Privacy Policy

This privacy policy governs the use of the following software applications ("Applications") that were created by HDE Games:

These Applications are word games for mobile devices (iPhone, iPad, Android) that can be downloaded on the Apple App Store and Google Play.

This page is used to inform visitors regarding our policies with the collection, use, and disclosure of Personal Information.

If you choose to use our Applications, then you agree to the collection and use of information in relation to this policy. The Personal Information that we collect is used for providing and improving the Applications. We will not use or share your information with anyone except as described in this Privacy Policy.

If you do not want HDE Games to collect, store, use, or share your information in the ways described in this Policy, you should not use our Applications.

Information Collection, Use and Sharing with Third Parties

For a better experience, while using our Applications, we may require you to provide us with certain personally identifiable information. The information that we request will be retained by us and used as described in this privacy policy. We use information collected through our Applications for purposes described in this Policy or disclosed to you in connection with our Application. For example, we may use your information to:

Create accounts and allow users to use our Applications;
Operate and improve our Applications;
Understand you and your preferences to enhance your experience using our Applications;
Provide and deliver products and services you request;
Deliver advertising and marketing and promotional information to you;
Communicate with you about promotions, contests, rewards, upcoming events, and other news about products and services offered by HDE Games and our selected partners;
Enable you to communicate with other users; and
Link or combine it with other information we get from third parties, to help understand your preferences and provide you with better services.

HDE Games does not share your personal information except as approved by you or as described in this Policy. We may provide your information to third party companies to perform certain services, including but not limited to hosting services, payment processing, analytics, customer service and to assist us in our marketing efforts. Where we share your information with third-party service providers and business partners, we ensure that we have appropriate agreements in place to protect your information as required by applicable data protection laws. We may share information we collect or derive with third parties for the following purposes:

With service providers that perform services on our behalf
For analytics and research purposes;
When we have a good faith belief that we have to disclose the information in response to lawful requests by public authorities, including law enforcement or legal process purposes;
To satisfy any applicable laws or regulations;
When we believe in our sole discretion that our Services are being used in committing a crime, including to report such criminal activity or to share information with other companies and organizations for the purposes of fraud protection, credit risk reduction, and other security precautions;
To protect our or a third party’s legal rights, investigate fraud, or to defend against a legal claim;
As part of a business transfer such as a merger, acquisition, or at bankruptcy;
We may share aggregate or anonymous information about you with advertisers, publishers, business partners, sponsors, and other third parties; and
We may use analytics services provided by third parties, including Google Analytics. These service providers may use cookies to collect information about your online activities across this and other sites over time for non-advertising purposes. To learn more about how Google analytics collects and processes data and the choices Google may offer to control these activities, you may visit http://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/partners/.

The privacy policies of our partners may include additional terms and disclosures regarding their data collection and use practices. We encourage you to check those privacy policies to learn more about their practices. Links to Privacy Policy of third party service providers used by the Applications:

To the extent we display advertising in our Applications, we may allow advertising networks of our affiliates and partner networks to collect information about your mobile device to enable them to serve targeted ads to you. Such mobile device data includes the following:

Device make, model and operating system;
Device properties related to screen size & orientation, audio volume and battery;
Carrier;
Operating system;
Name and properties of mobile application through which a consumer interacts with the Services;
Country, time zone and locale settings (country and preferred language);
Network connection type and speed;
IP Address;
Internet browser user-agent used to access the Services; and
Advertising ID (IDFA on iOS devices and GAID on Android devices).

You may also visit www.aboutads.info/choices or www.youronlinechoices.eu (for individuals in the EU) to learn more about interest-based advertising and how to opt-out of this form of advertising on your web browser by companies participating in the Digital Advertising Alliance (“DAA”) self-regulatory program. If you wish to opt-out of interest based advertising in mobile apps on your device by companies that participate in the DAA’s AppChoices app, you may download that app onto your device and exercise your choice. AppChoices is available at the links below:

You may also limit data collection by third parties by using your mobile device settings. Please note that electing to opt-out will not stop advertising from appearing in your browser or applications. It may make the ads you see less relevant to your interests. Additionally, please note that if you use a different browser or erase cookies from your browser, or use a different mobile device, you may need to renew your opt-out choices.

