ARGO
ARGOZONE CO.,LTD. ("we", "us") makes the mobile game "Azaza Match" (아자아자 매치 in Korea, "the game"). This policy explains what information the game processes and why, how long it is kept, and what you can ask us to do with it. If the Korean version and this one differ, the Korean version applies to users in Korea.
In short: the game starts without a sign-up or a login. On Android, if you have a Google Play Games profile, we link your game account to it automatically, so that your progress and the gems you bought carry over when you change phones or reinstall the game (section 1.6). Apart from the Play Games nickname and profile image address this involves, we do not collect your name, email address, phone number, precise location, contacts or photos. Through Google Firebase, we process an anonymous identifier and your game progress so that your progress is kept, and gameplay statistics and error reports so that we can fix and improve the game. The game is free to play, and if you want, you can buy gem packs and other items in the game. Payment is handled by Google Play on Android and by Apple's App Store on iPhone, so we never receive payment details such as card numbers. When you buy, our server checks with Google Play or the App Store that the purchase was really paid before you get what you bought, and to prevent misuse, handle refunds and keep the transaction records the law requires, we keep a record of the purchase (the product, the order number or transaction ID, the purchase time, your Player ID and so on) for 5 years from the purchase. On Android the game has rewarded ads, which you see only when you choose to by tapping an ad button, and the ads are served by Google AdMob (the iPhone game has no ads for now, does not ask for permission to track, and does not receive the iPhone's advertising identifier, the IDFA). While ads are on, Google's ads SDK in the game sends Google your advertising ID, your IP address (which may be used to estimate your approximate location), your interactions with the app and the ads, and diagnostic information, to serve ads, for personalized ads, to measure ads and to prevent fraud. The year of birth the game asks once for the ads stays on your phone, and players who may be under 14, or who do not answer, get only non-personalized ads. You can refuse personalized ads by deleting your advertising ID in your phone's settings, and in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland also with "Privacy options" in the game's settings (sections 1.9 and 5). You can delete your game account and its records at any time, right in the game, with "Delete account" in the settings (from version 0.22.0 of the game; section 6).
1. What we process and why
1.1 Saving your progress (cloud save)
| Data | An anonymous account identifier (your Player ID), a random identifier the game makes for each install, the number of stages cleared, the stars won on each stage and the bonus stages won, gold, gems (including gems you bought), lives and when they refill, the time left on unlimited lives (when you got them with a product of section 1.5), the win streak, the daily missions and how far you are with them, the week's stamps and weekly chests, your cheer tower record for the week (best floor, climbs and crowns) and any climb in progress (floor, gauge and the cheer cards held), your Aza Pass progress (the season number, points, the tiers claimed on the free and premium reward tracks, and how many extra rewards were claimed after tier 30), the gear you own with what is worn and its upgrade levels, keys and the chest guarantee count, the cards collected in the Cheerling Album (how many Gloomies of each card you cheered up and the card level you last saw in the album), the operating system of the phone that saved it (Android or iOS), a save number and the server time of the save. |
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| Purpose | To keep your progress when you reinstall the game or move to another phone. We also make it into aggregate figures that identify no one (such as how many players are at each stage, how many saved recently, and the totals and medians of gems and gold) and use them to run the game and tune its difficulty. |
| How | When the game first starts, Firebase Authentication creates an anonymous account automatically (you enter nothing). Your progress is uploaded to that account's storage whenever it changes. On Android, if you have a Google Play Games profile, this anonymous account is linked to it automatically, and on a new phone or after a reinstall the game signs in to the linked account and loads its progress (section 1.6). |
| Required? | Needed for the game to work. Without internet access the progress stays on the phone and goes up later. |
1.2 Gameplay statistics (Google Analytics for Firebase)
| Data |
What happens in the game: stage starts, clears, fails and stages left unfinished (stage number, difficulty, moves left, continues, cards picked, gear power); cheer cards picked; continues offered and used; features unlocked; rule lessons shown and finished; the first use of a special tile; obstacle introductions; chests opened and the grade of the gear that came out; gear offers and the answer; gear merge offers and the answer; bonus stages opened, started, cleared and failed; daily missions done and weekly chests; cheer tower climbs started, the result of each floor and how the climb ended; Aza Pass tiers reached (season and tier), rewards claimed (season, tier, free or premium track, and the reward) and last season's rewards settled (season and the number of tiers settled); starting over; the gem shop being opened (where, and the state of the shop) and purchase attempts (the product chosen, the result including our server's check, where, and whether it was a test purchase); Continue Pack offers (the stage and its difficulty) and the answer; unlimited lives given (the product they came with and for how long); what was taken back for a refunded purchase (the gems to take back and the gems actually taken, or the product ID of a product you keep that was taken back, or for a refunded Aza Pass Premium, its season and the gems taken back); the result of linking to Google Play Games (newly linked, linked before, moved to the linked account, not signed in, not available, or failed, with a short reason code; never the Play Games nickname); the result of carrying bought gems over (whether they were carried over, and how many gems and purchases); and records of the app ending abnormally (the reason Android recorded and the memory in use; on iPhone, the kind of crash, hang or exit that iOS reports through MetricKit). Collected automatically by Firebase: app instance ID, Android advertising ID (where the phone's settings allow it), the iPhone's identifier for vendor (IDFV: an iOS device identifier that is the same only across apps from the same company), device model, OS version, app version, language, country/region-level location estimated from the IP address, app usage such as first open, sessions and engagement time, and Google Play and App Store in-app purchases (product ID, price, currency and quantity). On iPhone the game does not ask for permission to track (App Tracking Transparency, ATT), so the iPhone's advertising identifier (IDFA) is not collected. |
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| Ad records | While ads are on (section 1.9): for each ad spot (lives, continues, card rerolls and the free chest), the result of asking for an ad (whether one had been loaded in advance), whether an ad shown went on to the reward, why an ad did not come (no ad available, no internet, timeout, no consent and so on), how the reward was given (by watching an ad, without one because none came, or with Ad-Free Rewards), the answer to the card about Ad-Free Rewards, whether an ad shown was tapped (a click), and the estimated earnings of each ad shown (the amount, currency and precision the ads SDK tells the app); and the ad requests, impressions, clicks and rewards (with the ad unit and the reward value) and the time ads were on screen that Firebase records automatically with the Google Mobile Ads SDK. The answer to the age question is never included. |
