Privacy Policy for QSnake

Last updated: November 7, 2026

QuarkVortex Labs ("we," "our," or "us") is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how your information is collected, used, and disclosed by QSnake ("the App"). This Privacy Policy applies solely to the App and its related services.

1. Information We Collect

The App does not ask for your name, email address, or other contact details, and it has no user accounts of its own. It sends data to servers we operate for two purposes only: the license check and, if you buy something, the purchase check. Both are described below. Everything else stays on your device or is handled by Google's services.

Data Stored on Your Device

Your scores, statistics, Maze Quest progress, daily streak, skins and accessories, saved (in-progress) games, and settings are stored locally on your device. If you sign in to Google Play Games, the App also uses your Play Games player ID on your device to keep each player's progress separate.

To pause the game and quiet its sound during a phone call, the App checks whether a call is in progress. It does not read who is calling, and this information does not leave your device.

Google Play Games Services

The App integrates with Google Play Games Services to provide leaderboards, achievements, and cloud save. Signing in is optional. When you sign in, Google collects data in accordance with its privacy policy, and the App can show your Play Games display name. The App submits your scores and achievement progress to Google Play Games.

Your cloud save is stored in your Google Play Games account. It contains your scores, statistics, progress, streak, skins and accessories, which guides and lessons you have seen, how much you have played, and a picture of your snake and progress for Google Play Games to display.

Google AdMob

The App displays advertisements provided by Google AdMob. AdMob may collect and process certain data to serve ads, including:

• Advertising ID: Your device's advertising identifier, used to serve personalized ads (where consent is given) and to measure ad performance.
• Device information: Device type, operating system version, screen size, and network connection type.
• Usage data: Information about how you interact with ads shown in the App.

On devices that support it, the Google Mobile Ads SDK may also use Android's Privacy Sandbox APIs (such as Topics and Attribution Reporting) for ad selection and measurement. Ads in the App are limited to content suitable for teens.

Where required by law (e.g., in the EEA, UK, and Switzerland), the App asks for your consent before serving personalized ads, using the Google User Messaging Platform (UMP). You can change or withdraw your consent at any time in the App under Settings > Privacy > Ad privacy & consent.

Purchases (Google Play Billing)

The App offers optional one-time in-app purchases: QSnake Premium, and individual skins and accessories. Google processes every transaction, and we never receive your payment details (such as card numbers).

To confirm that a purchase is genuine, the App sends the following to our purchase verification server, which runs on Google Cloud and checks the purchase with Google Play:

• The product you bought and the purchase token Google Play issued for it.
• A random identifier for your installation of the App. It is created by the App, is not your advertising ID, and contains nothing about you. We use it to detect a purchase being shared across an unusual number of installations.

We store a record of each purchase in Google Cloud Firestore: a one-way hash of the purchase token, the product, the Google Play order number, the purchase's type, state, and time, when we first and last saw it, and the installation identifiers it has been used on. Our server logs may also contain the product and order number. We do not receive your name or email address with this record.

Google Play Integrity API & Firebase App Check

The App uses the Google Play Integrity API and Firebase App Check to verify that it was installed from Google Play and is running unmodified on a genuine device. The App sends a Play Integrity token and a random one-time request identifier to our verification server, which runs on Google Cloud Functions. The server asks Google to decode the token, returns the result to the App, and logs a summary of the verdict, such as whether the app is licensed and whether the device passed its integrity check. It keeps a one-way hash of the request identifier for a short time to stop a token being reused. This data is used only for security and anti-tamper purposes, not for tracking or advertising.

Other Google Play Features

The App may use Google Play's in-app review prompt (to ask for a rating) and in-app updates (to offer a newer version). These are provided by Google Play under Google's privacy policy, and we do not receive any data from them.

Sharing Results

If you choose to share a result, the App creates an image of your result card on your device and passes it to the app you pick through Android's share menu. The Google Play link in your message names the game mode it came from, so that we can count installs from shares, but says nothing about you. Nothing is sent to us when you share.

