BEND-ish privacy policy

Who publishes BEND-ish?

Sideglint Studio is the trading name used by Michael Merrick, based in Florida, United States. This policy covers BEND-ish for iPhone and iPad, including information you send when asking for help with the game. It does not cover other Sideglint apps or website visits. Read the separate Website privacy policy for the studio site.

BEND-ish on your device

BEND-ish stores your saved game, scores and Daily history on your device. Settings—including language, sound, controls and privacy choices—are stored separately. Local play needs no account, and the game does not offer cloud saves.

Reminders

Reminders use local notifications. When enabled and allowed by your device, BEND-ish schedules up to two relevant reminders a day around 12:30 and 19:00 local time. The schedule covers up to seven local calendar days. The app checks the three-hour recent-play pause when rebuilding it. A time-zone change while the app is closed can move an already scheduled reminder inside that pause; opening BEND-ish updates the schedule. Recent play and inactivity can reduce or stop the schedule. These managed times replace the previously chosen reminder time. Reminder preferences and recent-play timing stay on your device. There is no reminder push server. Turning reminders off cancels BEND reminders. Device settings can delay or silence delivery.

Sharing

If you choose to share a Daily score card, it includes the board, challenge date, score and related score information. You choose the receiving app or person through your device’s share sheet. That destination handles the shared content under its own policies.

Purchases and clear recovery

Apple processes optional clear purchases. We do not receive your payment-card details or Apple password. Buying or using clears requires an internet connection. Core gameplay still works without a BEND login.

A BEND wallet service hosted on Google Firebase/Cloud Firestore stores your credit balance, purchase identifiers and product quantities, clear-use and refund records, and an opaque identity verified by Apple. Apple App Attest supplies installation keys and signed checks to protect the service against altered requests and duplicate credits or uses. Requests include run identifiers and cryptographic summaries of game state; they do not upload your board layout, score or move history. The service and its hosting provider also process request and security information such as connection addresses, timestamps and error/status information.

We use this information to deliver purchases, check credit use, recover the remaining balance and handle Apple refund decisions. It is not used for cross-app tracking or advertising. This necessary purchase processing is separate from optional usage and crash reporting. Purchased-credit recovery is not cloud backup of game boards or scores. An Apple account change does not automatically merge balances.

Optional reporting

Usage reporting and crash sharing are separate choices, both off by default. You can change either in Settings. Choosing not to share does not prevent play.

Usage reporting

If you enable usage reporting, Firebase Analytics receives events such as tutorial completion, game starts and finishes, and broad advertising outcomes. These help us understand how the game is used. Our events do not include your board, move history, score or Game Center identity.

When usage reporting is enabled, Firebase Analytics also automatically records app and session events and eligible purchase events, including the product, price, currency and quantity. Google also processes its own app, device, installation and session information. This can include approximate location derived from network information. We do not describe this data as anonymous.

Turning usage reporting off stops new app events, disables Analytics collection and resets local Analytics data. It does not erase information already received by Google.

Crash sharing

If you enable crash sharing, Firebase Crashlytics receives diagnostic information to help find and fix faults. This may include crash details, app and operating-system versions, device model, crash time, and installation or session identifiers. App-forwarded error reports omit exception messages and private paths; native crash records are a separate source of diagnostics.

Once Firebase has started for either reporting choice, its native crash service may keep crash records on your device even when crash sharing is off. Eligible reports are sent after an opted-in relaunch. Changing sharing choices may require restarting the app.

Turning crash sharing off stops new app error forwarding and new requests to send reports. It cannot recall reports already sent, cancel all processing already underway or guarantee that all local crash recording immediately stops.

See Firebase’s privacy and security information and Google’s privacy policy.

Advertising and leaderboards

Advertising

BEND-ish uses Google AdMob for banner ads and optional rewarded continues in Classic and Daily. The app requests non-personalized ads, disables advertising personalization and Google’s publisher first-party identifier, and does not request permission to track you across other companies’ apps or websites. It does not request your precise location.

Ad delivery can still process your IP address and approximate location, app and device information, identifiers permitted by the device and advertising settings, ad views and interactions, and performance or diagnostic information. Google uses this information to serve and measure ads, operate its services and prevent fraud. Non-personalized does not mean anonymous or free of data processing. See Google’s Mobile Ads data disclosures and how Google uses information from apps that use its services.

Where required, Google’s consent message asks for your advertising choices before eligible ads are requested. You can revisit Ad privacy choices in Settings when that option is available. Refusing or withdrawing a choice can limit or stop advertising; it does not prevent local play. Consent to advertising does not turn on optional usage reporting or crash sharing.

Choosing to open an advertiser’s website or interact with its service may provide information to that advertiser under its own privacy policy.

