Daily Word Competition
Privacy Policy
Stealth Launch, LLC operates Daily Word Competition. You play it in the iPhone and Android app or, for a game a friend challenged you to, on our website at dwc.stealthlaunched.com. This policy explains what the app and the website store, what our score server receives, which outside services are involved, and the choices you have. Neither has accounts or ever asks for your real name, email address, phone number, or location. The only name we store is the nickname you may choose.
Summary
- No account, email, phone number, or social login. You never give us your real name.
- The app, or the website in your browser, creates a random install ID. Our server keeps it with your games so it can run one try per puzzle per day, your history and stats, and fair leaderboards. Settings shows it to you as your Player ID.
- A nickname is optional. You choose one on your results when you want to join the leaderboard. It is the only name we store. Leaderboards show the nickname and the score, never the install ID.
- If you send a challenge link, anyone who has it can see your nickname, the game, the day and your result.
- One full-screen ad from Google AdMob may appear after a game in the app, requested as non-personalized and rated G. In the EEA, the UK, and Switzerland, Google asks for your consent first. Daily Word Competition Plus members see no ads. The website shows no ads and sells nothing.
- Daily Word Competition Plus is an optional subscription in the app, sold and billed by Apple or Google. We never see your payment details, and our server stores nothing about purchases.
- No analytics or crash-reporting tools of our own, no chat, and no tracking prompt. We do not sell personal information.
Information stored on your device
The app keeps these on the phone, in the app’s own storage. The website keeps the same in your browser’s local storage, except the last three, which are only in the app:
- A random install ID, created the first time the app or the website opens. Settings shows it as your Player ID.
- Your nickname, if you set one
- Settings: sound effects, music, and haptics
- Challenge links you have opened, so Results can show who won
- Players you chose to hide on the leaderboards
- Cached leaderboards, and the first day in the Archive, as last sent by our server
- Which games have already shown their ad today
- Whether Daily Word Competition Plus is active, as last reported by the store
- Your ad consent choice, if Google asked for one, stored by Google’s consent tool
Uninstalling the app or clearing its data removes all of this from the phone. Clearing the website’s data in your browser removes it from the browser. A browser has its own install ID, so it counts as a different player from your phone.
Information our score server receives
The app and the website talk to our own server at dwc.stealthlaunched.com, which also serves the website. It stores:
- Install ID, and your nickname if you choose one
- For each puzzle you start: the game, the UTC day, whether it was played from the Archive, start and finish times, the time measured by the server, the status (in progress, solved, failed, or given up), your progress (your guesses, crossword letters, or words found), the number of guesses or points, how many crossword checks or words were wrong, whether the score was posted to the leaderboard, and a signature that protects the result from tampering
- A short code for each finish you share as a challenge link
- A timestamp for each request, kept for about one hour, to limit how often one install can call the server
The optional nickname is the only name our server stores. Google Play’s Data safety section lists it under “Name.” Our server does not ask for or store your real name, email address, phone number, contacts, location, advertising identifier, or anything about purchases. Like any internet service, the hosting network sees your IP address and your browser or device type in order to deliver responses; the score database does not store them.
We use this information only to serve the daily puzzles, check solves, rank the daily and monthly leaderboards, show your history and stats, run challenge links, enforce one try per puzzle per day, and keep the boards fair (for example, removing a score or blocking an install that abuses the boards). The daily word, the crossword answers, and the Crossword Scramble words stay on our server; the app receives an answer only after you find it, finish, or give up.
Leaderboards and nicknames
Posted scores appear on public daily and monthly leaderboards with your nickname, rank, and score (time, guesses, or points). Anyone using the app or the website can see them. Nicknames are 3–16 characters; a block list rejects slurs and anything that looks like a link. Don’t use your real name if you don’t want it shown. Finishes without a nickname stay off the boards, and Archive plays are never ranked or posted. There is no chat or messaging between players.
Reporting and hiding. Tap another player’s name on a leaderboard to report the nickname or hide the player; long-press works too. Report nickname opens your email app with a message to us that names the nickname, the game, the board, and the day; nothing reaches us unless you send it. We use a report only to review the name, and if it breaks the rules we take that player’s scores off the boards or block them. Hide this player is kept on your device and never sent to us: the name shows as “Hidden player” on every board there.
Challenge links
When you tap Challenge on your results, our server makes a link to that finished game, and you choose where to send it. Anyone who has the link can see your nickname (if you picked one), the game, the day, and how it went: your time, guesses, or points, or that you didn’t finish. Messaging apps show the same in the link’s preview. The link never shows your install ID or your guesses and letters. The app or website that opens a challenge remembers it on that device, to show who won once the friend has played.
If your score is removed, or you ask us to delete your data, your links stop working. Previews that messaging apps already fetched are kept by those apps.