| Purpose | To improve the game: tuning stage difficulty, seeing where players get stuck and which features are used, seeing how the gem shop is used and what sells and whether purchase checks, refund take-backs, the link to Google Play Games and carrying bought gems over work, and finding problems; and, once ads are on, seeing whether the ad spots work (whether ads come, and go on to the reward) and what the ads earn, and watching whether anyone taps ads unusually often (invalid clicks). These statistics are not used to choose or personalize ads or for marketing, and are not given to ad companies (what the ads SDK sends Google itself is in section 1.9). |
| BigQuery copy | The data above, without the advertising ID, is exported once a day to our own Google BigQuery storage (Seoul region, South Korea). From it we draw only aggregate figures that identify no one (how many people played each day, starts, clears and fails per stage, the number and length of sessions, players by country and app version, and so on), for an operating dashboard that only our CEO can see. The copy is deleted automatically after 60 days (sections 2 and 4). |
| Required? | Collected automatically while the app runs. You can delete or reset the advertising ID in your phone's settings (section 5). |
1.3 Error reports (Firebase Crashlytics)
| Data | What went wrong and where (stack traces) when the app has an error or crashes; device maker and model, OS version, app version, screen orientation, free memory and storage; a Crashlytics installation identifier; your Player ID; and the game situation just before the error (the screen, stage number, board size and colors, moves left, whether the app was in front, a few lines of recent in-game events, and how the app ended last time); and when our server does not confirm a purchase, the product, the reason and the Google Play order number (on iPhone, the App Store transaction ID; never a Google Play purchase token). On iPhone, the past crashes, hangs and exits that iOS reports through MetricKit at the next launch (the app build, the iOS version and where in the code) are sent too. |
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| Purpose | To find and fix the causes of errors and crashes. The Player ID is attached so that we can find your report if you contact us, and the order number of a purchase that was not confirmed so that we can find problems with purchase checks and answer questions about purchases. |
| Required? | Sent automatically after an error, usually at the next launch. |
1.4 Remote settings (Firebase Remote Config)
To adjust game numbers such as lives, continue moves and stage difficulty, and whether the gem shop is open and whether ads are on (section 1.9), without an app update, the app fetches settings every time it starts, and every 12 hours while it runs. So that opening or closing the gem shop takes effect at once, the app keeps a connection to Firebase while it runs and is told in real time when the settings change. Technical information such as the Firebase installation identifier and the app version is processed for this.
1.5 In-game purchases (Google Play billing, App Store payments)
| What we sell | The game sells four kinds of products: gem packs, which give gems (from the third pack up, unlimited lives for a set time come with them); the Continue Pack, which gives gems together with unlimited lives for a set time (bought on a stage that ran out of moves, it also adds moves to that stage); "Ad-Free Rewards", which you buy once and keep: the right to get the lives, continues and card rerolls that rewarded ads give at once, without watching an ad (it appears in the shop only once the game has rewarded ads); and "Aza Pass Premium", bought one season at a time: for that 28-day season it unlocks the premium reward track of the Aza Pass (gems, gold, unlimited lives and a season headband) and raises the maximum number of lives. It is used only in the season you buy it for, and it is not a subscription, so it does not renew automatically. You can cancel it within 7 days of buying if you have not claimed any premium reward; once you claim one, you cannot cancel it. While you have unlimited lives, losing a stage does not cost a life, and the time left is part of your progress in section 1.1. The iPhone game has no ads or Aza Pass yet, so Ad-Free Rewards and Aza Pass Premium are not sold on iPhone. |
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| Data | The record of a purchase in this game that Google Play gives the app: the product ID (such as gem_pack_1), the purchase token, the order number (starting with GPA.), the purchase time, the purchase state (purchased or pending) and the purchase's account check value (below); the state of that purchase as our server checks it with Google Play; and the refunds (including cancellations and chargebacks) Google Play reports. The gems and the unlimited lives time you buy become part of your progress in section 1.1, the right of Ad-Free Rewards and the Aza Pass Premium you bought are kept on your phone ("Ad-Free Rewards" and "Aza Pass Premium" below), and the shop and in-app purchase records become part of the statistics in section 1.2. |
| Purpose | To give you what you bought (gems, unlimited lives time, the right of Ad-Free Rewards, and Aza Pass Premium for the season you bought it for); to check that a purchase was really paid; to prevent misuse by making sure one purchase is given only once and only to the account that made it; to check the right to a product you buy once and keep, and to Aza Pass Premium, at each launch, so that it stays with you when you reinstall the game or change phones; to take back the gems and rights of a refunded purchase; to carry the gems you bought over to the account linked to Google Play Games when you move to it; to let a game account you start anew with the same Google Play account get back a product you buy once and keep, after you deleted your account (section 6); to answer questions about purchases (gems that did not arrive, refunds and so on); to keep the transaction records the law requires; and to see how the shop is used. |
| How | When you pick a product in the game's shop, Google Play's payment screen opens and Google Play handles the payment. When the payment is complete, Google Play tells the app, and the app sends the purchase token and the product ID of that purchase, as your anonymous account (your Player ID), to our server (Firebase Cloud Functions, in Seoul, South Korea). Our server asks Google Play through the Google Play Developer API whether the purchase was really paid, records it and answers the app with what the product gives (the gems, the unlimited lives time of the Continue Pack, that it is a product you keep, or for Aza Pass Premium the purchase time Google Play gave). The app gives you what you bought only after our server has confirmed the purchase: gems and unlimited lives time are added to your progress (section 1.1), for Ad-Free Rewards its right is turned on, and for Aza Pass Premium the season that contains the purchase time our server answered (not the time on your phone's clock) becomes premium (the unlimited lives that come with a gem pack are set by the app from the remote settings of section 1.4). Then a gem pack, a Continue Pack or Aza Pass Premium is marked as used up (consumed), and Ad-Free Rewards is not consumed but only acknowledged (our server also acknowledges it to Google Play when it checks it). On the stage where you bought a Continue Pack the moves are added too; a Continue Pack confirmed only after that stage was over, because the payment finished late, gives the gems and unlimited lives time only. If a payment is pending, or the app cannot reach our server, nothing is given yet, and the purchase is checked again the next time you start or return to the game. A purchase our server does not confirm (a canceled purchase, another account's purchase, one already used and so on) gives nothing. |
