TwentyQuestions Privacy Policy
TwentyQuestions (“Twenty Questions: Emoji”, the “app”) is an iPhone and iPad game published by Alexandru Struta, an individual developer (the “developer”, “we”, “us”). This policy explains what information the app handles, where it goes and what choices you have. It describes the app as it works today.
1. Short version
- There is no registration and no sign-in. The app never asks for your name, email address or phone number. At first launch it creates an anonymous account on our server so your games, streak and credits can be stored.
- If you are signed in to Game Center on your iPhone, the app uses Apple's signed Game Center identity to recognise your account on another iPhone. We store only a one-way fingerprint (hash) of your Game Center player ID, never your Game Center nickname.
- Player names are picked automatically (an animal emoji and six digits). Nothing a player types is shown to other players, and there is no chat.
- The app has no advertising and no tracking across other companies' apps and websites, and we have added no analytics or crash-reporting service of our own. Purchases go through Apple and RevenueCat (section 2); the only analytics-type use of data is RevenueCat's aggregate sales and refund reports built from purchase records.
- The app does not use your location, contacts, camera, microphone, photos or notifications.
- You can delete your data at any time in the app (Profile → Delete my data).
2. Information we collect and why
Account information
- Anonymous account. At first launch the app asks our server (Supabase, see section 5) for an anonymous account. It consists of a random user ID. No name, email address or sign-in is needed.
- Game Center (optional). If you are signed in to Game Center in your iPhone's settings, the app asks Game Center for Apple's signed identity proof (your Game Center player ID for our apps, Apple's signature over it and the address of Apple's public key) and sends it to our server. iOS may show Apple's own Game Center sign-in screen when the app starts; if you close it, you simply keep playing without Game Center. Our server checks the signature with Apple's public key and then stores only a SHA-256 hash of your player ID with your account. To let the same Game Center player return to the same account, it also gives the account an internal address derived from that hash, on a reserved domain that cannot receive email; we never send mail to it. A hash of each identity proof is kept for at least a day, and then deleted, so the same proof cannot be used twice. The app never reads or sends your Game Center nickname, and we do not use Game Center leaderboards or achievements.
- Player name. The first time you create or join a competition or a race, or play in the Weekly League or the Weekend Cup, the server gives you an automatic name: an animal emoji and six digits (for example 🦊 004821). Other players see it on leaderboards, in competitions and in races. You cannot choose or change it. The only things you type in the app are a join code and an emoji search, and they are not shown to anyone.
- Language. The language the app shows (the one you pick in Profile, or else the one iOS chose from your phone's settings) is stored with your account.
Gameplay information
- The games you play: the secret emoji for the game, your questions, answers, guesses and hints, the moves used, the time (measured by our server) and the result.
- Your daily-puzzle statistics (games played, won, streak, best streak).
- Your credit balance and a ledger of credit changes (purchases, hints bought, extra practice games, prizes, refunds, and credits moved between your own accounts when you switch iPhones with Game Center).
- Competitions, races, the Weekly League and the Weekend Cup: the competitions and races you create or join (with their join code), your results, ranking, moves, hints taken, times and any credit prizes. Competitions have no typed name: the app calls them after their creator's automatic name. Other participants can see your player name, rank, moves, hints and time in those leaderboards.
We use this information to run the game, keep your progress, show leaderboards, award prizes, prevent cheating and unfair play, and give support.
Where the EU or UK GDPR applies, we rely on these legal bases: performing our agreement with you (the Terms of Use) to run the game, your account, Game Center recognition, competitions and purchases; our legitimate interests to prevent cheating and abuse, keep the service secure and keep server logs; and legal obligations to keep purchase and refund records.
Purchases
Anyone can buy credits; no sign-in or Game Center is needed. Credits are bought through Apple's in-app purchase system. Apple processes the payment; we never receive your payment-card details. The purchase is handled by RevenueCat, which knows you only by your app user ID (the same random user ID as above). RevenueCat receives your purchase information and technical information such as device and app details and your IP address, as described in its privacy policy, and then notifies our server, which adds the credits to your account. If Apple refunds a purchase, our server removes that purchase's credits from your balance (as many as you still have). RevenueCat also uses these purchase records (product, price, currency, store country and date) to give us aggregate sales and refund reports, which we use to understand sales. This is the only analytics-type use of your data, and it is why the App Store privacy label lists Purchase History for Analytics.
Technical information
Like any online service, our server provider and the services in section 5 may process technical data such as your IP address and request logs when your device connects. We do not use this to track you and we do not add analytics of our own.
Emails to us
If you email us, we receive your email address, your message and anything you attach, and use them only to answer you. Our email provider (Google, through Gmail) stores this correspondence for us.
3. Information we do not collect
The app does not ask for your name, email address, phone number or any password, and it does not read your Game Center nickname, friends or profile picture. It does not request or use your precise or approximate location, contacts, photos, camera, microphone, health data, or advertising identifier, and it does not send push notifications. It does not contain advertising, and it does not track you across other companies' apps and websites. We do not sell your personal information.
4. Information stored on your device
- Session. The app keeps the session token of your anonymous account in the iOS Keychain (through the Supabase library), so the app knows which account is yours.
- Preferences. Your chosen language is saved on the device (UserDefaults).
