Constella – Privacy Policy

Constella ("the game", "we", "us") is a word puzzle for Android made by Sparkplay Studio (Mohd Aqib), Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, India. This policy explains, in plain language, what information the game collects, why, who else handles it, how long it is kept and how you can delete it. Questions or requests: support@sparkplaystudio.com.

What we collect and why

Information you choose to give

• Your player name and avatar. Every player starts with a default name ("Stargazer" and a few digits). Your name and the creature you chose as your avatar are stored on our servers and shown to other players on leaderboards and in your Observatory once you take part in the Meteor Shower (automatic from level 40 when you finish a level during a Meteor Shower weekend) or join an Observatory.
• Observatory names and help requests. If you create an Observatory, its name is shown to other players. When you ask your Observatory for a Lantern, your name appears in its help feed. There is no chat.
• Reports. If you report a player or Observatory name, we store the report so the name can be reviewed.
• Save progress (optional). If you sign in with Google Play Games from Settings, Save progress, a copy of your game progress (levels, coins and items, Atlas, streak, and the game's record of your purchases) is stored on our servers and linked to your Play Games account, so you can restore it on another phone.

Information collected automatically

• A random player ID. When the game first goes online it creates an anonymous account for you (Firebase Authentication). This random ID connects your Meteor Shower stars, Observatory membership and saved progress to you. It contains nothing about who you are.
• Level stars. For each level from level 40 that you finish for the first time: the level, its word count and when you finished it, sent with your random player ID and player name for the Meteor Shower and your Observatory.
• Game activity. How you play (for example levels started and completed, hints used, words found, purchases made in the game, settings changed), so we can understand what works and balance the game. This uses Google Analytics for Firebase.
• Crash reports. If the game crashes, a report with the error, the phone model, the Android version and a random installation ID (Firebase Crashlytics). We never attach your player ID, name or anything you typed.
• Device and network information. Device identifiers (the Android advertising ID, an app set ID, and installation IDs created by Firebase), the phone's country, language and time zone, the app version, and your IP address (from which an approximate location, such as the country or city, can be estimated).
• Purchase records. If you buy something, Google Play processes the payment. We receive a record of what was bought and when, never your card or payment details. If a purchase is refunded, RevenueCat tells our servers which item and transaction it was, so the refunded coins or items can be taken back.

What stays on your phone

Your progress, coins and the record of every coin you earned or spent, your Atlas, your streak and calendar, your settings, the Tonight's Sky and Meteor Shower reminder schedules and downloaded puzzles stay on your phone unless you use Save progress (the level stars above are the one exception: they are sent as you play). The share card is drawn on your phone and goes only where you send it with Android's share sheet. Checking whether you are online happens on the phone.

Who else handles information

We use these services. Each processes information for us under its own terms and privacy policy, and sends it over encrypted (HTTPS/TLS) connections.

Notifications (the Tonight's Sky and Meteor Shower reminders) are scheduled on your phone; no notification service receives anything.

Privacy policies: Google (https://policies.google.com/privacy), how Google uses information from apps that use its services (https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites), RevenueCat (https://www.revenuecat.com/privacy).

Google and RevenueCat may process information in the United States and other countries. Where the law requires it, they use approved safeguards such as the European Commission's standard contractual clauses.

Advertising and your choices

• The game shows a banner under the puzzle from level 10, an occasional full-screen ad between levels (never inside a puzzle), and videos you choose to watch for a reward.
• Consent. In the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and US states with privacy laws, Google's consent form asks for your choices before personalised ads, the first time it is needed (never in the middle of a puzzle). You can change your choices at any time: Settings, Privacy options (shown where it applies).
• The advertising ID. You can reset or delete it in Android's settings (Settings, Privacy, Ads, or Google, Ads, depending on the phone). Ads then are no longer personalised from it.
• Remove Ads and the Observatory Pass stop the full-screen ads; the banner stays.

