the game comes back to the screen and the last answer is more than 30 minutes old. This request carries no install number and nothing about how you play. It carries a fixed name that is the same for every player (“remote-config”), the project’s public key, where the game came from (App Store or TestFlight), whether you share usage data, and “bucket”: a whole number from 0 to 99, drawn at random once on your device and kept there. It is made from nothing else, is not deleted by a no, and about one player in a hundred has the same one; it lets a feature be switched on for a share of the players. The game sends these only so that PostHog can work out the answer, and keeps the answer on your device. If you said yes, a second request at the same moments carries your install number, so that a feature can be switched on for some players first. Like every web request, each request to PostHog arrives with your IP address and the standard headers iOS adds (User-Agent and Accept-Language); the game’s PostHog project is set to discard IP addresses. We make this request on the basis of our legitimate interest in running the game’s features safely (KVKK article 5(2)(f); GDPR article 6(1)(f)): for example, to switch off a broken feature at once and to switch a feature on for some players first.

Purchases, and 1.0.2’s sale notification

In every version, purchases go through Apple’s StoreKit: Apple handles your account and payment under its own policy, and the game never sees your card or payment details. Versions 1.x sell an optional neon decor pack; 2.0 sells lives, continues, the Unlimited Lives Card, packs of these, and “Remove Ads”, which removes the ads between levels (reward ads stay). Version 2.0 checks Apple’s signed purchase records on your device and sends nothing about them to any server of ours; if you share usage data, the purchase event names only the product. Version 1.0.2 is the only version that sends us a sale notification; earlier versions and 2.0 do not. When a copy bought in the last 72 hours, or a TestFlight copy, is opened, 1.0.2 sends Apple’s signed proof of the purchase and the three-letter App Store country code to our own service on Cloudflare (bell.codebiy.com). It stops once the service has accepted it, or after five refusals. The proof holds no name, email address or Apple Account, only what Apple puts in it: the app, its version, the purchase date, and identifiers Apple makes for that purchase and for the device check. The service checks Apple’s signature and tells the developer’s phone: a sale, this game, this country. It does not keep the proof, your IP address, a name or an account. So that one purchase counts once, it keeps a SHA-256 hash of the identifier Apple gives the purchase for eight days (from a TestFlight copy without a time limit); it also keeps the time of the last sale it reported, how many sales it reported in the current hour, and a log line saying that a notification arrived, for which game, and the result. We do not process your purchase data; Apple does, under its own contract and policy. If you share usage data, the purchase event rests on your consent above. Version 1.0.2’s sale notification rests on our legitimate interest in knowing how many copies we sold (KVKK article 5(2)(f); GDPR article 6(1)(f)). Cloudflare, as the host, handles your IP address as it does for any web request; its edge network is worldwide, so your IP address may be processed outside Turkey as well.

Children

Midnight Kiosk is rated 4+ on the App Store but is not in Apple’s Kids category: it is not made for children and does not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. The game does not ask anyone’s age, so it cannot tell a child from an adult and treats every player the same way: in 2.0 and later, ads are requested without personalisation for everyone and limited to Google’s “General (G)” content rating, a reward ad appears only when the player chooses one, and usage data goes only after a yes. In the EU, for your consent to usage data to be valid you need a parent’s permission if you are under an age between 13 and 16 that depends on your country (GDPR article 8): if you are under 16, answer the question together with a parent. A parent can turn usage data off with the “Share usage data” switch in Settings and ask us to delete what was sent (see the next section); “Remove Ads” removes the ads between levels. A parent who thinks their child has sent us personal information can write to [email protected], and we delete what we can find. Versions 1.x show no ads and send no usage data.

Saying no, deletion and your rights

Answering “Don’t share”, or turning off “Share usage data” later, stops usage data at once: the install number and the events still waiting on the device are deleted, and a request on its way is cancelled. If you say yes again, the game makes a new number, but its own state carries on (for example how often you have tried each level and how far you have come), so someone holding the data of both periods could match them. Events already sent stay with PostHog under the old number. Because the number is random and the game never shows it, we cannot find your events from your name or email address. To ask for their deletion, write to [email protected] with whatever might help us find them (for example the day you said yes); we will tell you what we could find and delete. For the data Google holds, use the ways Google describes on its pages linked above. Under Turkey’s Personal Data Protection Law (KVKK) and the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), you have the right to ask whether we process data about you, to ask for a copy, a correction or deletion, to object to its use, to withdraw your consent at any time, and to complain to a data protection authority: in Turkey the Personal Data Protection Authority (KVKK), in the EU the authority of your country. We answer your request free of charge and in writing (by email) within thirty days at most (KVKK article 13; under the GDPR the time limit is one month, article 12(3)). “We” on this page is the game’s publisher and data controller, Orhan Ege Bilge; write to [email protected] with privacy and support questions. If you write, your message and address are used only to answer you, on the basis of our legitimate interest in answering (KVKK article 5(2)(f); GDPR article 6(1)(f)), and are deleted twelve months after the last message. If the game’s data practices change, this page and its date change too.

Email support

Include the game name, your device model (iPhone or iPad), the system and app versions, and the steps that caused the issue. Do not share passwords, payment details or private notifications.

Apple Privacy Policy ↗This website’s privacy policy ↗