| Account check value | When a purchase begins, the app gives Google Play a value made from your Player ID that cannot be turned back into it (its SHA-256 hash) as the purchase's account identifier (Google Play's obfuscated account ID). Google Play keeps it with the order and returns it in the purchase record, and our server uses it to check that a purchase belongs to the account that sends it. Google Play may also use it to detect irregular activity, such as many devices making purchases on the same account within a short time. Your Player ID cannot be worked out from it. |
| Ad-Free Rewards | When you buy Ad-Free Rewards, its right (the product ID) is remembered on your phone and checked again in two places at every launch. One is Google Play: as this purchase is not consumed, Google Play keeps handing it to the app as a purchase you own, and if this phone has not confirmed it before (after a reinstall, or on another phone with the same Google Account), the app checks it with our server as described under "How" above before turning the right on. The other is our server: once signed in, the app asks which products bought once and kept belong to your game account (your Player ID; nothing else is sent for this), and our server answers only with the product IDs of such products in that account's purchase records above that were not refunded. When the answer comes, the app makes the right on your phone match it; when there is no answer (without internet access, for example), the app goes on with the right it remembered. So with the same game account (linked to Google Play Games under section 1.6, or brought back by an Android backup), the right stays with you when you reinstall the game or change phones. If you reinstall without a Play Games link or a backup and start on a new anonymous account, the purchase carries the account check value of the earlier account, so our server does not confirm it: please write to help@argozone.com with the order number ("Questions" below). |
| Aza Pass Premium | When you buy Aza Pass Premium, the app remembers on your phone a value pointing to that purchase (the first characters of the purchase token's hash) and its purchase time, and for the season that contains that time it unlocks the premium reward track and raises your maximum lives. The list keeps only purchases from the last 70 days; starting over keeps it, and deleting your account in the game removes it (section 6). Once signed in, when the app asks our server what your game account owns (the same question as under "Ad-Free Rewards" above), our server also answers with the value and purchase time of each Aza Pass Premium purchase from the last 70 days that belongs to that account and was not refunded. When the answer comes, the app makes the list on your phone match it, so with the same game account you also get the premium for a season bought on another phone; when there is no answer (without internet access, for example), the app goes on with the list it remembered. |
| Kept on our server | For each purchase: a value made from the purchase token that cannot be turned back into it (its SHA-256 hash; the token itself is not stored), your Player ID, the product ID and its kind (gem pack, Continue Pack, product you keep or Aza Pass), the gems and the Continue Pack's unlimited lives time given, the Google Play order number, the purchase time, whether it was a test purchase, whether it carried an account check value, its status and when our server confirmed it. For a refunded purchase, also that it was refunded, when, the reason and source Google Play reports, the gems to take back and when the app took them (a product you keep and Aza Pass Premium have no gems to take back, so neither of these). For a purchase of a product you buy once and keep, released when its account was deleted, also that it was released and, if a game account got it back, that account's Player ID (section 6). The records are stored in Cloud Firestore (Seoul region, South Korea); only our server writes them, and the app cannot read or change them (section 7). Each time the server works, your Player ID, the hash of the purchase token, the product, the result and an access record of the request (the time, the IP address and so on) go into the server logs (Cloud Logging). |
| Refunds | Once a day our server reads Google Play's list of refunded (including canceled and charged back) purchases. If a purchase it confirmed was refunded, it marks that purchase record as refunded and records the gems of that purchase as gems to take back from that Player ID. At its next launch the app collects them, takes them from your gems (never below zero) and tells you on screen. For a purchase that came with unlimited lives (the Continue Pack, and gem packs from the third up), only the gems are taken back, not the unlimited lives time. Ad-Free Rewards has no gems to take back, so it is only marked as refunded; from then on our server no longer answers with that right ("Ad-Free Rewards" above), and at its next launch the app takes the right off your phone and tells you on screen. Aza Pass Premium, too, is only marked as refunded (our server does not know the gems the app gave for it, so it records no gems to take back), and from then on our server no longer answers with that purchase ("Aza Pass Premium" above). When the app sees that the purchase is missing from our server's answer, it removes it from the list on your phone; if the purchase was for the current season, the app turns that season's premium off, takes from your gems only the gems you claimed on the premium reward track that season (including the extra gems after tier 30; never below zero) and tells you on screen. Gold and unlimited lives time are not taken back. For a purchase from an earlier season, the app only removes it from the list. |
| Carrying bought gems over | When a new phone or a reinstalled game moves to an account already linked to Google Play Games (section 1.6), the gems that install bought on its anonymous account and still has are moved to the linked account, once. Signed in as the linked account, the app sends our server (Firebase Cloud Functions, in Seoul, South Korea) a sign-in token of that anonymous account taken just before the move (good for one hour only), the number of gems that install's progress held, and the hashes of the purchase tokens of the purchases it gave (the latest 200). Our server checks with the token that the anonymous account is the caller's (the token is not stored), moves all of that anonymous account's purchase records to the linked account, and answers with the gems of the purchases that install gave, less any refunded, and never more than the gems it held; the app adds them to the linked account's progress (section 1.1). From then on, refunds of the moved purchases are taken back from the linked account, and a purchase of that install whose gems were not given yet is given to the linked account. If the moved purchase records include Ad-Free Rewards or Aza Pass Premium, its right goes on in the linked account ("Ad-Free Rewards" and "Aza Pass Premium" above). Gems are carried over only once per anonymous account. For this our server keeps a carry-over record (the Player IDs of the anonymous account left behind and of the account it moved to, the number of purchases moved, the gems of those purchases, the gems the install held, the gems carried over, and when), and adds the anonymous account's Player ID and the time of the move to each moved purchase record. These records are stored in Cloud Firestore (Seoul region, South Korea) and handled only by our server. Each carry-over leaves both Player IDs and its result in the server logs (Cloud Logging). The progress and the gems that install earned by playing, and any unlimited lives time left on it, are not carried over. |