Technical Data

When you use our Applications, we may collect the following:

certain technical information about your mobile device or computer system, including IP Address, mobile device ID (IDFA, Google Advertising ID or other identifiers), and the version of your operating system; and
usage statistics about your interactions with the Applications. In certain Applications we will create and assign to your device an identifier that is similar to an account number. We may collect the name you have associated with your device, device type, telephone number, country, and any other information you choose to provide, such as username, character name, or e-mail address. We may also access your contacts to enable you to invite friends to join you in the Applications. This information is typically collected through the use of third-party mobile device software development kits. We may occasionally send you push notifications through our Applications to send you game updates, high scores and other service-related notifications that may be of importance to you. You may at any time opt-out from receiving these types of communications by turning them off at the device level through your settings.

Log Data

We want to inform you that whenever you use our Applications, in case of an error we collect data and information (through third party products) on your phone called Log Data. This Log Data may include information such as your device Internet Protocol (“IP”) address, device name, operating system version, the configuration of the app, the time and date of your use, and other statistics.

Cookies are files with a small amount of data that are commonly used as anonymous unique identifiers. These are sent to your browser from the websites that you visit and are stored on your device's internal memory.

Our Applications do not use these “cookies” explicitly. However, the Applications may use third party code and libraries that use “cookies” to collect information and improve their services. You have the option to either accept or refuse these cookies and know when a cookie is being sent to your device.

Security

We value your trust in providing us your Personal Information, thus we are striving to use commercially acceptable means of protecting it. But remember that no method of transmission over the internet, or method of electronic storage is 100% secure and reliable, and we cannot guarantee its absolute security.

Data Retention

HDE Games retains your personal data for as long as needed to provide you Services, unless we are required by law to delete or if HDE Games accepts your request to delete the information. We will also retain and use your personal data as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.

Links to Other Sites

Our Applications may contain links to other sites. If you click on a third-party link, you will be directed to that site. Note that these external sites are not operated by us. Therefore, we strongly advise you to review the Privacy Policy of these websites. We have no control over and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third-party sites or services.

Children’s Privacy

We do not knowingly collect or solicit personal data from anyone under the age of 13 or knowingly allow such persons to use our Services. If you are under 13, please do not send any information about yourself to us, including your name, address, telephone number, or email address. No one under the age of 13 may provide any personal data. In the event that we learn that we have collected personal data from a child under age 13, we will delete that information as quickly as possible. If you believe that we might have any information from or about a child under the age of 13, please contact us.

Transfer of Personal Data Outside Your Country

We may transfer information that we collect about you to affiliated entities, or to other third parties across borders and from your country or jurisdiction to other countries or jurisdictions around the world. Please note that these countries and jurisdictions may not have the same data protection laws as your own jurisdiction, and we take steps to ensure adequate safeguards are in place to enable transfer of information to the U.S. and the use and disclosure of information about you, including personal data, as described in this Policy.

Lawful Basis for Processing

On certain occasions, we process your personal data when it is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party, such as to provide the Services to you. We may also process your personal data to respond to your inquiries concerning our products and services.

On other occasions, we process your personal data where required by law. We may also process your personal data if necessary to protect your interests or the interests of a third party.

Additionally, we process your personal data when necessary to do so for fraud prevention, improving our network and services, and marketing our services to advertisers and publishers; where these interests are not overridden by your data protection rights.

If the processing of personal data is necessary and there is no other lawful basis for such processing, we will generally ensure that consent has been obtained from you. You have the right to withdraw your consent to processing of personal data at any time.