Emails You Send Us

If you use Send feedback, the App opens your email app with a draft that you can read and edit before sending. Below your message it lists details that help us answer: the App version, device model, Android version, language, screen and text size, your theme and controls, your player level and Maze Quest progress, whether you have Premium and are signed in to Play Games, where the App was installed from, and a short technical support code. It does not include your Play Games name or ID, purchase tokens, or advertising ID. We receive your email address and anything you write only if you send the email.

2. How We Use Information

Information collected by the App and the services above is used solely for the following purposes:

• To provide and maintain the App's features (such as tracking your high scores, displaying leaderboards, and syncing progress across devices).
• To serve advertisements and measure their effectiveness (for players without QSnake Premium).
• To process in-app purchases, verify them, and prevent fraud.
• To verify the integrity and authenticity of the App installation for security purposes.
• To answer questions you send us.
• To fix bugs and improve performance, using the aggregated, anonymous crash and performance reports Google Play provides to developers (Android vitals). The App contains no analytics or crash-reporting SDK of its own.

We do not sell your personal information.

3. Third-Party Services and Sharing

We share data only with the Google services described in this policy, which act under their own terms and policies, and when the law requires it. Our servers and stored records are on Google Cloud in the United States, so this data may be processed outside your country. Please review Google's policies:

• Google Privacy Policy (covers Google Play Games, Play Billing, Play Integrity, Firebase, and Google Cloud)
• Google Advertising Privacy (covers AdMob ad personalization and data use)
• Google Play Terms of Service

4. Ad Personalization & Opt-Out

You can opt out of personalized advertising in either of these ways:

• In the App: Settings > Privacy > Ad privacy & consent.
• On your device: open your device's ad settings (usually Settings > Google > Ads, or Settings > Security & privacy > Ads on some devices) and choose "Delete advertising ID" (Android 12 and later) or "Opt out of Ads Personalization".

Alternatively, you can remove all ads permanently by purchasing QSnake Premium within the App. Once your purchase is confirmed, the App stops requesting ads and does not initialize the ad SDK when it next starts.

5. Data Security

Data sent to our servers travels over encrypted connections (HTTPS). Purchase tokens and request identifiers are stored only as one-way hashes, and access to our server records is restricted. However, no method of transmission over the internet or of electronic storage is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

6. Data Retention & Deletion

Gameplay data stays on your device until you delete it or uninstall the App, and, if you sign in to Google Play Games, in your Google Play Games cloud save. Scores, statistics, and saved games are excluded from Android's automatic device backups.

• Device and cloud save: Settings > Delete all data erases your scores, statistics, XP, streak, Maze Quest progress, saved games, and the skins and accessories you earned or unlocked with ads, on your device and in your Google Play Games cloud save. Your settings and purchases are kept.
• Leaderboards and achievements: These are stored by Google Play Games, not by the App. To remove them, open the Play Store > your profile icon > Settings > General > Play Games Profile > Privacy & Settings.
• License-check records: The request identifier's hash is deleted automatically, normally within about a day. Server logs are deleted automatically after 30 days.
• Purchase records: We keep these for as long as the purchase stays active, so that we can honor it, handle refunds, and prevent fraud. To ask us to delete yours, email us your Google Play order number. We may keep what we are legally required to keep.
• Emails: We keep support emails for as long as we need them to help you. You can ask us to delete yours.

Third-party services retain data according to their own retention policies. Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, or delete your personal information. To use them, contact us using the address below.

7. Children's Privacy

The App 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. If we discover that a child under 13 has provided us with personal information, we will promptly delete it. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has provided us with personal information, please contact us so that we can take the necessary action.

8. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time, so please review this page periodically. We will post any changes on this page and update the date at the top. These changes are effective when they are posted.

9. Contact Us

If you have any questions or suggestions about our Privacy Policy, or want to make a privacy request, contact QuarkVortex Labs at contact@quarkvortexlabs.com.