Privacy Policy

Overview

Most Pappies app data stays on your device. Online features use Apple’s services: iCloud sync for eligible progress and battle preferences, CloudKit for shared battle links, public battle availability and daily score breakdowns, and Game Center for friends, direct battles, and leaderboards. Versions with daily feature usage also send encrypted feature counts through CloudKit to help improve the app; you can turn this sharing off. Current versions also use Apple’s privacy-preserving install attribution. These features and the information they use are described below; availability varies by app version. Earlier app versions may also send limited attribution and purchase-event data to AppsFlyer as described below.

Data stored on your device

Pappies stores app settings, quiz progress and checkpoints, scores, achievements, unlock information, reminder details, and related app state locally on your device. Versions with Battles also store invitations, battle history, guesses, answer timing, results, forfeits, notification state, and invitation preferences. Invitation preferences include who may challenge you, nicknames you have suppressed, and cooldown dates. This information is used to provide app features, remember your progress and choices, and retry synchronization when needed.

Sign in with Apple

When you sign in, Pappies requests your name and email address through Sign in with Apple. Apple lets you choose whether to share your email address or use a private relay address. The current app uses and stores only the app-specific Apple user identifier needed to recognize your app account and enable sync; it does not save the name or email returned by Apple.

Apple processes Sign in with Apple data under Apple’s own privacy terms.

iCloud sync

When you are signed in with Apple inside Pappies, the app uses Apple’s iCloud key-value storage to sync eligible achievements, quiz progress, scores, and unlock information. These synced records are associated inside the app with your app-specific Sign in with Apple user identifier.

Battle invitation preferences also sync through iCloud key-value storage, using keys associated with your Game Center player identifier. This includes your invitation audience, suppressed nicknames, cooldown dates, and dates used to merge changes across devices. This preference sync uses your device’s iCloud account separately from Sign in with Apple inside Pappies. Public availability, daily scores, and shared battle links use separate CloudKit records as described below.

Game Center friends and leaderboards

If you use Game Center features, Pappies accesses your Game Center player identifier, nickname or display name, and available profile photo to recognize players and display profiles. Weekly quiz scores are submitted to Apple’s Game Center leaderboard and may be visible with your Game Center profile to other players. Pappies also loads leaderboard entries, including player identifiers, names, ranks, scores, and available profile photos, to display standings.

If you allow Game Center friend access, Pappies reads permitted friends’ player identifiers and names to show your friend list and apply friend-only challenge preferences. Game Center controls this permission. Pappies does not request or read your device’s Contacts address book. Earlier direct battles use Game Center multiplayer. Versions with the Pappies invitation inbox use CloudKit to invite leaderboard players, including non-friends, as described below. Manually sharing an iCloud invitation link opens Messages or the system share sheet, where you choose the recipient and whether to send it.

Apple processes Game Center information under its Game Center privacy notice.

Public daily score breakdowns

In versions with daily score breakdowns, when you are authenticated with Game Center, Pappies publishes your saved current-week daily league scores to Apple’s public CloudKit database after recording results and during eligible refreshes. The record contains the UTC week start and up to seven weekday-and-score pairs. Other players can view these breakdowns from the leaderboard player sheet. No quiz answers, contact details, or exact play times are included in this record.

The record is addressed using a hash of your normalized Game Center nickname, and CloudKit supplies its normal app-scoped creator metadata. This is public information associated with your nickname: someone who knows the nickname can calculate the record address, so the hash does not make the information anonymous. The same record can be updated for a later week; the app displays a breakdown only for the matching week. These breakdowns are separate from the Game Center scores used to determine leaderboard rankings.

Battle availability and invitation preferences

Direct battle invitations default to allowing “Other players.” You can choose “Game Center friends” or “Nobody” in Battle settings, and can suppress future invitations from a nickname. Suppression follows that nickname; it is not a permanent block on an Apple account if the player changes their nickname. Pappies also stores cooldowns to limit repeat invitations after a decline or cancellation.

To let other Pappies players check whether they can challenge you, the app publishes a record in Apple’s public CloudKit database addressed using a hash of your normalized Game Center nickname. In versions with the invitation inbox, its custom fields are your invitation audience, an availability expiry date, a public encryption key, and a reference to your public identity registration. CloudKit also supplies its normal app-scoped creator metadata. Someone who knows your nickname can calculate the record address; this information is not anonymous. Suppressed nicknames, cooldowns, match history, and scores are not included in the public availability record.

Availability is renewed for 30 days when published during app use; expiry does not delete the stored record. Inbox versions continue to respect a published “Nobody” or “Game Center friends” choice after that date and can publish a “Nobody” record even if none exists. Invitation preferences are checked again before displaying or accepting an incoming request. Earlier versions use the expiry and publication rules available in that version. Apple’s Game Center notification delivery is controlled separately.

