Privacy Policy

Pawdoku is a puzzle game for Android, published by Seozial. This policy explains what the game does with data. It is short, because the game does very little with it.

The short version: Pawdoku has no account and no server of its own. Your progress, bones and settings are saved on your phone. If you are signed in to Google Play Games, your progress is also saved in your own Google account, by Google, so you can get it back on a new phone; we never receive it. The other third party is Google AdMob, which shows the ads and uses your device's advertising ID to do it: a short one between levels, about once every ten, and others you choose to watch. Nothing is sold.

1. Who we are

Pawdoku is published by Seozial (“we”, “us”). You can reach us at apps.help@seozial.com about anything in this policy, including a request to exercise your rights under section 9.

2. What is stored on your phone

All of the following is created and stored on your device, using Android's own app storage. We do not receive it, because Pawdoku has no backend of its own.

• Game progress: your level, score, boards solved and the board you have part-finished.
• Your pack: the bones and golden bones you have earned, the pets you own and the one on the board, and the treats in your bag.
• Your streak: the days you solved a board, so the streak and its weekly gift work.
• Settings: sound, music, theme, reminders and the accessibility options.
• The notice you agreed to: which version of the in-app notice you accepted, and when.

There is no Pawdoku account to close. Uninstalling the game deletes the copy on your phone. If you also use the optional saving described next, the copy in your Google account stays there until you delete it (see section 3).

3. Saving your progress with Google Play Games

If you are signed in to Google Play Games on your phone, Pawdoku also keeps a copy of your progress in your Google account, using Google's Saved Games feature. It lets you pick up where you left off on a new phone, or after reinstalling. You can also sign in, or out, from Settings → Google Play Games in the app. If you are not signed in, none of this happens and the game works exactly as before.

• What is saved: your level, score, streak, bones, golden bones, the pets you own and the one on the board, and your treats. Not your settings, not a board you have part-finished, and not your reminders.
• When: when the game opens, and shortly after you solve a board, buy or use something, or claim a gift. If your phone has no connection, the game carries on and saves again later.
• Where it goes: to Google, into your own Google account. It is stored and handled by Google under its own terms and privacy policy, as an independent service. We do not receive it, cannot read it and cannot restore it for you.
• If your phone and your account differ: the one that is further along replaces the other. They are never combined.
• Stopping and deleting: sign out of Google Play Games to stop new saves. To delete what is already saved, use the Google Play Games app (Settings → Delete Play Games account & data) or your Google Account under Data & privacy. Uninstalling Pawdoku does not delete the copy in your Google account.

Google's handling of this data is described in the Google Privacy Policy and the Google Play terms.

4. Advertising

Pawdoku is free, and ads are how it stays free. There are two kinds:

• A short ad between levels. About once every ten levels solved, and never within the first nine, one brief ad can play after you finish a level and before the next board opens. It never appears during a puzzle, after a lost board, or when you open or close the game, and there is a limit on how often it can appear.
• Rewarded ads you choose to watch. These play only because you tapped a button offering you something in exchange, such as skipping the short break that follows a run of lost boards, or earning one more hint.

No ad ever interrupts a puzzle in progress.

Ads are served by Google AdMob. When an ad is requested, Google receives your device's advertising ID along with technical information it needs to serve and measure the ad, such as your approximate location derived from your IP address, device model and operating system version. This is Google acting as an independent controller of that data, under its own policies.

• Google's handling of it is described in the Google Business Data Responsibility notice and the Google Privacy & Terms.
• You can reset or delete your advertising ID at any time in Android Settings → Privacy → Ads. Deleting it stops personalised advertising on your device.
• We never see your advertising ID ourselves. We only learn, from Google's aggregate reports, how many ads were shown and watched in total.

Consent, where the law requires it

If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, Switzerland or a US state with comparable rules, Google's User Messaging Platform asks for your consent before any personalised ad is requested, and you can refuse. Refusing does not limit the game in any way: every puzzle, animal and feature stays available. You can change that choice at any time from Settings → Ad privacy choices in the app.

This is separate from the short notice shown before your first board. That notice explains how the game works and what it stores; it is not consent to personalised advertising, and we do not treat it as such.

5. Permissions

• Notifications (optional): only to tell you the wait after a lost board is over, or to nudge a streak you are about to lose. Reminders are scheduled by your phone and never involve a server. Decline it and the game is unaffected.
• Vibration: for the small taps you feel when placing a dog. No data is involved.
• Internet: used to fetch an ad and, if you are signed in to Google Play Games, to save and restore your progress. The puzzles themselves are generated on your device and the game is fully playable offline.
• Run at startup: so a reminder you asked for survives a restart of your phone.

Pawdoku does not request your location, contacts, camera, microphone, photos or files.

6. What we do not do

• No Pawdoku accounts, logins or profiles. The only sign-in is Google Play Games, which is Google's, and is optional.
• No analytics or crash-reporting service. We collect no usage statistics of our own.
• No selling of personal data, and no sharing of it with anyone but Google, through the ads shown and the optional saving above.
• No advertising that follows you outside the game.

7. Children

Pawdoku is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child has provided information through the game, write to apps.help@seozial.com and we will act on it. Because we run no server and hold no personal data ourselves, there is in practice nothing for us to hold about anyone.

8. Legal basis, for readers in the EEA and UK

• Consent for personalised advertising and for notifications, each asked for separately and each refusable.
• Legitimate interests for showing non-personalised ads where you have refused personalisation, so the game can remain free.
• Providing the feature you have chosen for saving your progress with Google Play Games, which only happens while you are signed in to it and stops when you sign out.

9. Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, delete or port your personal data, or to object to its processing. We hold none of it ourselves, so the fastest route to deletion is to uninstall the game, which removes everything on your phone. For a copy saved in your Google account, use the steps in section 3. For data Google holds through AdMob, use the controls in section 4. In both cases you can also contact Google directly. For anything else, write to apps.help@seozial.com and we will reply within 30 days.

10. Changes

If this policy changes in a way that affects what happens to your data, we will update the date at the top of this page and, where the change is significant, ask again inside the app.

11. Contact

Seozial · apps.help@seozial.com · www.seozial.com