Privacy Policy

Who we are

Country King (מלך הארץ) is a geography trivia game about Israel for Android and iPhone. It is built and run by Yoav Franco (shown as Yoav Franko on the App Store), an independent developer based in Israel, who is the controller responsible for your personal information. This policy explains what the game collects, why, who receives it, and what you can do about it. Contact: yoav.francoo@gmail.com.

In short

• You can play without giving a name, an email address or any other personal detail. The game creates an anonymous game account for you.
• Our server keeps your game progress, your IP address and the country it comes from.
• Saving your progress with Google or Apple is optional; if you do, we keep that account's ID and email address.
• The free version shows Google ads, and the app uses Google Analytics. Google collects device identifiers for these, and you can limit that.
• You can delete your account in the game at any time. We don't sell your information.

What our server stores

When you first open the game, our server creates a game account for you automatically, with a random guest name and password. For that account it stores:

• your guest name, or the username you choose for the leaderboards (3–16 letters or digits; please don't use your real name);
• your best score in each area, your level points and the levels you unlocked;
• when the account was created and when it was last used;
• the IP address the account was created from and the one it last connected from, and the country of the first one (looked up from the IP address, not from your phone's location);
• if you choose to save your progress with Google or Apple, that account's ID and email address (see below);
• a session record that keeps you logged in between requests;
• if you play a race with friends, the race room: the name you entered for it and the score of each city you placed (see Races below).

Our server does not receive your advertising ID, your device model, your location, your contacts or your payment details. The app does not ask for access to your location, contacts, photos, camera or microphone.

Why we use it, and the legal basis

• To run the game (your account, saving and loading your progress, the leaderboards, races with friends, saving progress with Google or Apple, deleting your account): because it is needed to provide the game you asked for (performance of a contract).
• To keep the service secure and working (IP addresses, server logs, blocking abuse) and to show your country's flag on the leaderboards: our legitimate interest in running a safe, working game.
• Analytics (Google Analytics for Firebase): our legitimate interest in understanding how the game is used and fixing problems.
• Ads (Google AdMob): personalized ads only with your consent where the law requires it (the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, and app tracking on iPhone). Otherwise, our legitimate interest in funding a free game.
• Purchases: to provide the premium subscription you bought (performance of a contract).
• Legal matters: to comply with the law and to establish or defend legal claims.

No law requires you to give us information. The anonymous game account and your IP address are needed for the game to work online; everything else (a leaderboard username, Google or Apple sign-in, personalized ads) is optional. We do not make decisions about you based solely on automated processing.

Leaderboards

If you choose a username for the leaderboards, it is shown to all players together with your scores and the flag of the country you first played from. Players who have not chosen a username (guests) are not shown on the leaderboards.

Races with friends

When you create or join a race, you enter a name for it. That name, your score and how many cities you have placed are shown to the other players in the same room (up to 5). Anyone with the room's code or invite link can join it until the race starts. To score the race, the app sends our server the point you chose on the map for each city; the server keeps only the score of each city, not the points themselves. A race room and its results are deleted automatically about 6 hours after its last activity. Races don't change your records or the leaderboards.

Saving your progress with Google or Apple (optional)

In Settings you can save your progress with a Google account or with Sign in with Apple, so you can continue on another phone. The sign-in is handled by Google or Apple through Google Firebase Authentication. We receive and store your Google or Apple account ID and the email address it shares with us (Apple may give a private relay address instead of your real one). A Google sign-in may also include your name and profile photo; we don't store or use them. We use this information only to sign you back in to your game account and to show you which account is linked. We never receive your Google or Apple password.

We do not use information from your Google or Apple account for advertising, we do not sell it, and we do not share it with anyone except as needed to provide this feature or to comply with the law.

Firebase Authentication creates a sign-in record that the app deletes right after you sign in. Google keeps the IP addresses logged by Firebase Authentication for a few weeks for security (see Privacy and Security in Firebase). You can remove a linked Google or Apple account at any time in Settings.

What stays on your phone

The login details of your game account, a copy of your progress, whether you have seen the tutorial, your premium status, the name you last used in a race and when to ask you for a rating are stored only on your phone. If you share a screenshot of your score, it goes through your phone's share menu to the app you pick; we don't receive it. Rating requests are shown by the App Store or Google Play, and we don't learn what you answered.

Purchases

The premium subscription is bought and managed through the App Store or Google Play, under Apple's or Google's terms. The store tells the app whether your subscription is active. We do not receive your name or payment details, and you cancel the subscription in your store account settings.

Analytics

We use Google Analytics for Firebase to understand how the game is used and to find problems. It collects:

• an app instance ID and, where your settings allow it, your device's advertising ID;
• your device model, operating system, app version, language, and country or region (derived from your IP address);
• how you use the app: sessions, screens, first open, how you found the app, and purchases (product and price only);
• events we added: when a map fails to load (with a short technical error message), when you tap one of our other games in the menu, and race events (creating, joining, starting, finishing and sharing a race, with the number of players and your place).

