Privacy Policy

Last updated 2026-09-29

This policy explains how the Pocket Bloom app for iPhone ("the app") handles information. The app is published by Michael Serra ("we", "us"). You can reach us at support@pocketbloom.app. The current version of this policy is always at https://pocketbloom.app/privacy.html.

On this page: On your device · What we don't collect · Advertising · The age question · Consent (EEA, UK, Switzerland) · Tracking permission · Turning ads off · Purchases · Sharing and email · Children · Retention · Deleting data · Your rights · Changes

What the app stores on your device

The app keeps its data in its own storage on your iPhone. The app contains no code that sends this data to us, and we have no server that receives it. It includes:

• Game progress: levels completed, best move counts, the puzzle you are in the middle of, your Daily Challenge history, and per-level play counts (attempts, wins, undos used).
• Seeds and decorations: your Seeds balance, the decorations you have bought with Seeds, and a record of each reward already given, so nothing is paid twice.
• Settings: sound, music, haptics, reduced motion, bead symbols and difficulty.
• Your privacy answers: your answer to the age question (stored only as "16 or older" or "under 16", and as "not answered" until you answer; never the age you type), whether ads are allowed, the "Share anonymous gameplay statistics" switch, and when these last changed.
• Counters: the app uses these to space out ads and daily bonuses, for example when the last ad was shown, how many bonus claims you have used today, and your total play time.
• A random installation ID and an experiment group number: both are created on your device and are not derived from anything about you. The app uses them only on the device.
• Your Ad-Free Forever ownership: if you buy it, the app keeps a record in the iOS Keychain on this iPhone (that you own it, Apple's transaction ID, and when it was recorded), so Ad-Free works offline. This record does not sync through iCloud Keychain.

Google's advertising and consent tools (see below) also store and read their own data in the app's storage, such as the choices you make in Google's consent form and identifiers Google uses for advertising. Ads may be shown in a web view inside the app, and Google and the third parties it works with may place and read cookies there, or use web beacons, your IP address and device identifiers, to collect information as a result of showing ads in the app. They use this information to serve and measure ads.

The app does not sync anything through iCloud. Its files are ordinary app data, though, so they may be included when you back up your iPhone to iCloud or to a computer, and restoring that backup can bring them back. Those backups belong to you; we never receive them.

What we don't collect

The app has no account or sign-in. It does not ask for your name, email address, phone number, contacts, photos, precise location, birthdate, health information or financial information. It never asks iOS for access to your location.

This version of the app contains no analytics or crash-reporting service of ours. Settings › Privacy choices… has a switch called "Share anonymous gameplay statistics". It is off unless you turn it on, and in this version turning it on sends nothing to us or to anyone else. Its only effect is on your device: it lets the app include your game in an on-device experiment in which some players are not shown between-level ads. (Google's advertising SDK collects its own diagnostic and crash data, as described below.)

Advertising (Google AdMob)

If you have not bought Ad-Free Forever, the app can show ads from Google AdMob through the Google Mobile Ads SDK. There is no other ad network and no mediation. The app shows two kinds of ad:

• a full-screen ad that can appear when you move on from a completed level (never in the middle of a puzzle, and never after a Daily Challenge), and
• a video you choose to watch for 10 Seeds, from the Daily bonus card in the Shop.

The code of Google's advertising SDK is included in the app for every player, but the app does not start the SDK unless all of these are true: you don't own Ad-Free Forever, the age you gave in the age question is 16 or older, and ads are allowed in your privacy choices. Ads become allowed through Google's consent step or the "Allow ads in this app" switch. Once started, the SDK keeps running, and may keep loading ads, until the app is fully closed, even if one of these later changes (see Turning ads off).

