Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Craft Blocks (“the game”, “the app”) handles information. “We” and “us” refer to the developer of Craft Blocks.

1. Information collected

The game does not ask for or collect personal information such as your name, email address, contacts or precise location. The game has no user accounts of its own; the optional Google Play Games sign-in is described in section 6a. The following information is collected automatically by the Google services built into the game:

• Device and advertising identifiers: the Android advertising ID (where available and allowed by your device settings), an app-instance identifier generated by Firebase, and identifiers used by Google to limit how often an ad is shown and to prevent fraud.
• Technical information: device model, Android version, app version, language, screen size, network type, IP address and the approximate country or region derived from it.
• App interactions: game events such as starting or finishing a game session and its length, creating a world and its game mode, unlocking achievements, reaching an experience level, dying in the game, travelling between dimensions, defeating the boss, using LAN or online play (opening or joining a game and whether it worked), opening a reminder notification, changing the game language, app update or rating prompts, ad events (an ad was shown, failed to load, or a reward was earned) together with your consent choice, and whether the optional “Remove ads” offer was shown and how a purchase attempt ended (section 10). Your world names, player name and the contents of your worlds are not sent.
• Ad interactions: which ads were shown, whether you tapped them, and diagnostic information about ad loading, collected by Google AdMob.

We use this information to show ads, to measure how ads perform, to prevent ad fraud, to understand how the game is played, and to fix problems and improve the game. It is not sold.

2. Advertising (Google AdMob)

Craft Blocks is free because it shows ads provided by Google AdMob, a service of Google. Ads are placed so that they do not interrupt play:

• Menu ads. A full-screen ad may appear when you leave a world and return to the main menu. It is never shown during play or on the pause screen, not in your first sessions, not after short sessions, and not more often than once every few minutes.
• Optional rewarded ads. After dying in Survival mode, you can choose to watch an ad to keep your items and experience. Watching is always your choice; if you do not want to, simply respawn as usual.
• Ad content. We ask AdMob to limit ad content to material suitable for teenagers (maximum rating “T”).

AdMob may use the advertising ID and the information listed in section 1 to show ads, to limit how often you see the same ad, to measure ad performance and to detect fraud and abuse. With your consent (or where consent is not required by law), ads may be personalized based on your interests; otherwise you will see non-personalized ads, which are based on general information such as the app you are using and your approximate location. Learn more at How Google uses information in advertising and How Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services.

Your ad choices. You can reset or delete your advertising ID, or opt out of ads personalization, in Android Settings › Google › Ads (on some devices Settings › Privacy › Ads). You can also turn the full-screen ads off for good with the optional one-time “Remove ads” purchase (section 10).

3. Consent (EEA, UK and Switzerland)

If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, the game shows Google’s consent form (Google User Messaging Platform, certified under the IAB Transparency & Consent Framework) when you first start it, before any ads are requested. Your choice is stored on your device and is passed to Google AdMob and to Google Analytics for Firebase using Google Consent Mode: if you do not give consent, ad personalization, ad-related storage and analytics storage are switched off accordingly. You can review or change your choice at any time in the game’s Settings › Privacy options.

4. Usage statistics (Google Analytics for Firebase)

To understand how the game is played and to improve it, the game uses Google Analytics for Firebase. It records the app interactions and technical information described in section 1, linked to a random app-instance identifier. Where you have given consent (or consent is not required), this information may also be used together with AdMob to measure ad performance. Analytics data is kept for up to 14 months and then deleted automatically. Google processes this data according to the Google Privacy Policy.

Turning it off. You can switch analytics off at any time in the game’s Settings › Analytics. When it is off, the game stops collecting and sending usage statistics. (Ads work independently of this switch; see section 2 for ad choices.)

The game does not access your contacts, precise location, camera, microphone, photos, files or any other personal content on your device.

5. Information stored on your device

To let you continue playing, the game saves its own data locally, in the app’s private storage on your device. This includes your worlds (blocks, creatures, containers and structures), your inventory, health and experience, achievements, your player name, your settings (such as language, sound, controls and reminder preferences) and your ad-consent choice.

• This data never leaves your device through the game (except for LAN and online play, described below, and only while you use them), and we cannot see or access it.
• You can delete a world from the world list, or delete everything by clearing the app’s data in Android Settings or by uninstalling the game.
• If you have turned on Android’s device backup, Android may include the game’s local data in your personal device backup, which is managed by Google under your Google account and its privacy terms. We do not receive or have access to these backups.

