Privacy Policy
The short version
- You do not create an account, and we never ask for your name, email address, phone number, contacts or location.
- The app signs you in anonymously with Firebase Authentication. That gives you a random account identifier so your scores, nickname and tickets can be kept.
- We store your gameplay statistics (scores, answers, timing) and the purchases you make through Google Play, tied to that identifier.
- We use Google Play Integrity to check that the app is running on a genuine device, to keep the leaderboard fair.
- There are no ads, no advertising identifiers, no chat and no free-text names. Leaderboard names are generated nicknames.
- You can ask us to delete your data at any time by emailing admin@itful.co.nz.
Who we are
qchamps is developed and published by itful, an organisation based in New Zealand ("we", "us"). For anything about this policy or your data, contact admin@itful.co.nz.
What we collect and why
| Data | Why we use it | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Anonymous account identifier (a random user ID) | To keep your best score, nickname, titles, progress and tickets together across sessions. It is required for the app to work. | Created by Firebase Authentication (anonymous sign-in) the first time the app starts. |
| Gameplay statistics: runs, scores, answers, answer timing, streaks, questions seen, pauses and topic picks used, monthly points | To run the game, rank you on the monthly leaderboard, award in-app titles, and detect cheating so the leaderboard stays fair. | Generated as you play; sent to our game server (Firebase Cloud Functions and Firestore). |
| Generated nickname and chosen title | Shown on the leaderboard and hall of fame. Nicknames are generated by us (word plus number); you can reroll them but not type your own. | Created by our server. |
| Purchase history (product, purchase token, state, time) for pause and topic tickets | To grant the tickets you bought, to restore them, and to handle refunds and disputes. | Google Play Billing. Google handles the payment itself; we never see your card or payment details. |
| Device integrity verdict | To check that requests come from a genuine, unmodified copy of the app on a genuine Android device, as part of anti-cheat. | Google Play Integrity API. We receive Google's verdict, not your device's hardware identifiers. |
| Accessibility mode flag (whether a screen reader is on) | To serve recall-only challenge questions instead of visual ones, so the game is fair for screen-reader users. | Read from your device's accessibility settings when a run starts. |
| Technical data needed to deliver the service (IP address, request timestamps) | Processed by Google's infrastructure to deliver requests and for security and abuse protection. | Standard operation of Firebase and Google Cloud. |
We do not collect your name, email address, phone number, contacts, photos, precise or approximate location, advertising identifiers or any data for advertising. The app contains no ads and no analytics SDK for advertising.
Who processes the data
We use these services as processors. They store and process data on our behalf under their own security commitments:
- Google Firebase (Authentication, Cloud Firestore, Cloud Functions) and Google Cloud: hosting of the game server and database. Data is stored in Google Cloud data centres in the United States (region us-central1).
- Google Play Billing: processes payments for in-app tickets. Google's own privacy policy applies to the payment.
- Google Play Integrity API: produces the device integrity verdict described above.
We do not sell your data and we do not share it with advertisers or data brokers. We may disclose data if the law requires it.
Security
All data travels between the app and our servers over encrypted connections (HTTPS/TLS). Our server, not the app, decides scores and ranks, and the correct answer to a question is never sent to the device before you answer.
How long we keep data
- Your account identifier, best score, nickname, titles, tickets and progress are kept for as long as your anonymous account exists.
- Run and answer records are kept to operate the monthly leaderboard, the hall of fame and anti-cheat review. Hall of fame entries (nickname and score of monthly and yearly champions and top-10 places) are kept as part of the game's history.
- Purchase records are kept for as long as needed to support refunds, disputes and accounting obligations.
- If you uninstall the app or clear its data, the anonymous account on the device is lost and cannot be recovered; the server-side data stays until deleted under the section below.
Your choices and deletion
Because the account is anonymous, we cannot look you up by name. To request deletion, email admin@itful.co.nz from the device if possible, and include your current leaderboard nickname and, if you can, the date of your last run. We will delete the account's stored data, except records we must keep for legal or accounting reasons (for example purchase records), within 30 days and confirm by reply.
You can change your leaderboard nickname at any time in the app ("New name"). You can also ask us what data we hold about your nickname, or to correct it, using the same email address.
Depending on where you live, you may have further rights under local law (for example the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020, the GDPR in the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom, or state laws in the United States). You can exercise them through the same contact, and you can complain to your local privacy regulator.
Children
qchamps is intended for players aged 13 and over. It is not directed at children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect data from them. If you believe a child under 13 has been playing and data was stored, contact us and we will delete it.
Changes to this policy
If we change what we collect or how we use it, we will update this page and the effective date, and point to it from the app's store listing.
Contact
itful, New Zealand
Email: admin@itful.co.nz