Google keeps this event data for a limited time (up to 14 months), then only in aggregated reports. Learn how Google uses information from apps that use its services.

Advertising

The free version shows ads from Google AdMob; premium subscribers see no ads. To show ads, limit how often you see them, measure them and prevent fraud, Google may collect your device's advertising ID, your IP address, approximate location, device information and how you interact with ads. On Android, Google may also use the Android Privacy Sandbox (for example Topics and ad measurement). Personalized ads are based on your interests; non-personalized ads are based on context, like the app and your general location.

• European Economic Area, United Kingdom and Switzerland: the app asks for your consent through Google's consent form before ads can be personalized. You can change or withdraw your consent at any time in the game: Settings → Privacy → Ad privacy options.
• iPhone: the app asks for your permission before your advertising identifier may be used for tracking. You can change it any time in iPhone Settings → Privacy & Security → Tracking (how).
• Android: you can reset or delete your advertising ID, and turn off ad personalization, in your phone's settings (Settings → Privacy → Ads, or Settings → Google → Ads).

Withdrawing consent does not affect processing that happened before. Learn how Google uses information for advertising.

The map

The game's map is shown with Google Maps. Loading it sends your IP address and device information to Google, and use of Google Maps is subject to the Google Privacy Policy. The game does not use your device's location.

Cookies and similar technologies

The app keeps a session cookie in memory while it talks to our server; it is needed to keep you logged in and is gone when the app closes. Our account-deletion page sets the same kind of session cookie. Google's analytics and ad services in the app store identifiers on your phone as described above. This website (countryking.yfranko.com) uses no cookies and no analytics. It loads its fonts from Google Fonts, which receives your IP address.

Who receives your information

• Other players see your leaderboard username, scores and flag, if you chose a username; in a race, the players in that room see the name you entered and your score.
• Service providers that run the game for us:
  • Heroku (our server, in the European Union);
  • MongoDB Atlas (our database, in the United States);
  • Cloudflare (delivers and protects connections to our server);
  • Google (Firebase Authentication, Google Analytics for Firebase, AdMob, Google Maps, Google Fonts, Google Play) and Apple (App Store, Sign in with Apple).
• Authorities, if the law requires it or it is needed to protect the rights or safety of players or others.
• A new owner, if the game is ever transferred, who will have to keep protecting your information under this policy.

We share only what each recipient needs. We use providers that are bound by data protection terms giving your information at least the same protection as this policy. Google acts as an independent controller for some of its own ad and analytics processing, under the Google Privacy Policy. We do not sell your personal information.

Where your information is stored

We are based in Israel. Our server runs in the European Union, our database is in the United States, and Google, Apple and Cloudflare process data around the world. When information is transferred to another country, it is protected by the safeguards the law requires, such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses or the EU–U.S. Data Privacy Framework.

How long we keep your information

• Your game account and its data: for as long as the account exists, so you can come back to your progress at any time. When you delete it, it is removed from our database immediately. If our database provider keeps backups, the deleted data disappears from them when they rotate out.
• Race rooms and their results: deleted automatically about 6 hours after the last activity.
• Session records: deleted automatically 14 days after you last used the game.
• Server logs (including IP addresses): no longer than a week.
• Firebase Authentication IP logs: a few weeks (kept by Google).
• Google Analytics event data: up to 14 months (kept by Google).
• Advertising data: as described in Google's policies.

Deleting your account

In the game, Settings (the gear icon on the main screen) → Delete account deletes your game account from our server: your progress, your place on the leaderboards and any linked Google or Apple account. On iPhone, if you saved with Apple, the game's access to your Apple account is also revoked. Deleting the account does not cancel a premium subscription; cancel it in your store settings.

You can also ask us to delete your account by email, for example if the game is no longer installed: see countryking-api.yfranko.com/delete-account.

Your rights

Depending on where you live, you have the right to:

• access your information and get a copy of it, including in a portable format;
• correct it;
• delete it (you can delete your account yourself in Settings);
• restrict or object to how we use it, including use based on our legitimate interests;
• withdraw your consent at any time (see Advertising above), without affecting what happened before;
• opt out of targeted advertising, using the settings described above.

To use these rights, email yoav.francoo@gmail.com. We will reply within 30 days. Because the game doesn't ask for your name, we may need details that show the account is yours, such as the email of the Google or Apple account you linked.

You can also complain to a data protection authority. In Israel this is the Privacy Protection Authority. In the European Economic Area it is your local authority, and in the United Kingdom it is the ICO.

Children

The game is for a general audience and is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you are a parent and believe your child linked a Google or Apple account or otherwise gave us personal information, contact us and we will delete it.

Security

Connections between the app and our server are encrypted (HTTPS), and access to our database is limited to the developer. No method of storage or transmission is completely secure, but we work to protect your information and will act promptly if a problem occurs.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the game changes. The date at the top shows the latest version. If we make important changes, we will tell you in the game or on this page before they apply.

Contact

Questions or requests about your privacy: Yoav Franco, yoav.francoo@gmail.com.