Privacy Policy — Block Cat

Effective date: 31 August 2026 Last updated: 31 August 2026 App: Block Cat: Block Puzzle (iOS com.blockcat.game, Android com.blockcat.vn) Publisher: Xuan Loc Le ("we", "us", "our") Contact: xuanlocle2412@gmail.com

Block Cat is a single-player block puzzle. It is designed to work completely offline, and the parts of it that touch the internet — the leaderboard, ads and the shop — are optional or clearly visible. This policy explains exactly what leaves your device, when, and to whom.

1. The short version

• You can play the entire game without giving us anything. No account, no sign-up, no email. Your score and your board are saved on your device only.
• We ask for your Google account only if you want to be on the leaderboard. If you sign in, your display name, profile picture and best score become publicly visible to other signed-in players.
• We show ads through Google AdMob. Google's ad SDK collects device and advertising identifiers in order to serve and measure ads. In the EEA, the UK and Switzerland we show Google's consent form before any ad is requested.
• Purchases are handled entirely by Apple and Google. We never see your card, your billing address or your full store account.
• We do not sell your personal information for money, we do not send you marketing email, and we do not ask for your location, contacts, camera, microphone or photos.

2. What we collect

2.1 If you just play (no sign-in)

Nothing is sent to us. The following is written to your device's own storage and never uploaded:

Uninstalling the app deletes all of it.

2.2 If you sign in with Google (optional — for the leaderboard)

Signing in uses Google Sign-In and Firebase Authentication. We receive from Google:

• Your email address — held by Firebase Authentication to identify your account. It is not shown on the leaderboard and is not visible to other players.
• Your display name (first and last name as set on your Google account) — shown publicly on the leaderboard.
• Your Google profile picture (a URL) — shown publicly on the leaderboard.
• A Firebase user ID — an opaque identifier we use as the key for your leaderboard row.

We then store one document per player in Google Cloud Firestore containing exactly: your display name, your profile picture URL, your best score, and the time it was last updated. Nothing else. There is one row per player, holding your best run only — we do not keep a history of your games.

This is public. Any signed-in player can read the top scores, including your name, picture and score.

2.3 If you buy something

In-app purchases (the Meow Pack, the row eraser, the column eraser) are processed by Apple's App Store or Google Play. We do not receive, and cannot see, your payment card, bank details or billing address. We receive from the store only the confirmation of the purchase — the product id and a transaction identifier — which the app stores on your device so it knows what you own. The stores also provide us with aggregated, anonymous sales reports.

2.4 Ads

We show ads using Google AdMob. When an ad is requested, Google's SDK collects and processes information directly, including:

• your device's advertising identifier (Android Advertising ID; on iOS, the IDFA is not requested by this app — see §5.2),
• your IP address, from which an approximate (city-level or coarser) location may be derived,
• device information such as model, operating system version and language,
• information about the ads shown, and whether you interacted with them.

We do not receive this data in an identifiable form. Google acts as an independent controller for it and uses it under its own terms: How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services and the Google Advertising Policies.

The rewarded ad in this game grants an eraser. It never awards points and never changes your score.

2.5 What we do not collect

We do not collect and never ask for: your phone number, your postal address, your GPS or precise location, your contacts, your photos or camera, your microphone, your health data, your files, or your browsing on other apps and websites.

We do not use Google Analytics, Firebase Analytics or any other analytics or crash-reporting SDK in this app. We do not build a profile of you, and we do not run remarketing or retargeting campaigns.

3. Why we use it, and our legal basis (GDPR)

We do not use automated decision-making or profiling that produces legal effects for you.

4. Who we share it with

We do not sell your personal information. We share it only with the service providers that make the app work:

We may also disclose information if we are legally required to, or to protect our rights, safety or property — and we will tell you unless the law forbids it.

International transfers. Our Firestore database is hosted in Singapore (asia-southeast1), and Google's ad infrastructure is global, so data may be processed outside your country, including outside the EEA and the UK. Google relies on the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses and, for the US, the EU–US Data Privacy Framework for these transfers.

5. Your choices and controls

5.1 Playing anonymously

Don't sign in. The game is complete without it — this is the simplest and strongest control you have.

5.2 Ads

• In the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, Google's consent form (Google UMP) appears before the first ad request. You choose there whether to allow personalised ads, and you can change your answer later from that same form.
• On iOS, this app does not show the App Tracking Transparency prompt and does not request your IDFA, so ads are served without cross-app tracking identifiers.
• On Android, you can reset or delete your Advertising ID in Settings → Google → Ads, and opt out of ad personalisation there.
• You can also review your Google ad settings at adssettings.google.com.
• The Meow Pack in-app purchase removes ads.