| Kept only on your phone | So that one purchase is never given twice, the purchase tokens of the purchases given (the latest 200), the time refunds were last checked, the right of Ad-Free Rewards you own (its product ID), and the list of Aza Pass Premium purchases you made (the value pointing to each purchase and its purchase time, from the last 70 days only) are kept on your phone (in the app's storage; starting over keeps the right and the Aza Pass Premium list). This list is not sent to us (each purchase token is sent to our server once, to check that purchase, and the server stores only its hash). |
| Questions | If you ask us about a purchase, we use the order number or Player ID you give us to look up our server's record and that order (product, amount, payment time, order status and so on) in Google Play Console. |
| What we do not receive | Payment details such as card numbers, bank accounts or carrier billing details, and the buyer's Google Account details (name, email address and so on), are handled by Google Play, and Apple Account details by the App Store. We do not receive them (section 4). |
| iPhone (App Store) | On iPhone, payment is handled by Apple's App Store, and instead of the Google Play steps above it works as follows. When a purchase begins, the app gives the App Store a value made from the SHA-256 hash of your Player ID (shaped as a UUID; your Player ID cannot be worked out from it) as the purchase's account check value (the App Store's appAccountToken), and the App Store keeps it with the transaction and returns it. When the payment is complete, the app sends the transaction ID and the product ID the App Store gave it, as your anonymous account (your Player ID), to our server (Firebase Cloud Functions, in Seoul, South Korea). Our server asks Apple about that transaction through the App Store Server API (the transaction ID, the original transaction ID, the product ID, the app's bundle ID, the purchase time, whether it is a real or a test (sandbox) payment, the account check value, and whether it was refunded or revoked), records it, and answers the app with what the product gives. The app gives you what you bought only after our server has confirmed it, and then tells the App Store that the transaction is finished. If a payment is waiting for approval (Ask to Buy, for example) or the app cannot reach our server, nothing is given and the transaction is left unfinished, to be checked again the next time you start or return to the game. A transaction our server does not confirm (another account's purchase, one already used, one refunded or revoked and so on) gives nothing, and the transaction is finished. The right to a product you buy once and keep is checked again at every launch with what the App Store reports for your Apple Account and with our server's answer, and you can get it back from the App Store with "Restore purchases" in the game's settings. For each purchase, our server keeps the transaction ID, the original transaction ID and the payment environment (real or test) instead of the purchase token's hash and the Google Play order number, with the other items under "Kept on our server" above (the record is named after a hash of the original transaction ID), and the server logs record the transaction ID. Your phone keeps the transaction IDs of purchases given instead of purchase tokens. Refunds of App Store purchases are decided by Apple, and you ask Apple for them directly (reportaproblem.apple.com). When Apple refunds a purchase, the App Store sends our server a notification (App Store Server Notifications), and once a day our server fetches any notifications it missed from the App Store's notification history; what happens next is as under "Refunds" above, and the reason recorded is the reason code Apple reports. To answer questions about a purchase, we use our server's record and, where needed, that transaction as looked up through the App Store Server API. We do not receive your Apple Account details (name, email address and so on) or payment details. |
| Required? | Buying is optional; you can play without buying anything. When you buy, the check and the records above are needed to give you what you bought and to prevent misuse. |
1.6 Linking to Google Play Games (Android)
| Data | Your Google Play Games player ID (the identifier of your Play Games profile in this game), your nickname (the display name of your Play Games profile) and the address of your profile image: what Firebase Authentication receives from Google and keeps linked to your game account (your Player ID). |
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| Purpose | To carry your progress and the gems you bought over when you change phones or reinstall the game: with the same Play Games profile, you come back to the same game account. |
| How | When the game starts, Google Play Games signs you in with the Play Games profile on your phone by itself and shows its welcome (if you have no Play Games profile, Play Games may show its own screen for making one). The game gets a one-time authorization code from Google through Play Games and passes it to Firebase Authentication, which checks it with Google and links your Play Games profile to the anonymous account on this phone; your Player ID, progress and purchase records stay as they are. If that Play Games profile is already linked to the account of another phone or an earlier install, the game signs in to that account and loads its progress. The account's progress then wins over this phone's: what you played on this phone is left behind with this phone's anonymous account, and only the gems you bought on this phone and still have are moved to the account ("Carrying bought gems over" in section 1.5). After such a move, the Player ID shown in the settings is that account's. Once linked, the game does not link again at later launches. |
| What we do not receive | We do not ask for or receive your Google Account details, such as your email address, or your Play Games friends, achievements or saved games. All the game asks Play Games for is whether you are signed in and a one-time authorization code; your progress and purchase records are kept in our storage described in sections 1.1 and 1.5, not in Play Games. |
| Required? | Optional. Without a Play Games profile, if you do not make one, or if you are not signed in, you can play on an anonymous account as before. But if your phone has a Play Games profile, the link is made automatically, without the game asking. The game's settings show whether you are linked. The game has no way to undo only the link, but if you do not want it, you can delete your game account together with the link with "Delete account" in the game's settings (section 6). Your Play Games profile itself is managed by Google (section 4). There is no link on iOS or on phones without Play Games. |
1.7 Information that stays on your phone
Your music, sound and vibration settings, the phone's copy of your progress, the list of purchase tokens of purchases given, the time refunds were last checked, the right of Ad-Free Rewards and the list of Aza Pass Premium purchases (section 1.5), what is kept until bought gems are carried over when you move to an account linked to Google Play Games (the sign-in token of the anonymous account left behind, the gems of that install and the hashes of the purchases given; section 1.5, removed once our server answers), and the diagnostic notes on how the app ran and ended are stored on your phone. Tapping the version line in the settings copies a "support report" to the clipboard: the app version, your Player ID, the phone's model, OS (Android or iOS) version, memory and screen size, and recent records of how the app ended. It reaches us only if you paste it and send it to us yourself, and we then use it only to answer you.