For questions about data processing, please contact our Data Protection Officer. Visit the “Contact Us” section below for contact information.

Specific Provisions for EU Individuals

Accessing and Correcting Your Personal Information: At any time, you may contact HDE Games at the email address provided in the “Contact Us” section herein and request to access the personal data that HDE Games holds about you. HDE Games may need to ask you to provide certain information to make sure you are who you claim to be. If you find the information on your account is not accurate, complete or updated, then please provide HDE Games with the necessary information to correct it.
Withdrawing Your Consent: Contact us if you would like to withdraw your consent to the processing of your personal data. Exercising this right will not affect the lawfulness of processing based on consent before withdrawal.
Erasing or Restricting Access to Your Information: You may request to delete or restrict access to your personal data. We may postpone or deny your request if your personal data is in current use for providing Services or for other legitimate purposes, in which case we will let you know if we are unable to do so and why.
Transferring your Personal Data (Otherwise known as Your Right to Data Portability): You have the right to receive your personal data that you have provided us in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and the right to transmit that data to another party of your choice, where technically feasible. However, this right shall not apply where it would adversely affect the rights and freedoms of others.
Right to Make Complaint: if you consider that our processing of your personal data infringes data protection laws, you have a legal right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority responsible for data protection. You may do so in the EU member state of your habitual residence, your place of work or the place of the alleged infringement.

If you have any concerns about the way we process your personal data, you are welcome to contact our data protection officer at the email address set forth in the “Contact Us” section. We will look into your request and make good faith efforts to resolve any concern you may have.

Specific Provisions for California Consumers

These additional provisions for California consumers apply only to individuals who reside in California. The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (“CCPA”) provides additional rights to know, delete and opt out, and requires “businesses” collecting or disclosing personal information to provide notice and a means to exercise those rights.

Right to Know and Right to Delete: For any of the personal information described above, you can request to know what personal information we collected, disclosed, used and sold, and request that we delete your personal information at any time. To exercise your right to know and right to deletion, please submit a request by emailing to the email address provided in the “Contact Us” section with the subject line “California Rights Request.” We will need to verify your identity before processing your request. In order to verify your identity, we will generally require the matching of sufficient information you provide us to the information we maintain about you in our systems. In certain circumstances, we may decline a request to exercise the right to know and right to deletion, particularly where we are unable to verify your identity. Upon verification of your request, we will delete (and direct our service providers to delete) your personal information from our records, unless retaining the information is necessary for us or our service providers to complete the transaction with you, detect security incidents or fraud, fixing errors, exercise free speech or another right provided by law, comply with legal obligations, or other internal and lawful uses.
Right to Opt Out of Sale: CCPA gives you a right to direct a business that sells your personal information to stop selling your personal information and to refrain from doing so in the future. We do not sell any of your personal information and will require our service providers not to sell your personal information.
You also have the right not to be discriminated against for exercising any of the rights listed above.

If you are a California resident seeking to exercise your rights under the CCPA or have any questions or concerns, please email us at the email address provided in the “Contact Us” section. In certain circumstances, you are permitted to use an authorized agent to submit requests on your behalf where:

you provide sufficient evidence to show that the requestor is an authorized agent with written permission to act on your behalf and
you successfully verify your own identity with us.

We aim to respond to a consumer request for access or deletion within 45 days of receiving that request. If we require more time, we will inform you of the reason and extension period in writing.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on this page. Summary of changes so far:

May 22, 2021: First published.
June 7, 2021: Added advertising identifiers in “Information Collection and Use” section.
November 28, 2021: updated link to Google Play store, download app page. Added contact email address for privacy questions and concerns.
December 4, 2021: added links to Multiplayer Word Puzzles store pages.
January 1, 2022: removed non-personalized ads settings in Admob

If you have any questions or suggestions about our Privacy Policy, do not hesitate to contact us using our contact information on Google Play and Apple App Store developer page or send us an email to privacy @ hdegames.com