5.3 The leaderboard

Signing out stops any further score from being published. Your existing row stays until you ask us to delete it — write to xuanlocle2412@gmail.com from the address you signed in with and we will remove it.

5.4 Deleting everything

• On-device data: uninstall the app.
• Account and leaderboard data: email xuanlocle2412@gmail.com from your signed-in address and ask for deletion. We will delete your leaderboard row and your Firebase Authentication record within 30 days and confirm when it is done.

6. How long we keep it

7. Security

Traffic between the app and Firebase is encrypted with TLS. Access to the leaderboard is restricted by Firebase Security Rules: you can only ever write to your own row, and no client can delete rows. Access to the Firebase console is limited to the developer and protected by a Google account.

We should be straight with you about one limit: because scores are reported by the app on your phone, the leaderboard is not tamper-proof — a determined player could report a score they did not earn. That is a fairness limitation of a small board, not a risk to your personal data.

No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

8. Children's privacy

Block Cat is not directed to children under 13 (or under 16 in jurisdictions where that is the relevant age), and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. Sign-in requires a Google account, which Google requires an eligible age to hold.

If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, email xuanlocle2412@gmail.com and we will delete it promptly. Parents can prevent all data collection by not signing in, and can disable purchases with the parental controls in the App Store and Google Play.

9. Your rights under the GDPR (EEA, UK and Switzerland)

If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, you have the right to:

• access the personal data we hold about you, and receive a copy;
• rectify data that is inaccurate — including your display name;
• erase your data ("right to be forgotten");
• restrict or object to our processing, including objecting to processing based on legitimate interests;
• portability — receive your data in a structured, machine-readable format;
• withdraw consent at any time, without affecting processing already carried out;
• complain to your local supervisory authority (in the UK, the ICO at ico.org.uk).

To exercise any of these, email xuanlocle2412@gmail.com. We answer within 30 days and charge nothing. We may ask you to confirm you control the account, so that we do not hand your data to someone else.

The data controller is Xuan Loc Le, an independent developer based in Vietnam, reachable at xuanlocle2412@gmail.com. A postal address is available on request.

10. Your rights under the CCPA/CPRA (California)

If you are a California resident, you have the right to:

• know what personal information we collect, use and disclose, and the categories of sources and recipients;
• delete the personal information we hold about you;
• correct inaccurate personal information;
• opt out of the sale or sharing of your personal information;
• limit the use of sensitive personal information — we collect none, so there is nothing to limit;
• not be discriminated against for exercising any of these rights. The game plays identically either way.

Categories collected in the last 12 months (as defined by Cal. Civ. Code §1798.140):

"Sale" and "sharing". We do not sell personal information for money. However, serving personalised ads through Google AdMob may qualify as "sharing" for cross-context behavioural advertising under the CPRA. To opt out: decline personalised ads in the consent form where it is shown, turn on Opt out of Ads Personalization in your Android settings, leave iOS tracking off (it is off by default in this app), or buy the Meow Pack to remove ads entirely. You may also email xuanlocle2412@gmail.com with the subject "California — Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information".

We do not knowingly sell or share the personal information of consumers under 16 years of age.

You may use an authorised agent to make a request; we will ask for proof of their authority.

11. CalOPPA

Under the California Online Privacy Protection Act:

• You may visit and play the app anonymously — see §5.1.
• This policy is linked from our App Store and Google Play listings and, once you install, from the app's settings screen.
• Users will be notified of any material change to this policy as described in §13.
• You can change or delete your information as described in §5.
• Do Not Track: our app does not respond to Do Not Track browser signals, because it is not a website. We do not track you across third-party apps or websites, and we do not allow third parties to do so through this app for their own purposes beyond the ad delivery described in §2.4.

12. Other regional notes

Vietnam. We process personal data in accordance with Decree 13/2023/ND-CP on Personal Data Protection. Sign-in is optional and consent-based, and you may withdraw it and request deletion at any time via xuanlocle2412@gmail.com.

Everywhere else. Wherever you are, the rights in §5 — play anonymously, sign out, request deletion — are available to you, regardless of whether your local law requires them.

13. Changes to this policy

If we change this policy we will update the "Last updated" date at the top and post the new version at the same link. For a material change — a new category of data, a new recipient, a new purpose — we will show a notice in the app before the change takes effect, and where the law requires it we will ask for your consent again. Continuing to use Block Cat after a change means you accept the updated policy.

14. Contact us

Questions, requests or complaints about this policy or your data:

• Email: xuanlocle2412@gmail.com — the fastest route, and the one we monitor.
• Post: available on request — email us and we will provide a postal address.

We answer every privacy request within 30 days.