What Google collects

While the SDK is running, it collects information from your device and sends it to Google. Google uses it to choose, show and measure ads, and for analytics. Google's own disclosure for the version of the SDK in the app (13.9.0) lists:

• Device identifiers. Google describes these as the device's advertising identifier or other identifiers limited to one app or to one developer's apps. They include your device's advertising identifier (IDFA), but only if you allow tracking (see Tracking permission). Whether or not you allow tracking, they also include an identifier that Google's SDK uses to recognize you within our apps when the advertising identifier isn't available. Google calls it the publisher first-party ID; it is on by default, and the app does not turn it off. Google marks device identifiers as data that can be used to track you.
• Approximate location, for example the general area indicated by your IP address.
• Advertising data, such as the ads you are shown and how you interact with them.
• Product interaction, such as taps and views in the app and its ads.
• Diagnostics: performance data, crash data from the SDK, and other technical diagnostics.

Google describes the identifiers, location, advertising data and interaction data as linked to the user. It describes the diagnostic data as not linked to the user. Google's consent tool, the User Messaging Platform, collects approximate location, performance data and interaction data in order to show its consent form. Google states that this data is not linked to the user and is not used for tracking.

The app itself adds nothing about you to ad requests: no information from your game and no identifier created by the app. (Google's SDK creates and uses its own identifiers, listed above.) The only thing the app tells Google's consent tool is that you are not under the age of consent, and it says that only after you have told the app you are 16 or older.

Google may share some of this information, such as your IP address, device information and identifiers, with other advertising companies that take part in choosing, serving or measuring the ads shown in the app. In the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, these are the ad technology partners selected for the app in our AdMob account. Google's consent form lists them, and you can make choices about each of them there.

Google handles this information under its own policies. See How Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services, Google's Business Data Responsibility site (how Google uses personal data when you give consent in its consent form), and the Google Privacy Policy. We confirm that Google, and the partners Google works with to serve and measure ads in the app, are bound by Google's terms and policies to protect the data they receive through the app with the same or equal protection as described in this policy. No other company receives data from the app's advertising.

The age question

The first time you open the app, before you can play, it asks how old you are. You type a number, and the app does not go on without one. It keeps only whether that number is 16 or older, never the number itself.

• 16 or older: the app runs Google's consent step, and iOS may then show Apple's tracking prompt. After that, ads can appear as described above.
• Under 16: the app does not start Google's advertising SDK, and Google's consent form and Apple's tracking prompt are not shown. The whole game stays playable; only the optional bonus video is unavailable. If you are changing an earlier answer while ads are still running, see the exception under Turning ads off.

Once you have answered, the app does not ask again unless you choose Settings › Privacy choices… › Change my age answer, which asks the question again straight away. If the app is closed while the question is showing, it asks again the next time it opens.

Consent in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland

When the age you enter is 16 or older, the app runs Google's User Messaging Platform. Whether Google's consent form appears depends on where you are and on the consent messages we have set up with Google. We use it for the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland. There, you choose in the form whether to allow personalized advertising and related purposes, and which advertising partners may take part. Google's advertising SDK then uses the choices stored by that form to decide what it may do, for example whether ads may be personalized.

• Once you complete Google's form, whatever you choose in it, the app allows ads. Google's SDK then shows only what your choices permit, for example limited or non-personalized ads if you did not consent. The app also allows ads where no form is needed. To have no ads at all, switch off Allow ads in this app.
• If the form is closed without a decision, or Google's consent tool can't be reached (for example, when you are offline), the app records that ads are not allowed.
• The app records this result only if your ad setting has not been set yet, either by an earlier run of this step or by the "Allow ads in this app" switch. If it has, the app keeps the existing setting.

The app does not repeat this step when you open it later. The step runs again only if you use Change my age answer and enter an age of 16 or older again. To change your choices afterwards:

• Manage ad consent in Settings › Privacy choices… opens Google's form so you can review or withdraw your choices. The button appears only while Google's consent tool reports that its form applies to you. Because the app checks with Google's consent tool only when you enter an age of 16 or older, the button may not appear every time you open the app.
• Allow ads in this app in the same place turns all ads off, and you can use it at any time. It does not change the choices stored in Google's form. Turning it back on allows ads again without showing Google's form. Google's SDK keeps using any choices already stored from its form.
• Deleting the app also deletes the choices stored by Google's consent tool. If you reinstall and enter an age of 16 or older again, the form is shown again where it applies.