6. Playing together on a local network (LAN)

The optional LAN feature lets people on the same local network (for example, the same Wi-Fi) play in one world together.

• When you open your world to LAN, the game announces the world’s name on your local network so that nearby devices can find it.
• While you play together, game data is exchanged directly between the devices on your local network: your chosen player name, your character’s position and appearance, and the world’s blocks, items and creatures, including any text that players have written on signs in the world.
• This data goes only to the other devices in your LAN game. It is not sent over the internet, and it is never sent to us or to any server.
• Other players in your LAN game can see your player name. Choose a name that does not reveal personal information.
• LAN is off unless you open a world to LAN or join a LAN game, and it stops when you close the world or leave the game.

6a. Google Play Games (Android, from version 1.10)

On Android the game uses Google Play Games Services, a Google service, so that achievements you earn in Survival worlds also appear on your Google Play Games profile.

• Sign-in. If you have a Google Play Games profile, Google signs you in automatically when the game starts. When you sign in, Google shares your Play Games identity (gamer name, avatar and player ID) with the game. We do not receive your email address, and we do not store your Play Games identity on any server of ours.
• What is sent to Google. When you unlock an achievement in a Survival world, the game reports it to Google Play Games. Achievements you had already earned in an existing world are reported the next time you open that world. Google also collects technical analytics and diagnostics to keep the service working, under the Google Privacy Policy.
• It is optional. If you do not use Google Play Games, or sign-in is not available, the game works exactly the same; achievements are still shown in the game itself.
• Your control. You can see, hide or delete your Play Games data, including the data for this game, in your Play Games profile or your Google Account.

7. Playing together online

From version 1.8 the game can also open a world to friends over the internet. Online play is optional and off until you use it.

• How it works. When you tap “Open online”, the game connects to a relay server operated by us and receives a 6-character code. Friends who enter this code in “Join a game” connect to the same server, which passes the game data between your devices in real time. Only people who know the code can join, so share it only with people you want to play with. You can close online play at any time, and it ends when you leave the world.
• What is transmitted. The same game data as in LAN play: the player names you chose, your characters’ positions and appearance, the world’s blocks, items and creatures (including text written on signs), and the numbers of the preset quick-chat phrases. There is no free-text chat.
• What the server keeps. The server needs your IP address to deliver the data while you are connected. It does not read or store the game data, and it keeps no record of who played: it logs only anonymous technical events (a room was opened or closed and how many players joined) and running totals, without IP addresses, player names or game data.
• Encryption. The connection between the game and the relay server is encrypted (TLS 1.2 or newer). The relay only forwards the data between players; it does not read, store or log the contents.
• Hosting. The relay server runs on a server we rent from Contabo GmbH. It is not an advertising or analytics service, and no data from it is shared with anyone.
• Other players. Other players in the same online game see your player name and character. Choose a name that does not reveal personal information.

8. Feedback you send us

From version 1.9 you can send us a message — an idea, a problem, something you like — from the main menu or the pause menu. Sending feedback is entirely optional.

• What is sent. The text you write and the type you choose, together with the app version, device model, Android version, the game language and where you wrote it (main menu or in a world, and the world’s game mode). This helps us reproduce and fix problems. Each message also carries a random message number, created for that message only, so that a message re-sent after a lost connection is stored once. No identifiers (such as the advertising ID or a user ID) are sent, so a message cannot be linked to you or to your other messages.
• Please don’t include personal information. The form asks you not to write your name, phone number or email address. If you included personal information by mistake, contact us with the date and text of the message and we will delete it.
• Where it goes and how long it is kept. Messages are sent over an encrypted connection (HTTPS) to our website’s address. Our website uses Cloudflare (Cloudflare, Inc.), a network and security service that receives the connection and passes the message on to a small service on our own server (rented from Contabo GmbH); Cloudflare processes it on our behalf only to deliver it (see section 11). Your IP address is used only to prevent abuse (a limit on how many messages can be sent from one address): it is kept only in the server’s memory, for at most about a day, and is never written to disk or stored with the message. Messages are read only by the developer, are never sold or shared, and are deleted automatically after 12 months. If there is no internet connection, the message is kept on your device and sent the next time the game starts.

9. Notifications

The game can show optional reminder notifications, for example that a new day has begun in your world. These reminders are scheduled locally by the app on your device. They are not sent from a server, and no information is transmitted to show them.