Once ads are on, your answer to the age question (the year of birth you picked, or that you chose not to say), the number of ads you watched to the reward and whether the card about Ad-Free Rewards was shown are also kept only on your phone, and are not sent to us. Google's consent tool (UMP) keeps your ad consent information on your phone and sends it to Google with ad requests (section 1.9).
1.8 What we do not process
We do not collect your name (except your Google Play Games nickname, under section 1.6), email address, phone number, postal address, date of birth (the year of birth asked for the ads stays on your phone and is not sent to us; section 1.9), precise (GPS) location, contacts, photos or files (of your Play Games profile image, only its address, under section 1.6), microphone or camera. We do not receive payment details such as card numbers either (section 1.5). The Android permissions the game asks for are only the normal ones it needs to run, such as internet access, vibration, the connection to Google Play billing, and the advertising ID and the ad-related permissions the ads SDK uses; it asks for no permission that needs your approval. On iPhone, too, the game asks for no permission that needs your approval, such as permission to track (App Tracking Transparency), location, camera, microphone, photos or contacts.
1.9 Rewarded ads (Google AdMob)
| Where ads appear | The game's only ads are rewarded ads. Four buttons give a reward for watching an ad (+1 life; a continue on a stage that ran out of moves and in the cheer tower; rerolling the cheer cards; the free chest in the shop), and an ad is shown full screen, one at a time, only when you tap such a button. You can play without watching any ad, and there are no interstitial or banner ads. The ads are chosen and served by Google AdMob, the ad service of Google LLC, and we turn the ads on and off with the remote settings (section 1.4). |
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| iPhone | The iPhone game has no ads for now. The Google Mobile Ads SDK and the consent tool (UMP) are part of the iPhone app too, but the game does not start the ads SDK on iPhone, so it neither requests nor loads ads, and it does not ask your age; the ad buttons give their reward for free right away. The game also does not ask for permission to track (App Tracking Transparency, ATT), so it does not receive the iPhone's advertising identifier (IDFA). So "How", "What Google processes", the consent in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, and the age check below apply only to the Android game for now. Before ads are turned on on iPhone, we will update this policy first. |
| How | When the game runs with ads on, it asks your age once, the first time, at a quiet moment on the home screen (or when you tap an ad button, if that comes first; "Age check and children" below), and starts the Google Mobile Ads SDK that is part of the game. As it starts, Google's consent tool (UMP) asks Google for your consent information and, where needed, shows a consent form ("Consent in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland" below). The ads SDK starts only when the consent tool allows ad requests. Once it has started, the game loads an ad in advance when an ad button is on screen, so that the ad can show as soon as you tap. So while ads are on, the information below goes to Google when the ads SDK starts and loads ads in advance, even if you never watch an ad. When you watch an ad to the end and Google reports the reward, you get that spot's reward after the ad closes; if you close it before that, you get nothing. |
| What Google processes | According to Google's published guidance, the ads SDK collects and shares with Google: your IP address (which may be used to estimate the general location of your device); the Android advertising ID, the app set ID and, where applicable, other identifiers related to accounts signed in on the device; your interactions with the app and the ads, such as app launches, taps and video views; and diagnostic information on how the app and the SDK perform, such as app launch time, hang rate and energy usage. An ad request also carries the name of this game, the settings the game makes (whether it gets child treatment, whether it asks for non-personalized ads, and the maximum ad content rating G) and the result of the European consent. We give Google's ads none of your Player ID, progress, purchase records or year of birth. |
| Behavioral information and personalized ads | Of the information above, the advertising ID and your interactions with the app and the ads are behavioral information that can show your interests. It is collected by Google, not by us, through the ads SDK in the game.
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| How to opt out |
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| Consent in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland | Under Google's EU User Consent Policy, players in the European Economic Area (EEA), the United Kingdom and Switzerland are shown a consent form by Google's consent tool (UMP) before the ads SDK starts, asking for consent to the use of cookies or other local storage on the phone and to the use of personal data such as the advertising ID to serve ads. The game starts the ads SDK only when the consent tool allows ad requests, and the consent tool keeps the result on your phone and sends it to Google with ad requests. Each time the game runs, it asks the consent tool for fresh consent information (without internet access, it goes on with the last one). Players who may be under 14, or who did not answer the age question, are reported as under the age of consent, so they are not asked for consent and their ad requests get child treatment. You can change or withdraw your consent at any time with "Privacy options" in the game's settings. |
| Age check and children | Once ads are on, the game asks once, "Pick the year you were born" (it says only that it asks so that the ads fit your age, and no year is picked in advance). You can choose "I'd rather not say" or close it. Your answer (the year you picked, or that you chose not to say) is kept only on your phone and is sent nowhere: not to our server, the cloud save, the gameplay statistics or Google. The game treats players under 14 as children, following Korea's Personal Information Protection Act. As the game asks only for the year, a player for whom this year minus the year of birth is 14 or less (who may not be 14 yet), and a player who did not answer, is treated as under 14: all of that player's ad requests ask Google for child treatment (Google turns off interest-based and remarketing ads, and the advertising ID is not sent) and for non-personalized ads. Only this treatment goes to Google, never the year of birth. It is worked out again every year, so the treatment changes as the years go by. For every player, ads are limited to the ad content rating G (general audiences). The answer stays on that phone after "Start over" or deleting your account in the game (it belongs to the person using the phone), and is deleted when you uninstall the game or clear its data. |
| Ad-Free Rewards | If you bought "Ad-Free Rewards" in the shop (section 1.5), you get +1 life, continues and card rerolls at once without an ad, and no ad is loaded for those three spots. The free chest still opens with an ad, and the ads SDK starts and the processing above happens as for any other player: Ad-Free Rewards is the right to get rewards without watching ads, not a switch that turns off the ads SDK. While ads are off, all four spots give their reward for free without an ad, the ads SDK does not start and the game does not ask your age. |