Tracking permission (App Tracking Transparency)

After Google's consent step, iOS may show Apple's tracking prompt. This can happen whenever that step completes, whatever you chose in Google's form, or finds that no form is needed, even if you have switched off Allow ads in this app. The prompt asks whether Pocket Bloom may track your activity across other companies' apps and websites. iOS shows it only once.

• Allow: Google's SDK can read your device's advertising identifier (IDFA) and use it for ads. That includes personalizing ads and measuring them across other apps and websites.
• Ask App Not to Track: iOS withholds the advertising identifier from the app and from Google's SDK. The app changes nothing else. Ads still appear in the same places and as often, and Google's SDK still collects the other information listed above, including its own identifier for our apps, which Google may use to personalize ads. The app does not use your answer to decide whether ads are personalized. Google decides that under its own policies and, where they apply, the choices you made in its consent form.

You can change your answer at any time in the iOS Settings app under Privacy & Security › Tracking.

Turning ads off

• Switch off Allow ads in this app in Settings › Privacy choices…. This removes all ads, including the bonus video. The game stays fully playable.
• Buy Ad-Free Forever in the Shop.
• Use Change my age answer and enter an age under 16.

Whichever you choose, ads stop straight away, and the app does not start Google's advertising SDK the next time the app starts. If the SDK was already running when you made the change, it keeps running until the app is fully closed, either by you swiping it away in the App Switcher or by iOS. Until then it may keep loading ads in the background, although the app no longer shows them. To stop it completely, fully close the app after changing these settings.

In-app purchase

Ad-Free Forever is sold through Apple's App Store. Apple processes the payment, and we never receive your name, your Apple Account details or your payment information. From Apple, the app receives the product's name and price and, if you have bought it, Apple's signed record of the purchase. It uses these only to show the price and to decide whether you own Ad-Free Forever, and it keeps only the ownership record described above on your device. The app checks with the App Store each time it starts and when you tap Restore Purchases. Apple's handling of your purchase is covered by the Apple Privacy Policy.

Sharing, links and email

• Share: after you complete a level, you can tap Share. This opens the iOS share sheet with a picture of your scene and a short caption. Nothing is posted automatically, the picture contains no personal information, and you choose where it goes.
• Report an inappropriate ad: this button in Settings › Privacy choices… opens your mail app with a draft to support@pocketbloom.app. The draft lists details of the last ad shown since you opened the app, if any (the ad network, where in the app it appeared and Google's response ID for it), plus the app version and the time. If no ad has been shown since you opened the app, those details read "unknown". Nothing is sent unless you send it.
• Privacy policy: this button opens this page in your web browser.
• Emails you send us: we receive your email address and whatever you write. We use them only to reply to you and to deal with what you asked about.

Children

Pocket Bloom is a puzzle game with no accounts, no chat and no user-generated content. The app sends us no personal information about anyone, children included. The app asks every player's age the first time it opens, before Google's advertising SDK can start. For players who have only ever entered an age under 16, the app never starts Google's advertising SDK and shows no ads. The SDK's code is part of the app for everyone, but it is not started for these players. The app does not tell Google that a player is a child. Instead, it keeps ads off for these players entirely.

If a child entered an age of 16 or more by mistake, a parent can use Settings › Privacy choices… › Change my age answer, enter the child's age, and then fully close the app (swipe it away in the App Switcher). Ads stop straight away, and from the next time the app starts, Google's advertising SDK is not started. Until the app is closed, the SDK may keep running in the background (see Turning ads off). If you think a child has emailed us personal information, contact us and we will delete it.

