Privacy policy
- The short version
- On your phone
- Anonymous usage data
- Your choice
- Who processes it
- Game Center and Play Games
- Your rights
The short version
The game has no accounts of ours, no chat, no ads and no in-app purchases, and it works offline. Achievements and leaderboards use your device's own Game Center or Google Play Games account, if you are signed in. Your career stays on your phone. The first time you open the game it asks whether you want to share anonymous usage data with us. If you say no, nothing is sent. If you say yes, it sends anonymous stats, and recordings of how your games went, that help us improve the game: never your name, email, contacts or an advertising ID, and never to track you or show you ads. You can change your answer any time in Settings.
What stays on your phone
Your career saves and settings are stored in the game's private storage on your device. Your phone's own backup (iCloud Backup on iPhone, Google backup on Android) may include them, depending on your device settings. Apple and Google handle those backups under their own privacy policies; we never receive them.
Anonymous usage data (only if you say yes)
When you answer YES, the game records small events and sends them in batches over an encrypted connection (HTTPS) when your phone is online. If you are offline, they wait on your phone and go later. They contain:
- A random ID the game creates on your phone. It is not your phone's identifier or advertising ID, and it is not linked to your name, email or any account.
- How you play: the screens you open, the modes and drills you play, game results and grades, the choices you make in your career, and settings you change. Never anything you type, such as your player's name.
- How the game runs: frame rate, loading times, error messages, whether the game closed unexpectedly last time, your device model, its operating system version, language setting and screen size, and the game's version.
- Game recordings: after a game ends, a compressed file of what happened on the court: where each player stood and moved, the score and clock, every shot, pass and steal with its timing, and the buttons you pressed. It carries the same random ID and session number as the usage data, a random game number, your device model and system version, the game's version and whether you play by touch or with a controller, and nothing else about you: no names, nothing you type, no device identifier. The game sends one at a time when you are not playing, at most 20 a day; a phone keeps only its last 30 games and deletes older ones. We may record games on only a share of phones.
- Your country and city, which our analytics provider works out from your internet (IP) address when the data arrives. It keeps only those and does not store your IP address.
We use it only to understand how the game is played and to fix and improve it. We do not sell it, share it with advertisers or data brokers, use it for advertising, or combine it with other data about you. Our legal basis under UK and EU data protection law is your consent.
Your choice, and changing it
The first launch asks Help make BallSZN better? with two buttons, NO and YES. Nothing leaves your phone until you answer. To change your answer later: Settings > MORE > PRIVACY > Share anonymous usage data, and the recordings on their own with Share game recordings (on when you said YES). Switching recordings off means no more are sent and none waiting on your phone will go. Switching usage data off stops sending, deletes anything the game has not sent yet, and gives you a new random ID if you ever switch it back on, so nothing new can be joined to what was sent before. The game works exactly the same either way. On a phone set to Russia or Turkey the game doesn't ask and sends no usage data at all.
Who processes the data
We use PostHog (PostHog Inc.) to collect and analyse the usage data on our behalf, on its EU Cloud, hosted in Frankfurt, Germany. PostHog processes it only on our instructions under a data processing agreement and protects it at least as well as this policy does. We keep it for 12 months, then it is deleted.
The game recordings are stored with Cloudflare (Cloudflare, Inc.) in its R2 storage, in its EU jurisdiction, through a small service of ours that keeps no IP address and no other details of your connection. Cloudflare processes them only on our instructions under its data processing addendum. We keep each recording for 90 days, then it is deleted automatically.
Crash reports from Apple and Google
If you have chosen to share analytics with app developers in your device settings, Apple or Google may give us crash reports and aggregated usage statistics. We use them only to fix bugs and improve the game.
Game Center and Google Play Games
From version 1.1 the game has achievements and leaderboards through Game Center on iPhone and iPad and Google Play Games on Android. They are Apple's and Google's own services, tied to the Game Center or Play Games account on your device, never to an account of ours. If you are signed in, the game sends your unlocked achievements and your best scores to that service, and the service shows them with your player name and avatar; Apple and Google handle that data under their own privacy policies. Google's Play Games software also collects its own diagnostics and usage data. We only receive what those services show every developer, such as a leaderboard. Sign-in is never needed to play: you can stay signed out, and you can manage or delete your profile in Game Center or Play Games.
Links to Instagram and Discord
The home screen has buttons for our Instagram and Discord. They open in those apps or your browser, outside the game, and Instagram and Discord handle anything you do there under their own privacy policies. The game itself sends nothing to them.
Ratings
A few times the game may show Apple's or Google's own rating prompt. Your rating and review go to the store under its terms; the game receives nothing from the prompt.
This website
ballszn.com sets no cookies and stores nothing on your device. It counts visits with PostHog (the same EU Cloud provider as above): the page you viewed, the link you clicked, the site that sent you, and your country and city worked out from your IP address, which is not stored. Each visit is anonymous and is not linked to you or to the game. Its host, Vercel, keeps standard server logs (such as IP addresses) for a short time to run and protect the site.
When you email us
If you contact support, we use your email address and message only to reply to you, and delete them within 12 months of the conversation ending.
Children
The game is rated for ages 9 and up. It asks before any usage data is sent, the data contains no personal details, and a parent can switch it off in Settings. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children; if you think we have, write to us and we will delete it.
Your rights
Under UK and EU data protection law (and laws such as the California Consumer Privacy Act) you can ask what personal data we hold about you, ask us to delete it, and withdraw your consent at any time with the switch in Settings. Because the usage data carries no name or contact details, we cannot tell which of it is yours; switching it off stops all collection, and the rest is deleted after 12 months (game recordings after 90 days). Write to support@ballszn.com with any request. You can also complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk) or your local data protection authority.
Changes
If a future version changes what the game collects (for example ads or in-app purchases), we will update this policy and the store privacy labels before that version is released, and change the date at the top.