| What we receive | We do not receive the information Google processes through the ads SDK. What we see in AdMob is aggregate reports, such as requests, impressions and earnings per ad unit; the game's own ad records (including whether an ad was tapped and the estimated earnings of each ad shown, values the ads SDK tells the app) are part of the gameplay statistics in section 1.2. |
| Required? | Watching ads is optional. The processing by the ads SDK while ads are on cannot be turned off in the game, but you can refuse personalized ads and the advertising ID as described under "How to opt out" above. |
2. How long we keep it
| Data | Kept |
|---|---|
| Cloud save and your game account (the anonymous account and its Google Play Games link of section 1.6, including gems you bought) | Until you ask us to delete them or we end the game's service. If the service ends, they are deleted within 30 days. |
| An anonymous account left behind when a new phone or a reinstalled game moves to a linked account, and its cloud save (section 1.6) | Not deleted separately: like any anonymous account, kept until you ask us to delete it or we end the game's service. If the service ends, they are deleted within 30 days. |
| Gameplay statistics (user-level, including gem shop and in-app purchase records) | Deleted automatically after the Google Analytics data retention period, 2 months. Aggregated statistics that identify no one may remain. |
| The BigQuery copy of the gameplay statistics (section 1.2) | Deleted automatically 60 days after it is exported, by BigQuery's table expiration setting. |
| Operating statistics (totals made from cloud saves, gameplay statistics and purchase records) | They hold only aggregate figures that identify no one, and may remain while we run the game. |
| Error reports | Kept by Firebase Crashlytics for 90 days, then deleted automatically. |
| Our server's purchase records and refund and take-back records (section 1.5) | 5 years from the purchase, then deleted. Korea's Act on the Consumer Protection in Electronic Commerce (Enforcement Decree, article 6) requires records of contracts and withdrawals of offers, and of payments and the supply of goods, to be kept for 5 years. After your cloud save and anonymous account are deleted at your request, these records are still kept for that period, only for that legal purpose, except that the purchase of a product you buy once and keep, made on a deleted account, is used to let a game account started anew with the same store account get it back (section 6). |
| Our server's records of carrying bought gems over (section 1.5) | 5 years from the move, then deleted. They are a record of the purchases the gems came from, kept for the same reason as the purchase records above; after your game account is deleted at your request, they are still kept for that period, only for that legal purpose. Purchase records moved by a carry-over stay 5 years from the purchase, as above. |
| The logs of our server that checks purchases, carries bought gems over and deletes accounts (Cloud Logging) | Deleted automatically after 30 days. |
| Purchase tokens of purchases given (on iPhone, transaction IDs), the time refunds were last checked, the right of Ad-Free Rewards and the list of Aza Pass Premium purchases (only on your phone) | A token is removed once 200 newer purchases push it out, and an Aza Pass Premium purchase 70 days after its purchase time; all of them are deleted with the app's data when you uninstall the game or clear its data, or when you delete your account in the game (section 6). After a reinstall the right of Ad-Free Rewards is checked again with Google Play (on iPhone, the App Store) and our server, and Aza Pass Premium with our server (section 1.5). |
| What is kept on your phone until bought gems are carried over (section 1.7) | Removed once our server answers, and with the app's data when you uninstall the game or clear its data. The sign-in token in it cannot be used after an hour. |
| Firebase installation identifiers and similar technical data | As set by Google's Firebase retention policies. |
| Your messages to us and any support report you send (including questions about purchases and order numbers) | 1 year after your request is closed. |
| Google Play's payment and order records (including the account check value) | Kept by Google under Google's policies. We look them up in Play Console to answer questions and for accounting, and keep accounting records for as long as the law requires. |
| The App Store's payment and transaction records (iPhone, including the account check value) | Kept by Apple under Apple's policies. We look them up through the App Store Server API and in App Store Connect to answer questions and for accounting, and keep accounting records for as long as the law requires. |
| Your Google Play Games profile and its records | Kept by Google under Google's policies. You can delete them in your Play Games profile settings or your Google Account (section 6). |
| What Google processes through the ads SDK (section 1.9) | Not received or kept by us. Kept by Google under Google's policies; Google says it anonymizes advertising data in server logs by removing part of the IP address after 9 months and cookie information after 18 months (how Google retains data). |
| Your answer to the age question, the number of ads watched to the reward and whether the card about Ad-Free Rewards was shown (only on your phone, section 1.9) | Deleted when you uninstall the game or clear its data. "Start over" and deleting your account in the game do not delete them. |
| Ad consent information (kept on your phone by Google's consent tool, section 1.9) | Kept by the consent tool; you can change it with "Privacy options" in the game's settings, and it is deleted when you uninstall the game. |
3. Sharing
We do not sell your information, and apart from the ads below, we do not give it to anyone to use for their own purposes, except where the law requires it. Payment for in-game purchases is made between you and Google Play (on iPhone, Apple's App Store). All we give Google Play or the App Store for it is the account check value of section 1.5 (the SHA-256 hash of your Player ID, or on iPhone a UUID made from that hash), so that a purchase can be matched to its account; Google Play and the App Store keep it with the order or transaction as part of the payment (section 4). When you are linked to Google Play Games (section 1.6), Google tells us, through Firebase Authentication, the details of your Play Games profile listed there; we give Play Games none of your progress or purchase records.
Ads (section 1.9): while ads are on (for now, in the Android game only), we let Google LLC collect the information of section 1.9 (your IP address, device identifiers such as the advertising ID, your interactions with the app and the ads, and diagnostic information) directly through the Google Mobile Ads SDK in the game, and Google uses it to serve ads, for personalized ads, to measure ads and to prevent fraud ("Ads" in section 4). What we give Google with an ad request is only this game's ad unit and the settings the game makes (whether it gets child treatment, whether it asks for non-personalized ads, and the ad content rating G); never your Player ID, progress, purchase records or year of birth.