Advertising (Google AdMob)
The website shows no ads. Without Daily Word Competition Plus, the app may show one full-screen ad when you leave a game’s results, whether you solved the puzzle or gave up. The ad appears at most once per game per day. Ads are provided by Google AdMob, part of Google LLC, through the Google Mobile Ads SDK. We request non-personalized ads only and limit ad content to a G rating. We do not send your nickname, install ID, or scores to Google.
Consent. In the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland, Google’s consent message (the User Messaging Platform) appears before any ad is requested. If consent can’t be gathered, no ad is requested. When Google says you need a way back to that choice, Settings shows Privacy choices (ads) so you can change it at any time.
Even for non-personalized ads, Google may collect or receive information such as your IP address (and approximate location derived from it), device and app information, ad interactions, diagnostics including crash and performance data, and, where the operating system makes it available, the device advertising identifier, to show and measure ads and prevent fraud. The app does not ask for Apple’s tracking permission, so on iPhone it does not get access to the advertising identifier (IDFA). On Android you can reset or delete your advertising ID in the device’s Google settings. Google’s processing is described in its own policies: Google Privacy Policy and How Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services.
Daily Word Competition Plus (subscriptions)
Daily Word Competition Plus is an optional auto-renewing subscription in the app, monthly or yearly. In the Archive, it lets you play any past day you haven’t played yet, in all six games (Archive plays are timed but never ranked), and it removes the post-game ad. It is sold and billed by Apple (App Store) or Google (Google Play) through their own in-app purchase systems, which the app uses directly. There is no third-party subscription service. Apple or Google handle your payment details under their own privacy policies; we never receive a card number. The app asks the store whether your subscription is active and remembers the answer on the phone. Our server receives and stores nothing about purchases. We may receive aggregated, non-identifying sales reports from Apple and Google. The website sells nothing.
Analytics and crash reporting
Daily Word Competition has no analytics or crash-reporting tools of our own, in the app or on the website. In the app, the Google Mobile Ads SDK collects diagnostics, including crash and performance data, as described under Advertising. If you share crash reports or diagnostics with developers through your phone’s own settings, Apple or Google may pass those to us under their terms.
Third parties
We do not sell or rent personal information. Information is processed by:
- Apple and Google: app distribution, in-app purchases, and subscription billing
- Google AdMob: the post-game ad and the consent message for players without Daily Word Competition Plus (app only)
- The hosting provider that runs our score server and the website, which processes data only to run them for us
Each receives only what it needs for that work and must protect it under its own terms and privacy policy. We may disclose information if required by law or to protect the safety of players and the integrity of the service.
Data retention
- Nicknames, scores, attempts, and challenge codes are kept so past daily and monthly leaderboards, your history, and your challenge links stay available, until you ask us to delete them.
- Rate-limit timestamps are deleted after about one hour.
- Data on your phone stays until you uninstall the app or clear its data; on the website, until you clear the site’s data in your browser.
- Emails you send us, including nickname reports, are kept as long as needed to answer and keep a record of the request.
Delete your data
Email contact@stealthlaunch.com with your Player ID (shown in Settings) and your nickname, if you have one. If you can’t find the Player ID, send your nickname and, if you can, the day and game of one of your scores. We will delete your nickname and every attempt tied to that install ID from our server within 30 days, which also ends your challenge links, and confirm by email. If several players share the nickname and there is no Player ID, we may ask for more details to find the right record.
Apple and Google keep their own records of Daily Word Competition Plus purchases; those are managed by Apple and Google under their own privacy policies. Uninstalling the app, or clearing the website’s data in your browser, removes only what was stored on that device, not scores already on the server. After a reinstall the app has a new install ID, so tell us about the old nickname too. The phone and each browser you played in are separate players, so include the Player ID of each.
Children’s privacy
Daily Word Competition is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. It needs no account and never asks for a real name, email address, or other contact details. Ads are non-personalized and limited to a G rating. If we learn that an install belongs to a child under 13, we delete that install’s data from our server, as described under Delete your data. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has played, email contact@stealthlaunch.com with the Player ID or the nickname, and we will delete that data.
International users
Stealth Launch, LLC is based in Puerto Rico, United States. Our score server, the website, and the services named above may process information in the United States and other countries whose data protection laws may differ from yours. Depending on where you live (for example in the EU, UK, or California), you may have rights to access, correct, delete, or object to the processing of your information. To exercise them, email contact@stealthlaunch.com. We rely on performing the service you ask for (running the game, the leaderboards, and the challenge links you share), our legitimate interest in keeping the boards fair, and, where the law requires it, your consent for ads.
Security
The app and the website talk to our server over HTTPS. Results are signed so they can’t be altered, and the install ID is never shown publicly; only you see it, as the Player ID in Settings. Share your Player ID only with us. No method of storage or transmission is completely secure, but we limit what we collect to what the game needs.
Changes
We will update this policy if the data practices of the app or the website change, and change the effective date above when we do.
Contact
Stealth Launch, LLC
Email: contact@stealthlaunch.com
Web: https://stealthlaunch.com
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