Game Center

Classic and Daily rankings use Apple Game Center on iPhone and iPad. If you connect, BEND-ish reads your Game Center player identifier and display name and sends eligible scores to Apple. Your Game Center profile and scores may be visible to other players according to Apple’s service and your account settings. The app keeps its connection preference and any pending score submissions on your device.

Daily submissions are associated with the relevant challenge day. The rankings reset at 07:00 UTC; an older saved game can still finish locally, but a score received after its ranking deadline cannot enter the next day’s competition.

Disconnecting Game Center within BEND-ish stops future app submissions. It does not sign you out of Apple or remove scores already submitted. Pending scores stay tied to the original player; Daily submissions expire when their competition day ends. For Apple’s handling of profile and gaming information and your privacy controls, see Game Center & Privacy.

Your choices

Advertising: review the available ad privacy choices in Settings. Your reporting choices are separate.

Game Center: disconnect in Settings to stop future app score submissions, and manage your Apple profile through your device’s Game Center settings.

Reporting: turn usage reporting and crash sharing on or off independently in Settings.

Reminders: turn Daily reminders off in Settings, or manage notification permission on your device.

Local records: use Delete saved game & scores in Settings to remove saved games, score history and pending Game Center submissions from this device. Your settings and consent choices stay. Purchase and clear-recovery evidence is retained separately. If you previously chose Start fresh after a recovery problem, deletion affects only that fresh game; the earlier game, scores and clear records remain on the device for recovery. Contact Support for help with retained recovery data.

Information already shared: local deletion does not remove scores held by Apple, information already sent to Google, content shared to another app or device backups. Contact us if you need help with a request.

Contacting game support

We receive your email address, message and any information or attachments you choose to send. We use them to answer your request and help resolve the issue. Support email is handled through Namecheap Private Email and our email software. Opening an email link does not automatically send your saved game or diagnostics.

Please leave passwords, payment details and other unnecessary personal information out of your message.

Keeping and protecting information

Resolved support conversations are kept for 12 months after the last reply, then deleted. Unresolved cases are kept until they are resolved. We manage deletion manually, including copies and attachments within our control. This normal period does not postpone a valid request for earlier deletion; a specific legal obligation may require limited information to be retained.

Local game records remain on your device until you remove them through the app or device controls. Clear-recovery records can retain game snapshots separately from the active game. After Start fresh, the earlier save and recovery records are kept even if you delete the fresh game in Settings. System backups are managed separately by your device and account provider.

Purchased clears do not expire. We keep the wallet balance and the purchase, use and refund records needed to maintain it, recover credits and prevent previously processed purchases or uses from being applied again. Deleting a local game does not delete those server records. Contact Support for access or deletion requests concerning your wallet; we will explain the effect on recovery and any information that must remain for a specific justified purpose. Short-lived security challenges expire separately. We do not promise automatic deletion of every transaction record after a fixed period.

The linked Analytics property is set to retain relevant user and event records for two months, without extending that period when you return. Google processes expired records on its deletion schedule. This setting does not cover standard aggregated reports or other services.

Google documents a 90-day period before it begins removing Crashlytics crash traces, extracted minidump data and associated identifiers from live and backup systems. This is not a guarantee that all copies disappear exactly on day 90, and it does not set a universal retention period for local crash files.

Google retains advertising information according to the type of data and its service, security and legal needs; there is no single retention period covering every advertising record. See Google’s retention information. Game Center information follows Apple’s service and privacy controls. Deleting data locally does not remove provider-held information.

Our providers may process information in the United States and other countries. Their linked privacy information describes their processing locations and transfer safeguards. Firebase uses encrypted connections and documents encryption for Crashlytics storage. No storage or transmission method is completely secure.

Younger players

BEND-ish is intended for teens and adults and is not marketed to children under 13. This describes our intended audience; the store’s content rating is a separate assessment.

If you believe a child under 13 has provided personal information through the game or support, contact us so we can review the situation and take appropriate action.

Questions and privacy requests

Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct or delete information, obtain a copy, or object to or restrict certain uses. Email us with your request. We handle requests manually and respond within the time required by applicable law. We may need information to confirm that the request relates to you; please do not send identity documents unless we explain why they are needed.

Some provider-held information may not be identifiable from your email address alone. We will establish what information we can locate, carry out the actions available to us and use the relevant provider process where needed. We will explain any outstanding action or justified limitation rather than treat a referral as completed deletion. Turning off future collection and deleting previously held information are separate actions. You may also have a right to complain to your local privacy regulator.

Michael Merrick · Sideglint Studio

Florida, United States

support@sideglint.com

Changes to this policy

Material changes will be explained through the website or game as appropriate; additional consent will be requested where required.