Privacy Policy

(Last updated on July 22, 2025)

This privacy policy informs you of how Carl's Game Studio ("we," "us," or "our"), who operates Sudoku: Random Sudoku (the "App"), collects, uses, and shares personal data when you use our App and the choices you have associated with that data.

What Information Do We Collect From Our Users?

While we do not directly request personal information from users except age, nor do we store personal data, we use third-party services that may collect certain information automatically, including your device's advertising identifier (ID), internet protocol (IP) address, geographical data, device model, application version, browsing behavior, and application usage data. Additionally, we use third-party services to log game-related information, such as your score and the virtual items you used. We do not collect your name, email address, phone number, or any other data that can be used to identify you personally.

Which Third-Party Services Do We Use?

We employ the following third-party services provided by Google:

• Google AdMob. Google AdMob is an advertising service by Google that serves personalized advertisements tailored to users' interests. This service may use cookies and collect certain information, such as your device's advertising ID, IP address, location, and browsing behavior, to display advertisements you enjoy. You are encouraged to read Google's policies here to understand how these data are collected and used.

• Google Analytics for Firebase. Google Analytics for Firebase is a measurement platform for developers to evaluate their application's usage and performance. This service automatically collects basic information that includes device models, application versions, user engagement, geographical details, and user interactions (also called events). You may visit this page for more details on how Google uses information collected from users using our App.

• Firebase Crashlytics. Firebase Crashlytics is a service that captures application crashes. When users encounter a crash while using our App, a crash report, which may include device information and the timeline of events leading to the crash, is generated and sent to the developer's Firebase console for further diagnosis.

How Do We Use The Collected Data?

The collected data is used exclusively for the following purposes:

• To serve personalized advertisements within the App to keep it free of charge;

• To analyze and understand how our users interact with the App;

• To improve our products and services.

Please note that we do not directly collect any information you voluntarily give us. While we can access general statistical data collected with third-party services integrated into our App and use it to monitor usage, we cannot use this information to identify you personally. We do not keep any personal data ourselves.

How is Your Information Protected?

While we do not store or have access to the personal data of our users, we rely on third-party service providers who implement industry-standard security measures to protect user data collected through our App. These measures include encryption, secure servers, and restricted access to data. However, we cannot guarantee that data transmission over the Internet and electronic storage methods are fully secure and reliable.

Legal Basis for Data Processing

If you are a user from the European Economic Area (EEA) or the United Kingdom (UK), this section applies to you. We process your data based on the following legal grounds under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR):

• Consent. Before you use this App, we will ask you for explicit permission to collect and use your data for personalized advertising and analytics.

• Legitimate interests. We process your data for our legitimate interests, such as improving our products and services and analyzing crash reports, provided these interests do not override users' rights.

What Rights do You Have?

If you are a resident of the EEA or the UK, you have the following rights under the GDPR:

• Right to information. You can request details regarding the processing of your data.

• Right to access. You have the right to access your data.

• Right to rectification. You have the right to modify and correct the information you give us.

• Right to erasure. You have the right to request deletion of your data.

• Right to restriction of processing. You have the right to request that we restrict the processing of your data under certain circumstances.

• Right to data portability. You have the right to request a copy of your data in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format.

• Right to object. You can object to the processing of your data based on legitimate interests.

To exercise any of these rights, you may contact us at carlsgamestudio@outlook.com. However, we will provide reasons if we cannot satisfy your request. You are encouraged to visit this page for more information about your rights under the GDPR.

Children's Privacy

We care about the privacy of our users. We are committed to protecting the privacy of children who use our App. We have taken measures to restrict data collection from minors to comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and the GDPR. After opening the App for the first time, users must declare their age before using it. We will only use this information to determine whether the user is under 16, and we will not collect your age. Should users indicate they are under 16, we will turn off data collection by third-party services for targeted advertising, analytics, and crash reporting. This way, no personal data will be collected from children under 16. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 16. Should we discover that a child under 16 has provided personal information, we will ensure that this information is deleted. If you are a parent or guardian and are aware that your child has provided such information, please email us at carlsgamestudio@outlook.com so that we can take the necessary actions. Children should seek parental consent before using our App, although we do not collect personal information from them.

Third-Party Links

Our App may include links to third-party websites and applications. Clicking on those links may redirect users to the respective third-party websites and applications. We assume no accountability for your use of those third-party websites and applications. Users are encouraged to read their privacy policies to understand how they collect, use, and share their data.

Camera Usage

Our App features a scanner, which uses your device's camera to scan Sudoku puzzles. The camera is solely used for real-time image processing to detect grids and recognize text. We do not collect, use, or transmit any images captured by your device's camera. All image processing takes place locally on your device without relying on an Internet connection, and no visual data leaves your device at any time.

With Whom is Your Data Shared?

Aggregated data collected with third-party services may be shared with Google to help Google improve its products and services and better understand user behavior. We may share these data with Google for business insights, technical support, and recommendations. These data will be anonymized, and we do not share the collected data with anyone other than our third parties. However, the collected information may be disclosed to government and law enforcement officials when legally required.

How Can You Control Third-Party Access to Your Data?

You have the right to manage how you would like us to use your data. We allow users to control the amount of data that can be shared with our third-party service providers. Users can also opt out of data sharing. You can exercise your rights by configuring your choices through the privacy settings within the App. We provide several options for you to control access to your data:

• Personalized ads. You can grant or withdraw consent for our third-party advertising partners to collect and use your data to deliver personalized advertisements. By opting out of personalized advertising, the advertisements you see may be less relevant to your interests, and your personal information will not be used for targeted advertising. However, non-personalized ads may still use cookies or advertising IDs for essential operations, such as frequency capping and aggregated reporting. You can also adjust your advertisement preferences through your Google account's data and privacy settings or by clicking this link: https://adssettings.google.com/. Depending on your device model, you may be able to delete or reset your advertising ID through your device's settings. If you are from the EEA or the UK, you will use a consent mechanism dedicated to users affected by GDPR, where you can manage your consent options by tapping "Manage" under "Privacy settings."

• Use data for analytics. You can grant or withdraw consent to use your information for analytics purposes. By enabling this option, we may collect and use your data for analytics, and by doing so, you help us improve our products and services. If you turn off this option, we will not enable data collection and use your information for analytics until you give us your consent. 

• Crash reporting. You can grant or withdraw permission to obtain and access crash reports generated on your device due to crashes you encountered while using the App. By opting in, we may analyze the acquired crash reports, which may contain information about the user's actions leading to the crash, to identify root causes and sources of software bugs. If you turn off this option, we cannot receive crash reports from your device in case of application crashes.

However, should users indicate they are under 16, all these options will be turned off, and users cannot enable them through the privacy settings within the App until they are old enough. This measure is necessary for protecting the privacy of children under 16 and complying with COPPA and GDPR.

How Long Do We Retain Your Data?

We retain data collected by third-party services for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this privacy policy. We will delete your data when it is no longer needed to satisfy those purposes.

International Data Transfers

Your information may be transferred to and stored on computers outside your state, province, country, or other governmental jurisdiction where the data protection laws may differ from those of your jurisdiction. Regardless of where your data is processed, our third-party service providers are committed to protecting your privacy and ensuring your rights under applicable data protection laws.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this policy regularly. We will notify you of any significant changes by posting the new privacy policy on this page. You are advised to review this privacy policy periodically for any changes.

Contact Information

Should you have queries about this privacy policy, please email us at carlsgamestudio@outlook.com.