Leaderboard invitation inbox

In versions with the Pappies invitation inbox, direct challenges use Apple’s public CloudKit database independently of Game Center friendship. Requests and responses contain a round identifier, the players’ Game Center nicknames, the selected arena, identity-registration references, public encryption keys, and invitation status. The searchable sender and recipient fields use nickname hashes. These records are public; hashing nicknames does not make them anonymous. An invitation can wait for another player to update the app and expires after seven days.

To verify who sends or accepts a request, the app publishes a public identity registration containing your legacy, unscoped Game Center profile identifier, an Apple identity signature, a salt, a signature timestamp, Apple’s public-certificate URL, and your public encryption key. The identifier is used to verify your Apple profile and nickname, not for analytics or cross-game tracking. CloudKit supplies its normal creator metadata. This registration can be published when you use authenticated Battle features, including when your invitation audience is “Nobody.”

Your private encryption key stays in your private iCloud database and is shared only through your own iCloud account across devices. On acceptance, the reply encrypts the battle’s CloudKit invitation link for the challenger. Public inbox records do not include plaintext battle links, quiz answers, scores, contact details, or custom messages. The accepted battle uses the shared CloudKit gameplay records described below. Silent CloudKit updates and local notifications can alert you to new requests, subject to your notification settings and Apple’s delivery rules.

Direct Game Center battles

Direct challenges use Apple’s Game Center multiplayer service to invite a selected player and synchronize a two-player battle. Apple identifies the participants through their Game Center accounts. Pappies uses their nicknames and available profile photos to display the battle. Match data includes the round identifier, arena, questions and answer choices, participant seats and nicknames, acceptance and start state, guesses, question start times, elapsed answer times, and forfeit information. This information is processed by Apple and shared with the other participant to calculate and display progress, scores, and results.

Pappies also keeps a local match history and saved attempts associated with your Game Center player identifier and match identifier. Direct battle payloads use match-specific seat identifiers and do not include your Sign in with Apple identifier, email address, phone number, or a CloudKit invitation link. Game Center may deliver invitation, start, completion, and other match notifications. Direct invitations expire after seven days; this acceptance deadline does not automatically delete match data.

CloudKit battles and invitation links

Creating or accepting an iCloud battle invitation link uses Apple’s CloudKit service and requires an iCloud account on your device. Pappies stores a battle record in the creator’s private CloudKit database and shares it through a CloudKit invitation. The record includes the round identifier, creation date, arena, questions and answer choices, each player’s CloudKit user identifier and optional Game Center display name, guesses, question and guess timestamps, elapsed answer time, and any forfeit timestamp. This information synchronizes play between devices and lets the app calculate and display progress, scores, and results.

The shared record is accessible through the CloudKit invitation link. Anyone with the link may be able to accept the share and access its contents; the app assigns the opponent’s seat to the first other player who joins. Share invitations only with intended recipients. The other participant can access the shared gameplay data and display name. Battle sharing uses your iCloud identity separately from your Sign in with Apple account inside Pappies.

Purchases

Subscriptions, lifetime access, purchase restoration, and optional support gifts are processed by Apple through StoreKit and the App Store. Pappies receives product and entitlement information needed to provide or restore access, but does not receive or process your payment-card details. Apple retains purchase records under its own terms and privacy policy.

Notifications

If you grant notification permission, Pappies schedules progress reminders locally on your device using your recent continent and score information.

CloudKit invitation-link battles use Apple’s CloudKit background notifications to learn when shared battle data changes. The app refreshes the battle and creates a local result alert for a win, loss, draw, or forfeit. Alerts can include the opponent’s display name and can appear on your lock screen according to your iOS settings. Apple handles the remote delivery needed for CloudKit updates; these battle updates do not use a developer-operated notification server.

Direct Game Center battles use Apple’s match notification services for invitations and match events. These are separate from Pappies’ local reminders and CloudKit result alerts. You can change notification permissions and preview visibility in iOS Settings, including Game Center settings where applicable. Delivery depends on your device, network, and Apple’s services and is not guaranteed.

Feedback and support

If you choose the Feedback feature, Pappies opens Apple’s mail composer. The message and any personal information you include are sent only when you choose to send the email. Received support emails may be retained as reasonably necessary to respond, keep support records, and comply with legal obligations.

Daily feature usage

In versions with this feature, Pappies counts which features are opened and which quizzes are started or finished, grouped by UTC calendar day. Examples include Nature, Lands, Capitals, Flags, Waters, Globe modes, country topics, Daily Quiz, and screens such as Battles, achievements, settings, and purchase offers. A quiz start is counted when you first submit an answer in a round; completion means reaching its normal end. These counts help the developer understand which parts of Pappies are used and decide what to improve. They are interaction totals, not a count of unique people.