On Android 13 and newer, the game asks for your permission before showing notifications. You can turn reminders off at any time in the game’s Settings › Reminders, or in Android Settings › Apps › Craft Blocks › Notifications.

10. Optional purchase: Remove ads (Google Play)

From version 1.7 the game offers one optional, one-time purchase, “Remove ads”, which turns the full-screen ads off for good. Optional reward videos stay available if you choose to watch them, and everything else in the game stays free.

• Payment by Google Play. The purchase is processed entirely by Google Play under the Google Play Terms of Service and the Google Privacy Policy. We never see or receive your card number, billing address or other payment details.
• What the game checks. The game only asks Google Play whether “Remove ads” has been bought on the Google account used by the Play Store on your device, and remembers the answer on your device so that it also works offline. We have no server and do not receive your name or email address from this check.
• Order information. As for any purchase on Google Play, Google makes the order details it provides to developers available to us in the Google Play Console (for example, an order number, date, price and country). We use them only for accounting, taxes, refunds and support.
• Statistics. Usage statistics (section 4) record when the offer is shown and how a purchase attempt ended (completed, cancelled, pending or failed). Google Analytics for Firebase may also record the purchase itself (product, price and currency).
• Refunds. Refunds are handled by Google Play. If a purchase is refunded or cancelled, the full-screen ads return the next time the game checks with Google Play.

11. Third-party services

The game uses the following services, each provided by Google under the Google Privacy Policy:

• Google AdMob — ads (sections 1–2).
• Google User Messaging Platform — the consent form (section 3).
• Google Analytics for Firebase — usage statistics (section 4).
• Google Play in-app update and in-app review — let you update or rate the game without leaving it; handled by the Google Play Store.
• Google Play Games Services — optional sign-in and achievements on your Play Games profile (section 6a).
• Google Play Billing — processes the optional “Remove ads” purchase (section 10).
• YouTube — the main menu shows the latest videos from our YouTube channel. The game downloads the channel’s public video list and the video thumbnails from YouTube’s servers (no account, sign-in or identifier is used); when you tap a video or “Subscribe”, the YouTube app or website opens and YouTube’s own terms and privacy policy apply.

Online play (section 7) uses our own server directly, without any third-party service. Feedback (section 8) also goes to our own server, through Cloudflare, the network and security service of our website (craftblocks.malikoglu.az), which handles the connection on our behalf and can technically see the messages and IP addresses that pass through it — see the Cloudflare Privacy Policy. The same applies when you visit this website.

Google Play, the store you download the game from, may collect information according to Google’s own privacy policy (for example, to process installations or to provide crash statistics to developers). This is outside the game and outside our control.

12. Children’s privacy

Craft Blocks is intended for players aged 13 and over and is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 (COPPA) or from children under the applicable age of digital consent in the EU or the UK (GDPR). Ad content is limited to material suitable for teenagers. The game has no free-text chat (only preset quick-chat phrases); in a shared world, other players can see player names and the text written on signs. Its only purchase is the optional “Remove ads” purchase, which goes through Google Play and can be limited with Google Play’s purchase authentication and parental controls; other people can join a world only over the same local network (LAN) or with an online code that the host shares with them. If you believe a child under 13 is using the game, a parent or guardian can clear the app’s data or uninstall it, and can contact us using the details below.

13. Your rights and data deletion

Depending on where you live, data protection laws such as the GDPR (EU/UK) and the CCPA/CPRA (California) give you rights to access, correct, delete or object to the processing of personal data, and to withdraw consent. We do not hold any data that directly identifies you, and your game data stays on your device. You can:

• change or withdraw your ad consent in Settings › Privacy options (EEA, UK and Switzerland);
• turn off usage statistics in Settings › Analytics;
• reset or delete your advertising ID, or opt out of ads personalization, in Android Settings › Google › Ads;
• ask us to delete analytics data linked to your installation — see Delete your data;
• ask us to delete a feedback message you sent (section 8);
• see, hide or delete your Google Play Games data in your Play Games profile (section 6a).

14. Security

Data sent by the Google services described above is encrypted in transit. The game’s local data is kept in the app’s private storage, which Android protects from other apps. LAN play only connects to devices on your own local network that you choose to play with. Online play connects your device and your friends’ devices through our relay server over an encrypted connection (TLS). Because the server has no domain name of its own, the game checks the server’s key directly instead of relying on a certificate authority, so the connection cannot be redirected to another server.

15. Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, we will update this page and the effective date above, and, where required, the store listing before the new version of the game is released.

16. Contact

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at: [email protected]