How long information is kept

• On your device: until you delete the app. Reset progress clears most of it (see Deleting your data). The Ad-Free ownership record is removed if Apple refunds or revokes the purchase, the next time the app checks with the App Store.
• By Google: under Google's own retention rules (see How Google retains data we collect).
• By Apple: your purchase history is kept by Apple under Apple's policies.
• By us: only the emails you send us. We keep them as long as we need them to help you, and we delete them if you ask.

Deleting your data

• Reset progress: Settings › Progress › Reset progress… clears your levels, scenes, Seeds, decorations, rewards and Daily Challenge history on this device. It keeps your settings, your privacy answers, the random installation ID and experiment group, and the counters used to space out ads and daily bonuses. It does not affect Ad-Free Forever. The app's backup copy of your save still holds your previous progress until the game next saves.
• Delete the app: this removes the app's files: your progress, Seeds, settings and privacy answers, and the data Google's tools stored in the app. The Ad-Free ownership record in the iOS Keychain may stay on the iPhone and be found again if you reinstall on the same device.

We can't delete or look up your game data for you, because we never receive it. Information collected by Google's SDKs is held by Google and kept under Google's retention rules (see How Google retains data we collect). To ask Google about it, or to use the controls Google offers, see the Google Privacy Policy. You can also email us, and we will help you pass your request to Google. Turning off tracking in iOS Settings keeps the advertising identifier out of future ad requests. We can delete emails you have sent us. Just ask.

Your rights

EEA, UK and Switzerland

For advertising, we rely on the consent you give in Google's consent form. For support emails, we rely on our legitimate interest in answering you. You have the right to access, correct or delete personal information we hold, to receive a copy of it in a portable form, to object to or restrict how it is used, to withdraw consent (switch off Allow ads in this app at any time, or use Manage ad consent when it is shown; see Consent), and to complain to your data protection authority. The only personal information we hold is the emails you send us. For ad data, use Google's tools. Google may process ad data outside the EEA, the UK and Switzerland. Google states that for these transfers it relies on the European Commission's standard contractual clauses and, for the United States, the EU-US Data Privacy Framework.

US state privacy rights

Several US states give residents rights over their personal information, including the right to opt out of "targeted advertising" and of the "sale" or "sharing" of personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising. When ads are on, Google's SDK in the app collects the information described above. Google may use it, together with information from other apps and websites, to choose and measure ads. Under these laws, that can count as targeted advertising or as sharing, or in some states selling, personal information. To opt out:

• Switch off Allow ads in this app, buy Ad-Free Forever, or use Change my age answer to enter an age under 16. Then fully close the app by swiping it away in the App Switcher. From the next time the app starts, Google's advertising SDK is not started, so it collects nothing. Until the app is closed, the SDK may keep running (see Turning ads off).

Choosing Ask App Not to Track in Apple's prompt, or turning off Allow Apps to Request to Track in iOS Settings › Privacy & Security › Tracking, withholds your advertising identifier. It is not an opt-out: Google's SDK still collects the other information listed above and can still use its own identifier for our apps.

Depending on where you live, you may also have the right to know what personal information we hold about you, to get a copy of it, to correct it and to delete it. We won't treat you differently for using any of these rights. To make a request, email support@pocketbloom.app. We answer within 45 days. If we turn down your request, you can appeal by replying with "Appeal" in the subject within 60 days. We will answer the appeal within 60 days, and if you disagree with the result, you can contact your state Attorney General.

The app does not start Google's advertising SDK for players who say they are under 16. Opting out doesn't change the game. The only thing that needs ads is the optional bonus video, and Ad-Free Forever makes that bonus free instead. To ask about the emails we hold, or about anything in this policy, email support@pocketbloom.app.

Changes to this policy

When the app or our practices change in a way that affects this policy, we update this page and the date at the top.

Contact

Michael Serra — support@pocketbloom.app

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