Privacy Policy

Your games are stored on your device

The game in progress (the words played, the rules, and the names typed for pass and play), your wins and losses by level and longest game, My words, and your settings are kept in the app's storage. They are not sent to our servers or used for ads or usage statistics. They are included in Android auto backup and device transfer so they carry over to a new phone (following your Google account's backup setting).

Checking words and the computer

Checking whether a word is allowed, the computer's choice of words, and hints all run on this device using the word list inside the app. You can play without internet, and the words you type are never sent out to be checked.

Look up in the dictionary

After a game ends, tapping a word opens your browser and searches for it on the Standard Korean Language Dictionary website of the National Institute of Korean Language (stdict.korean.go.kr). The word you tapped is passed to that website. It opens only when you tap, and nothing goes to our servers, ads or statistics.

Saving the word list

On the Word data screen in Settings you can save the word list inside the app as a text file. You choose where to save it in the system file picker, and no storage permission is used. The file does not contain My words or your games.

Source of the word data

The word list was made by extracting and processing headwords only from the Standard Korean Language Dictionary of the National Institute of Korean Language (stdict.korean.go.kr): noun, pronoun, numeral and bound-noun headwords plus phrases that may be written without spaces, Hangul only, two syllables or more, with flags added from the field labels and a flag derived by reading the definitions. The definitions and examples themselves are not included. Data as of 25 June 2019. The original data and the processed list are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Korea (CC BY-SA 2.0 KR, creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/kr). This app is not made by a government agency and does not represent any government agency. The original author does not endorse or sponsor this app or the processed list.

Accounts

There are no accounts. We don't ask for an email address or phone number, and there is no sign-in, sign-up or in-app purchase. There is no online play or chat. Pass and play is played by passing one phone around.

Ads

This app shows ads. Google AdMob provides them, and in doing so Google collects your advertising ID (AAID), IP address, device information and ad-related app activity (how often ads were shown or tapped). Your approximate location (country level) may be inferred from your IP address. The words you type, My words and names are never used for ads or passed on. Ads are limited to the Teen (T) content rating. Google's policies apply (policies.google.com/technologies/ads).

When ads appear

During a game against the computer, an ad may appear only when you choose a hint, and you are told before you tap. If the ad can't load or you continue without waiting, you get the hints without an ad. Add to my words, Everyone accepts, saving the word list and viewing the rules have no ads. When you tap OK on a finished game's result, a full-screen ad may appear once every few games. There is a small banner at the bottom of the home screen and the Record screen, never on the game screen.

Turning off ad personalization

In Android Settings > Privacy > Ads you can delete your advertising ID or turn off personalization. Ads still appear, but they are not personalized.

Permissions

Internet access, the advertising ID, vibration, and the permissions the ads and statistics SDKs use (ad services access, install referrer, background delivery). Vibration is a short buzz when a word is rejected or time runs out, and can be turned off in Settings. The rest serve to load ads and send usage statistics. None asks you for approval. No storage, camera, microphone, contacts, location or notification permission.

Usage statistics

To improve the app and place ads sensibly, we collect usage statistics with Google Analytics for Firebase: how often and how long you use the app, which features you use (for example the mode and level or number of players you start with, the finishing-word rule and turn time, how a game ended and why, which kind of reason a word was rejected for, whether you used Add to my words, Everyone accepts, hints, resume, saving the word list or the dictionary lookup, and the time range it took to load the word list), whether you saw an ad notice and watched the ad, ad impressions, device model, OS version, app version, country, language, a random identifier per install, and the advertising ID. The words you type, My words and names are never sent. We also use Firebase Remote Config to change ad settings without an app update, which sends app version, OS version, country and language. In the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, information that identifies the device is not stored unless you consent.

Third parties

Apart from Google AdMob and Google Analytics for Firebase (see Usage statistics) we use no other analytics or crash reporting.

Children

Korean Word Chain is not directed at children under 13, because Google AdMob collects an advertising ID, IP address and device information when ads are shown.

Deleting your data

You can delete your record with Clear the record on the Record screen, and remove My words one by one on the My words screen. Uninstalling removes the game in progress, record, My words and settings from your device. A copy left in Google backup can be deleted in your Google account's backup settings. We keep no copy on our servers. A word list file you saved can simply be deleted. You can delete your advertising ID yourself in Android Settings > Privacy > Ads.

There is nothing for us to delete

This app has no server holding your data. Records on your device disappear when you delete them in the app or uninstall, and your advertising ID is held by Google, so we can neither look it up nor delete it. Questions: dev@indieway.xyz

Changes and contact

If this policy changes we will update this page with a new date. Contact: dev@indieway.xyz. If you email us through Contact us in the app, we use your email address, your message, and the app and device details added at the end of the message (app version, Android version, device model, app language, theme and font size) only to reply to you.