Feature-usage sharing is on by default. You can turn off “Share daily feature counts” in Sounds → Usage & privacy without affecting access to app features or purchases. Turning it off stops new collection and clears unsent local counts. An upload already in progress may still complete, and previously uploaded counts are not automatically removed. Uploads require your device to be signed in to iCloud; they do not require Sign in with Apple inside Pappies.

The usage payload contains daily feature totals, not your name, email address, quiz answers, scores, country targets, location, advertising identifiers, purchase transactions, or player identities. Pappies uses a random record address for each installation and day, with no persistent installation identifier in the payload. Counts are batched on your device and encrypted before upload to Apple’s CloudKit. Only the developer’s private Pappies Pulse dashboard has the key needed to decrypt the counts and combine them into daily reports. These feature counts are not sent to AppsFlyer, advertising networks, or the Pulse finance service, and are not used for advertising or tracking across other companies’ apps or websites.

The encrypted records are stored in a public CloudKit database. The UTC day, encrypted payload, and Apple’s standard record metadata are publicly readable through that database. Metadata includes creation and modification times and an app-specific iCloud creator identifier, which can associate records with the same iCloud account. Encryption protects the feature counts, but does not hide that metadata. The data is therefore pseudonymous, not anonymous.

The local counter journal retains at most 14 UTC days so it can retry uploads when offline. Uploaded encrypted CloudKit records currently remain until the developer removes them; there is no automatic server expiry. Pulse stores daily aggregate totals in its protected local cache for a 30-day reporting window, rather than saving raw usage records or creator identifiers. Turning off sharing, deleting your Pappies app account, or removing the app does not automatically delete records already uploaded or totals already included in reports. Contact us below to request access or deletion; we may need additional information to identify the relevant records.

Install attribution and earlier analytics

Current Apple install attribution: Current versions register app launches with Apple’s SKAdNetwork to measure installations resulting from advertising campaigns, including eligible Reddit campaigns. Apple may send privacy-preserving install-attribution postbacks to the relevant advertising network. This launch registration does not report sign-ins, purchases, revenue, quiz answers, or scores, and does not use an advertising identifier or request App Tracking Transparency permission. Apple describes the mechanism in its SKAdNetwork documentation.

AppsFlyer removal: Updated app versions disable the AppsFlyer SDK and its attribution and purchase-event reporting. In those versions, the app no longer sends these events or attribution postbacks to AppsFlyer. Apple install attribution described above operates separately. Earlier versions that include AppsFlyer may continue sending the data described below until you update or remove the app. Previously collected data remains subject to the retention and privacy-rights information below.

Earlier versions of Pappies use the AppsFlyer mobile measurement SDK. The SDK starts when you open the app so Pappies can measure installs and launches, understand which advertising campaigns contributed to an install, measure qualifying subscription and lifetime-access purchase conversions, and help detect attribution fraud.

AppsFlyer may process technical, device, and network information such as device type and model, operating-system and app information, language, IP address (which may be used to infer an approximate region), Apple’s Identifier for Vendors (IDFV), an AppsFlyer-generated installation identifier, timestamps, and install, launch, campaign, ad-click, or ad-impression attribution information.

When a qualifying Pappies Plus subscription or lifetime-access purchase is completed or restored, Pappies sends AppsFlyer a purchase event containing the product identifier and type, price or revenue, currency, quantity, and the StoreKit transaction identifier. Pappies does not set an AppsFlyer customer user ID or send AppsFlyer your Sign in with Apple identifier, name, email address, payment-card details, precise location, quiz answers, scores, achievements, or iCloud-synced progress.

Earlier versions with AppsFlyer use its Strict Mode SDK, which removes the ability to collect Apple’s advertising identifier (IDFA) and removes the AdSupport dependency. The app does not request App Tracking Transparency permission, and Pappies does not use AppsFlyer data to serve targeted ads or build a profile of your activity across other companies’ apps or websites.

Earlier versions with attribution enabled also use Apple’s privacy-preserving attribution technologies. Apple may send attribution postbacks to the AppsFlyer endpoint configured by Pappies. AppsFlyer makes attribution results available to Pappies and may share configured attribution or event information with an advertising partner, such as Reddit, when directed by Pappies. The information processed by AppsFlyer is governed by AppsFlyer’s information about processing customer data.

