Privacy Policy

NorthStar: Star Battle Puzzle (“NorthStar”, “the game”) is made by Michil K, an independent developer (“we”, “us”). This policy explains what the game and this website, northstarpuzzle.app, collect, why, and what you can do about it. You can reach us at support@northstarpuzzle.app.

In short

• No account, no ads, no tracking. The game never asks for permission to track you and never reads the advertising identifier (IDFA).
• Your progress stays on your device and in your own iCloud. We can’t see it.
• The game can send anonymous usage data. You can turn it off in Settings.
• Purchases go through Apple. Adapty helps the game show the offer and confirm purchases.
• This website sets no cookies, runs no analytics and keeps no log of visits.

Your progress and settings

Your progress (solved puzzles, times, the marks on unfinished boards, Daily Course results, Ice Cubes) and your settings are stored on your device. If you are signed in to iCloud, the game syncs them through your private iCloud database (Apple’s CloudKit) and iCloud key-value storage, so they reach your other devices. That data lives in your iCloud account under Apple’s privacy policy, and we have no access to it.

Settings › Reset progress deletes it from the device and from iCloud.

Anonymous usage data

To learn which puzzles are too hard and where players get stuck, the game can send usage events to Mixpanel, our analytics provider:

• What happens in the game: a puzzle started, solved or left; the Compass and Check used; lessons, Atlas cards, the Daily Course, reminders and the NorthStar Pro offer opened or closed; settings changed; a purchase started, completed or restored. An event carries details such as the puzzle, its size, the time spent and the number of hints used.
• About the app and the device: the app version, the platform, the language, whether NorthStar Pro is unlocked, and what Mixpanel adds by default: the device’s manufacturer and model, the operating system version, the screen size and the type of network.
• A random identifier that Mixpanel creates on the device. It is not linked to your name, your Apple Account or the advertising identifier, and resetting your progress resets it.

The “latitude” in these events is your progress in the game, from 0° to 90°, not your location. Mixpanel uses the IP address of each request to estimate the country, region and city, then discards the address; it does not store it. The data is stored on Mixpanel’s servers in the United States, under Mixpanel’s privacy policy.

We use this data only to improve the game: to balance difficulty, to fix steps that confuse players and to see whether features work. We never sell it, never use it for advertising and never combine it with other data to identify you.

To turn it off: Settings › Share anonymous usage data. While it is off, the game collects and sends no usage events.

Purchases

NorthStar Pro is sold through Apple’s App Store. Apple processes the payment, and we never see your payment details or your Apple Account. Whether you own NorthStar Pro is checked with Apple on your device, so it works offline.

To show the offer and confirm purchases, the game uses Adapty. Adapty receives a random installation identifier, the identifier for vendor (an identifier Apple gives our apps on your device), the device model, the operating system and its version, the app version, the language, the time zone, the App Store country, the IP address and your purchase transactions. It does not receive your name, your email address or the advertising identifier. Adapty processes this data under Adapty’s privacy policy.

Notifications

Reminders about the Daily Course are local notifications scheduled on your device, and only if you allow them. We run no notification server. iCloud sync uses silent notifications from Apple to bring your progress up to date; they carry nothing from us.

What we never collect

Your name, email address, phone number, contacts, photos, precise location, health data, advertising identifier or browsing history. The game has no sign-in, no social features and no advertising or tracking SDKs.

Emails to support

If you write to us, we receive your email address and what you write, and we use them only to answer you. We keep the conversation only as long as we need it to help you.

The beta

If you join the beta through TestFlight, Apple shares with us the crash reports and the feedback you choose to send, under Apple’s TestFlight terms. Purchases in the beta are not charged.

This website

northstarpuzzle.app sets no cookies, runs no analytics or third-party scripts, loads nothing from other domains and stores nothing in your browser. Its server keeps no log of visits. The links to the App Store and TestFlight lead to Apple, whose privacy policy applies there.

Children

NorthStar is rated 4+ and can be played by children. It collects no personal information from anyone, children included, and anonymous usage data can be turned off in Settings.

How long data is kept

• Usage events: as long as they help us improve the game, and no longer than five years.
• Purchase data at Adapty: as long as it is needed to confirm and restore purchases, under Adapty’s policy.
• Emails to support: as long as we need them to help you.

Your rights

Depending on where you live (for example in the European Union, the United Kingdom or California), you may have the right to access, correct or delete personal data, to restrict or object to its processing, to data portability, and to complain to a data protection authority.

Because usage data is not linked to you, we usually cannot find yours. You can stop it at any time in Settings, and resetting your progress resets its identifier. For anything else, write to us. We do not sell personal information and do not share it for advertising.

Where the GDPR applies, we rely on our legitimate interest in improving the game for anonymous usage data (you can object by turning it off), on the performance of our contract with you for purchases, and on our legitimate interest in answering you for support.

International transfers

Our providers may process data outside your country, including in the United States. They are bound by their own privacy policies and data protection terms.

Changes to this policy

When the game or this website changes what it collects, we update this page first. The date at the top shows the last change.