4. Service provider and international transfer
We use Google LLC (Firebase, Google Cloud), 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA, to run sign-in (Firebase Authentication: the anonymous account and the link to Google Play Games), the cloud save (Cloud Firestore), our server that checks purchases, carries bought gems over, deletes accounts and builds the totals of the operating statistics (Cloud Functions for Firebase) and its purchase, refund and carry-over records (Cloud Firestore), the server logs (Cloud Logging), gameplay statistics (Google Analytics for Firebase, including gem shop and in-app purchase statistics), the export and aggregation of gameplay statistics (Google BigQuery: the Google Analytics event data is exported to BigQuery every day without the advertising ID, kept for 60 days and then deleted automatically, and only totals are drawn from it, for an operating dashboard that only our CEO can see), error reports (Crashlytics) and remote settings (Remote Config). Google processes this data on our behalf. The cloud save, the purchase, refund and carry-over records and the BigQuery copy of the gameplay statistics are stored in South Korea (Seoul region), where the server that checks purchases, carries bought gems over, deletes accounts and builds the totals runs too; server logs, statistics, error reports, sign-in (including the Google Play Games link) and remote settings data may be processed in the United States and other countries where Google operates data centers. The data in sections 1.1 to 1.4 (which include the gems you bought and the gem shop and in-app purchase records of section 1.5, and the BigQuery copy of section 1.2), the purchase, refund and carry-over records and server logs of section 1.5, and the Google Play Games link of section 1.6, is sent over encrypted connections (TLS) while you use the game (a purchase record when the purchase is checked, a carry-over record when you move to a linked account, the Play Games link when it is made, the BigQuery copy once a day), and kept as in section 2. See Firebase privacy and security and the Google Privacy Policy. If you do not want this transfer, you can stop using the game and ask us to delete your data (section 6); the game cannot save your progress or have its errors fixed without it.
Google Play billing: payment for in-game purchases is handled by Google Play under the Google Play Terms of Service. You give the payment details, such as your payment method, to Google directly, and Google processes them as an independent controller under the Google Privacy Policy, not on our behalf. What we get from Google Play is the purchase record in section 1.5 (including the purchase states and the list of refunds our server reads through the Google Play Developer API) and the order and sales records in Play Console (order number, product, amount, payment time, order status, the buyer's country and so on); we never receive payment method details. What we give Google Play is only the account check value of section 1.5.
App Store payments (iPhone): payment for in-game purchases on iPhone is handled by the App Store of Apple Inc. (One Apple Park Way, Cupertino, CA 95014, USA) under the Apple Media Services Terms and Conditions. You give the payment details, such as your payment method, to Apple directly, and Apple processes them as an independent controller under the Apple Privacy Policy, not on our behalf. What we get from the App Store is the transaction information in section 1.5 (the transactions our server looks up through the App Store Server API, and the notifications, such as refunds, that the App Store sends our server) and the sales and payment reports in App Store Connect; we never receive payment method details or your Apple Account details. What we give the App Store is only the account check value of section 1.5. Refunds of App Store purchases are decided by Apple, and you can ask Apple for one at reportaproblem.apple.com.
Google Play Games: your Google Play Games profile (nickname, profile image and so on) and the Play Games sign-in are provided by Google under the Google Play Terms of Service, and Google processes them as an independent controller under the Google Privacy Policy, not on our behalf. What we get is only what section 1.6 lists (the player ID, nickname and profile image address), through Firebase Authentication; we never receive your Google Account details such as your email address. You can manage and delete your Play Games profile and its records in your Play Games profile settings or your Google Account.
Ads (Google AdMob): the rewarded ads (section 1.9) are provided by Google LLC (address above), and Google processes what it collects through the ads SDK as an independent controller under the Google Privacy Policy, not on our behalf. That information ("What Google processes" in section 1.9) is sent from your phone directly to Google over encrypted connections (TLS) whenever the ads SDK starts and loads or shows ads while ads are on, and may be processed in the United States and other countries where Google operates data centers. How long it is kept is in section 2, and how to refuse it in sections 1.9 and 5. See how Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services.
5. Identifiers and how to opt out
The game itself uses no web cookies, but it does use device identifiers: the app instance ID, the Firebase installation identifier, the Android advertising ID and the iPhone's identifier for vendor (IDFV). While ads are on, Google's ads SDK uses the advertising ID and the app set ID, and the ads SDK and the screens that show ads may store cookies or similar information on your phone (section 1.9).
- Android advertising ID: in your phone's Settings > Privacy > Ads (on some phones Settings > Google > Ads) you can delete or reset it. Once deleted, it is sent neither with the game's statistics nor to the ads SDK, and you no longer get personalized ads based on it. On some older versions of Android, turn on "Opt out of Ads Personalization" in Settings > Privacy > Advanced > Ads.
- Personalized ads and ad consent in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland: see "How to opt out" in section 1.9 ("Privacy options" in the game's settings, Google's My Ad Center).
- iPhone: the game does not ask for permission to track (App Tracking Transparency), so it does not receive the iPhone's advertising identifier (IDFA), and it shows no ads on iPhone for now (section 1.9). In the iPhone's Settings > Privacy & Security > Tracking, you can stop apps from asking to track you.
- Uninstalling the game removes what it stored on the phone and its device identifiers (on iPhone, the sign-in of your anonymous account, which Firebase Authentication keeps in the iPhone's keychain, may remain after the game is uninstalled; section 6).
6. Your rights
You can ask us at any time to access, correct or delete your information, or to stop processing it.
- Where: you can delete your account right in the game: tap Settings > Delete account, then press and hold "Hold to delete" in the confirmation for about 2 seconds, and it is done at once (from version 0.22.0 of the game, on Android and iOS; see "Deleting in the game" below). If you have already uninstalled the game or cannot delete in the game, and for access, correction or stopping processing, write to help@argozone.com.
- Deleting in the game: tapping "Delete account" in the settings opens a confirmation ("Delete your account?") that tells you what is deleted and what is kept. When you press and hold "Hold to delete" for about 2 seconds, our server (Firebase Cloud Functions, in Seoul, South Korea) deletes at once what is listed under "What a deletion request removes" below, and the game also deletes the game records stored on this phone (including the list of purchase tokens of purchases given, the right of Ad-Free Rewards and the list of Aza Pass Premium purchases), tells you "Account deleted" and goes back to the start (settings such as music, sound and vibration may stay). It needs an internet connection; if the deletion fails, nothing is changed, so check your connection and try again. The server logs (Cloud Logging) keep only an access record of the request, the first characters of your Player ID and the number of accounts deleted, and they are deleted automatically after 30 days.
