Privacy Policy for Hushword
Hushword ("the app") is developed and published by Machinaut Studios LLC ("we", "us"). This policy explains what data the app handles. The short version: there is no account and no server of ours. Your progress, stats, streaks, coins and settings are written to your phone and stay there. The app requests no permissions of its own. Two things touch the network — the ads, served by Google, and your purchases, handled by Apple or Google.
Information we collect
None. We run no server for Hushword, no analytics, no crash reporting, and no tracking of any kind — there is no analytics SDK and no crash reporter in the build. There is no account to create and no sign-up: we never ask for your name, email address, phone number, or contacts. We build no profile of you, and we have nothing to sell, rent, or trade. We hold no record that you exist.
What the app stores, and where
Everything the game remembers is written to your device's own local app storage and stays there. That is:
- which levels you have completed in each pack, and which grid themes you have unlocked;
- lifetime statistics — levels completed, secrets revealed, words found, bonus words found, hints used, packs completed;
- your daily results, keyed by calendar date, and the streak they add up to;
- your coin balance;
- settings — sound, haptics, and the grid theme you picked;
- the board you are part-way through, so a puzzle survives the app being closed or killed (the campaign level and the daily are saved separately);
- a local flag recording which purchases you own.
None of it is uploaded, backed up to us, or synced between your devices — we have nowhere to sync it to. Deleting the app deletes all of it; see Deleting your data.
The game runs on your device
The ENABLE word list and all 32 themed packs ship inside the app, so every word you trace — listed or bonus — is checked locally. The words you play are never sent anywhere. Boards are not handed out by a server either: each one is generated on your device from a seed, and the daily puzzle's seed is computed from the calendar date, which is exactly why every player worldwide gets the identical board. Apart from loading ads, Hushword is fully playable offline.
Permissions
Hushword itself requests none. No camera, no microphone, no location,
no contacts, no photo library, no notifications. Neither the Android manifest
nor the iOS Info.plist declares a single permission or usage
description of its own. The entries that do appear in the built app belong to
the software development kits it bundles: ordinary network access for loading
ads, the advertising-identifier and ad-services entries that come with
Google's ad SDK, and Google Play Billing for purchases. None of those are
runtime permissions — none of them shows you a prompt, and none of them
reaches anything on the list above.
Advertising
Hushword is free, and ads are what pay for it. They are served by Google AdMob. There are two kinds:
- Interstitials between levels — never during play. Your first six completed levels are ad-free entirely; after that an interstitial can appear at most on every second level completed, and never less than 150 seconds after the last one.
- One optional rewarded ad — the free hint, offered only when you are short of coins and choose to watch. Nothing makes you watch it, and skipping it costs you nothing but the hint.
We hand Google nothing about you, because we have nothing to hand over. But an ad network is still a network. To select, deliver, measure and cap ads, Google's SDK receives information from your device directly — typically device model and operating system, language, coarse location derived from your IP address, your device's resettable advertising identifier, and which ads were shown and interacted with. Depending on your device settings and your region, that information may be used to personalize the ads you see. Google's handling of it is governed by the Google Privacy Policy and How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services. What comes back to us is an aggregate dashboard — impressions and revenue — never anything about an individual player.
Where consent is legally required first — the EEA, the UK and Switzerland — Hushword asks before any of that happens. On first launch, before a single ad is requested, the app presents Google's consent form through the industry-standard UMP framework and honours what you choose. Decline personalization and the ads still appear, because they are what pay for the game, but they are selected without using your data to profile you. You are not stuck with your first answer: wherever that consent is required an Ad privacy choices row appears in the app's Settings screen and reopens the same form whenever you want. Outside those regions the row is deliberately absent rather than present-but-dead — a control that opens nothing is worse than no control at all.
Purchases
Hushword offers four things you can buy: a one-time Remove Ads purchase that ends the between-level interstitials, and three consumable coin packs for players who would rather buy hints than earn them. Coins are also earned by ordinary play, and the grid themes are priced in coins, not money — nothing in the game is behind a paywall. There is no subscription. Purchases are processed entirely by the store you downloaded the app from — Apple's App Store on iOS, or Google Play Billing on Android. We do not receive or store your payment details, card information, or billing address. On iOS, payment handling is governed by the Apple Media Services Terms and Conditions and the Apple Privacy Policy; on Android, by the Google Play Terms of Service and the Google Privacy Policy. The app stores only a local flag for what you own, and "Restore purchases" asks the store, not us.
Sharing a daily result
The share button hands a short block of text — the day's puzzle number, your time, bonus words and streak — to your device's ordinary share sheet. You choose where it goes. It does not pass through us, and we never see it.
Data sharing
We do not sell, rent, or trade your data, and we have none to share. The only third parties in the picture are Google, whose AdMob network serves the ads described above, and Apple and Google as the stores that distribute the app and process payments.
Children's privacy
Hushword is a word search. It has no chat, no accounts, no user-generated content, and no way for one player to reach another; the content is suitable for all ages, and both the board generator and the bonus-word payout are filtered against a blocklist so that nothing crude appears in a grid or earns a reward. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone, children included. The part worth a parent's attention is advertising: ads come from Google's network, which receives the device information and advertising identifier described above and may use it to personalize what is shown. Ad personalization can be limited in your device settings, and the Remove Ads purchase removes the between-level ads entirely — the rewarded free-hint ad remains, and remains opt-in.
Your choices
- On iOS, limit ad personalization in Settings → Privacy & Security → Apple Advertising, and stop apps from asking to track you in Settings → Privacy & Security → Tracking.
- On Android, reset or delete your advertising ID in Settings → Privacy → Ads.
- Buy Remove Ads to end the between-level interstitials for good.
- Decline the free-hint ad. It is never required — a hint you don't take just leaves the puzzle as it was, and no level can be failed.
- Play with the network off. The game works; the ads simply do not load.
- Delete the app, which removes everything it stored.
Deleting your data
Every piece of Hushword data lives on your device, so you delete it yourself and it is gone. There is no account for us to close, no copy on a server, and no request to file with us. To erase it:
- 1. Android — open Settings → Apps → Hushword → Storage and tap Clear storage. Every level of progress, statistic, streak, coin, setting and saved board is erased; the app stays installed.
- 2. Android — or touch and hold the Hushword icon and choose Uninstall. The app and all of its data go together.
- 3. iOS — touch and hold the Hushword icon, tap Remove App, then Delete App. This removes the app along with everything it stored. (Choosing Offload App instead deliberately keeps the data.)
- 4. Either platform — that is the entire procedure. Nothing about you exists off the device, so there is nothing left to request, revoke, or wait on.
Purchases are the one exception, and they are not ours to delete: the record of what you bought is held by Apple or Google. Deleting the app does not cancel a purchase, and reinstalling and tapping "Restore purchases" brings Remove Ads back. Coin packs are consumable — the coins were spent into a wallet that lived on the deleted device, so they do not come back.
Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. Material changes will be reflected by updating the "Last updated" date above.
Contact
Questions about this policy can be sent to info@machinautstudios.com.