- Purchase data. The RevenueCat and Apple libraries may cache purchase and product information on the device.
Your games, credits and player name live on our server, not only on your phone. If you are signed in to Game Center, they come back on any iPhone signed in to the same Game Center account, including after you reinstall the app. Without Game Center, your account is known only through the session on this iPhone: a new iPhone starts a new account, and we cannot move your old one to it. When an iPhone switches to your Game Center account, its earlier anonymous account can no longer be opened in the app (see section 7). Deleting the app does not delete the data on our server (see section 8).
5. Third-party services
The app uses these services. Each processes information under its own privacy policy:
- Supabase (database, accounts and server functions; our database is hosted in the EU, in Frankfurt, Germany): stores the account and gameplay information described above. supabase.com/privacy
- Apple (Game Center, App Store payments, TestFlight): apple.com/legal/privacy. Game Center is Apple's service; Apple handles your Game Center account under its own policy.
- RevenueCat (purchase processing for credits and sales reports): revenuecat.com/privacy
- Cloudflare (Cloudflare Pages hosts this Privacy Policy and the Terms and Support pages that the app opens in your browser; it receives the usual information any browser sends, such as your IP address): cloudflare.com/privacypolicy
Some of these providers may process data outside your country, including in the United States. Where data leaves the European Economic Area or the UK, the providers rely on safeguards such as the European Commission's standard contractual clauses or the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. We do not otherwise share your information with third parties, except where the law requires it or to protect the rights and safety of players and the service.
6. What other players can see
Other players can see your automatic player name and, in competitions, races and events you take part in, your rank, moves, hints taken, time and results. They cannot see your Game Center nickname, your credit balance or your purchases.
7. Data retention
We keep your account and gameplay data for as long as your account exists. Deleting your data removes it (section 8). An anonymous account that is not linked to Game Center and has never had credits is deleted automatically, together with its games, after 90 days in which the app was not opened and no game was played on it. Accounts linked to Game Center, and accounts that have ever bought or held credits, are not deleted automatically (so that purchases and App Store refunds can still be matched to them); they are kept until you delete them in the app or ask us by email. When an iPhone switches to your Game Center account (for example on a new iPhone), its earlier anonymous account is deleted at once if it never bought or held credits; if it did, it is kept with its games and credit records so that App Store refunds can still be matched, it can no longer be opened in the app, and you can have it deleted by emailing us. Identity-proof hashes are kept for at least a day and then deleted. Server logs, which contain user IDs and IP addresses, are kept only for our hosting providers' short log-retention periods and then deleted automatically. Emails are kept as long as needed to handle your request and any follow-up, then deleted, unless the law requires us to keep them. RevenueCat keeps its record of your purchases (your app user ID and purchase and refund history) after you delete your data, because it and we need it for refunds and accounting; email us to have the RevenueCat record deleted. Information held by Apple, RevenueCat and Supabase for their own purposes follows their own retention rules.
8. Deleting your data and your rights
In the app, open Profile → Delete my data and confirm. This immediately and permanently deletes your account and everything stored with it: your credits and credit history, daily-puzzle streak and statistics, games, leaderboard entries, player name, Game Center link, and the competitions you created and races you host. Remaining credits are lost and cannot be refunded or transferred, and prizes are not paid to a deleted account. The app then starts again with a new, empty anonymous account; if you are still signed in to Game Center, that new account is linked to your Game Center player right away. To stop that, sign out of Game Center in your iPhone's settings before you delete. Deleting in the app does not delete an earlier anonymous account kept after a switch to Game Center (section 7), or Apple's and RevenueCat's records of your purchases, which they and we need for refunds and accounting; email us to have those deleted.
Depending on where you live (for example in the European Economic Area or the UK), you may have rights to access, correct, export, restrict or erase your personal information and to object to its processing, and to complain to your data-protection authority. You can delete your data directly in the app; for anything else, email alexandrustruta@gmail.com. Because accounts are anonymous, we may ask you for details (for example your player name) that let us find yours.
9. Children's privacy
TwentyQuestions is a word-and-emoji guessing game suitable for all ages. Playing collects a random anonymous ID, the gameplay information described above and, if Game Center is on, the Game Center hash described in section 2; a purchase also gives RevenueCat the purchase and device information described there. We collect no name, email address or other contact detail. Player names are automatic, the app has no advertising and no tracking, and it does not let players talk to each other or show other players anything they type. The Weekly League and the Weekend Cup, which have credit prizes, are for people aged 13 or over who play with Game Center, and children should buy credits only with a parent's or guardian's permission. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 beyond this anonymous gameplay data. If you believe a child under 13 has given us personal information, contact us (see section 12) and we will delete it.
10. Security
Game rules and secret answers are kept on our server, and the app talks to it over encrypted connections (HTTPS). Access to the data is limited by account-based security rules, and Game Center identity proofs are accepted only with a valid Apple signature. No method of storage or transmission is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security.
11. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy when the app or the law changes. The current version is always published on this page with a new “Last updated” date. If a change is significant, we will say so in the app.
12. Contact
For privacy questions or requests, email alexandrustruta@gmail.com or use the TwentyQuestions support page. The controller of the personal information described here is Alexandru Struta.