- What to include in an email: your Player ID from the game's Settings (tap it to copy). We hold no real name or contact details for you, so the Player ID is how we find your records.
- What a deletion request removes: the same whether you delete in the game or by email: your cloud save and your game account (the anonymous account, and its link to Google Play Games (section 1.6) if you linked it). Anonymous accounts left behind when a phone moved to the linked account, and their saves, are deleted too when our server's carry-over records lead us to them. Gems you bought are deleted with them and cannot be restored, and an Aza Pass Premium you bought ends with that account and cannot be got back on a new game account (it is a used-up product, so it is not released as described next). A purchase of a product you buy once and keep (such as Ad-Free Rewards) is released from the deleted account, so that a game account started anew with the same Google Play account (on iOS, the same Apple account) can get it back (our server only marks that purchase record as released and, when a new game account gets it back, writes that account's Player ID in it; nothing new is collected). Our server's purchase, refund and carry-over records (section 1.5) are kept, only for the legal purpose (purchase records also for getting products back as above), for the period the law requires, 5 years from the purchase (for a carry-over record, from the move), and then deleted (section 2). Error reports are deleted automatically after 90 days, server logs after 30 days, and gameplay statistics after the period in section 2 (their BigQuery copy after 60 days); the statistics are not linked to your Player ID, so they cannot be looked up and deleted one by one. The purchase token list, the right of Ad-Free Rewards and the list of Aza Pass Premium purchases are only on your phone and are deleted when you delete your account in the game or uninstall the game; Google Play's order records are managed by Google, and App Store purchase records by Apple.
- When: deleting in the game takes effect at once. We act on an email request within 10 days of receiving it.
- The link to Google Play Games: the game has no way to undo only the link. To remove it, delete your game account with "Delete account" in the settings (without the app, email us as above); the link is deleted with your game account. Your Play Games profile and its records are managed by Google, and you can delete them in your Play Games profile settings or your Google Account. If the app is still on your phone after the deletion, a new game account may be made and linked to your Play Games profile again, so if you are done with the game, uninstall it too.
- "Start over" is not deletion: "Start over" in the game's settings takes your progress back to the beginning and overwrites your cloud save with the new progress. It does not delete your game account (or its link to Google Play Games), gameplay statistics or error reports. To have your data deleted, use "Delete account" in the settings (without the app, write to the address above).
- Android backup: if Android's automatic backup is on, a copy of the game's data on your phone is backed up to your Google Account and your progress comes back when you reinstall. That backup is managed by Google and your phone's settings, not by us; you can turn it off or delete it in your phone's backup settings.
- iPhone: Firebase Authentication keeps the sign-in of your anonymous account in the iPhone's keychain, so if you uninstall the game and install it again on the same iPhone, you may come back to the same game account. The game's data on the phone may be part of your iPhone's backups (such as iCloud Backup), which are managed by Apple and your phone's settings, not by us. To have your account deleted for good, use "Delete account" in the settings.
- Ads: we do not hold the information Google processes through the ads SDK (section 1.9), so we cannot give you access to it or delete it. You can refuse personalized ads and the advertising ID as described under "How to opt out" in section 1.9, and make requests about that information to Google (Google privacy questions). Your answer to the age question is only on your phone: deleting your account in the game does not delete it, but uninstalling the game or clearing its data does.
A parent, guardian or someone you authorize can also make these requests for you.
7. Security
- Everything sent between the app and the servers is encrypted (TLS).
- Security rules let each game account read and write only its own cloud save.
- Security rules keep the app from reading or writing our server's purchase, refund and carry-over records; only our server handles them. Purchase tokens are stored only as hashes that cannot be turned back, and are not logged. What our server may do in Google Play is limited to this game's orders. The In-App Purchase key our server uses to ask the App Store is kept only in the server's secret store (Secret Manager), never in the app, and transaction information and notifications from the App Store are used only after Apple's signature on them has been checked.
- The authorization code used to link to Google Play Games is good only once, and used only for Firebase Authentication to check it with Google. The web client secret for that check is kept only in Firebase, never in the app.
- Only an account signed in with Google Play Games can ask to carry bought gems over. Our server checks with the sign-in token of the anonymous account left behind that the caller held that account (the token is not stored), moves its purchases only once, and never carries over more gems than that install held.
- Access to the Firebase and Google Cloud consoles, to the order records in Play Console and to App Store Connect is limited to the people who run the game.
- The operating dashboard shows only aggregate figures that identify no one, and security rules let only our CEO's Google account read them.
- Payments are made on the payment screen of Google Play (on iPhone, the App Store); neither the app nor we handle payment details such as card numbers.
8. Children
The game is meant for a general audience aged 13 and over and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly process personal information of children under 13 (under 14 in Korea) without a parent's or guardian's consent. If we learn that we have, or a parent or guardian asks us, we delete it without delay. Once ads are on (for now, in the Android game only), the game asks for the year of birth once, and the ads of players who may be under 14, or who do not answer, are requested only with non-personalized child treatment (section 1.9). The answer is only on the player's phone, so we do not know anyone's age.
9. Contact
| Company | ARGOZONE CO.,LTD. (주식회사 아르고존), CEO 조남희 2002, 61, Digital-ro 26-gil, Guro-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea (Ace High-end Tower 2) 서울특별시 구로구 디지털로26길 61, 2002호 (구로동, 에이스하이엔드타워2차) |
|---|---|
| Privacy officer | 조남희, CEO (대표이사) |
| Contact | help@argozone.com · +82-2-830-4090 |
10. Changes
If the game adds something that changes what it processes, such as ads, or a feature such as purchases changes what it processes, we update this policy first. Once version 1.0 of the game is officially released in the stores, any change to this policy is announced and takes effect as below, and from then on we record the effective date and what changed on this page.
- Changes less favorable to you, such as using information already collected for a new purpose or in a wider scope, starting to provide it to a third party, or starting to collect new information from existing users without any action on their part, are announced on this page and in the store listing at least 7 days before they take effect, and important ones at least 30 days before.
- Other changes take effect on the day they are posted on this page, for example adding processing that starts only when you choose to do something yourself, such as making a purchase.