Sharing and service providers

App data is shared with Apple as needed to provide Sign in with Apple, iCloud preference and progress sync, CloudKit storage and updates, Game Center friends, battles and leaderboards, App Store purchases, install attribution, and other Apple platform services you use. When feature-usage sharing is enabled, Apple also stores encrypted daily feature counts and record metadata, and the developer reads and decrypts the counts in Pappies Pulse as described above. Battle participants and other people with access to a CloudKit invitation may access the relevant shared battle information as described above. Leaderboard profile information and scores may be visible to other Game Center players. Daily score breakdowns, battle availability, inbox messages, and identity registrations are stored in the public CloudKit database and are accessible as described above. Apple may send install-attribution postbacks to the relevant advertising network, such as Reddit, independently of AppsFlyer.

In earlier versions with AppsFlyer enabled, the attribution and purchase-event data described above is shared with AppsFlyer, which acts as a processor or service provider for Pappies to provide measurement, analytics, and fraud-protection services. AppsFlyer may use affiliates and service providers and may disclose or share data as described in its documentation. If Pappies configures an advertising partner such as Reddit in AppsFlyer, limited attribution or event data may also be provided to that partner. Apple, AppsFlyer, and Reddit handle information under their respective Apple privacy policy, AppsFlyer data-processing information, and Reddit privacy policy. Pappies does not sell personal information or send AppsFlyer or advertising partners your name, email address, or payment-card details.

Apple, AppsFlyer, their service providers, or configured advertising partners may process information in countries other than the country where you live. Where required, international transfers are subject to safeguards described by the relevant provider, such as the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses.

Data retention and deletion

Local app data generally remains until you remove it using an available reset or deletion feature, or remove the app. The daily feature-usage journal has a separate 14-day limit and opt-out control; uploaded usage records and Pulse reports follow the retention rules in Daily feature usage. The in-app Delete Account feature resets supported achievements, collections, quiz progress, manual unlocks, and reminder notifications, removes supported iCloud-synced app account data, and signs you out of Sign in with Apple inside Pappies.

Removing a battle from its history list hides that round on the device; it does not delete saved attempts, the Game Center match, or a shared CloudKit record. The other participant can continue to access the battle, and opening a CloudKit invitation again can restore it to your list. Shared CloudKit battle records do not currently expire automatically. The seven-day deadline for direct invitations limits acceptance and does not automatically erase Game Center matches, CloudKit inbox messages, or their history. Apple retains Game Center information under its own privacy notice.

Public daily score records retain the last published snapshot until updated or deleted; there is no scheduled deletion when a week ends or you stop playing. Public availability records remain stored after their 30-day availability date. Inbox messages, identity registrations, and private mailbox keys do not currently have automatic deletion when an invitation expires or is dismissed. A nickname change can leave records addressed using the previous nickname. Invitation preferences, including suppressed nicknames and cooldowns, remain stored locally and in iCloud; passing a cooldown date does not automatically erase its stored entry.

Delete Account does not erase local battle history or attempts, shared CloudKit battles, Game Center matches or leaderboard scores, public daily score, availability, inbox or identity records, private mailbox keys, or battle invitation preferences. It does not revoke battle invitations or sign you out of your device’s iCloud or Game Center account. Removing the app does not itself delete records stored by Apple or copies already available to another participant.

To request access to or deletion of battle data, public score or availability records, invitation preferences, or other app data that the available controls do not remove, contact Pappies using the email below. We will explain the available steps and handle requests in accordance with applicable law. Apple’s services and the ownership of a record may affect which deletion controls are available.

Deleting your Pappies app account does not cancel a subscription or delete App Store transaction records held by Apple. Manage subscriptions and purchase history through your Apple Account.

Attribution and purchase-event data processed by AppsFlyer is retained according to Pappies’ AppsFlyer settings, the applicable service agreement, and legal requirements. Deleting your Pappies app account does not automatically delete data already processed by AppsFlyer. Deleting the app stops future SDK transmissions from that installation. To request access to or deletion of attribution data, or to exercise another privacy right available in your location, contact Pappies using the email address below.

Your privacy rights

Depending on where you live, you may have rights to request access to, correction of, deletion of, or a copy of your personal information, or to object to or restrict certain processing. You may also have the right to complain to your local data-protection authority. To make a request concerning Pappies, feature-usage records, battles, public score or availability records, invitation preferences, or data processed through AppsFlyer on behalf of Pappies, contact Pappies using the email address below. Pappies may need information about the relevant battle, Game Center nickname (including a previous nickname), app installation, account, or dates of use to identify records and verify your request. Do not send your Apple password.

Security

Pappies relies on iOS security controls and the safeguards used by Apple and, for earlier versions, AppsFlyer to protect locally stored and transmitted information. Daily feature counts are additionally encrypted on your device for the developer’s private dashboard; the publicly readable CloudKit metadata is described above. No method of storage or transmission can be guaranteed completely secure.

Changes to this policy

This policy may be updated when Pappies features or data practices change. The effective date will be revised when an updated policy is published.

Contact

For privacy questions or requests, contact: morrislift@gmail.com