Legal bases (EEA, UK and Switzerland)

We use your information to provide the game you asked for (running the game, the online features, purchases and saved progress); for our legitimate interests in keeping the game working, secure and fair and in understanding how it is played (analytics, crash reports, fraud prevention, reviewing reported names); with your consent for personalised advertising and where consent is otherwise required; and to meet legal obligations (for example purchase records).

How long we keep information

• On your phone: until you delete it in the game (Settings, Delete my data) or uninstall the game.
• Your player account, name, Observatory membership and saved progress: until you delete them (below).
• Observatory help requests: 30 days, then removed automatically. An Observatory with no members left is removed, with its name, within a day (or after 7 days if a former member can still claim its chest).
• Meteor Shower results: kept for the season's crowns and league history. If you delete your data, your entry stays in finished leaderboards only as "Stargazer" with no link to you, so other players' ranks do not change.
• Server logs (which feature was called, by which random player ID, and errors): about 30 days.
• Game activity (Analytics): 2 months for event-level data and 14 months for user-level data (such as the app instance ID) in Google Analytics; a daily copy of the game activity in our own Google Cloud project (BigQuery), used for our analysis, is deleted after 14 months. Reports built from it contain no individual players.
• Crash reports: 90 days.
• Purchase records: Google Play and RevenueCat keep them as their policies and the law require, so that your purchases can be restored.
• Refund notices: applied in the game at its next start, then kept until you delete your data. One we cannot match to a player is kept on our servers only, and deleted a year after it arrived.
• Advertising data: handled by Google under its own retention policy.

Delete your data

In the game (fastest): Settings, Delete my data, then hold the button for three seconds. This deletes, at once and for good:

• on our servers: your player record and name, your Meteor Shower entries in events not yet finished, your Observatory membership and help requests, your saved progress, refund notices for your purchases, and your anonymous account (and its link to Play Games);
• on your phone: your progress, coins, Atlas, streak, settings, downloaded puzzles and scheduled reminders.

The game then starts again as a new player. It needs a connection to delete the server copy first; if it cannot reach our servers, nothing is deleted and you can try again.

What remains, without anything that identifies you: your rank in Meteor Shower leaderboards already finished (shown as "Stargazer"), Lanterns you sent to teammates (shown as from "Stargazer"), Observatory chest totals, and the count of reports you made about a name. Purchases remain with Google Play and RevenueCat: Remove Ads and the Observatory Pass come back to the new player through the store, and coins already bought are not paid again.

Without the game: if you no longer have the game or your phone, email support@sparkplaystudio.com with the subject "Delete my Constella data". If you used Save progress, say which Google Play Games account you used, so we can find your saved progress; we delete the same data as above within 30 days and confirm by email. You can also ask us to delete your purchase records held by RevenueCat.

Your rights

Depending on where you live (for example under the GDPR in the EEA, UK GDPR, or US state laws such as the California Consumer Privacy Act), you can ask us to access, correct, delete or receive a copy of your personal information, to restrict or object to how we use it, and to withdraw consent at any time (Settings, Privacy options, for ads). Email support@sparkplaystudio.com; we answer within one month. You also have the right to complain to your local data protection authority. We do not sell personal information. Where personalised advertising counts as "sharing" under US state law, you can opt out through Settings, Privacy options, or by deleting your advertising ID.

Because the game does not ask who you are, we may need your player name, your Observatory's name or the Google Play Games account you used for Save progress to find your information. The quickest way to delete it is always in the game.

Children

Constella is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child under 13 has given us information, email support@sparkplaystudio.com and we will delete it.

Security

Information sent between the game and our services is encrypted in transit. Our servers accept requests only from signed-in game accounts, and other players can see only your name, avatar, stars and Observatory activity.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we will update the effective date above and, for important changes, tell you in the game or in the store listing before they apply.

Contact

Sparkplay Studio (Mohd Aqib), Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, India. Email: support@sparkplaystudio.com.